ai

DeepSeek claims R1 model matches OpenAI

Chinese AI start-up DeepSeek has announced a major update to its R1 reasoning model, claiming it now performs on par with leading systems from OpenAI and Google.

The R1-0528 version, released following the model’s initial launch in January, reportedly surpasses Alibaba’s Qwen3, which debuted only weeks earlier in April.

According to DeepSeek, the upgrade significantly enhances reasoning, coding, and creative writing while cutting hallucination rates by half.

These improvements stem largely from greater computational resources applied after the training phase, allowing the model to outperform domestic rivals in benchmark tests involving maths, logic, and programming.

Unlike many Western competitors, DeepSeek takes an open-source approach. The company recently shared eight GitHub projects detailing methods to optimise computing, communication, and storage efficiency during training.

Its transparency and resource-efficient design have attracted attention, especially since its smaller distilled model rivals Alibaba’s Qwen3-235B while being nearly 30 times lighter.

Major Chinese tech firms, including Tencent, Baidu and ByteDance, plan to integrate R1-0528 into their cloud services for enterprise clients. DeepSeek’s progress signals China’s continued push into globally competitive AI, driven by a young team determined to offer high performance with fewer resources

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AI data centre boom sparks incentives and pushback

The explosive growth of AI and cloud computing has ignited a data centre building boom across the United States, with states offering massive financial incentives to attract investment.

However, electricity, and water is beginning to meet resistance from lawmakers and local communities concerned about long-term costs and environmental strain.

Dozens of states have rolled out tax exemptions, permitting fast-tracks, and deregulated energy options to lure hyperscale data centres—massive facilities consuming hundreds of megawatts of power.

Kansas, Kentucky, and Arkansas have expanded tax breaks, while Pennsylvania seeks to streamline permitting in hopes of capturing a share of the billions flowing into data infrastructure.

Other states, including West Virginia and Utah, have passed laws enabling data centres to bypass grid operators and buy power directly.

Supporters say data centres deliver high upfront spending and create thousands of construction jobs. However, critics argue the facilities offer few permanent positions, strain public utilities, and place an unfair burden on ratepayers to fund new power plants.

In South Carolina, lawmakers clashed over whether customers should be forced to underwrite infrastructure primarily serving a single tech company.

Meanwhile, some states are beginning to push back. Oregon and Georgia are exploring laws requiring data centres to pay the full cost of the electricity infrastructure they consume.

In Texas, where winter blackouts in 2021 exposed grid fragility, lawmakers are cautiously debating balancing power supply with growing AI and cloud demands amid fears the state could lose investment due to regulatory uncertainty.

As the demand for AI soars, so does the pressure to weigh economic opportunity against sustainability, transparency, and fairness in energy use. The data centre boom may be here to stay—but how states handle it could define their long-term digital and environmental futures.

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Shoppers can now let AI find and buy deals

Tech giants are pushing deeper into e-commerce with AI-powered digital aides that can understand shoppers’ tastes, try on clothes virtually, hunt for bargains, and even place orders independently.

The so-called ‘AI agent’ mark a new phase in retail, combining personalisation with automation to reshape how people shop online.

Google recently introduced a suite of tools under its new AI Mode, allowing users to upload a photo and preview how clothing would look on their own body. The AI adjusts sizes and fabric drape, enhancing realism.

Shoppers can also set their price and let the AI search for the best deal, alerting them when it’s found and offering to complete the purchase using Google’s payment platform.

OpenAI, Perplexity AI, and Amazon have also added shopping features to their platforms, while Walmart and other retailers are working to ensure their products remain visible to AI shoppers.

Payment giants Visa and Mastercard have upgraded their systems to allow AI agents to process transactions autonomously, cementing the role of digital agents in the online shopping journey.

Experts say this growing ‘agent economy’ offers powerful convenience but raises questions about consumer privacy, trust, and control.

While AI shoppers are unlikely to disrupt e-commerce overnight, analysts note that companies like Google and Meta are particularly well-positioned due to their vast user data and AI leadership.

The next evolution of shopping may not depend on what consumers choose, but on whether they trust machines to choose for them.

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IIT Bombay and BharatGen lead AI push with cultural datasets

In a landmark effort to support AI research grounded in Indian knowledge systems, IIT Bombay has digitised 30 ancient textbooks covering topics such as astronomy, medicine and mathematics—some dating back as far as 18 centuries.

The initiative, part of the government-backed AIKosh portal, has produced a dataset comprising approximately 218,000 sentences and 1.5 million words, now available to researchers across the country.

Launched in March, AIKosh serves as a national repository for datasets, models and toolkits to foster home-grown AI innovation.

