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Amazon beats expectations with cloud and AI growth <br> Amazon beat analysts&#39; expectations on Thursday when it reported growth in overall revenue and sales, particularly in its cloud, artificial intelligence and chips divisions. Its revenue increased 20 per cent to more than $200 billion in the second quarter, compared to last year, with its cloud business, Amazon Web Services, jumping 37 percent to reach $42.2 billion. The company said two of its AI-related divisions also grew by &quot;triple-digit percentages&quot;: its AI cloud and chips businesses each &quot;exceeded&quot; $25 billion annual revenue run rates, which is a measure of recurring sales. Its stock jumped by more than 6 percent after hours. The company is working to show that its heavy investments in artificial intelligence, alongside the rest of the tech sector, are paying off. Read:&nbsp;Meta&#39;s AI spending spree lays bare its compute dilemma Amazon will hold an earnin...

Explainer: What is AI model distillation and why is it becoming a US-China flashpoint? <br> A technique that allows developers to shrink powerful artificial intelligence models into cheaper, more efficient systems has become the latest&nbsp;battleground&nbsp;in the intensifying US-China race for AI dominance. Known as model distillation, the method uses the outputs of a powerful AI system to train a smaller model ​that can perform some of the same tasks with fewer computing resources. Long regarded as a standard tool of AI research, distillation &zwnj;is now at the centre of a growing dispute over whether advanced AI capabilities can be transferred without the consent of the companies that created them. Read:&nbsp;Chinese military researchers tap US AI models to train defence systems Washington and leading US AI firms have accused Chinese rivals of using the technique to extract capabilities from proprietary models, opening a new front in an increasingly ...

German minister urges faster AI self-sufficiency after OpenAI test breach <br> Germany&#39;s digital minister urged Europe on Thursday to speed up efforts to build its own AI industry after an OpenAI security test showed an AI ​agent breaching another system, raising concerns about control of increasingly autonomous &zwnj;technology. Karsten Wildberger told Reuters the incident highlighted the need for both stronger safeguards and greater European self-sufficiency in AI, as concerns over advanced AI systems increasingly overlap with the bloc&#39;s push for ​technological sovereignty. &quot;We all need to take this incident very, very seriously,&quot; Wildberger ​said, describing the fact that the agent became autonomous and penetrated other ⁠systems as &quot;very alarming&quot;. OpenAI&nbsp;said this month&nbsp;that one of its agents slipped out of ​an isolated testing environment and broke into tech firm Hugging Face, compromising the ...

EU aims for seven AI gigafactories with €10 billion plan in race with US, China <br> The European Union will fund seven artificial intelligence gigafactories across the bloc with &euro;10 billion ($11.5 billion) as it accelerates efforts to narrow the technology gap with the United States and China, the European Commission said on Thursday. The Commission said it aims to attract at least &euro;20 billion in private investment for the projects. The plan was expanded from five planned gigafactories to seven following strong interest from EU member states. The facilities will combine advanced AI processors, software, cloud technologies, high-speed connectivity and data centres. They will complement the bloc&#39;s existing 19 AI factories located across several EU countries. &quot;Access to the raw scale of computing power within AI Gigafactories is a strategic necessity for Europe as AI development accelerates,&quot; EU technology chief Henna Virkkunen sa...

Meta's AI spending spree lays bare its compute dilemma <br> Meta can simultaneously advance its own artificial intelligence ambitions while renting out scarce computing capacity to boost returns, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg signalled on Wednesday. Investors, however, are not convinced. The Facebook and Instagram owner is spending billions of dollars on AI infrastructure, including chips, servers, energy and data centres, leaving it with free cash flow of just $784 million in the second quarter, a 91% decline from a year earlier. The slump sent Meta shares down about 9% in premarket trading on Thursday. Pressed by analysts on Meta&#39;s strategy, Zuckerberg described computing capacity as a scarce strategic asset that the company should retain and expand rather than sell for short-term gains. He acknowledged, however, that Meta had received several offers from businesses willing to pay &quot;a meaningful premium&quot; to use its computing capacity for t...

AI race redraws Asian air cargo, replacing e-commerce as growth engine <br> The global race to build artificial intelligence is redrawing Asia&#39;s air cargo map, prompting airlines to redesign networks around growing ​semiconductor manufacturing hubs as cross-border e-commerce loses momentum. Unlike the post-pandemic&nbsp;parcel boom, demand tied to AI infrastructure is underpinned by multi-year orders for advanced memory chips and processors &zwnj;and hundreds of billions of dollars of planned investment in data centres, airlines and logistics companies say. At the same time, tighter low-value&nbsp;import rules&nbsp;in the US&nbsp;and Europe are dampening the cross-border e-commerce trade that has driven much of the industry&#39;s recent growth. &quot;E-commerce was air freight&#39;s single biggest growth pillar, but that is no longer the case,&quot; Niall van de Wouw, chief airfreight officer at Xeneta, said when the freight ana...

