Author: Art Ryan

The AI infrastructure race is no longer just about buying faster GPUs. Those processors need a constant supply of data. As AI agents work with larger context windows, company records, stored memories and thousands of simultaneous tasks, the systems sitting behind the GPUs are starting to feel the strain. NVIDIA used the Future of Memory and Storage conference in Santa Clara to outline how it plans to tackle that problem. The company announced that it is opening its cuFile application programming interfaces, expanding industry work around GPU-driven storage and pushing storage closer to the role traditionally handled by system memory.…

AI security incidents are usually handled behind closed doors. A company investigates the problem, fixes what it can and moves on. The rest of the industry may never hear what failed, how the attack unfolded or which safeguard proved useless. A new proposal backed by NVIDIA, the Linux Foundation and members of the Open Secure AI Alliance wants to change that. The Shared AI Findings Exchange, or SAFE, would create a confidential framework for reporting AI security incidents and near misses. The goal is not to publish every breach or expose affected companies. It is to identify repeated failures and…

Samsung Electronics has revealed a new generation of memory technology built for an AI industry that is quickly running into limits around speed, storage capacity and energy use. The South Korean chipmaker used the Future of Memory and Storage 2026 conference in Santa Clara, California, to present several new technologies. The line-up included zHBM, zNAND-O and a prototype V10 Bonding V-NAND chip containing more than 400 layers. Some of the products remain concept designs rather than chips ready for large-scale deployment. Still, Samsung is making its direction fairly clear. Memory can no longer sit quietly beside the processor while AI…

BigID is pushing deeper into enterprise AI governance with a new sovereignty standard. The standard is built for organisations that cannot afford to lose control of their data, models or security infrastructure. The New York-based data security company says its platform can operate entirely within a customer-controlled environment. That includes public cloud, private cloud, on-premises systems and fully disconnected networks. No external AI model is required to keep the system working. That distinction matters as companies expand their use of generative AI. Meanwhile, regulators, security teams and government agencies demand tighter control over where sensitive information is stored and processed.…

Security practitioners now sit between two conversations that rarely meet: using AI to discover vulnerabilities faster while also securing the AI systems their organizations deploy. But new research from Pentest-Tools.com suggests the challenge is keeping up with the volume of vulnerabilities that AI tools generate. In a survey of security practitioners using AI during pentesting engagements, only 20.3% of respondents said they have a workflow in place to triage 500 or more AI-generated vulnerability candidates from a single engagement. Another 38.6% said handling that volume would strain their team, while 29.7% said it would be unmanageable. The findings suggest that AI is…

Dubai’s push to become a global centre for AI-driven healthcare just gained another project. Longevium has secured $7 million in its first funding round and is moving ahead with plans to build a Longevity AI Research Laboratory at Dubai Science Park. The facility is scheduled to open in the fourth quarter of 2026. This gives the company a dedicated research hub focused on extending healthy human lifespan through artificial intelligence and biomedical science. A Research Hub Instead of Another Clinic The new laboratory is not being built as a medical centre for patients. Instead, Longevium says the facility will operate…

Saudi Arabia has taken another step toward formalising AI skills across the country. The Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) has officially opened registration for its AI Professional Badges, giving AI practitioners a nationally recognised way to validate their technical expertise. The programme first appeared earlier this year during the International Conference on Data and AI Capacity Building (ICAN 2026), but registration is now open to eligible professionals across the Kingdom. AI Engineers and Data Scientists Lead the First Phase SDAIA is starting with two of the industry’s most in-demand roles. The first badge is designed for AI Engineers,…

Artificial intelligence may soon handle much of the work involved in planning a trip. It can search routes, compare hotel rates, check reward balances and weigh whether using points makes more sense than paying cash. That convenience creates an awkward problem for travel brands. When an AI agent makes the comparison, it has little reason to favour the airline or hotel a traveller usually books. Habit becomes less valuable. A slightly cheaper fare, a better redemption or a more flexible room could be enough to send the booking elsewhere. Payments platform Currensea believes co-branded reward debit cards could give European…

Planning a city break through an AI chatbot usually starts well enough. Ask for a three-day itinerary in Rome or Lisbon and it will quickly produce a neat list of landmarks, restaurants and neighbourhoods. The problem comes when you try to book something. Tour times may have changed. Activities may no longer operate. A highly recommended experience might not even have spaces available on the dates you are travelling. GuruWalk wants to close that gap. The travel platform has launched integrations for both ChatGPT and Claude, giving the AI assistants access to its live catalogue of walking tours, activities and…

Anthropic’s record-breaking copyright settlement is finally moving towards payouts, but authors are not treating the case as a clean victory. A federal judge granted final approval to the $1.5 billion Anthropic AI copyright settlement on July 20, 2026, ending a closely watched class-action case over the company’s acquisition and copying of pirated books. The money is substantial. The questions left behind are even bigger. Authors and publishers are still trying to work out what the deal changes for creative work, AI training and the fast-growing market for copyrighted data. Anthropic Will Pay Authors and Publishers for Nearly 500,000 Books The…

