BERLIN: The artificial intelligence revolution sweeping through the entertainment sector was at first glance not evident at this year&#39;s Berlin Film Festival, but the potential for widespread changes was still on people&#39;s minds.&nbsp;The festival has had the air of an arthouse bubble when it comes to the topic of AI and the event&#39;s leadership is keeping above the fray.&nbsp;&quot;At present, we do not intend to issue any statements regarding the use of AI in the film industry,&quot; the festival said in a statement sent to AFP, adding: &quot;We are monitoring developments with great interest.&quot;&nbsp;Nevertheless, some of the filmmakers present addressed the question of how the technology is changing the industry.&nbsp;Yoshitoshi Shinomiya, director of the only animated feature in competition, &quot;A New Dawn,&quot; told reporters he had briefly considered using AI in his film.&nbsp;&quot;During production, we weren&#39;t entirely sure we would be able to complete the film. At one point we wondered whether we should use AI for the backgrounds,&quot; he said.&nbsp;But Shinomiya concluded that AI is not yet &quot;well-developed enough&quot; to do that sort of work.&nbsp;Juliette Prissard from Euro cinema, an organization representing French film and TV producers, said it&#39;s only a matter of time until the tools improve.&nbsp;&quot;It&#39;s reasonable to think that in one, two or three years... you won&#39;t be able to tell the difference anymore,&quot; she told AFP.&nbsp;AI can already &quot;write scripts&quot; and replaces extras in crowd scenes or even generate &quot;digital replicas&quot; of someone.&nbsp;No choiceIn France, where foreign-language films are frequently shown with dubbing, voice actors have already been raising the alarm about AI&#39;s impact on their profession.&nbsp;But Prissard warns other film industry jobs could be replaced in the &quot;near&quot; future, such as &quot;technicians, the set designers&quot; and even &quot;the producers themselves&quot;.&nbsp;Sevara Irgacheva, secretary general of the European Film Agency Directors&#39; association (EFAD), said that already &quot;junior jobs are disappearing: all the assistant editors, assistant screenwriters&quot;.&nbsp;Despite this, the industry &quot;is leaning toward accepting&quot; AI &quot;because, in any case, we have no choice&quot;.&nbsp;The tools have the potential to help the sector become more efficient and &quot;save time at every stage of production&quot;, particularly in the more &quot;bureaucratic&quot; aspects of the process.&nbsp;A survey carried out in early 2025 by France&#39;s National Centre for Cinema (CNC) found that 90 percent of film and audiovisual professionals surveyed were already using AI tools in their work.&nbsp;In Berlin, Austrian director Georg Tiller presented a short film mixing filmed footage and AI-generated images, saying it was an attempt to encourage his fellow filmmakers to fight for a place in the new &quot;digital cinema&quot;.&nbsp;&quot;If we don&#39;t then I fear that that we will die a slow death, because it will just steamroll over us,&quot; Tiller told AFP.&nbsp;The &#39;temptation&#39; of deregulationThe issue garnered some relief with a December agreement between OpenAI and Disney, which allowed the use of the entertainment giant&#39;s characters on Sora, the AI-generated video platform.&nbsp;In return, Disney now has &quot;privileged access&quot; to OpenAI&#39;s &quot;highly sophisticated&quot; tools, giving it a &quot;technological advantage over the rest of the sector&quot;, said Prissard.&nbsp;But the use of AI in cinema has prompted thorny legal questions over intellectual property and the very notion of authorship, at a time when legislation is only just beginning to grapple with the subject.&nbsp;Under EU rules, streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime must carry at least 30 percent of European content in their catalogues.&nbsp;Prissard questioned how those enforcing the rules &quot;will be able to tell the difference &rdquo;Between original creations and &quot;synthetic&quot; ones.&nbsp;Given &quot;the fear of falling behind&quot; the United States and China in developing AI technologies, Prissard said that Europe may succumb to the &quot;temptation to allow more leeway to innovate without obstacles&quot;.

