DeepSeek’s progress is a clear sign of the growing influence of Chinese companies in the AI sector, according to a spokesperson for China’s parliament. Lou Qinjian, speaking to reporters on Tuesday, praised the achievements of DeepSeek’s young team, describing their work as ‘commendable’.
He highlighted the company’s open-source approach and its efforts to spread AI technology globally, contributing ‘Chinese wisdom’ to the world.
The AI startup has been widely celebrated in China, particularly for rolling out AI models that offer a significantly lower cost than those developed by US rivals like OpenAI.
While some countries, including South Korea and Italy, have removed DeepSeek’s chatbot from their app stores over privacy concerns, it has been embraced within China, where local governments and tech firms are integrating it into their systems.
Based in Hangzhou, DeepSeek is rapidly advancing its next-generation model, set to succeed its R1 release from January, as it continues to make waves in the global tech sector.
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Taiwan has announced its support for TSMC’s plans to invest in the US, while also ensuring that the most advanced semiconductor technology remains within the country.
The statement, made by the presidential office on Tuesday, reassured that Taiwan would assist the semiconductor giant in its future US investments.
However, the government emphasised that Taiwan would retain its cutting-edge chip technologies to secure its position as a leader in the global semiconductor industry.
TSMC, Taiwan’s largest chipmaker, revealed plans for a significant $100 billion investment in the US to expand its presence and build five new chip manufacturing facilities over the coming years.
The announcement was made during a meeting between TSMC’s CEO and US President Donald Trump on Monday.
Move like this one is part of a broader push to bolster semiconductor production in the US, particularly in response to global supply chain issues and national security concerns surrounding chip dependence on foreign markets.
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Britain’s media regulator, Ofcom, has set a 31 March deadline for social media and online platforms to submit a risk assessment on the likelihood of users encountering illegal content. This move follows new laws passed last year requiring companies such as Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, as well as ByteDance’s TikTok, to take action against criminal activities on their platforms. Under the Online Safety Act, these firms must assess and address the risks of offences like terrorism, hate crimes, child sexual exploitation, and financial fraud.
The risk assessment must evaluate how likely it is for users to come across illegal content, or how user-to-user services could facilitate criminal activities. Ofcom has warned that failure to meet the deadline could result in enforcement actions against the companies. The new regulations aim to make online platforms safer and hold them accountable for the content shared on their sites.
The deadline is part of the UK‘s broader push to regulate online content and enhance user safety. Social media giants are now facing stricter scrutiny to ensure they are addressing potential risks associated with their platforms and protecting users from harmful content.
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A group of researchers from Hao AI Lab at the University of California San Diego has suggested that Super Mario Bros. might actually be a tougher challenge for AI than Pokémon. In a recent experiment, AI models were tasked with playing the game, and while Anthropic’s Claude 3.7 performed the best, models like Google’s Gemini 1.5 Pro and OpenAI’s GPT-4o struggled. The game was not the original 1985 version but instead ran in an emulator integrated with GamingAgent, a framework that provided basic instructions and screenshots for the AI to control Mario.
The AI had to generate inputs, such as Python code, based on the given instructions to navigate Mario through the game’s challenges. The researchers found that while the game required models to plan complex manoeuvres and strategies, reasoning models like OpenAI’s o1 performed worse than non-reasoning models. This is because reasoning models typically take longer to decide on actions, and in a real-time game like Super Mario Bros., timing is critical.
While games have long been used to benchmark AI, some experts question the relevance of gaming skills as a measure of technological advancement. Andrej Karpathy, a research scientist at OpenAI, has expressed concerns over the current AI evaluation process, calling it an ‘evaluation crisis.’ Despite these concerns, watching AI take on Super Mario Bros. provides an interesting glimpse into how far AI has come, even if the benchmarks remain unclear.
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Amazon has announced plans to use AI to help reduce flood risks in Spain’s northeastern region of Aragon, where it is building new data centres.
As part of its $17.9 million investment, Amazon’s cloud computing unit AWS will modernise infrastructure and optimise agricultural water use to tackle flood concerns.
The move follows catastrophic floods that impacted large areas around Valencia and comes as AWS continues its €15.7 billion expansion in the region’s cloud infrastructure.
The region is prone to flooding, especially along the Ebro River, highest-flow river in Spain, which crosses through Aragon on its way to the Mediterranean.
Amazon will deploy advanced cloud computing technologies to create an early warning system combining real-time data collection, sensor networks, and AI-powered analysis.
However, this system will help Zaragoza, the capital of Aragon, monitor flood risks more effectively and provide timely warnings to emergency services.