Index Ventures is putting considerably more money behind its belief that artificial intelligence will reshape industries far beyond the chatbot market. The venture capital firm has announced new funds that bring its total available investment capital to $3.5 billion, covering startups from their earliest seed rounds through large growth-stage investments. This is not one giant AI-only fund. The money is spread across three vehicles, giving Index room to invest in young companies, established startups and businesses approaching the public markets. AI, though, sits right at the centre of the firm’s pitch. Index Ventures Splits the Capital Across Three Funds The…

Saudi Arabia’s HUMAIN has made a strategic investment in MOZN, bringing together two local AI companies with a fairly direct goal: move artificial intelligence out of pilot programmes and into the daily operations of banks and government organisations. The deal is HUMAIN’s first investment in a Saudi company and one of the earliest transactions completed through HUMAIN Ventures. It also gives the Public Investment Fund-backed company a more established route into regulated industries where security, data control and compliance matter just as much as model performance. HUMAIN and MOZN will jointly develop enterprise AI products for financial institutions and public…

Alibaba has officially stepped back into the spotlight with Qwen 3.8-Max, its newest flagship AI model. The announcement is more than another model release. In fact, it is a direct attempt to compete with OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol and Anthropic’s Fable 5. At the same time, Alibaba is taking a very different approach to how advanced AI reaches developers. Instead of keeping everything behind a closed API, Alibaba plans to distribute Qwen 3.8-Max as an open-weight model. This gives developers the ability to run and adapt it on their own infrastructure. That alone makes this launch stand out in a market…

The AI race is often framed around models, chips and whatever new chatbot appeared this week. But for Tan, the foundation powering all this progress is AI infrastructure. Julian Tan believes the bigger story sits underneath all of that. Tan, Director of Corporate Strategy at BT Group, says companies and governments may be underestimating the infrastructure needed to keep artificial intelligence running at scale. Faster models are useful. They still depend on networks, data, computing capacity and systems that cannot afford to fail. Speaking ahead of LEAP 2026 in Riyadh, Tan pointed to three areas that deserve far more attention:…

A private school charging $40,000 a year is preparing to open in Oklahoma with an unusual classroom setup: artificial intelligence will handle most academic instruction instead of traditional teachers. This marks the arrival of AI-powered private schools in Oklahoma, offering a new approach to education in the state. Alpha School plans to launch campuses in the Oklahoma City area and Tulsa for the 2026–2027 school year. Students will spend roughly two hours each morning working through personalised lessons delivered by adaptive learning software. The rest of the day looks less like a standard classroom. Children will take part in workshops…

Dubai has moved ahead of New York in the latest Dubai Intelligent Cities Index ranking, a global ranking that looks at how cities actually use artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure and smart services. Boston Consulting Group placed Dubai second in its inaugural Intelligent Cities Index 2026, behind London and ahead of New York City, Washington and Amsterdam. The result is not simply a measure of how much technology a city owns. BCG examined whether cities can turn AI systems, digital government platforms and urban data into services that residents and businesses find useful. Dubai Finishes Second Behind London BCG assessed 61…

Dubai is moving its autonomous vehicle ambitions away from public roads and into the places where goods actually move. Dubai Future Foundation and UK autonomous vehicle technology company Oxa have launched the Autonomous Logistics Future Lab, a new initiative focused on developing self-driving systems for ports, airports and other industrial environments. The two organisations formed a joint venture called SHIFFT to run the programme. Rather than stopping at demonstrations, the venture plans to test autonomous logistics technology, validate it in working environments and turn it into commercial systems that operators can deploy at scale. SHIFFT Will Build Autonomous Systems for…

The United States still produces some of the world’s most powerful artificial intelligence systems. Price is becoming the awkward part. Chinese developers including DeepSeek, Alibaba and Moonshot AI have pushed capable open-weight models into the global market at prices that American businesses find difficult to ignore. Developers can download many of these models, modify them and run them on their own infrastructure rather than paying repeatedly for access to a closed platform. That has left a small group of US startups chasing a difficult target: build American open-weight AI models that are powerful, affordable and genuinely useful outside a research…

Expedia Group is making another big move into artificial intelligence, this time by acquiring Berlin-based startup Layla, an AI-native travel planning platform designed to help people organise trips through natural conversations instead of endless searches. The deal, announced on July 31, gives Expedia another piece of its long-term AI strategy. Rather than simply adding chat features to its existing services, the company is investing in technology that can guide travellers from the moment they start dreaming about a holiday all the way through booking flights, hotels, activities and transport. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Layla Wants Travel…

Artificial intelligence had one of those weeks where the important stories did not all look dramatic at first glance. No single launch swallowed the cycle. No one model dominated the conversation. Instead, the real movement came from something more practical: AI systems are being pushed into jobs where they can actually act. Security. Banking. Business operations. Infrastructure. Regulation. That was the shape of AI news from July 26 to August 1, 2026. Companies are no longer just asking whether AI can write, summarize or generate an image. They are asking whether it can defend a network, help a business client…