Why Silicon Valley is divided over China’s powerful, cheap AI models

3 August 2026 at 05:00

The surge of powerful Chinese open-weight AI models has sparked a feud in Silicon Valley and Washington over whether they are threats to U.S. national security or essential parts of...

Can we train AI to choose safety over speed?

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

31 July 2026 at 08:00

As July monsoon rains flood the Mumbai streets around my home, quick-commerce platforms are using advanced weather algorithms to capture surging customer demand. While tech companies capitalize on the storms,...

Delivery personnel from Swiggy navigate a flooded street amid heavy rainfall in Mumbai, India, on July 4, 2026.

With Moonshot’s free Kimi K3, China changes the sovereign AI playbook

Rest of World

By: Indranil Ghosh

30 July 2026 at 05:00

The best artificial intelligence technology any country can own is now available for free. On July 27, China’s Moonshot AI put its most powerful chatbot on the internet for anyone...

Anxious Chinese students are trusting AI to help pick colleges and majors

Rest of World

By: Viola Zhou

29 July 2026 at 05:00

After taking part in China’s grueling national college entrance exam, Guo Xinyan has three weeks to make what could be the most important decision of her life: which universities and...

Students leave the gaokao exam in Nanjing in June under a banner that reads “Win top marks.”

Indian EV makers beat Tesla and BYD on energy efficiency

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

28 July 2026 at 05:00

Indian manufacturers are beating Tesla and BYD at building energy-efficient electric cars. Tata Motors topped a global ranking of the most efficient battery EVs for 2025, released by the International...

In China, people are renting out their faces to AI

Rest of World

By: Kinling Lo and Viola Zhou

27 July 2026 at 05:00

The artificial intelligence boom has created a new marketplace in China where people can rent out their faces. A growing number of online platforms are paying people anywhere between $15...

Why state-owned AI won’t solve inequality

Rest of World

By: Rina Chandran

24 July 2026 at 08:00

Last month, U.S. President Donald Trump suggested the government buy equity in AI companies, in response to concerns that the industry’s boom is leaving most Americans behind. His political opposite,...

The hidden cost of Myanmar’s rare earth mines

Rest of World

By: Emily Fishbein and Jauman Naw

23 July 2026 at 10:00

This story was originally published by Grist, produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network, and republished by Rest of World. When Min left the hot, dusty plains...

Fed up with Big Tech, communities turn to data collectives for control

Rest of World

By: Rina Chandran

23 July 2026 at 05:00

A growing pushback against big tech companies, and greater awareness of the value of data, is spurring interest in data collectives and cooperatives, which give communities control over the collection,...

The U.S. wants to contain China’s AI. Silicon Valley keeps using it

Rest of World

By: Paul Triolo

22 July 2026 at 05:00

When Anthropic’s chief national security officer and former Biden administration export control architect Tarun Chhabra recently highlighted model distillation as an emerging national security concern, one detail stood out. Chhabra...

China’s AI talent race is starting in high school

Rest of World

By: Kinling Lo

21 July 2026 at 05:00

Yang is immensely proud of his 13-year-old son. The middle-school student from Hangzhou has won artificial intelligence model-building competitions across China, and has 136,000 followers on Chinese social media platform...

AI is shrinking video game development teams to one

Rest of World

By: Kaya Genç

20 July 2026 at 05:00

As a teen, Emirhan Gül was a keen gamer, so he was thrilled to join a gaming startup in Istanbul as a developer after university. Over five months, as Turkey...

Can AI beat a goldfish at calling the World Cup?

Rest of World

By: Indranil Ghosh

17 July 2026 at 08:00

Kylian Mbappé of France entered the World Cup semifinals with Argentina’s Lionel Messi in the race for the Golden Boot. Pundits, punters, and chatbots are divided on who finishes as...

The problem AI content moderation cannot solve

Rest of World

By: Hera Hussain

16 July 2026 at 05:00

Meta recently unveiled Muse Image, an artificial intelligence image generator that allows anyone to manipulate pictures of any Instagram user with a public profile. Just as its Meta glasses —...

AI powers citizen-led disaster relief from afar for Venezuela

Rest of World

By: Daniella Fernández and Andrea Paola Hernández

15 July 2026 at 05:00

After twin earthquakes struck northern Venezuela last month, thousands of people took to social media, pleading for help locating friends and family. The interim government was slow to act, but...

TOPSHOT - This aerial view taken on July 2, 2026 in Caraballeda in the state of La Guaira shows collapsed buildings following the June 24 twin earthquakes.

The Gulf has billions to spend on AI. It still needs Nvidia

Rest of World

By: Indranil Ghosh

14 July 2026 at 05:00

The Gulf’s oil-rich states, betting billions on reinventing themselves as centers of artificial intelligence, are discovering that money can buy almost everything, except a way out of Nvidia. Saudi Arabia...

India’s crackdown on a new WhatsApp feature risks setting a global precedent

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

13 July 2026 at 05:00

The Indian government’s latest tussle with WhatsApp has raised concerns about the censorship of app features globally. On June 29, WhatsApp began rolling out usernames globally, allowing users to chat...

Older adults know AI is slop. They just like it

Rest of World

By: Viola Zhou

10 July 2026 at 08:00

Young people can’t seem to stop watching AI slop videos of cats talking and fruits cheating on each other. Older people are enjoying a different kind of AI-generated content, which...

Your next nurse may monitor you from the Philippines

Rest of World

By: Michael Beltran and Jonathan Feakins

9 July 2026 at 05:00

In his job as a nurse and healthcare administrator, Chris decided on appropriate treatments for patients, and checked their vital signs. Sometimes, he monitored up to 10 patients in intensive...

Data centers should benefit the cities that power them

Rest of World

By: Nasiphi Moya

8 July 2026 at 05:00

One of the most significant developments today is the rapid growth of data centers and other artificial intelligence-related infrastructure. This is true of Africa, too, where demand for digital services...

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