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Recent layoffs in the technology sector might suggest that a significant shift from human labor to artificial intelligence is underway. For instance, Meta disclosed plans to reduce its workforce by 10%, equating to approximately 8,000 employees, and to halt recruitment for 6,000 open positions. This was framed as a move toward greater efficiency and to…

Visa has integrated its payment network directly into ChatGPT, enabling AI agents embedded within the chatbot to independently shop and finalize purchases for users across any merchant accepting Visa. This advancement marks a significant shift from previous efforts limited to a small group of enrolled retailers, allowing broader and more seamless transaction capabilities throughout the…

This week, an AI training startup named Shift announced it would provide free home cleaning services to residents of New York, with ambitions to extend this initiative to other cities, including London. Looking around the typical household, it’s easy to see why this idea has traction. However, the offer comes with a significant condition. Shift…

Cloud infrastructure has traditionally been built to accommodate human behaviors such as searching, clicking, scrolling, and streaming, all of which tend to occur in steady and predictable patterns. However, AI agents operate in a fundamentally different manner. They can rapidly generate a surge of activity by launching multiple sub-agents that simultaneously query numerous databases, search…

Google has officially submitted its appeal against the federal court ruling that classified it as an illegal search monopolist, describing the decision as having “crashed” through established legal barriers. In its legal documents, Google maintains that it simply succeeded in the marketplace through fair competition. The company is seeking to overturn not only the original…

Scientists have developed a novel electronic switch that operates at speeds 1,000 times faster than current technology, potentially revolutionizing the field of ultra-high-speed electronics and data processing. Collaborators from the University of Regensburg and the University of Michigan have demonstrated a switch functioning in the petahertz frequency range, which equates to a million billion electrical…

Researchers from Columbia University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard University have successfully harnessed AI to engineer a novel strain of E. coli bacteria that defies conventional biological norms by lacking one of the twenty standard amino acids integral to all known life forms. By specifically removing isoleucine from the ribosome—the cellular machinery responsible…

Written by Johan de Villiers Welcome to our latest quarterly newsletter. In this edition, I’ve been exploring a corner of the global technology economy that the international press has been shouting about, and the South African press, oddly, whispering about: the question of where the world’s artificial intelligence infrastructure is actually going to be built.…

Communications regulator Icasa has formally signalled that it cannot give full effect to communications minister Solly Malatsi’s December 2025 policy direction on broad-based black economic empowerment without an amendment to the Electronic Communications Act (ECA). In a brief media statement on Wednesday, the regulator said it had communicated its position to the ministry and remained…