Three things in AI to watch, according to a Nobel-winning economist

This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. A few months before he was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics in 2024, Daron Acemoglu published a paper that earned him few fans in Silicon Valley. Contrary to what Big Tech…

Nscale secures $790M financing to underscore commitment to Norway data centre

Nscale, the UK AI infrastructure startup backed by Nvidia, has secured a fresh $790m in debt financing geared towards the development of an AI data centre in Norway, where OpenAI had planned to house …

Fostering breakthrough AI innovation through customer-back engineering
Fostering breakthrough AI innovation through customer-back engineering

Despite years of digitization, organizations capture less than one-third of the value expected from digital investments, according to McKinsey research. That’s because most big companies begin with technological capabilities and bolt applications onto them, rather than starting with customer needs and working backward to technology solutions. Not prioritizing the customer can create fragmented solutions; disjointed…

Implementing advanced AI technologies in finance
Implementing advanced AI technologies in finance

In finance departments that have long been defined by precision and control, AI has arrived less as a neatly managed upgrade than as a quiet insurgency. Employees are already using it while leadership races to impose structure, governance, and strategy after the fact. The result is a paradox: one of the most tightly regulated functions…

AI data center developers target rural territory to bypass city construction bans and regulations — rural locations allow sites to bypass city council approvals, rezoning votes, land-use reviews, and reduce public scrutiny

Data center projects are increasingly being put on unincorporated land to reduce the regulatory friction brought about by municipal level permits. These rural sites also offer larger parcels, giving more spaces to build va…

GPUaaS is reinforcing the illusion of European AI sovereignty
GPUaaS is reinforcing the illusion of European AI sovereignty

Europe is pouring billions into AI development and infrastructure. GPU (graphics processing units) access is expanding rapidly through cloud platforms and GPU-as-a-service (GPUaaS) providers, becoming a key enabler of AI development and deployment. The…

SoftBank to manufacture large-scale batteries for AI data centres at former Sharp plant
SoftBank to manufacture large-scale batteries for AI data centres at former Sharp plant

Target output is one gigawatt-hour a year. Partners are South Korea’s Cosmos Lab and DeltaX. Production opens for the fiscal year starting next April, with zinc-halide chemistry following in 2027. SoftBank Group’s mobile-services subsidiary will begin …

AI-pilled graduates are not a big hit for finance jobs with their shallow ideas

Finance firms are reassessing AI-native graduates as concerns grow over shallow analysis, weak critical thinking, and excessive dependence on generative AI tools.

AI data centers face increasing complaints about inaudible but ‘felt’ infrasound — citizens complain high- and low-frequency sounds do not register on decibel meters but cause adverse health effects

Residents living near data centers are raising concerns about noise pollution, as these massive sites operate 24/7 and generate low-frequency sounds that disturb the neighborhood’s peace.

Alibaba integrates Qwen AI with Taobao for end-to-end agentic shopping
Alibaba integrates Qwen AI with Taobao for end-to-end agentic shopping

The Qwen app gets access to Taobao and Tmall’s catalogue of more than 4 billion items, plus Alipay-native checkout, in what is the largest agentic-commerce launch yet from a Chinese platform. Alibaba is integrating its Qwen AI app with Taobao and Tmall…