Google and Australia's National Newswire Strike AI Deal

FILE - The Google logo sits on the company's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., July 19, 2016. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)
FILE - The Google logo sits on the company's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., July 19, 2016. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)
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Google and Australia's National Newswire Strike AI Deal

FILE - The Google logo sits on the company's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., July 19, 2016. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)
FILE - The Google logo sits on the company's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., July 19, 2016. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

Australia's national newswire has agreed to provide content to Google's Gemini artificial intelligence to improve its responses, the two firms said.

Financial details of the agreement, which was announced Tuesday, were not provided.

The deal would help deliver real-time information to "enhance" responses in the Gemini app, said Nic Hopkins, Google's head of news partnerships for Australia and New Zealand.

Australian Associated Press, which was established 90 years ago, said its journalism would ensure timeliness and accuracy in the information Google's products provide.

"This is a strong endorsement of our reputation as a leading and trusted news media organization," AAP chief executive Emma Cowdroy said.

A growing number of deals between news media and generative AI makers have been struck recently as tech firms look to make their natural-language responses to users' questions more relevant.

AFP news agency signed a deal with Mistral in mid-January allowing the startup's chatbot to draw on the news agency's articles to formulate responses.

Other news organizations have launched legal challenges over AI use of their copyrighted content.



Report: Nvidia Nears Deal for Scaled-down Investment in OpenAI

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang has insisted that the AI chip powerhouse is committed to a big investment in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP
Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang has insisted that the AI chip powerhouse is committed to a big investment in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP
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Report: Nvidia Nears Deal for Scaled-down Investment in OpenAI

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang has insisted that the AI chip powerhouse is committed to a big investment in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP
Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang has insisted that the AI chip powerhouse is committed to a big investment in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP

Nvidia is on the cusp of investing $30 billion in OpenAI, scaling back a plan to pump $100 billion into the ChatGPT maker, the Financial Times reported Thursday.

The AI-chip powerhouse will be part of OpenAI's new funding round with an agreement that could be concluded as early as this weekend, according to the Times, which cited unnamed sources close to the matter.

Nvidia declined to comment on the report.

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang has insisted that the US tech giant will make a "huge" investment in OpenAI and dismissed as "nonsense" reports that he is unhappy with the generative AI star.

Huang made the remarks late in January after the Wall Street Journal reported that Nvidia's plan to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI had been put on ice.

Nvidia announced the plan in September, with the investment helping OpenAI build more infrastructure for next-generation artificial intelligence.

The funding round is reported to value OpenAI at some $850 billion.

Huang told journalists that the notion of Nvidia having doubts about a huge investment in OpenAI was "complete nonsense."

Huang insisted that Nvidia was going ahead with its investment in OpenAI, describing it as "one of the most consequential companies of our time".

"Sam is closing the round, and we will absolutely be involved in the round," Huang said, referring to OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman.

"We will invest a great deal of money."

Nvidia has become the coveted supplier of processors needed for training and operating the large language models (LLM) behind chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT or Google Gemini.

LLM developers like OpenAI are directing much of the mammoth investment they have received into Nvidia's products, rushing to build GPU-stuffed data centers to serve an anticipated flood of demand for AI services.

The AI rush, and its frenzy of investment in giant data centers and the massive purchase of energy-intensive chips, continues despite signs of concern in the markets.


SDAIA President: Saudi Arabia Is Building an Integrated National AI Ecosystem in Line with Vision 2030 

SDAIA President Abdullah Al-Ghamdi delivers his remarks at Thursday's meeting. (SPA)
SDAIA President Abdullah Al-Ghamdi delivers his remarks at Thursday's meeting. (SPA)
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SDAIA President: Saudi Arabia Is Building an Integrated National AI Ecosystem in Line with Vision 2030 

SDAIA President Abdullah Al-Ghamdi delivers his remarks at Thursday's meeting. (SPA)
SDAIA President Abdullah Al-Ghamdi delivers his remarks at Thursday's meeting. (SPA)

President of the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) Abdullah Al-Ghamdi stressed on Thursday that Saudi Arabia, guided by the objectives of its Vision 2030, is moving steadily to establish artificial intelligence (AI) as a trusted national capability.

The goal is to use AI to help develop government services, enhance competitiveness, build human capacity, and improve the quality of life through a comprehensive strategy based on three main pillars that unlock the full potential of this technology and achieve sustainable developmental impact, he told a high-level ministerial meeting on the sidelines of the India AI Impact Summit 2026.

“The first pillar focuses on building human capacity and enhancing readiness to engage with AI technologies,” he said.

He added that the second is building an integrated national AI ecosystem that drives expansion and innovation by developing advanced digital infrastructure that enables various sectors to adopt AI applications efficiently, consistently, and with effective governance.

The third pillar is governance, which ensures responsible and measurable AI through a national framework aligned with international standards, he explained.

Al-Ghamdi was heading the Kingdom’s delegation at the summit, and the meeting saw broad participation from heads of state, decision-makers, and technology leaders from around the world.


OpenAI's Altman Says World 'Urgently' Needs AI Regulation

OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman speaks at the AI Summit in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo)
OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman speaks at the AI Summit in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo)
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OpenAI's Altman Says World 'Urgently' Needs AI Regulation

OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman speaks at the AI Summit in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo)
OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman speaks at the AI Summit in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo)

Sam Altman, head of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, told a global artificial intelligence conference on Thursday that the world "urgently" needs to regulate the fast-evolving technology.

An organization could be set up to coordinate these efforts, similar to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), AFP quoted him as saying.

Altman is one of the hosts of top tech CEOs in New Delhi for the AI Impact Summit, the fourth annual global meeting on how to handle advanced computing power.

Frenzied demand for generative AI has turbocharged profits for many companies while fueling anxiety about the risks to individuals and the planet.

"Democratization of AI is the best way to ensure humanity flourishes," Altman said, adding that "centralization of this technology in one company or country could lead to ruin".

"This is not to suggest that we won't need any regulation or safeguards," he said. "We obviously do, urgently, like we have for other powerful technologies."

Many researchers and campaigners say stronger action is needed to combat emerging issues, ranging from job disruption to sexualized deepfakes and AI-enabled online scams.

"We expect the world may need something like the IAEA for international coordination of AI," with the ability to "rapidly respond to changing circumstances", Altman said.

"The next few years will test global society as this technology continues to improve at a rapid pace. We can choose to either empower people or concentrate power," he added.

"Technology always disrupts jobs; we always find new and better things to do."

Generative AI chatbot ChatGPT has 100 million weekly users in India, more than a third of whom are students, he said.

Earlier on Thursday, OpenAI announced with Indian IT giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) a plan to build data center infrastructure in the South Asian country.