In addition to its technological investment, local authorities in Zaragoza are building flood defences at the Barranco de la Muerte, or Death Ravine, to mitigate future flood damage.
With these combined efforts, Amazon aims to contribute to reducing the region’s vulnerability to floods while supporting its own expanding data infrastructure.
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Chinese AI startup Zhipu AI has raised over 1 billion yuan ($137.22 million) in new funding, following a previous 3 billion yuan investment in December. The latest funding round comes amid growing competition in China’s AI sector, particularly with rival DeepSeek’s large language models, which claim to rival Western models at a lower cost.
Investors in the new round include the state-backed Hangzhou City Investment Group Industrial Fund and Shangcheng Capital. Zhipu AI plans to use the funds to enhance its GLM language model and expand its AI ecosystem, with a focus on businesses in Zhejiang province and the Yangtze River Delta region.
Founded in 2019, Zhipu AI has completed 16 funding rounds and is considered one of China’s leading AI startups. The company aims to release a range of new AI models, including foundation and multimodal models, as part of its open-source strategy. The funding comes as competitors like DeepSeek continue to disrupt the AI landscape with open-source models that challenge established platforms.
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Vodafone UK has teamed up with IBM to explore quantum-safe cryptography as part of a new Proof of Concept (PoC) test for its mobile and broadband services, particularly for users of its ‘Secure Net’ anti-malware service. While quantum computers are still in the early stages of development, they could eventually break current internet encryption methods. In anticipation of this, Vodafone and IBM are testing how to integrate new post-quantum cryptographic standards into Vodafone’s existing Secure Net service, which already protects millions of users from threats like phishing and malware.
IBM’s cryptography experts have co-developed two algorithms now recognised in the US National Institute of Standards and Technology’s first post-quantum cryptography standards. This collaboration, supported by Akamai Technologies, aims to make Vodafone’s services more resilient against future quantum computing risks. Vodafone’s Head of R&D, Luke Ibbetson, stressed the importance of future-proofing digital security to ensure customers can continue enjoying safe internet experiences.
Although the PoC is still in its feasibility phase, Vodafone hopes to implement quantum-safe cryptography across its networks and products soon, ensuring stronger protection for both business and consumer users.
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British startup Wayve has announced plans to open a new testing and development hub in Germany, deploying a fleet of test vehicles in the Stuttgart region. The self-driving technology firm aims to enhance features like lane change assistance at the new facility, which will focus on improving its “Embodied AI” system that learns from human behaviour.
Wayve, which operates in the UK and the US, is expanding into Germany as part of its strategy to enter the European market, particularly Germany, the continent’s largest automotive hub. The company received a boost earlier this year, with Uber investing in August and SoftBank leading a $1 billion funding round in May, supported by Nvidia.
Despite the significant investments in autonomous vehicle technology, self-driving systems still face challenges in predicting and assessing risks as accurately as human drivers. Wayve’s technology is already integrated into six vehicle platforms, including electric models like the Jaguar I-PACE and Ford Mustang Mach-E, as part of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).
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Singapore‘s government is investigating a fraud case involving servers supplied by US companies, potentially containing Nvidia’s advanced chips. Three men, including a Chinese national, were charged last week in connection with the alleged illegal transfer of these AI chips from Singapore to Chinese firm DeepSeek. Singapore’s Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam confirmed that the servers were provided by Dell Technologies and Super Micro Computer to local firms before being sent to Malaysia.
Authorities are still unsure whether Malaysia was the final destination, but they are working with US officials to determine if the servers contained restricted US export-controlled items. The US is already investigating whether DeepSeek has used banned Nvidia chips, which could lead to violations of export laws. The case forms part of a broader probe into suspected smuggling activities linked to AI chips being moved from countries like Singapore to China.
Singapore, a key market for Nvidia, is also examining allegations that DeepSeek may have acquired thousands of advanced Nvidia chips illegally. However, DeepSeek has denied these claims, stating that it only used legally purchased chips, including the Nvidia H800 model. The investigation is ongoing, with Singapore continuing to cooperate with US authorities.
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Chinese smartphone maker Honor plans to invest $10 billion over the next five years to develop AI for its devices as it prepares for a public listing. CEO James Li revealed at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that the company aims to expand beyond smartphones into AI-powered PCs, tablets, and wearables.
Honor’s push into AI comes after completing a shareholder restructuring in December, bringing it closer to an initial public offering, though no timeline has been set. The announcement also aligns with a surge in AI investment in China, driven by the popularity of DeepSeek’s affordable language models.
While Honor’s market share in China slipped from second to fourth place last year, it has gained significant support from the Shenzhen government, including R&D funding and tax breaks. The company is also focusing on expanding internationally as it strengthens its AI capabilities.
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