Category Archives: Computing

Tech market sell-off deepens amid fears over US inflation and AI debt

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Chip makers and tech investors such as Samsung and SoftBank plunge as potential interest rate hikes spook markets

An accelerating sell-off of AI-linked shares has hit global markets, as fears over rising inflation and future interest rate hikes spooked traders already wary of the heavily indebted sector.

South Korea’s benchmark Kospi 200 index, which is heavily skewed towards the companies that make memory chips, fell more than 8% overnight to a six-month closing low, triggering circuit breakers that brought trading to a halt at various points.

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UK must not be beholden to foreign AI, says head of Alan Turing Institute

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George Williamson says ‘national resilience’ is key focus of ATI amid US and China’s runaway leadership in field

The UK must not become dependent on foreign AI systems that can be switched off at short notice and must develop its own versions of the technology, according to the head of the Alan Turing Institute.

The country needs a stronger domestic position in AI in response to the US and China’s runaway leadership in the field, with “national resilience” a key focus for ATI said George Williamson.

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OpenAI scraps release of new model over safety concerns in internal testing

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GPT-6.1 Astra showed deceptive behavior and tried to use external tools despite knowing it would be unsafe

OpenAI is scrapping the release of GPT-6.1 Astra, a next-generation ⁠AI model planned for an October debut, over safety concerns raised by researchers ⁠during internal testing, the ⁠Wall ​Street Journal reported on Monday.

The model, expected to appear in ChatGPT and ⁠Codex, was designed to handle more complex tasks without human assistance, the report said.

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OpenAI halts training of latest models as reports mount of AI agents going rogue

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Decision follows disclosures that OpenAI agents searching government websites had acted in unexpected ways

OpenAI said it has paused training of its latest artificial intelligence models as reports of AI agents going rogue mount.

The decision to halt development came just hours after the company disclosed Friday that it was reviewing several incidents from the summer in which OpenAI agents searching federal government websites acted in unexpected ways beyond what was asked of them while gathering and distributing information.

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Launch of UK’s ‘largest AI supercomputer’ delayed by power supply problems

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Datacentre hailed by government was supposed to start operating next year but may be held back into mid-2030s

A huge datacentre project hailed by the UK government will miss its launch date next year and could be delayed into the mid-2030s.

The site in Loughton, Essex, was described as the country’s largest AI supercomputer when it was announced in 2025, but power supply problems mean it now faces a lengthy wait before coming online.

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Planning permission for new Scottish AI datacentres suspended for up to a year

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MSPs vote for strict environmental impact assessments and will delay decisions until national strategy is developed

Holyrood has voted to pause planning applications for all new AI datacentres for up to a year until the Scottish government has developed a national strategy.

On Wednesday, MSPs backed a Scottish Labour motion to halt new schemes for up to 12 months while rules on hyperscale datacentres are developed in what could be a blow to the British government’s AI strategy.

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Anthropic lands deal in $31bn datacentre in western Queensland, David Crisafulli says

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Premier describes deal as ‘major win’ that will deliver more jobs for the state and put more energy into its grid

Anthropic, the AI company behind the large language model Claude, has done a deal to lease the site of its first Australian datacentre in western Queensland.

The $31.9bn datacentre will be the largest of its kind in Australia, according to planning documents.

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Europe must build own AI or risk getting cut off by US or China, says ECB’s Lagarde

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Central bank chief says continent’s AI dependency could give trade partners unprecedented leverage in negotiations

Europe must develop its own AI technology and build more datacentres in order to nullify the threat of being cut off by the US or China, according to the president of the European Central Bank.

Christine Lagarde said the continent needed AI models – the technology that powers AI tools such as chatbots – that were “good enough” to carry out most tasks and run from domestic datacentres. If Europe invests in its own AI tech, said Lagarde, “the threat of being cut off loses its force”.

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Obama reportedly urges Democrats to prioritize safety plan for AI

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Ex-president urged party at closed-door fundraiser to create sweeping framework, from safety ‘slow-down’ to job losses

Barack Obama urged Democrats to prioritize a “public conversation” about AI management and safety in a closed-door Manhattan fundraiser last week.

The comments by the former US president reportedly urged the party to create a sweeping framework for everything from a safety “slow-down” to domestic job losses and children’s wellbeing.

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‘We must slow the pace’: CEO of Anthropic calls for an AI slowdown

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In a social media post, Dario Amodei proposed a plan including third-party evaluations of AI systems

The CEO of the artificial intelligence company Anthropic issued a new appeal on Saturday for the AI industry to “slow down” and offered a three-part plan for doing so, saying that his company would “unilaterally” commit to the first of the steps.

In a post on social media, Dario Amodei shared a link to an essay titled We Must Pace the Frontier in which he laid out how Anthropic would provide “third-party evaluators with permanent, employee-level access to our systems, so that they can verify adherence to our safety measures, report on incidents, and assess models’ alignment during training”.

