Journalism begins where hype ends

,,

The danger of AI is not that it will become conscious and hate us, but that it will become competent and ignore us."

—Eliezer Yudkowsky

Tamil Nadu Budget: AI & Innovation City ‘Arivagam’ Announced; Focus on Deep Tech and AI Skilling

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay (left) and Finance Minister N. Marie Wilson display the Revised Budget briefcase after the presentation of the 2026–27 Revised Budget, which proposes 'Arivagam', India's first dedicated AI and Innovation City, along with AI skilling, deep-tech and AI governance initiatives.

With a growing global focus on AI, Tamil Nadu’s revised Budget outlines plans for ‘Arivagam’, AI talent development and AI-driven governance reforms.

Suno to Watermark AI Songs, Curb Mass Download After German Court Order on Copyright Violation

Suno said audio watermarking and fingerprinting technology will arrive "in the coming weeks", days after losing a copyright case brought by GEMA in Munich. (Image: Suno)

Suno says it will roll out audio watermarking and fingerprinting and restrict bulk downloads, a week after the Munich Regional Court found the AI music generator liable for infringing works represented by German collecting society GEMA.

Anthropic Appoints First Chief Global Affairs Officer as AI Regulatory Challenges Mount

Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar has been appointed Anthropic's first Chief Global Affairs Officer to lead the company's global policy, strategic international engagement and government relations.

Anthropic is strengthening its global policy leadership as AI governance becomes a strategic priority and regulatory scrutiny intensifies.

NSF Launches $100 Million Program to Expand AI Infrastructure for Scientific Research Across U.S.

NSF logo centered over a networked map of the United States, symbolizing the new $100 million State and Regional AI Infrastructure Hubs program expanding AI compute access nationwide.

The U.S. National Science Foundation has launched a $100 million State and Regional AI Infrastructure Hubs program to expand access to advanced computing, data and AI resources for researchers, educators and students across the country.

After META Summon, Indian Govt Reminds Platforms of Stricter AI Deepfake Compliance Rules

The Indian government has reiterated that social media platforms must comply with amended IT Rules on AI-generated content and deepfakes or risk losing legal immunity under the IT Act.

Days after META officials were summoned by the government, India reiterated that social media platforms must comply with amended IT Rules governing AI-generated content and deepfakes. Platforms with over 5 million users face stricter obligations, including AI content labelling, faster removal of harmful material, and the risk of losing legal immunity for non-compliance.

Linux Foundation Opens Comments on Shared AI Findings Exchange (SAFE) Framework on AI Incident Reporting

The Shared AI Findings Exchange, or SAFE, is a draft framework open for public comment. It has not been ratified and binds no one.

A working group convened by NVIDIA has drafted SAFE, a framework under which companies would confidentially report AI agent security incidents into a shared pool.

More Than Half of Cybercrimes Reported in Africa Are AI-Enabled: INTERPOL

Africa's cybercrime landscape is being reshaped by AI, per INTERPOL's 2026 assessment. Image: INTERPOL

An INTERPOL assessment of 36 African countries finds artificial intelligence now drives more than 55% of reported cybercrimes, with losses more than doubling to $484 million since 2024 as offenders industrialize phishing, deepfakes and synthetic identity fraud.

Alibaba Launches ‘Most Capable’ Qwen3.8-Max, Set to Become First Open-Weight Max Model Next Week

Alibaba has launched Qwen3.8-Max, its most capable model in the Qwen family to date.

Built on the Qwen 3.5 architecture, Alibaba’s 2.4-trillion-parameter model is compared by the company with frontier AI models from companies such as Anthropic and OpenAI, with pricing set at $2 per million input tokens and $6 per million output tokens.

Google Reveals How 130,000 AI Slop Channels Were Terminated

Google and Snapchat are targeting mass-produced synthetic video, though neither is banning AI outright. Representative image

A Google Research paper describes a system that hunts entire networks of AI spam accounts rather than reviewing videos one at a time, reporting 130,000 channels terminated across 50,000 clusters in six months.

Chinese Military Used US AI Models to Build Defense Tech

A Chinese military artillery system fires during a live exercise. Reuters reports Chinese military-linked researchers have used distillation techniques on US AI models to develop indigenous defense technology. (Photo: Official PLA website)

A Reuters review of over 80 academic papers and patents has found Chinese institutes with ties to the PLA using distillation techniques on US AI models, including OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 and Anthropic’s Claude Haiku, to develop domestic defense-linked AI systems.