A father of the internet wants to give AI agents an identity
A father of the internet wants to give AI agents an identity

Soon the internet will be full of AI agents acting on our behalf. Right now, there is no reliable way to tell who stands behind any of them. Vint Cerf, one of the people who built the internet, wants to fix that. Cerf co-designed TCP/IP, the protocol t…

Oracle leads the race to build Japan a secret, air-gapped cloud
Oracle leads the race to build Japan a secret, air-gapped cloud

Oracle is leading the race to build Japan an air-gapped cloud, sealed off from the internet. Washington wants it to counter Chinese hacking. Before the US shares more of its secrets with Japan, it wants Japan to lock them down. Oracle is now the front-…

Google will start carrying rival app stores inside Google Play on 22 July
Google will start carrying rival app stores inside Google Play on 22 July

Android has always let people install apps from outside Google’s store. Next week it goes much further. Google will start carrying rival app stores from inside Google Play itself. Google told a California court it is ready to begin on Wednesday 22 July…

Trump calls New York’s data centre pause a ‘terrible decision’. Hochul is not moving.
Trump calls New York’s data centre pause a ‘terrible decision’. Hochul is not moving.

Kathy Hochul signed the executive order on Tuesday. Donald Trump was demanding she undo it by Wednesday. The order pauses construction of new data centres drawing 50 megawatts or more for up to a year, making New York the first US state to pull the bra…

Amazon Leo will launch in South Africa in 2027, beating Starlink in Musk’s homeland
Amazon Leo will launch in South Africa in 2027, beating Starlink in Musk’s homeland

Amazon Leo will launch satellite internet in South Africa in 2027, seemingly beating Elon Musk’s Starlink in his home country. Musk has refused the Black-ownership rules Amazon appears willing to meet. Jeff Bezos is about to beat Elon Musk in Musk’s ow…

South Korea will give all 52 million citizens free AI access, becoming the first G20 nation to do so
South Korea will give all 52 million citizens free AI access, becoming the first G20 nation to do so

South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT opened bidding on July 13 for a free, unlimited AI chatbot and public-service agent available to all 52 million residents. The programme, called “AI for Everyone,” would make South Korea the first G20 nation to…

CXMT prices a record $8.5bn Shanghai IPO, valuing China’s memory champion at $85bn
CXMT prices a record $8.5bn Shanghai IPO, valuing China’s memory champion at $85bn

China’s biggest memory chipmaker is about to test the public markets. ChangXin Memory Technologies, known as CXMT, has priced its Shanghai IPO at 8.66 yuan ($1.28) a share, the South China Morning Post reported. The sale will raise about 57.9 billion y…

UK proposes a midnight social media curfew for older teens
UK proposes a midnight social media curfew for older teens

The UK government has proposed a midnight social media curfew for 16 and 17-year-olds, plus limits on infinite scrolling. The UK social media curfew would switch on by default, though teens could turn it off. The government set out the measures on Wedn…

Australia sets up a national Office of AI
Australia sets up a national Office of AI

Australia has set up a national Office of AI. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also promised new copyright protection for creatives, in a speech in Sydney. Albanese announced the plan on Wednesday at the University of Sydney, the Guardian reported. His …

India pledges $20 billion to boost chips and smartphones as Modi pushes for an Indian mobile brand
India pledges $20 billion to boost chips and smartphones as Modi pushes for an Indian mobile brand

India pledged 1.9 trillion rupees ($19.7 billion) in combined incentives for domestic chip and smartphone production on Wednesday. The cabinet approved 1.28 trillion rupees ($13.3 billion) for semiconductors, covering chip design, machine fabrication, …