Musk's X says Australia social media ban crackdown undermines international law <br> Elon Musk&#39;s X accused Australia of trying to give its internet regulator unfair information-gathering powers and undermining US&nbsp;law with plans for tougher enforcement of a teen social ​media ban. Australia&#39;s world-first law barring accounts for under-16s took effect last December, drawing criticism &zwnj;from social media companies, mostly based in the United States. But the contention by X, whose parent company is Musk&#39;s just-listed SpaceX, amounts to one of the world&#39;s most powerful people injecting a geopolitical element into the debate. The plans did ​not give &quot;due regard to procedural fairness, privacy, the broader impacts on online services, and Australia&#39;s ​digital economy&quot;, X told an Australian senate committee. In its submission published on Tuesday, ⁠X took aim at&nbsp;plans&nbsp;to give the eSaf...

Trump administration bans new Chinese humanoid robots, to protect US AI buildout <br> The Trump administration on Tuesday unveiled bans that target imports of new Chinese robots and power inverters, seeking to protect the US&nbsp;AI buildout from national ​security threats and reshore key industries slated for explosive growth. The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday afternoon released the measures, which bar Chinese imports of new humanoid and quadruped robots, &zwnj;in addition to connected power inverters, which enable renewable energy sources and batteries to connect to grids and data center equipment. The restrictions, as first reported by Reuters, show the Trump administration is aiming to safeguard the US&nbsp;artificial intelligence supply chain from Chinese threats of disruption, data theft and cyberattacks, while also driving firms to shift manufacturing to the US. &quot;These devices could create supply chain vulnerabilities that could ...

Meta, BlackRock partner on $14b El Paso data center <br> &nbsp;Meta Platforms&nbsp;and the world&#39;s largest asset manager BlackRock&nbsp;on Tuesday announced a venture to develop and operate a ​data center campus in El Paso, Texas, a project that would cost about $14 &zwnj;billion in development. The race to build out AI infrastructure has prompted tech giants to turn to debt sales worth tens of billions of dollars or seek external capital from fund managers such ​as BlackRock due to an unprecedented scale of investment. Meta said BlackRock-managed funds will take ​an 80% ownership stake in the venture, with Meta retaining the ⁠remaining 20%. A portion of BlackRock&#39;s investment will be financed through $12.5 billion in debt. ​Meta will also receive a $1 billion distribution to align ownership. Meta will contribute land and ​in-progress construction assets worth about $2.3 billion, while BlackRock will make a cash contribution of about $4.9 b...

China starts production of home-grown immersion DUV chipmaking tools - source <br> China has begun mass producing domestically developed immersion deep-ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machines, ​a technology crucial to advanced chipmaking, a person familiar with the matter said, marking a key step forward in Beijing&#39;s drive to reduce its reliance &zwnj;on foreign technologies. Shanghai Aishengna Electronic Technology Group, a little-known Chinese state-owned company, is leading the production effort after incorporating teams from top Chinese lithography startups, the source said, declining to be named due to the sensitivity of the subject. The development represents a win for Beijing&#39;s nationwide semiconductor self-sufficiency initiative, one of President Xi Jinping&#39;s highest priorities, but will not pose an immediate commercial threat for Dutch supplier ASML. DUV is ​a key chipmaking tool long dominated by ASML. The Information, a tech industry...

China accuses US of 'AI hegemonism', threatens countermeasures over potential probes <br> China&#39;s commerce ministry on Monday accused the United States of &quot;AI hegemonism&quot; and threatened countermeasures after senior US&nbsp;officials said Chinese AI companies could face investigations, sanctions and trade restrictions over alleged theft of US technology. The ministry said Washington was threatening Chinese companies with punishment based on allegations they used &quot;distillation&quot; to copy advanced US AI models, despite what it called a lack of factual or legal grounds. Model distillation is a widely used AI training technique in which developers use the outputs of a more capable model to train or improve another system. US officials said they distinguish between legitimate distillation and large-scale extraction that amounts to intellectual property theft. &nbsp;&lsquo;All necessary measures&rsquo; &quot;...

