Singapore Tech News, Features & Reviews

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has urged leading artificial intelligence companies to slow the development of increasingly powerful models, arguing that safety testing and external oversight are not keeping pace with rapidly advancing capabilities. His proposal calls for independent evaluators, shared industry standards and international cooperation as concerns grow over the misuse of AI in cyber operations, surveillance, fraud and weapons-related work.

OpenBMB has released MiniCPM5-2B, a compact open-weight artificial intelligence model designed for local assistants, coding, tool use and agent tasks on devices with limited computing power. Despite containing about 2.52 billion parameters, it ranked highest among open-weight systems below four billion parameters on Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index version 4.2 at launch, highlighting how quickly smaller AI models are improving for practical, on-device use.

DeepSeek has launched V4.1 Flash, a faster multimodal AI model built for efficiency.

HopTo has introduced its inaugural machine, designated Hop-1, a quadcopter equipped with a singular, extendable leg. This design prioritises bouncing on a passive spring, thereby reducing the need for continuous motor operation. Rotors primarily replenish energy expended during landings, activating for flight only when obstacles such as gaps, walls, or significant elevation changes necessitate aerial movement. This method reportedly decreases energy use compared to sustained

DeepSeek has released its V4.1 Flash model. It claims to outperform its previous flagship while cutting inference costs and boosting speeds. This move furthers China's artificial intelligence market developments. The new model reportedly performs strongly against other notable AI offerings, according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

Google DeepMind has published the AlphaGenome Atlas, a one petabyte dataset predicting approximately nine billion single letter changes to human DNA. This resource includes every possible variant, each assigned an AlphaGenome Variant Impact score. The score estimates potential damage from genetic alteration, combining two of DeepMind's models. The dataset is over 30 times larger than the AlphaFold Database.

A United States cybersecurity firm has demonstrated a method for hijacking WeChat accounts using artificial intelligence via unanswered voice calls. This discovery has intensified existing concerns surrounding AI driven cyber threats and prompted further calls for bilateral cooperation between the United States and China regarding digital security. The method exploited a flaw within the widely used messaging and payments application.

OpenAI is intensifying its collaboration with Samsung Electronics, expanding their joint efforts across semiconductor development and enterprise artificial intelligence services. This move comes as the ChatGPT creator pursues the development of its own proprietary chips. Harrison Kim, General Manager of OpenAI Korea, discussed the progression of this partnership, noting significant strides in the joint production and research of next-generation chips.

According to Reuters, Alphabet's Google plans to invest at least USD 15.1 billion into artificial intelligence infrastructure across Finland over the next two years. This represents the company's largest European investment, encompassing new data centres and a significant agreement for nuclear power supply. The initiative includes the development of three new data facilities in the country's northern regions.

Apple launched the Duo, a folding iPhone priced at USD 1,999, marking a significant entry into the foldable smartphone market. John Ternus, the new chief executive, presided over the product introduction, which challenges established rivals. The company also presented new iPhone 18 Pro models and updated AirPods.