Author: Art Ryan

Web Summit Rio has become more than another stop on the global conference circuit. It is now one of the clearest signals that Latin America is moving from the margins of the technology conversation to the center of it. For years, the global tech industry has been dominated by a familiar map: Silicon Valley for venture capital, Europe for regulation and enterprise innovation, China for scale, and India for engineering depth. Latin America was often treated as an emerging market to enter, not an ecosystem to learn from. Web Summit Rio is helping change that perception. By bringing global founders,…

du, the UAE’s leading telecom and digital services provider, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Open Innovation AI. This agreement will support the development of the UAE’s sovereign agentic AI ecosystem. The partnership, which is being executed in collaboration with the UAE Cyber Security Council, has been formed by du’s digital technology arm, du Tech. The initiative aims to accelerate the adoption of secure, locally governed agentic AI solutions. These solutions will be used across government entities and enterprises. The deal underscores the UAE’s increased focus on digital sovereignty, artificial intelligence infrastructure, and national cybersecurity. Furthermore, the country is…

Citi is accelerating its use of artificial intelligence across banking operations, with one AI-powered workflow reducing document review time from 1 hour and 15 minutes to just 15 minutes. The improvement was reported as part of Citi’s broader push to automate internal processes, modernize legacy systems, and improve productivity across the bank. According to the report, Citi has identified an initial 50 processes that it plans to automate using AI. The bank’s early focus includes client onboarding, employee onboarding, know your customer processes, document review, coding automation, and data migration from older systems. AI Speeds Up Account Opening at Citi…

Intel and Foxconn are teaming up to build new AI infrastructure as the demand for data center computing grows. This collaboration combines Intel’s chip technology and software ecosystem with Foxconn’s global manufacturing and system integration expertise. The goal is to develop advanced AI systems to meet the needs of data centers, hyperscalers, edge computing and physical AI applications. The move underscores how big tech companies are racing to solve one of the biggest challenges in artificial intelligence. Specifically, they are focused on building enough infrastructure to power the next wave of AI models, applications and enterprise tools. Intel and Foxconn…

Meta is turning to artificial intelligence as it looks for new ways to grow revenue from WhatsApp. WhatsApp is one of the world’s most widely used messaging platforms. The company is expanding AI-powered business agents for WhatsApp, giving companies tools that can respond to customers, answer product questions, support bookings, and assist with sales conversations. This move is part of Meta’s wider strategy to make AI a bigger part of its business model. In fact, the company wants to go beyond traditional social media advertising. WhatsApp has long been a major global platform, but it has remained harder to monetize…

Google launches Gemma 4 12B, an open multimodal AI model for everyday laptops. Moreover, Google has launched Gemma 4 12B, a new open multimodal AI model that aims to bring advanced artificial intelligence directly to everyday laptops. On June 3, 2026 Google DeepMind announced Gemma 4 12B, a mid-sized model with robust reasoning and multimodal input support. Additionally, it offers local operation in a smaller memory footprint. The model can operate on text, images and audio. As a result, it marks a big step forward for developers, researchers, startups and AI fans. These users want powerful AI tools without being…

Leaders from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Microsoft AI, and other technology and biotechnology organizations have signed a public letter. They are urging lawmakers to strengthen safeguards against the misuse of artificial intelligence in biological weapons development. The threat posed by AI biological weapons is becoming a growing concern among experts. The letter also demands recordkeeping requirements for companies that offer nucleic acid synthesis services and mandatory screening of synthetic DNA and RNA orders. Moreover, supporters say more oversight is needed as AI systems become more capable of helping users navigate complex scientific and technical information. The move is the latest…

Web Summit Rio 2026 will once again be held in Brazil, June 8-11. It will bring together thousands of technology leaders, startups, investors, entrepreneurs and global innovators in Rio de Janeiro. The major technology conference will take place at Riocentro, one of Brazil’s largest event venues. Meanwhile, South America continues to strengthen its position as a rising hub for digital innovation, startup growth, and international investment. Web Summit Rio has become one of the region’s most important technology gatherings. It connects business leaders, founders, policymakers, developers, creators, and investors from across Latin America and beyond. Web Summit Rio 2026 Dates and Location…

G42 and Banco Santander have signed a memorandum of understanding to explore strategic cooperation in artificial intelligence. This is a major step toward AI-powered banking at global scale. The agreement unites G42, the Abu Dhabi-based technology group, and Santander, the Madrid-based global banking group. They will explore and develop AI initiatives for financial services, customer advisory, savings solutions, agentic banking and large-scale AI infrastructure. The G42 Santander AI partnership is expected to focus on building intelligent banking systems. These systems will support customers with more personalised, proactive and automated financial services. AI Partnership to Target Banking Intelligence G42 and Santander…

Hasbro is taking a major step into the AI era with the launch of Sixth Wall, a new AI studio created to bring the company’s iconic characters into interactive digital experiences. The toy and entertainment giant has also announced a strategic partnership with ElevenLabs, the AI audio company known for voice generation technology. Through the partnership, selected Hasbro characters will become available for authorized AI-powered experiences, including voice-based interactions, storytelling, games, digital companions, and brand engagement tools. The move could reshape how major entertainment companies license their characters in the age of artificial intelligence. Hasbro Launches Sixth Wall AI Studio…