Shenzhou-23 crew reaches 60-day orbital mark with multiple science tasks <br> The Shenzhou-23 crew has recently completed a study on gut microbiome changes as a result of long-duration spaceflight, as the three astronauts reached their 60th day in orbit aboard China&#39;s space station. During this period, astronauts Zhu Yangzhu, Zhang Zhiyuan and Li Jiaying have also systematically carried out a range of tasks, including multiple scientific experiments, maintenance of the space station complex platform, and in-orbit health management, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). Using a space Raman spectrometer, the crew conducted research on microbiome and nutritional metabolism to analyze changes in intestinal flora and their effects on nutrient metabolism under extended spaceflight conditions. They also performed a force control test to investigate the patterns of fine motor control changes and adaptive learning mechanisms during long-term orbital missions. ...

Afghanistan showcases digital ambitions as major tech exhibition opens in Kabul <br> &nbsp;In a significant milestone for Afghanistan&#39;s technological ambitions, the nation&#39;s premier and most comprehensive telecommunications and technology exposition officially opened Sunday in the capital Kabul on Sunday, drawing hundreds of exhibitors and thousands of visitors eager to witness the country&#39;s accelerating digital evolution. The five-day exposition, organized by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in partnership with the private sector, features more than 200 booths showcasing innovations in software, hardware, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, fintech, e-commerce, startups, advanced networking, and technological education. Zakirullah Amini, one of the exhibitors, presented a marketing software platform that connects customers and businesses seamlessly. He expressed strong satisfaction with the event, saying it provides...

Spacecraft brings Russians, American back to earth, Russia's space agency says <br> Spacecraft brings Russians, American back to earth, Russia&#39;s space agency says &nbsp;A Soyuz ​MS-28 spacecraft &zwnj;carrying Russian cosmonauts Sergei Kud-Sverchkov ​and ​Sergei Mikayev as ⁠well as ​NASA astronaut ​Christopher Williams has returned to earth, ​Russia&#39;s ​Roscosmos space agency said &zwnj;on ⁠Sunday. The Soyuz capsule descended under parachutes and touched down in a designated landing zone southeast of Dzhezkazgan. The mission marked the first spaceflight for Williams and Mikaev, while Kud-Sverchkov completed his second expedition to the orbital laboratory. Following the landing, the crew was scheduled to fly by helicopter to Karaganda. Williams will then return to NASA&#39;s Johnson Space Center in Houston, while his Russian crewmates will head to the Star City training centre near Moscow. Read More:&nbsp;Nvidia, Microsoft and other ...

Samsung Elec, SK Group seal $950b deals as South Korea hosts AI powers <br> South Korea announced $950 billion in new AI initiatives involving Samsung Electronics, SK Group and US tech firms as global AI leaders rush to address a shortage of faster chips needed to power and develop more advanced systems. SK Group has signed deals worth $750 billion, including SK Hynix&#39;s partnership with Nvidia valued at more than $500 billion, South Korea&#39;s presidential Blue House said after an AI summit hosted by President Lee Jae Myung in San Francisco. Samsung Electronics said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Broadcom covering up to $200 billion across memory chips, foundry services and advanced packaging. The deals are the latest moves by US AI firms hoping to lock in supply as demand for chips and computing infrastructure outstrips supply, driving technology companies into closer partnerships with South Korea&#39;s semiconductor and memory leaders....

Its AI agent spent days hacking a company, but sources say OpenAI did not notice for a week <br> The OpenAI agent that broke into tech firm Hugging Face went on a dayslong hacking spree that OpenAI didn&#39;t notice until well after the threat was contained and the FBI was alerted, according ​to people familiar with the investigation. The agent &ndash; a program capable of making decisions and executing complex tasks with little or no human oversight &ndash; attempted to break out of its isolated testing environment &zwnj;at OpenAI around July 9, according to two people. The intrusion at Hugging Face, which operates as a repository for AI tools and models, began two days later on July 11 and lasted until July 13, said Thomas Wolf, Hugging Face&rsquo;s co-founder. It took several more days for OpenAI to realise its agent was behind the hack, and the two companies only communicated about it for the first time on or around July 20, according to Wolf and t...

Chinese researchers develop programmable plant immunity system <br> Chinese scientists have proposed a novel concept of programmable plant synthetic immunity, marking a milestone breakthrough in plant immune engineering. The achievement establishes an on-demand design platform for synthetic plant immune receptors, providing a universal technical pathway for cultivating durable and broad-spectrum crop resistance. The study, led by a team from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology (IGDB) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was published online in the journal Science on July 24. For millennia, crop resistance breeding has relied on mining natural resistance genes. However, the complex structure of natural plant immune receptors makes them extremely difficult to engineer, and discovering new natural resistance genes is a lengthy and inefficient endeavor, leaving &quot;precise design of dedicated resistance receptors against any pathogen&quot; a long-stan...

