Weekly bulletin from AIport, issue #50
China’s DeepSeek challenges US dominance, France leads Europe in AI startups, Brazil bans paid iris scanning, and much more.
Hello and welcome to the big 50th issue of the AI Bulletin! We hope you enjoy this week’s hand-picked selection of machine learning and data science news from around the globe, organized chronologically by region. Have a pleasant weekend, and we look forward to connecting with you again next Friday!
North America
Poshmark, a social commerce marketplace, launches Smart List, which enables users to leverage AI for more streamlined listing creation.
In Canada, Vancouver-based Versance introduces Talk to SEDAR, an AI platform that uses machine learning to help stakeholders navigate public company filings.
OpenAI rolls out ChatGPT Gov, providing US government agencies with access to the company’s latest models.
Following its release, China’s DeepSeek-R1 sends shockwaves through the global tech industry, triggering a frenzy in the US stock market, with Nvidia taking a huge hit: here’s a segment from an MSNBC Monday morning show. In response, Hugging Face begins building its own replica of the model.
Europe
AI is at the center of the Photo Brussels Festival in Belgium: The Guardian takes a closer look.
The Italian Data Protection Authority blocks DeepSeek due to data privacy concerns.
According to a new report, France is now Europe’s leader by the number of AI startups.
Asia
Malaysia’s Ministry of Communications launches AIFA, an AI assistant that checks facts and verifies the accuracy of news articles.
In China, DeepSeek reports a large-scale cyber attack after the company dethrones ChatGPT as the most downloaded free app. Meanwhile, Unitree’s AI robots make a splash at the annual Spring Festival Gala with their synchronized dance routine: here’s a video bite from SCMP.
Latin America
Brazil bans paid data collection for the iris-scanning Orb, manufactured by Sam Altman’s World (formerly Worldcoin).
Africa
The UN publishes an article on the use of AI in education across the African continent.
Australia
Diag-Nose.io, a Melbourne-based biotech startup, is harnessing AI to design personalized asthma treatments: here’s a short video report by 9News.