The European Union is moving to reduce its dependence on foreign technology providers with a new “Made in Europe” push focused on artificial intelligence, cloud computing, semiconductors, and critical digital infrastructure. The initiative is part of a broader effort to strengthen Europe’s digital sovereignty at a time when AI development is becoming increasingly tied to access to chips, cloud platforms, data centers, and secure computing power. For years, much of Europe’s digital infrastructure has relied heavily on major technology companies from outside the bloc, particularly U.S. cloud and platform providers. EU officials now want to ensure that European businesses, governments,…

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, has reportedly increased its equity offering to $84.75 billion as it looks to finance one of the largest artificial intelligence infrastructure rollouts in the tech industry. The fundraising plan underscores the increasing cost of competing in the AI arena as top tech firms race to build data centers, add cloud capacity, train advanced models and acquire the computing power required to deploy next-generation AI services. The move comes as Alphabet has ramped up its investment across its AI ecosystem, including Google Cloud, Gemini, custom AI chips and the infrastructure needed to support AI products…

Meta is making a bigger push into the business AI market with the launch of Meta Business Agent, an artificial intelligence tool designed to help companies communicate with customers, recommend products, qualify leads, and close sales across Meta’s messaging platforms. The new AI agent is being expanded globally to businesses of all sizes and will work across WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram. Meta says the tool is designed to help companies deliver faster, more personalized customer support while reducing the need for manual responses to routine sales and service inquiries. For businesses that already rely on Meta’s platforms to reach customers,…

ChatGPT has reportedly hit 1 billion global monthly active users, the fastest app in history to hit the milestone and a major moment in the rise of consumer artificial intelligence. Data cited by PYMNTS found that the ChatGPT app reached 1 billion users in May 2026, about three years after OpenAI launched its mobile app experience. The milestone highlights how quickly AI tools have moved from experimental technology to everyday digital infrastructure for consumers, workers, students, developers, and businesses. The achievement also places ChatGPT ahead of some of the world’s biggest consumer apps in terms of adoption speed. ChatGPT Hits…

Chinese Artificial Intelligence startup DeepSeek is reportedly close to a $7.4 billion funding round. This would be one of the largest startup funding rounds in China’s technology sector. The reported financing would give DeepSeek significant new resources. As a result, it could continue to focus on open-source AI development, advanced research, and long-term artificial general intelligence goals. The funding round is said to include major backers such as Tencent and China’s government-supported National Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund. In addition, DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng is also reportedly participating in the round. DeepSeek Pushes Research-First AI Strategy DeepSeek has told potential…

Anthropic is expanding its cybersecurity initiative, Project Glasswing, to more countries, including India. The company gives selected organizations access to one of its most powerful and closely controlled AI models, Claude Mythos Preview. The expansion marks a major step in Anthropic’s effort to use advanced artificial intelligence to strengthen global cyber defense. Project Glasswing is designed to help trusted organizations identify software vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them. Claude Mythos Preview is not being released publicly. Instead, Anthropic is offering access only to vetted partners and institutions. This reflects growing concerns about how powerful AI systems could be misused if…

UK regulators have ordered Google to give online publishers more control over how their content is used in artificial intelligence search features. This includes AI Overviews and AI Mode. The decision marks a major step in the growing global debate over AI scraping, search traffic, publisher rights, and the future of online content. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority said Google must provide publishers with “effective tools” that allow them to prevent their content from being used to power Google’s generative AI services. In addition, this applies to AI-powered search features. Google Must Give Publishers More Control Over AI Content…

Lighthouse has acquired Hotelrank.ai, an AI visibility and optimisation platform built for the hotel industry. This move expands its Connect AI solution for hospitality businesses. The acquisition adds AI visibility intelligence to Lighthouse’s commercial platform. As a result, hotels receive new tools to track how they appear, rank, and perform across AI-powered travel platforms. These platforms include ChatGPT and Gemini. Announced on 28 May 2026, the deal highlights the growing importance of AI-driven travel discovery. Hotels are searching for new ways to increase direct bookings and reduce reliance on online travel agencies. Lighthouse Adds AI Visibility Intelligence to Connect AI…

Sharjah is moving faster toward an AI-powered public sector after Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Crown Prince, Deputy Ruler of Sharjah, and Chairman of the Sharjah Executive Council, ordered the accelerated integration of artificial intelligence assistants across government operations. The directive aims to improve government efficiency, raise the quality of public services, and support Sharjah’s wider transition toward an AI-assisted government model. Sharjah Accelerates AI-Enabled Government Services The emirate is integrating artificial intelligence into the heart of its digital transformation strategy. Sharjah intends to deploy AI assistants within government operations to speed up departmental processes. Additionally, they…

The UAE Government Media Office has rolled out new government media guidelines. This comes as the country moves to accelerate the shift to Agentic AI across public sector services, operations and communications. This step is part of the UAE’s wider plan to improve government communication and increase public confidence. It also prepares official media teams for a future where artificial intelligence has a bigger role in producing, checking and sharing public information. The new guidelines are designed to support government entities in producing clear, accurate, and responsible media content. They arrive at a time when the UAE is pushing ahead…