Author: GT

Alibaba’s recently launched Qwen AI app has demonstrated remarkable market traction, accumulating 10 million downloads in the seven days since its public beta release – a velocity that exceeds the early adoption rates of ChatGPT, Sora, and DeepSeek.The application’s rapid uptake reflects a shift in how technology giants are approaching AI commercialisation. While international competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic have built their businesses around subscription models, Alibaba’s free-access approach challenges this framework by integrating AI capabilities directly into existing consumer and enterprise ecosystems.According to the South China Morning Post, the Qwen app serves as “a comprehensive AI tool designed to…

On a cold November evening in Shanghai in 2020, the world’s largest IPO was abruptly canceled by Chinese regulators.It was Ant Group, the fintech affiliate of tech giant Alibaba. The company’s founder Jack Ma, one of China’s most famous billionaires, was under scrutiny for comments seemingly criticising the country’s financial regulators.  What followed was four years of pressure on Ma’s empire.Since the IPO cancelation, more than $400 billion has been wiped off Alibaba’s value, even with a more recent rally. In the months after the failed public listing, Ma retreated from the public eye and Alibaba, China’s biggest e-commerce player, looked down and out,…

AI spending in Asia Pacific continues to rise, yet many companies still struggle to get value from their AI projects. Much of this comes down to the infrastructure that supports AI, as most systems are not built to run inference at the speed or scale real applications need. Industry studies show many projects miss their ROI goals even after heavy investment in GenAI tools because of the issue.The gap shows how much AI infrastructure influences performance, cost, and the ability to scale real-world deployments in the region.Akamai is trying to address this challenge with Inference Cloud, built with NVIDIA and…

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia plans to ban social media accounts for people under 16 starting in 2026, joining Australia and a growing number of countries pushing tighter digital age limits for children.Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said Sunday the Cabinet approved the move as part of a broader effort to shield young people from online harm like cyberbullying, scams and sexual exploitation. He said the government is studying approaches taken by Australia and other countries, and the potential use of electronic checks with identity cards or passports to verify users’ ages. He did not say when exactly the ban…

With its WorldGen system, Meta is shifting the use of generative AI for 3D worlds from creating static imagery to fully interactive assets.The main bottleneck in creating immersive spatial computing experiences – whether for consumer gaming, industrial digital twins, or employee training simulations – has long been the labour-intensive nature of 3D modelling. The production of an interactive environment typically requires teams of specialised artists working for weeks.WorldGen, according to a new technical report from Meta’s Reality Labs, is capable of generating traversable and interactive 3D worlds from a single text prompt in approximately five minutes.While the technology is currently…

HONG KONG (AP) — An unmanned, oval-shaped craft from flying taxi maker EHang hovers, whirring noisily like a mini-helicopter over a riverside innovation zone on the outskirts of the southern Chinese business hub of Guangzhou, part of a trial of a mini-flying taxi that once might have been found only in sci-fi films. In nearby Shenzhen, food-delivery drones already are part of daily life and a novelty attraction for tourists, even if such services cost more. In the waterfront park surrounded by high-rises, Polish tourist Karolina Trzciańska and her friends ordered bubble tea and lemon tea by phone, just to…

X recently began rolling out a new feature that seemingly revealed many right-wing “America First” accounts are actually based outside the United States. Except the data might not be reliable. While X’s new “About This Account” feature includes information about when a user joined and how they downloaded the app, geographic location is getting the most attention by far. Posting a gallery of MAGA accounts that are apparently based in Japan, New Zealand, Pakistan, and Thailand, left-wing influencer Micah Erfan wrote, “This is total armageddon for the online right.” Many of the accounts raising eyebrows, like the apparently Pakistan-based @American,…

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc., during a dinner with tech leaders in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025. US President Donald Trump said he would be imposing tariffs on semiconductor imports “very shortly” but spare goods from companies like Apple Inc. that have pledged to boost their US investments. Photographer: Will Oliver/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesWill Oliver | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesMeta halted internal research that purportedly showed that people who stopped using Facebook became less depressed and anxious, according to a legal filing that was…

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. To get this in your inbox, sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Before we jump in, a quick housekeeping item. The transportation newsletter won’t run next Friday due to the Thanksgiving holiday.  For U.S. readers, I hope you have a safe and drama-free holiday filled with family and friends, delicious food, and long walks. Good luck to those traveling. For all of my international readers, I haven’t forgotten about you. But we all need a little break. I’ll…

What happens when the software that everyone’s racing to adopt becomes too risky for anyone to insure? According to reporting from the Financial Times, we’re about to find out. Major insurers including AIG, Great American, and WR Berkley are asking U.S. regulators for permission to exclude AI-related liabilities from corporate policies. One underwriter describes the AI models’ outputs to the FT as “too much of a black box.” The industry has good reason to be spooked, the story reminds us. Google’s AI Overview falsely accused a solar company of legal troubles, triggering a $110 million lawsuit back in March. Air…