Film & TV

At the Berlin Film Festival, AI’s growing influence on cinema sparked debate, as filmmakers acknowledged its potential to write scripts and replace jobs, while legal and ethical concerns persist. Despite risks, most industry professionals are already adopting AI tools.

AI revolution looms over Berlin film fest

NEW DELHI: White House technology adviser Michael Kratsios said Friday that the United States &quot;totally&quot; rejects global governance of artificial intelligence. Kratsios, head of the country&#39;s delegation to an AI summit in New Delhi, made the comments ahead of an expected leaders&#39; statement setting out a shared vision on how to handle the divisive technology. &quot;As the Trump Administration has now said many times: We totally reject global governance of AI,&quot; he said at the summit, which draws to a close on Friday. &quot;AI adoption cannot lead to a brighter future if it is subject to bureaucracies and centralised control.&quot; On Friday morning, UN chief Antonio Guterres had said that a new expert panel convened by the global body aimed to &quot;make human control a technical reality&quot;. The advisory group -- aiming to be to AI what the UN&#39;s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is to global warming -- was created in August, and its 40 members have now been confirmed, Guterres said. At last year&#39;s edition in Paris, US Vice President JD Vance warned against &quot;excessive regulation&quot; that &quot;could kill a transformative sector&quot;. In New Delhi, Kratsios said that &quot;international discussion of AI has evolved, as this summit itself attests,&quot; noting the change of the meeting&#39;s name from &quot;AI Safety&quot; to &quot;AI Impact&quot;. &quot;This is clearly a positive development,&quot; but &quot;too many international forums, such as the UN&#39;s Global Dialogue on AI Governance, maintain a general atmosphere of fear,&quot; he said. &quot;We must replace that fear with hope,&quot; Kratsios added, saying that AI has the potential to &quot;advance human flourishing and drive unprecedented prosperity&quot;. He argued that &quot;ideological, risk-focused obsessions, such as climate or equity, become excuses for bureaucratic management and centralisation&quot;. &quot;In the name of safety, they increase the danger that these tools will be used for tyrannical control.&quot; &quot;Focusing AI policy on safety and speculative risks... inhibits a competitive ecosystem, entrenches incumbents, and isolates developing countries from full participation in the AI economy,&quot; Kratsios said.

White House technology adviser Michael Kratsios (File/World Economic Forum)

Americas

White House tech adviser Michael Kratsios opposed centralized oversight, urging innovation over regulation, while UN chief Antonio Guterres promoted an expert panel to ensure human control of the technology.

US 'totally' rejects global AI governance: White House adviser

NEW DELHI: Sam Altman, head of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, told a global artificial intelligence conference on Thursday that the world &quot;urgently&quot; 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), he said. Altman is one of a host of top tech CEOs in New Delhi for the AI Impact Summit, the fourth annual global meeting on how to handle advanced computing power. &quot;For an obvious example, there&#39;ll be extremely capable biomodels available open-source that could help people create new pathogens, he said on stage. &quot;We need a society-wide approach about how we&#39;re going to defend against this.&quot; Frenzied demand for generative AI has turbocharged profits for many companies while fuelling anxiety about the risks to individuals and the planet. &quot;Democratisation of AI is the best way to ensure humanity flourishes,&quot; Altman said, adding that &quot;centralisation of this technology in one company or country could lead to ruin&quot;. &quot;This is not to suggest that we won&#39;t need any regulation or safeguards,&quot; he said. &quot;We obviously do, urgently, like we have for other powerful technologies.&quot; Many researchers and campaigners say stronger action is needed to combat emerging issues, ranging from job disruption to sexualised deepfakes and AI-enabled online scams. &quot;We expect the world may need something like the IAEA for international coordination of AI,&quot; with the ability to &quot;rapidly respond to changing circumstances&quot;, Altman said. &quot;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,&quot; he added. &quot;Technology always disrupts jobs; we always find new and better things to do.&quot;

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attends the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi on February 19, 2026. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)

Artificial Intelligence

Sam Altman urges global coordination and safeguards for advanced AI, warning of biosecurity risks, power concentration, and rapid societal disruption.