Alongside BharatGen—a consortium led by IIT Bombay and comprising IIT Kanpur, IIT Madras, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Mandi, IIM Indore and IIIT Hyderabad—the institute has contributed 37 diverse models and datasets to the platform.

These contributions include 16 culturally significant datasets from IIT Bombay alone, as well as 21 AI models from BharatGen, which is supported by the Department of Science and Technology.

Professor Ganesh Ramakrishnan, who leads the initiative, said the team is developing sovereign AI models for India, trained from scratch and not merely fine-tuned versions of existing tools.

These models aim to be data- and compute-efficient while being culturally and linguistically relevant. The collection also includes datasets for audio-visual learning—such as tutorials on organic farming and waste-to-toy creation—mathematical reasoning in Hindi and English, image-based question answering, and video-text recognition.

One dataset even features question-answering derived from the works of historian Dharampal. ‘This is about setting benchmarks for the AI ecosystem in India,’ said Ramakrishnan, noting that the resources are openly available to researchers, enterprises and academic institutions alike.

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China creates AI to detect real nuclear warheads

Chinese scientists have created the world’s first AI-based system capable of identifying real nuclear warheads from decoys, marking a significant step in arms control verification.

The breakthrough, developed by the China Institute of Atomic Energy (CIAE), could strengthen Beijing’s hand in stalled disarmament talks, although it also raises difficult questions about AI’s growing role in managing weapons of mass destruction.

The technology builds on a long-standing US–China proposal but faced key obstacles: how to train AI using sensitive nuclear data, gain military approval without risking secret leaks, and persuade sceptical nations like the US to move past Cold War-era inspection methods.

So far, only the AI training has been completed, with the rest of the process still pending international acceptance.

The AI system uses deep learning and cryptographic protocols to analyse scrambled radiation signals from warheads behind a polythene wall, ensuring the weapons’ internal designs remain hidden.

The machine can verify a warhead’s chain-reaction potential without accessing classified details. According to CIAE, repeated randomised tests reduce the chance of deception to nearly zero.

While both China and the US have pledged not to let AI control nuclear launch decisions, the new system underlines AI’s expanding role in national defence.

Beijing insists the AI can be jointly trained and sealed before use to ensure transparency, but sceptics remain wary of trust, backdoor access and growing militarisation of AI.

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Uber’s product chief turns to AI for reports and research

Uber’s chief product officer, Sachin Kansal, is embracing AI to streamline his daily workflow—particularly through tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and, soon, NotebookLM.

Speaking on ‘Lenny’s Podcast,’ Kansal revealed how AI summarisation helps him digest lengthy 50- to 100-page reports he otherwise wouldn’t have time to read. He uses AI to understand market trends and rider feedback across regions such as Brazil, South Korea, and South Africa.

Kansal also relies on AI as a research assistant. For instance, when exploring new driver features, he used ChatGPT’s deep research capabilities to simulate possible driver reactions and generate brainstorming ideas.

‘It’s an amazing research assistant,’ he said. ‘It’s absolutely a starting point for a brainstorm with my team.’

He’s now eyeing Google’s NotebookLM, a note-taking and research tool, as the next addition to his AI toolkit—especially its ‘Audio Overview’ feature, which turns documents into AI-generated podcast-style discussions.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi previously noted that too few of Uber’s 30,000+ employees are using AI and stressed that mastering AI tools, especially for coding, would soon be essential.

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Serbian startup revolutionises cancer diagnostics with AI-powered radiotherapy tool

A group of Serbian physicists, programmers, and radiologists, led by Stevan Vrbaški, has developed a groundbreaking software solution through their startup, Vinaver Medical. After gaining experience through studies and research abroad, the team returned to Serbia, where they launched a project to improve cancer diagnostics using advanced radiotherapy technology.

Their work is centred on particle radiotherapy, a precise cancer treatment method that surpasses conventional X-ray-based radiotherapy. The innovation lies in software that combines AI and CT imaging to enhance diagnostic accuracy and improve the planning of radiotherapy in oncology.

Unlike traditional methods, this solution enables far more precise targeting of tumours, which can potentially reduce damage to surrounding healthy tissue. According to Vrbaški, their software helps determine the optimal delivery of radiotherapy based on patient scans.

Vinaver Medical received initial funding through the ‘Smart Start’ program and later support from the ‘Digital Serbia Initiative.’ Their product is currently being tested in the United States, the European Union, and the Balkans.

Vrbaški highlights the challenges of developing and certifying medical technologies, emphasising the need for rigorous testing, user adaptation, and risk reduction before market release. Looking ahead, the team plans to visit hospitals and innovation centres in Italy and the US to fine-tune their solution to meet user needs better.

