Gymnastics Great Nadia Comaneci Gifted NFT for 'Perfect Ten' Anniversary

Nadia Comaneci was the first gymnast to score a perfect 10 at the Olympic Games. (AFP)
Nadia Comaneci was the first gymnast to score a perfect 10 at the Olympic Games. (AFP)
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Gymnastics Great Nadia Comaneci Gifted NFT for 'Perfect Ten' Anniversary

Nadia Comaneci was the first gymnast to score a perfect 10 at the Olympic Games. (AFP)
Nadia Comaneci was the first gymnast to score a perfect 10 at the Olympic Games. (AFP)

Romanian former gymnastics star Nadia Comaneci was gifted an NFT - a type of digital asset - by a group of Romanian creatives to mark the 45th anniversary since she became the first gymnast to score a perfect 10 at the Olympic Games.

The NFT is a digital necklace made of 10 pieces that are 3D renderings of vault, uneven bars, beam and floor moves she performed in Montreal in 1976.

It was created by a designer, an architect, a visual artist and an IT programmer and presented during Romanian Creative Week, an event showcasing design in the eastern city of Iasi earlier this month.

"I am glad to see that my performance from 45 years ago continues to inspire the young generation," Comaneci, who now resides in Oklahoma, said in a video message.

"I liked the idea of a new type of pioneering, this time at the intersection between athletic performance and technology."

Six other NFTs inspired by the "Perfect Ten" were created and will be auctioned off on Open Sea, the NFT marketplace, on July 18, the exact day when Comaneci made history.

NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are blockchain-based digital assets ranging from art and videos to songs and tweets that have exploded in popularity during the pandemic as enthusiasts and investors scramble to spend enormous sums of money on items that only exist online.



China’s Zhipu AI Launches Free AI Agent, Intensifying Domestic Tech Race

Words reading "Artificial intelligence AI", miniature of robot and toy hand are pictured in this illustration taken December 14, 2023. (Reuters)
Words reading "Artificial intelligence AI", miniature of robot and toy hand are pictured in this illustration taken December 14, 2023. (Reuters)
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China’s Zhipu AI Launches Free AI Agent, Intensifying Domestic Tech Race

Words reading "Artificial intelligence AI", miniature of robot and toy hand are pictured in this illustration taken December 14, 2023. (Reuters)
Words reading "Artificial intelligence AI", miniature of robot and toy hand are pictured in this illustration taken December 14, 2023. (Reuters)

Chinese artificial intelligence startup Zhipu AI unveiled a free AI agent on Monday, joining a wave of similar launches in China's increasingly competitive AI market.

The product, called AutoGLM Rumination, can perform deep research as well as tasks including web searches, travel planning, and research report writing, CEO Zhang Peng said at a lunch event in Beijing.

The agent is powered by Zhipu's proprietary models, including its reasoning model GLM-Z1-Air and foundation model GLM-4-Air-0414. The company claims GLM-Z1-Air matches rival DeepSeek's R1 in performance while running up to eight times faster and requiring only one-thirtieth of the computing resources.

AI agents are systems designed to make decisions and execute a range of tasks autonomously.

The launch follows a surge in Chinese AI product releases after DeepSeek shook the industry earlier this year with a model that it said operated at substantially lower costs than US rivals.

It also comes weeks after competitor Manus sparked interest with what it marketed as the world's first general AI agent.

While Manus charges users up to $199 monthly, Zhipu's AutoGLM Rumination will be available free of charge through the company's official channels, including its GLM model website and mobile app.

Zhipu AI, founded in 2019 as a spinoff from a Tsinghua University laboratory, has emerged as one of China's leading AI startups.

The company, which developed the GLM series of models, claims its latest large language model GLM4 outperforms OpenAI's GPT-4 on several benchmarks.

The startup made headlines earlier this month after securing three consecutive rounds of government-backed funding in a single month. The most recent investment came from the city of Chengdu, which injected 300 million yuan ($41.5 million) into the company.