OpenAI's Altman says world 'urgently' needs AI regulation

Web Desk

ISLAMABAD: Discrimination against Muslim and Christian minorities in India is being fuelled by two converging trends, the viral spread of generative AI hate content and the rapid expansion of AI-enabled policing and surveillance, warns a report published on Feb. 11 by the Centre for the Study of Organized Hate&nbsp;(CSOH). The report has come ahead of India AI impact summit, 2026, which will be from Feb. 16 to 20. The CSOH report says hate narratives that have circulated for years; often packaged as conspiracies such as &ldquo;love jihad&rdquo; and &ldquo;population jihad,&rdquo; or fuelled through cow-protection and temple-mosque disputes, are now being amplified with synthetic media that looks real.&nbsp;Text-to-image and text-to-video tools can produce photorealistic depictions, caricatures, and &ldquo;evidence-like&rdquo; scenes that reinforce stereotypes, Muslim men framed as violent or criminal, and Muslim women dehumanized through sexualized, non-consensual imagery. Communal targetingMoments of public tragedy are turned into accelerants for communal targeting, with AI-generated visuals circulated alongside inflammatory commentary to cast minorities as villains in the immediate aftermath of attacks or accidents. The report highlights that political messaging has also begun using generative AI directly.&nbsp;Official social media accounts linked to the&nbsp;ruling&nbsp;BJP, have posts that depict Muslims as &ldquo;ghuspaithye/infiltrators&rdquo; and portray opposition leaders as &quot;secretly&quot; aligned with them.&nbsp;A pattern of dehumanizing metaphors is developing, where minorities are rendered as pests or threats, paired with meme-like humor or dramatic background music that helps normalize extreme hostility, especially in battleground states in the run-up to 2026 assembly election such as Assam and Delhi. A second cluster of concerns centers on the state&rsquo;s deployment of AI. Predictive policingIt notes remarks by Devendra Fadnavis, CM Maharashtra,&nbsp;about an AI tool being developed with IIT Bombay to detect alleged undocumented migrants using language cues, an approach that risks profiling Bengali-speaking Muslims and low-income migrant workers.&nbsp;The spread of predictive policing has also been flagged, large criminal databases and facial recognition are systems that can embed historical bias into &ldquo;data-driven&rdquo; enforcement. Examples of this &ldquo;data-driven&rdquo; enforcement referenced in the report include long-running predictive systems used by Delhi Police and expanding surveillance networks in cities such as Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Lucknow.&nbsp;Without transparent safeguards, independent oversight, and clear legal limits, AI risks hardening discrimination into automated, scalable practice, the report states.

India

Generative AI and predictive policing are fuelling discrimination against India's minorities through deepfake hate speech and automated surveillance. A report from the Centre for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH) warns of these issues.

AI enabled hate on the rise in India: Report

Sam Altman said OpenAI hired OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger, plans multi-agent “personal agents” as core products, will keep OpenClaw open-source, amid hype, security concerns, and pressure to monetize ChatGPT via ads.