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Apple expected to unveil folding iPhone as new CEO takes center stage

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The new model will serve as the first big test for John Ternus, who took the role last week

All eyes are on Apple’s annual fall announcement of new products this afternoon, where the company is expected to unveil the most significant change to the iPhone since the smartphone’s introduction in 2007.

Unlike previous iterations, the new iPhone is expected to fold, opening and closing like a passport to double its screen size.

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Macquarie University swaps in-person psychology classes with AI chatbot for two subjects

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University’s move is part of trend that critics within academia say will lead to further staff cuts and the loss of ‘everything that makes the job worth doing’

An Australian university has swapped in-person classes with an AI chatbot, online quizzes and optional online tutorials in two subjects as institutions give the technology more teaching responsibilities.

Macquarie University’s “Virtual Peer” is part of each week’s learning in two mandatory Psychology units, programmed to ask students questions and guide them through scenario-based exercises.

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Taiwan charges nine people for smuggling ‘high-end’ AI servers to China

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Among those charged are two Super Micro employees and one from Nvidia, marking another flashpoint in US-China AI rivalry

Taiwanese prosecutors charged nine people Monday, including one from Nvidia and two from Super Micro, for illegally exporting “high-end AI servers” to mainland China, adding another wave of turbulence in the AI ​​rivalry between China and the United States.

Prosecutors said the servers involved were graphics processing units known as “B300,” which have been banned from sale to China.

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Taiwan charges nine people for smuggling ‘high-end’ AI servers to China

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Among those charged are two Super Micro employees and one from Nvidia, marking another flashpoint in US-China AI rivalry

Taiwanese prosecutors charged nine people Monday, including one from Nvidia and two from Super Micro, for illegally exporting “high-end AI servers” to mainland China, adding another wave of turbulence in the AI ​​rivalry between China and the United States.

Prosecutors said the servers involved were graphics processing units known as “B300,” which have been banned from sale to China.

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OpenAI launches ChatGPT for Teens with stronger safeguards

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Teen version is intended for children aged 13 to 17 and includes content protections on self-harm and sexual chats

OpenAI is launching a version of ChatGPT designed for teenagers – the first generation to grow up with artificial intelligence – who are already using it for schoolwork, questions about daily life and even companionship.

The San Francisco-based company says ChatGPT for Teens, which launches on Tuesday, is tailored for children aged 13 to 17 with stronger protections including content restrictions around things such as suicide, self-harm and romantic or sexual chats. It also provides homework and study support designed to help students learn rather than spit out answers and school essays.

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AI labels to be compulsory on authentic-looking content under EU rules

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Companies must ensure people know when they are interacting with artificially generated images, audio and text designed to look real

From apparently conspiring to steal elections to abusing staff or performing embarrassing dance moves, the last few years have seen plenty of fake content made about politicians intended to malign its targets and mislead the public.

Now EU rules aim to stem the flood of this deceptive content: starting from Sunday, artificially generated images, audio and text designed to look authentic must be labelled.

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Meta misses earnings forecasts after Zuckerberg media push to promote AI

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Stock tumbles nearly 8% after weaker-than-expected results, despite CEO’s blitz to tout positive effects of AI

Mark Zuckerberg’s media spree touting the positive effects of artificial intelligence did little to cushion the blow of Meta’s second-quarter earnings, which sent its stock tumbling on Wednesday.

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed published on Tuesday, the Meta chief executive expressed his optimism for a world where everyone has access to a super-intelligent machine.

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‘Adversarial clothing’: are garments designed to confuse facial recognition systems about to go mainstream?

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Designers say that as well as offering a degree of protection from surveillance, their clothes make a powerful fashion statement about the importance of privacy

As facial recognition technology is rolled out across Britain’s public spaces, a new generation of designers say privacy could be the next big fashion trend.

Companies have started incorporating “adversarial patterns” in their garments – carefully designed arrangements of shapes, colours and repeated motifs said to exploit weaknesses in some computer vision systems.

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South Korea chip maker SK hynix rides AI boom raising $26.5bn in huge US listing

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SK hynix, a supplier of advanced memory chips, has seen profits skyrocket thanks to the global race to build AI datacentres

South Korean chip maker SK hynix set pricing for its mega US listing on Friday, aiming to raise $26.5bn as it takes advantage of the AI boom in what will be one of the world’s biggest ever stock sales.

The Asian semiconductor giant plans to issue the equivalent of about 18m shares on Wall Street’s tech-heavy Nasdaq index later in the day.

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‘A lot of red flags’: plans for New Zealand’s first datacentre spark concern as locals demand greater transparency

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Plans to build a NZ$3.5bn datacentre in Makarewa in the country’s south has drawn concern about electricity and water use, and potential noise pollution

People living near the site of New Zealand’s first planned AI datacentre are calling for more transparency about the project, especially about how the centre’s huge electricity and water use and potential noise pollution could affect them.

Singapore-based company Datagrid has secured approval to build a NZ$3.5bn (US$2bn) AI datacentre on a 49-hectare site in Makarewa, just north of New Zealand’s southern-most city, Invercargill. Construction is due to begin this year, with the centre becoming operational by 2028.

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