TikTok charged with breaching EU tech rules on online safety for kids, EU says <br> ByteDance&#39;s social media &zwnj;platform TikTok has been charged with breaching EU online content rules due to design features which could expose children to predators or cyberbullying, EU regulators said on Friday, putting the company at risk of a hefty fine. The charges, ​called preliminary findings under the Digital Services Act which requires Big Tech to do more ​to tackle illegal and harmful content, are the fourth allegation against TikTok in ⁠two years. The European Commission, which serves as the EU tech enforcer, said TikTok accounts fall ​short of DSA safety standards. It said the social media platform allows children to make their account public, ​enabling others to see the content and potentially exposing them to cyberbullying or contact from abusers. It said even private accounts are not safe for children as they can be easily found through the &#39;following...

China’s memory chip makers ride AI boom to new power and US scrutiny <br> For months, Chinese chip manufacturer ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) had been hiking prices on Huawei, one of the country&rsquo;s biggest technology companies. The chipmaker held firm when Huawei demanded relief from the escalating costs, according to two people familiar with the matter. The standoff came to a head on CXMT&rsquo;s factory floor in June. A group of engineers from a chipmaking-equipment vendor with deep strategic ties to Huawei had been working in the cleanrooms at CXMT&rsquo;s core research and development zone in Hefei, Anhui province. ​Without warning, CXMT ordered the engineers, who had been helping with equipment maintenance, to pack their tools and leave the factory floor immediately, the two sources said. Executives at the Huawei-connected equipment vendor, SiCarrier, concluded the confrontation was the result of the power struggle between CXMT and Huawei, the p...

White House monitors OpenAI's 'rogue' AI incident, lawmakers propose 'kill switch' <br> US President Donald Trump&#39;s top technology adviser is monitoring the situation after OpenAI disclosed that one of its AI systems had gone rogue during testing, a White House official said on Thursday, as lawmakers proposed an &quot;AI Kill Switch Act&quot;, which would allow federal authorities to halt AI models. In addition to the Kill Switch Act, a bipartisan group of six US House lawmakers also proposed legislation that would require developers of the most powerful AI models to submit them for independent security audits, according to a copy of the new bill. The auditors would be accredited by the US Department of Commerce, and the department would create a new position to oversee AI security. The lawmakers proposed the bill days after OpenAI said its AI agent escaped containment during a security test. The agent triggered a hack that compromised t...

Amazon's Bezos pushes Prime Video redesign focused on AI <br> Jeff Bezos has identified a new, high-profile platform to help showcase the hundreds of billions of dollars Amazon has bet on artificial intelligence: Prime Video. The Amazon founder and executive chairman pushed Prime Video head Mike Hopkins to overhaul the streaming service so that AI is front and ​center, according to four people with direct knowledge of the matter. The resulting project, known internally as Lighthouse, would shine a light on Amazon&rsquo;s AI capabilities for the more than 200 million consumers &zwnj;who use Prime Video. Lighthouse is viewed as one critical piece in Amazon&rsquo;s companywide efforts to elevate the company&rsquo;s stature in artificial intelligence, as competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic speed ahead, the people said. Other AI initiatives, such as the multiyear overhaul of its Alexa voice assistant to provide more conversational responses, have had...

US, China to hold AI talks in September, sources say <br> The United States and China will hold talks over AI in September, five people familiar with the matter told Reuters, as the rival superpowers grapple with how to mitigate the risks posed by each ​other&#39;s increasingly powerful frontier models. The AI talks, a significant outcome of the Trump-Xi summit in May, will likely take place before Chinese President Xi Jinping&#39;s planned September 24 &zwnj;visit to the US, said the sources, who asked not to be named as the information is not public. The dates, however, have not been finalised, they said. As economic, political and military rivals, China and the US have grown increasingly anxious over each other&#39;s AI capabilities amid an accelerating global AI race. Beijing and Washington are weighing how to regulate advanced AI models that could strengthen military capabilities, enable cyberattacks on critical infrastructure and disrupt labour marke...

OpenAI says AI models went rogue during testing, triggering 'unprecedented' breach at startup <br> &nbsp;OpenAI said on Tuesday &zwnj;that an autonomous agent powered by its advanced AI models went rogue during a security test and triggered a hack that compromised the infrastructure of AI startup Hugging Face last week. In&nbsp;a blog post,&nbsp;OpenAI said it was testing the capabilities of some of its most advanced models in a controlled environment but ​that the agent managed to escape containment, reach the internet and break into Hugging Face to try to satisfy its ​testing goal. OpenAI said the breakout was &quot;an unprecedented cyber incident, involving state-of-the-art cyber capabilities&quot; and that the company ⁠was reinforcing its safeguards. Hugging Face, a platform used to host open-source large language models and datasets, caused a stir in the cybersecurity ​community when it said in&nbsp;a blog post last week&nbsp;t...