Author: Art Ryan

OpenAI has introduced a subscription ChatGPT plan for users in India priced at under $5. The 399 rupees per month (around $4.60) ChatGPT Go plan was announced Tuesday (Aug. 19), offering access to the artificial intelligence (AI) company’s new GPT‑5 model and other features at a reduced cost. “Making ChatGPT more affordable has been a key ask from users! We’re rolling out Go in India first and will learn from feedback before expanding to other countries,” Nick Turley, who oversees ChatGPT, wrote in a post on X. He said the new plan offers 10 times more message limits, image generations and file uploads, as well as twice…

Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek has released a new version of the open-source AI model behind its controversial chatbot. Citing a post on DeepSeek’s official WeChat group, Bloomberg reported that DeepSeek V3.1 is ready for testing. The new version has a longer context window, or space for prompting, of 128,000 tokens. That’s roughly 96,000 words or about two 200-page English novels. DeepSeek’s V3 model caused a stir in January when the startup claimed it only cost $5.6 million to train using about 2,000 of slower Nvidia chips. That’s far cheaper than the millions it took to train frontier models from OpenAI, Google, Anthropic and…

Not every pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka belongs to a nation. Some represent collective ideals, institutions, and global missions that transcend borders. These multilateral participants bring a different kind of storytelling — one rooted in cooperation, ethics, and humanitarian values. They remind visitors that while nations showcase individuality, humanity also speaks in unison. European Union: Unity in Diversity, Designed for Tomorrow The EU Pavilion carries the weight of representing 27 nations under one roof. Its architecture embraces openness and collaboration, while its content highlights climate neutrality, digital sovereignty, and cultural richness. Visitors walk through a space where art, technology, and…

The Americas bring a vast range of stories to Expo 2025 Osaka, from the Arctic forests of Canada to the Andes of Peru. Together, these pavilions highlight a common thread: nature as heritage, technology as opportunity, and culture as identity. Canada: Forests, Lakes, and Indigenous Wisdom Canada’s pavilion feels like stepping into a living landscape. Immersive forests, flowing water features, and Indigenous storytelling anchor the design. But it’s not just aesthetic — exhibits showcase AI in conservation, renewable energy, and healthcare innovation. Canada positions itself as both a steward of nature and a leader in tech ethics. United States of…

The Middle East’s presence at Expo 2025 Osaka is both ancient and futuristic. Drawing on desert traditions, Islamic art, and urban megaprojects, the region’s pavilions present themselves as laboratories of transformation. From oil economies diversifying into clean energy, to cultural legacies reframed for global dialogue, the Middle East arrives in Osaka with confidence. Bahrain: Islands of Innovation Bahrain’s pavilion is inspired by its island identity — small in geography, large in ambition. It highlights marine conservation, fintech, and energy diversification, reflecting Bahrain’s position as both a cultural crossroads and an economic innovator in the Gulf. Kuwait: Oil Legacy, Green Future…

Europe’s participation in Expo 2025 Osaka is nothing short of a design laboratory. From Nordic minimalism to Mediterranean exuberance, the continent’s pavilions showcase a collective ambition: to marry sustainability with cultural depth. For Europe, the Expo is both a diplomatic stage and an architectural experiment. Austria, Belgium, Czechia: Precision as Poetry Austria emphasizes renewable energy and Alpine innovation, using architecture as a metaphor for clean flows of air and water. Belgium blends gastronomy, art, and science, promising visitors a sensory journey through Europe’s heartland. Czechia offers engineering brilliance in elegant form, focusing on water management and digital technology. The Nordics:…

Asia Pacific is the beating heart of Expo 2025 Osaka. Stretching from island nations in the Pacific to vast continental powers, the region’s pavilions embody contrast and complement: ancestral wisdom woven into futuristic innovation. Together, they reveal how this dynamic region is redefining humanity’s relationship with technology, climate, and community. Australia: Songlines and Sustainability The Australian Pavilion sings with Indigenous voices. Its design draws inspiration from songlines — ancient knowledge systems that map land through story and song. Inside, interactive installations showcase biodiversity conservation, renewable energy projects, and cutting-edge research on oceans and climate. It is both deeply ancient and…

At Expo 2025 Osaka, Africa arrives not just as a participant but as a storyteller. Its pavilions are poised to challenge global narratives — portraying the continent not through deficit, but through resilience, ingenuity, and heritage. Each space is a living message: Africa is shaping tomorrow as much as it preserves its past. Algeria: The Desert as a Future Frontier The Algerian Pavilion channels the expanse of the Sahara — often seen as barren — into a stage for renewal. Inside, visitors journey through themes of solar energy, desert agriculture, and water management. The desert is reframed not as an…

When Osaka opens its arms to the world in April 2025, the Expo grounds on Yumeshima Island will transform into a living world map. Here, national pride fuses with global imagination, and each pavilion becomes a cultural ambassador. With the theme “Designing Future Society for Our Lives,” Expo 2025 offers more than spectacle: it is a laboratory of futures, where nations and organizations re-envision the art of living together. Below is a journey through the Official Participants’ Pavilions, a constellation of stories and designs that together form the heart of the Expo. 1. Africa’s Rising Voices 2. Asia Pacific: Tradition…

Globant, a digitally native company focused on reinventing businesses through innovative technology solutions, today introduced Globant Enterprise AI 2.0, a new version of its flagship platform that now features The Station. This powerful module enables any member of the organization, regardless of technical expertise, to easily browse, share, execute, and scale AI Agents, accelerating the journey from experimentation to impactful results. The Station doubles-down on the platform’s promise to become the “golden path” for enterprise-scale GenAI adoption, making AI accessible, actionable, and secure. Complementing client-created AI Agents, The Station features over 50 Globant-certified agents, accelerating efficiency and streamlining discovery across…