With a certified, market-ready product in hand, they aim to launch commercially within a year to eighteen months, as testing with Dutch partners continues to validate the software’s ability to assist doctors in diagnosing various illnesses with greater accuracy.

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AI copyright clash stalls UK data bill

A bitter standoff over AI and copyright has returned to the House of Lords, as ministers and peers clash over how to protect creative workers while fostering technological innovation.

At the centre of the debate is the proposed Data (Use and Access) Bill, which was expected to pass smoothly but is now stuck in parliamentary limbo due to growing resistance.

The bill would allow AI firms to access copyrighted material unless rights holders opt out, a proposal that many artists and peers believe threatens the UK’s £124bn creative industry.

Nearly 300 Lords have called for AI developers to disclose what content they use and seek licences instead of relying on blanket access. Former film director Baroness Kidron described the policy as ‘state-sanctioned theft’ and warned it would sacrifice British talent to benefit large tech companies.

Supporters of the bill, like former Meta executive Sir Nick Clegg, argue that forcing AI firms to seek individual permissions would severely damage the UK’s AI sector. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology insists it will only consider changes if they are proven to benefit creators.

If no resolution is found, the bill risks being shelved entirely. That would also scrap unrelated proposals bundled into it, such as new NHS data-sharing rules and plans for a nationwide underground map.

Despite the bill’s wide scope, the fight over copyright remains its most divisive and emotionally charged feature.

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Gmail adds automatic AI summaries

Gmail on mobile now displays AI-generated summaries by default, marking a shift in how Google’s Gemini assistant operates within inboxes.

Instead of relying on users to request a summary, Gemini will now decide when it’s useful—typically for long email threads with multiple replies—and present a brief summary card at the top of the message.

These summaries update automatically as conversations evolve, aiming to save users from scrolling through lengthy discussions.

The feature is currently limited to mobile devices and available only to users with Google Workspace accounts, Gemini Education add-ons, or a Google One AI Premium subscription. For the moment, summaries are confined to emails written in English.

Google expects the rollout to take around two weeks, though it remains unclear when, or if, the tool will extend to standard Gmail accounts or desktop users.

Anyone wanting to opt out must disable Gmail’s smart features entirely—giving up tools like Smart Compose, Smart Reply, and package tracking in the process.

While some may welcome the convenience, others may feel uneasy about their emails being analysed by large language models, especially since this process could contribute to further training of Google’s AI systems.

The move reflects a wider trend across Google’s products, where AI is becoming central to everyday user experiences.

Additional user controls and privacy commitments

According to Google Workspace, users have some control over the summary cards. They can collapse a Gemini summary card, and it will remain collapsed for that specific email thread.

In the near future, Gmail will introduce enhancements, such as automatically collapsing future summary cards for users who consistently collapse them, until the user chooses to expand them again. For emails that don’t display automatic summaries, Gmail still offers manual options.

Users can tap the ‘summarise this email’ chip at the top of the message or use the Gemini side panel to trigger a summary manually. Google also reaffirms its commitment to data protection and user privacy. All AI features in Gmail adhere to its privacy principles, with more details available on the Privacy Hub.

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AI takes over eCommerce tasks as Visa and Mastercard adapt

Visa and Mastercard have announced major AI initiatives that could reshape the future of e-commerce, marking a significant step in the evolution of retail technology.

The initiatives—Visa’s Intelligent Commerce and Mastercard’s Agent Pay—move beyond traditional recommendation engines to empower AI agents to make purchases directly on behalf of consumers.

Visa is partnering with leading tech firms, including Anthropic, IBM, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Stripe, to build a system where AI agents shop according to user preferences.

Meanwhile, Mastercard’s Agent Pay integrates payment functionality into AI-driven conversational platforms, blending commerce and conversation into a seamless user experience.

These announcements follow years of AI integration into retail, with adoption growing at 40% annually and the market projected to surpass $8 billion by 2024. Retailers initially used AI for backend optimisation, but nearly 87% now apply it in customer-facing roles.

The next phase, where AI doesn’t just suggest but acts, is rapidly taking shape—backed by consumer demand for hyper-personalisation and efficiency.

Research suggests 71% of consumers want generative AI embedded in their shopping journeys, with 58% already turning to AI tools over traditional search engines for recommendations. However, consumer trust remains a challenge.

Satisfaction with AI dropped slightly last year, highlighting concerns over privacy and implementation quality—especially critical for financial transactions.

Visa and Mastercard’s moves reflect both opportunity and necessity. With 75% of retailers viewing AI agents as essential within the next year, and AI expected to handle 20% of eCommerce tasks, the payment giants are positioning themselves as indispensable infrastructure in a fast-changing market.

Their broad alliances across AI, payments, and tech underline a shared goal: to stay central as shopping behaviours evolve in the AI era.

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