Author: Art Ryan

The UK and Singapore are laying the groundwork for what might become a blueprint for international AI cooperation in finance. For their tenth annual Financial Dialogue, representatives from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority and Singapore’s Monetary Authority met in London earlier this week alongside fintech companies from both nations showing off their latest AI solutions. Rather than vague promises of “future collaboration,” the partnership has immediately focused on practical applications. Among the areas explored include how AI can improve risk assessment, spot fraud more effectively, and deliver more personalised financial services without compromising regulatory standards. The day after the official Financial Dialogue, the suits…

For today’s firms and their labor force, the future of work is being spelled out in two words: artificial intelligence (AI). But the vision of AI that firms are keen on embracing is not just as a tool, but as a colleague, a software system capable of thinking, doing, and even acting on its own. That, after all, is the promise of agentic AI: systems that can not only generate content or parse data, but go beyond passive tasks to autonomously make decisions, initiate workflows, and even interact with other software to complete tasks end to end. It’s AI not just with brains, but with agency.…

The battle between Amazon and Walmart is hardly recognizable today relative to 10 years ago. As artificial intelligence (AI) and automation become the invisible infrastructure underpinning global commerce, the Amazon-Walmart rivalry, long emblematic of the old guard versus the new, is turning into a real-time case study in retail’s transformation. It’s no longer just about eCommerce versus big-box stores. It’s about whose algorithms, robotics and data infrastructure can more efficiently move trillions of dollars of goods most effectively. As the news this week from both companies reveals, the two retail titans are investing billions in AI, warehouse robotics, predictive logistics and generative tools to…

The European Commission reportedly delayed the release of a code meant to help companies comply with the European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act. Originally scheduled for May 2, the release of the General-Purpose AI Code of Practice (GPAI) may be delayed until the end of the year, Reuters reported Thursday (July 3). “On the AI Act’s GPAI rules, the European AI Board is discussing the timing to implement the Code of Practice, with the end of 2025 being considered,” a commission spokesperson told Reuters. A European Commission web page dedicated to the GPAI said the date of the implementation of the Code of Practice has yet to be confirmed.…

Baidu, a prominent Chinese tech company, is integrating artificial intelligence (AI) features and voice functionality into its search platform to maintain its competitive edge against rivals such as DeepSeek. The company aims to transform its mobile search platform into an AI chatbot, assisting users with creative and organizational tasks. This shift prioritizes natural language searches over traditional keyword searches and supports voice search in multiple Chinese dialects. Dan Ives, global head of tech research at Wedbush Securities, highlighted that while there has been some pressure on Baidu’s search business, the focus on AI and Ernie Bot is a strategic move…

Microsoft has confirmed that it will lay off as many as 9,000 workers, in the technology giant’s latest wave of job cuts this year. The company said several divisions would be affected without specifying which ones but reports suggest that its Xbox video gaming unit will be hit. Microsoft has set out plans to invest heavily in artificial intelligence (AI), and is spending $80bn (£68.6bn) in huge data centres to train AI models. A spokesperson for the firm told the BBC: “We continue to implement organisational changes necessary to best position the company for success in a dynamic marketplace.” The…

Ilya Sutskever has taken over the reins of Safe Superintelligence (SSI), the artificial intelligence startup he launched last year, after losing CEO Daniel Gross to an intensifying talent war in the industry. Gross has joined Meta Platforms (META.O), opens new tab to lead its AI products division, sources told Reuters. The development comes as tech giants such as Meta Platforms (META.O), opens new tab aggressively chase high-profile acquisitions and offer multi-million-dollar pay packages to attract top talent in the race to lead the next wave of artificial intelligence. Meta had also attempted to recruit Sutskever and acquire SSI, which was most recently valued at $32 billion, sources…

Meta Platforms, under the leadership of CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is making headlines for its aggressive push into the artificial intelligence (AI) arms race. With compensation packages reportedly reaching up to $100 million, Meta is courting the world’s top AI researchers in a bid to secure its place at the forefront of superintelligent AI development. Meta’s $100 Million Play for Talent As competition intensifies across Big Tech, Meta has emerged as one of the most determined players in the hunt for AI talent. According to reports, Zuckerberg himself has reached out to leading researchers—some at OpenAI and other cutting-edge labs—offering packages…

OpenAI unveiled a way for retailers to create artificial intelligence (AI) shopping assistants in Shopify, according to a post on X. With a few clicks, developers can now connect the Storefront Managed Compute Platform (MCP) server directly to the OpenAI Responses API to build agents that can search for products, add items to a cart, and generate checkout links — all without requiring authentication. Go to the OpenAI Playground, under Tools, add MCP Server. Click on Shopify and add your store’s URL to create the AI shopping assistant. Now when users type, “I am looking for a lightweight men’s button up shirt for a vacation,” for…

OpenAI wants to make clear that Robinhood’s sale of “OpenAI tokens” will not give everyday consumers equity — or stock — in OpenAI, the company said in a post from its official newsroom account on X. OpenAI says it does not endorse Robinhood’s effort, nor was it involved in facilitating the token sale. “These ‘OpenAI tokens’ are not OpenAI equity,” said OpenAI’s newsroom account on Wednesday. “We did not partner with Robinhood, were not involved in this, and do not endorse it. Any transfer of OpenAI equity requires our approval—we did not approve any transfer. Please be careful.” OpenAI’s statement is a response…