Anxiety is growing among Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) in security operation centres, particularly around Chinese AI giant DeepSeek. AI was heralded as a new dawn for business efficiency and innovation, but for the people on the front lines of corporate defence, it’s casting some very long and dark shadows. Four in five (81%) UK CISOs believe the Chinese AI chatbot requires urgent regulation from the government. They fear that without swift intervention, the tool could become the catalyst for a full-scale national cyber crisis. This isn’t speculative unease; it’s a direct response to a technology whose data handling practices and potential for…

The artificial intelligence company Perplexity’s audacious offer to acquire Chrome has sent shockwaves through Silicon Valley, but questions remain about whether the move represents a genuine strategy or a calculated publicity stunt. Perplexity AI made an unsolicited $34.5 billion bid for Google’s Chrome browser last Tuesday, a figure that exceeds the startup’s own $18 billion valuation by nearly a factor of two. The timing appears strategically calculated, coming as federal courts consider whether to force Google to divest itself of Chrome, following last year’s landmark antitrust ruling. The financial mechanics of the proposed Perplexity Chrome acquisition raise immediate red flags.…

Malaysia’s race to build a homegrown AI workforce has entered a new phase with Huawei’s pledge to train 30,000 local professionals, as the country’s freshly minted National Cloud Computing Policy (NCCP) creates the regulatory foundation for a sovereign yet globally-competitive digital economy. Speaking at the Huawei Cloud AI Ecosystem Summit APAC 2025, Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo emphasised that this Malaysia AI talent development initiative must be comprehensive and inclusive, ensuring every segment of society benefits from technological advancement. “AI-driven productivity must benefit every Malaysian, with no one left behind, and we must be inclusive and work together,” Gobind said…

Today’s uncertain macro environment is increasingly revealing the growing pains of legacy industries. After all, against a backdrop where global trade is buffeted by geopolitical tensions, evolving tariffs and shifting digital transformation trajectories, the limitations of traditional processes and paper-based workflows can be seen in stark relief, particularly for industries that have long depended on opaque pricing, manual transactions and institutional inertia. Sectors once thought resilient, like logistics, freight forwarding and shipping, are discovering that their decades-old operating models no longer align with a world defined by volatility and data. And yet, this very turbulence has created fertile ground for a…

OpenAI’s chief executive said the artificial intelligence (AI) market is in a bubble. “When bubbles happen, smart people get overexcited about a kernel of truth,” Sam Altman said in a Friday (Aug. 15) interview with The Verge. “If you look at most of the bubbles in history, like the tech bubble, there was a real thing. Tech was really important. The internet was a really big deal. People got overexcited. Are we in a phase where investors as a whole are overexcited about AI? My opinion is yes. Is AI the most important thing to happen in a very long time? My…

When companies talk about adopting artificial intelligence (AI), most of the attention goes to the large language model such as OpenAI’s GPT-5 or Google’s Gemini 2.5. But for enterprises, what really matters on a day-to-day basis isn’t just the model itself; it’s inference. That’s the stage where the model is actually used to generate predictions, responses or insights. Pre-training a frontier AI model, which forms the generalist foundation for other models, is a one-time and usually expensive exercise. Think of it as a college student taking broad, general education classes. The better the training, the more equipped the graduate, or AI…

California lawmakers are moving to tighten guardrails around the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare with a new bill aimed at curbing misleading representations by these systems. Assembly Bill 489, which was the subject of a Senate committee hearing on Monday (Aug. 18), would prohibit AI systems from presenting themselves as licensed healthcare professionals. It extends existing laws that penalize deceptive claims by human practitioners. Under current state law, it is a crime for unlicensed people to use credentials such as ‘M.D.’ to imply that they are medically licensed. The bill, introduced by Assemblymember Mia Bonta, D-Oakland, would make it a violation…

This summer, Russia’s hackers put a new twist on the barrage of phishing emails sent to Ukrainians. The hackers included an attachment containing an artificial intelligence program. If installed, it would automatically search the victims’ computers for sensitive files to send back to Moscow. That campaign, detailed in July in technical reports from the Ukrainian government and several cybersecurity companies, is the first known instance of Russian intelligence being caught building malicious code with large language models (LLMs), the type of AI chatbots that have become ubiquitous in corporate culture. Those Russian spies are not alone. In recent months, hackers of seemingly every…

The beauty industry is undergoing a striking transformation as augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI) usher in a new era of innovation—one where makeovers go high-tech, blending personalization with precision. Why It Matters AspectImpactCustomer experienceOffers personalized, contactless, and immersive discovery journeys.Brand performanceDrives conversion, loyalty, and data-driven innovation.Sustainability & efficiencyReduces waste and aligns with environmentally responsible practices. Bottom Line The future of beauty is digital. AR and AI aren’t just redefining the makeup aisle—they’re crafting skin-aware, sustainable, and customizable beauty experiences that resonate across physical and digital realms. If you’d like a visual diagram, brand-briefing recap, or animated walkthrough of…

The new AI tool could help astronauts diagnose and treat medical issues when far from Earth and beyond the reach of doctors. NASA and Google are collaborating to test an AI-powered medical assistant designed to support astronauts on long-duration missions, where communication delays with Earth make real-time medical consultations impossible. NASA, which is committed to a new era of human spaceflight with its Artemis program, is working with Google to test a proof of concept for a Crew Medical Officer Digital Assistant (CMO‑DA), a type of Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS). The digital assistant would provide medical support to astronauts when…