BitsServer

South Korea promises free homegrown AI chatbot this year <br> South Korea plans to launch this year a free artificial intelligence chatbot service powered by domestic technology, Seoul said Tuesday, seeking to reduce reliance on foreign platforms. Roughly half of South Korea&#39;s population of 51 million used generative AI applications in February, according to market research firm Wiseapp-Retail. The vast majority -- nearly 23 million -- used ChatGPT, developed by US firm OpenAI. As the technology has spread, countries have become increasingly concerned with so-called &quot;AI sovereignty&quot; -- developing domestic models serving their own security, privacy and business interests. A spokesperson for South Korea&#39;s science ministry told AFP Tuesday that a government initiative aims to roll out a general-purpose AI chatbot as well as an AI agent capable of more complex tasks by the end of the year. &quot;To persuade users to move away from forei...

Institutional demand for CXMT's $8.6 bln Shanghai IPO dented by chip stock selloff <br> Chinese chipmaker CXMT Corp&#39;s $8.6 billion initial public offering was more than 500 times oversubscribed by institutional investors, according to a filing on Sunday, but ​the demand was less feverish than in recent Chinese tech IPOs, &zwnj;reflecting caution amid a global selloff in chip stocks. Attention will now shift to&nbsp;CXMT&#39;s listing&nbsp;expected later this month on Shanghai&#39;s STAR Market, which will test the market ahead of a ​slew of other high-profile IPOs as Beijing pushes for self-sufficiency in its ​tech rivalry with Washington. In a statement on Sunday, CXMT, China&#39;s top ⁠memory chipmaker, said institutional investors including mutual funds, pension funds and insurers ​subscribed for a total of 1.24 trillion shares, compared with 2.17 billion IPO shares ​on offer to them. That translates into an oversubscription ratio of...

Pocket-size AI: Powerful phones star at China show <br> Tech firms are racing to roll out advanced smartphones that use artificial intelligence to do everything from ordering food to composing messages upon a simple voice command. Wide adoption of phones running on so-called AI agents would be a revolution, but would also take control away from major apps, which aren&#39;t always happy about it. At least three firm were showcasing so-called agentic phones at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai this weekend -- heralding what may be to come. Smartphone maker Nubia unveiled its NaviX Ultra, a phone powered by Doubao, China&#39;s massively popular AI chatbot tool run by TikTok creator ByteDance. &quot;A new era of AI agent smartphones begins,&quot; Nubia said, sharing images of the handsets online. A limited run of a prototype dubbed the &quot;Doubao Phone&quot; sold out fast in December. Initially, the prototype could follow si...

Users of Meta's Facebook, Instagram report suffering some outages <br> Instagram and Facebook social networks appeared ​to suffer some outages &zwnj;on Sunday, with users reporting issues with the app ​and website. According to Downdetector, there ⁠were 4,808 reports filed ​by Facebook users in ​the United States as of 0746 GMT, with 63% of users ​facing issues accessing the ​website. Another 2,829 reports were filed by &zwnj;Instagram ⁠users in the US&nbsp;who faced issues with the app as of 0818 ​GMT ​on ⁠Sunday. Reports of Facebook and Instagram&nbsp;disruptions spiked around 1pm Pakistan time, reflecting a sharp increase in user complaints, according to the Downdetector. User reports indicate problems with Facebook since 3:55 AM EDT. How is it affecting you? #FacebookDownhttps://t.co/8wgYQLKxCu &mdash; Downdetector (@downdetector) July 19, 2026 Checks by Reuters also found that access ​to Facebook and Instagram ​was ⁠intermittent in Singa...

Samsung cuts US jobs, offers relocations ahead of HQ move <br> Samsung Electronics has cut jobs at ​its US&nbsp;display, phone and other consumer electronics operations, affecting workers mainly in New Jersey and Texas, according to documents and two people familiar with &zwnj;the matter. The South Korean tech giant said on Sunday in a statement to Reuters that 739 roles in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, have been affected by plans by Samsung Electronics America (SEA), which is focused on consumer electronics and does not include chips, to move its headquarters to Texas. A majority of people affected have received relocation offers, but others were let go, it added without elaborating. At SEA&#39;s Plano, Texas office, some 100 workers, ​including staff in its mobile division, have been let go, according to one person who said they were among the employees laid off. Sources declined to be identified ​because of the sensitivity of the issue. The cuts &mdash...

Shanghai Xingshu launches first constellation of its space-based computing project <br> Shanghai Xingshu Tiansuan ​Space Technology Co. on Saturday said &zwnj;it had launched the first constellation of a space-computing project that in total ​aims to deploy 1,000 satellites ​in space. ingshu Tiansuan said the launch marked a step closer to the commercial operation of China&#39;s first space-based computing network. The announcement coincided with Chinese President Xi Jinping&#39;s attendance at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, where he presented Beijing as a champion of a new global AI order. Read More: China&rsquo;s Xi calls for global AI order rooted in equity, cooperation Following its merger with xAI in February, Elon Musk&#39;s SpaceX is also advancing its own space-based computing initiatives in an effort to accelerate AI development. Advocates say transmitting only processed results back to Earth, rather than vast volu...

Apple unseats Nvidia to become world's most valuable company as AI bets shift <br> Apple&nbsp;overtook Nvidia&nbsp;on Friday to become the world&#39;s most valuable company, reshuffling the top ​ranks of tech heavyweights as investors reassess the outlook for artificial intelligence. Apple was last valued at $4.88 trillion as its shares held &zwnj;steady, while Nvidia was roughly at $4.86 trillion, following a 3.5% decline. The shift in the pecking order illustrates that investors are broadening their focus beyond the most obvious beneficiaries of the AI boom, such as Nvidia, which had been at the helm for nearly a year. Apple is reclaiming the top spot for the first time since April last ​year. &quot;Apple was seen as a laggard in the AI race because it wasn&#39;t spending to develop models, but now sentiment has changed,&quot; ​said Toni Meadows, head of investment at BRI Wealth Management. &quot;Apple is less exposed to capex intens...