Research by cybersecurity consultancy CyXcel has revealed 29% of UK businesses surveyed have only recently implemented their first AI risk strategy, with 31% not no AI governance policies set up. The is despite a third of businesses recognising AI as a potential cybersecurity threat. The blind spot in AI risk preparedness leaves businesses prey to data leaks and breaches, operational disruptions, and regulatory fines, the company says. Of those surveyed, 18% of UK and US organisations are unprepared for AI data poisoning, a form of cyberattack that targets the training data of AI and machine learning models. Moreover, 16% have no policies…

Campfire raised $35 million in a Series A funding round to continue building its artificial intelligence (AI)-driven enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that is designed to support companies from startup through initial public offering (IPO). The company will use the new funding to fuel product development, investments in generative AI and expanded reach to serve companies around the world, it said in a Monday (June 30) press release. Designed to fully replace legacy ERPs, Campfire’s solution includes a general ledger, revenue automation and close management, according to the release. It also features a generative AI conversational interface called Ember AI that enables finance teams to use natural language to interact with their…

Animal behaviorist Con Slobodchikoff has spent decades listening to how prairie dogs talk to each other. Now, the biologist is teaching machines to do the same — starting with dogs. As founder and CEO of Zoolingua, Slobodchikoff is building an artificial intelligence (AI) system that can translate dog barks, yelps and growls into human language. “We’re in the process of building an AI model, which will allow people to understand what their dogs are trying to communicate to them,” the professor emeritus of biology at Northern Arizona University told PYMNTS in an interview. The project builds upon Slobodchikoff’s work as a biologist studying the alarm…

Top U.S. executives are now openly predicting that artificial intelligence will eliminate a significant share of white-collar jobs, marking a sharp departure from years of cautious corporate messaging on automation’s impact. The Wall Street Journal reports that leaders at major firms including Ford, JPMorgan Chase, Amazon and Anthropic are forecasting deep cuts to office roles as AI adoption accelerates. Ford CEO Jim Farley delivered one of the starkest warnings yet, telling the Aspen Ideas Festival that “artificial intelligence is going to replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the U.S.” JPMorgan’s consumer banking chief, Marianne Lake, recently told investors she expects a 10% reduction in…

Artificial intelligence (AI) firm Anthropic’s yearly revenue has reportedly reached $4 billion. That’s according to a report Tuesday (July 1) from The Information, citing sources familiar with the company’s finances. The report puts it in the context of other developments surrounding the company, namely the news that Anysphere, maker of AI-powered coding app Cursor, had hired two leaders of Claude Cope, Anthropic’s coding product. This development is noteworthy, the report argues, as Cursor depends on AI from Anthropic to power its app and is among Anthropic’s biggest customers. Boris Cherny, who headed the development of Claude Code, has been named Anysphere’s chief architect and…

Robotics startup Genesis AI emerged from stealth with $105 million in seed funding. Genesis AI aims to create a general-purpose artificial intelligence model that will allow robots to automate a range of repetitive tasks, TechCrunch reported Tuesday (July 1). The company’s funding round was co-led by Eclipse and Khosla Ventures. While large language models are trained on vast datasets of text, AI models for robotics need to be trained using data about the physical world, the report said. However, acquiring that real-world data is time-consuming and expensive, leading Genesis to rely on synthetic data, which it creates with a physics engine it said can model the physical world. Genesis said its proprietary simulation engine lets it build models faster, giving it an…

Every time I read about another advance in AI technology, I feel like another figment of science fiction moves closer to reality. Lately, I’ve been noticing eerie parallels to Neal Stephenson’s 1995 novel “The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer.” “The Diamond Age” depicted a post-cyberpunk sectarian future, in which society is fragmented into tribes, called phyles. In this future world, sophisticated nanotechnology is ubiquitous, and a new type of AI is introduced. Though inspired by MIT nanotech pioneer Eric Drexler and Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman, the advanced nanotechnology depicted in the novel still remains out of reach. However, the…

The University of Oklahoma has launched a new artificial intelligence initiative, pledging nearly $200,000 towards programs designed to transform the university’s research and educational infrastructure. Spearheaded by the Data Institute for Societal Challenges’ interim director, Dr. Mike Wimberly, and senior managing director, Yessenia Torres, the initiative brings together individuals and professors from multiple disciplines to develop a roadmap addressing both the challenges and opportunities associated with AI in academia. “The focus is to really bring AI to the forefront of what we do here at OU to ensure that we are taking advantage of everything that is happening, and that…

Referrals from ChatGPT to news publishers are growing, but not enough to counter the decline in clicks resulting from users increasingly getting their news directly from AI or AI-powered search results, according to a report from digital market intelligence company Similarweb. Since the launch of Google’s AI Overviews in May 2024, the firm found that the number of news searches on the web that result in no click-throughs to news websites has grown from 56% to nearly 69% as of May 2025. Not surprisingly, organic traffic has also declined, dropping from over 2.3 billion visits at its peak in mid-2024 to…

Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google’s AI research organization DeepMind, appeared to suggest Tuesday evening that Veo 3, Google’s latest video-generating model, could potentially be used for video games. In response to a post on X beseeching Google to “Let me play a video game of my veo 3 videos already,” and asking, “playable world models wen?” Hassabis responded, “now wouldn’t that be something.” On Wednesday morning, Logan Kilpatrick, lead product for Google’s AI Studio and Gemini API, chimed in with a reply: “” Both posts from the Google executives are little more than playful suggestions, and a Google spokesperson told TechCrunch…