Why AI alone cannot fix social problems

By: Deepak Varuvel Dennison and Aditya Vashistha

21 April 2026 at 05:00

In the decades-long pursuit of solving social problems using technology, artificial intelligence is the newest hammer. From education and employment to agriculture, AI is increasingly presented as a solution to...

Netflix’s AI deal puts the global VFX workforce at risk

Rest of World

By: Indranil Ghosh

20 April 2026 at 05:00

Netflix’s latest acquisition is threatening thousands of livelihoods from Los Angeles to Mumbai. On March 5, Netflix acquired InterPositive, an artificial intelligence company built by Hollywood actor Ben Affleck, for...

Bangladesh’s gig workers are stuck in gas lines as Iran-U.S. war strains fuel supply

Rest of World

By: Jesmin Papri

17 April 2026 at 08:40

On a recent Saturday evening, a line of motorcycles stretched from a gas station in Dhaka. The queue snaked along the road for kilometers, its end out of sight. In...

Motorcycles and private cars line up for hours at a filling station in the Tejgaon Trust area of Dhaka, Bangladesh, on [Month Day, Year], as motorists attempt to purchase limited fuel supplies. Despite government assurances of a stable supply, many fuel stations remain closed for extended periods due to insufficient deliveries from depots, resulting in long queues and public inconvenience. (Photo by Sony Ramani/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

AI is about to make the global e-waste crisis much worse

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

17 April 2026 at 08:00

I’m sure my family in Mumbai is a lot like yours: three old smartphones sit unused in a hidden ziplock bag. My mom is scouring the study. “There was another...

The Mexican security company with a $1.27 billion surveillance empire

Rest of World

By: Rest of World

16 April 2026 at 05:00

This article was adapted from our latest investigation, produced in partnership with Type Investigations: A Mexican surveillance giant you’ve never heard of is now watching the U.S. border. Grupo Seguritech...

Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, October 8, 2025:
Staff monitor screens at the C7 command center for the Department of Public Security for the state of Chihuahua in Ciudad Juarez on Wednesday, October 14, 2025. Photo by Adriana Zehbrauskas for Rest of World

Voice actors fight to save their livelihoods and local cultures from Hollywood’s AI push

Rest of World

By: Rina Chandran

15 April 2026 at 05:00

Hardly anyone would recognize Fabio Azevedo if they passed him on a street in São Paulo. When he begins to speak, however, everyone knows who he is: the voice of...

RedNote chases U.S. expansion after its “TikTok refugee” moment fades

Rest of World

By: Viola Zhou

14 April 2026 at 05:00

RedNote, one of China’s most popular social platforms, is trying to grow its social media and e-commerce businesses in the U.S. by hiring staff, hosting promotional events in universities, and...

In its push to become Big Tech’s data center hub, India is overlooking local resistance

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

13 April 2026 at 05:00

India is aggressively courting U.S. big tech to set up data centers in the country. But this push is colliding with a very different reality on the ground. In February,...

Chinese entrepreneurs should go global before they go viral

Rest of World

By: Viola Zhou

10 April 2026 at 07:20

The $2 billion Meta deal was supposed to be a crowning moment for Chinese AI startup Manus, but it’s quickly become a sharp warning. For Chinese founders, the message is...

War in the Gulf could tilt the cloud race toward China

Rest of World

By: Kinling Lo

9 April 2026 at 05:00

The U.S.-Israel war on Iran may be creating a narrow opening for Chinese tech companies in the Gulf. On March 16, China’s Huawei Cloud posted a message on X highlighting...

Western AI models “fail spectacularly” in farms and forests abroad

Rest of World

By: Rina Chandran

12 March 2026 at 05:00

When scientist Catherine Nakalembe set out to map crop types in western Kenya, she had plenty of data from satellite images, but couldn’t use artificial intelligence to analyze it because...

The great Chinese EV exodus

Rest of World

By: Kinling Lo

9 February 2026 at 03:00

China’s electric-vehicle makers are going global to avoid going under. A price war at home and shrinking government support have thrown the industry into flux, with analysts predicting only 15...

Why Claude Cowork is a math problem Indian IT can’t solve

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

6 February 2026 at 04:00

On February 4, the $300 billion Indian IT sector faced a moment of reckoning. The country’s benchmark IT stocks index slumped nearly 6%, reacting to Anthropic’s release of its Claude...

Daraz customer service centre in Karachi, Pakistan on 4th October, 2023.

Free boba and “red envelopes”: China’s AI giants launch marketing blitz for Lunar New Year

Rest of World

By: Viola Zhou

5 February 2026 at 16:05

Chinese artificial-intelligence titans are gearing up for an intense marketing blitz in the run-up to the Lunar New Year, dishing out digital “red envelopes” filled with cash, giving away bubble...

$50 on war in Iran: How geopolitical bets have surged on Polymarket, in five charts

Rest of World

By: Hazel Gandhi

5 February 2026 at 06:00

Want to bet on whether the U.S. will attack Iran? An increasing number of people are using Polymarket and similar online prediction markets to gamble on war and other geopolitical...

China is running the EV playbook on humanoid robots — and it’s working

Rest of World

By: Kinling Lo

5 February 2026 at 04:00

While Silicon Valley spent 2025 polishing its marketing decks for the humanoid future, China was busy shipping the robots. Nearly 90% of all humanoid robots sold globally in 2025 were...

G1 Robot, a humanoid agent AI avatar by Unitree Robotics, takes center stage at the Web Summit Qatar 2026

China prioritizes investments outside the U.S.

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

5 February 2026 at 04:00

China’s growing distrust of the West is showing in its investment playbook. Only 2.6% of China’s total foreign direct investment announced in 2025 went to North America, according to data...

Chinese and Saudi guests pose at the NING Service center in Riyadh, which is Catl's largest new energy aftermarket facility outside China.

The volunteer Wikipedia army protecting against AI slop

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

5 February 2026 at 04:00

As Wikipedia takes on a critical role in shaping artificial intelligence tools, its content moderators are feeling the pressure and responsibility of their task. On January 15, Wikimedia Foundation —...

To understand China, we need to understand the Chinese internet

Rest of World

By: Yi-Ling Liu

4 February 2026 at 06:00

To understand China today and where it’ll go tomorrow, we must learn to read the Chinese internet: what goes viral and what disappears just as swiftly, how it shapes and...

Why won’t people buy these tiny electric cars?

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

4 February 2026 at 03:00

Micro EVs are going nowhere, fast. These compact electric cars, typically under 2.5 meters and designed for urban driving with top speeds of up to 100 kilometres (62 miles) an...

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