OpenAI hires creator of 'OpenClaw' AI agent tool

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced that Pakistan would invest $1 billion in artificial intelligence by 2030. He was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of Indus AI Week in Islamabad on Monday. Addressing participants at the event organized by the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunications, the prime minister said the investment would go a long way toward building indigenous AI infrastructure in the country. &quot;[This] event will not only transform Pakistan&rsquo;s technological landscape but will also prove to be a real game changer. In collaboration with our friendly and brotherly countries, we will move forward on this shared path with strong commitment and enthusiasm,&rdquo; he said. The PM said that AI would be integrated into the federal school curriculum across the country, including the tribal districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, and the remote parts of Balochistan. &ldquo;This is to prepare the youth for leadership and the digital economy,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp; He announced that the government will provide 1,000 fully funded PhD scholarships in AI to youth by 2030, with the aim of building a world-class research center. PM Sharif said the government will launch a nationwide program to train one million non-IT professionals in AI skills, enabling them to improve productivity and their livelihoods. He said Pakistan was fully ready to join the global AI community, adding that it would be a valuable partner in this field. The prime minister said he will implement programs to transform the country&rsquo;s youth from IT technicians into AI experts. Highlighting priority sectors, the prime minister said AI interventions would focus on agriculture, mines and minerals, industry, commerce, trade, and youth empowerment.&nbsp; With a population of around 240 million, nearly 60% of whom are young, he stressed the need to equip them with modern knowledge and skills.&nbsp; Minister for IT Shaza Fatima Khawaja said Indus AI Week aimed to strengthen coordination between universities, governments and international companies, underscoring Pakistan&rsquo;s full commitment to a digital revolution. She said the Pakistan Digital Authority was preparing a nationwide digital master plan to guide future transformation. Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal, in his remarks, said the world had entered a moment where intelligence itself had become a factor of production, with nations competing on ideas, talent, data and technology rather than commodities.&nbsp; He described artificial intelligence as a bigger disruptor than electricity or the internet, noting that Pakistan&rsquo;s engagement with technology began over two decades ago with early IT policies, the creation of NADRA, and large-scale investment in advanced human capital.

Economy

He said the investment would go a long way toward building indigenous AI infrastructure in the country.

Indus AI Week: Pakistan PM announces $1B AI investment by 2030

PARIS: Google unveiled an artificial intelligence tool Wednesday that its scientists said would help unravel the mysteries of the human genome and could one day lead to new treatments for diseases.&nbsp;The deep learning model AlphaGenome was hailed by outside researchers as a &quot;breakthrough&quot; that would let scientists&rsquo; study and even simulate the roots of difficult-to-treat genetic diseases.&nbsp;While the first complete map of the human genome in 2003 &quot;gave us the book of life, reading it remained a challenge&quot;, Pushmeet Kohli, vice president of research at Google DeepMind, told journalists.&nbsp;&quot;We have the text,&quot; he said, which is a sequence of three billion nucleotide pairs represented by the letters A, T, C and G that make up DNA.&nbsp;However, &quot;understanding the grammar of this genome -- what is encoded in our DNA and how it governs life -- is the next critical frontier for research,&quot; said Kohli, co-author of a new study in the journal Nature.&nbsp;Only around two percent of our DNA contains instructions for making proteins, which are the molecules that build and run the body.&nbsp;The other 98 percent was long dismissed as &quot;junk DNA&quot; as scientists struggled to understand what it was for.&nbsp;However, this &quot;non-coding DNA&quot; is now believed to act like a conductor, directing how genetic information works in each of our cells.&nbsp;These sequences also contain many variants that have been associated with diseases. It is these sequences that AlphaGenome is aiming to understand.&nbsp;A million lettersThe project is just one part of Google&#39;s AI-powered scientific work, which also includes AlphaFold, the winner of 2024&#39;s chemistry Nobel.&nbsp;AlphaGenome&#39;s model was trained on data from public projects that measured non-coding DNA across hundreds of different cell and tissue types in humans and mice.&nbsp;The tool is able to analyze long DNA sequences then predict how each nucleotide pair will influence different biological processes within the cell.&nbsp;This includes whether genes start and stop and how much RNA -- molecules which transmit genetic instructions inside cells -- is produced.&nbsp;Other models already exist that have a similar aim. However, they have to compromise, either by analyzing far shorter DNA sequences or decreasing how detailed their predictions are, known as resolution.&nbsp;DeepMind scientist and lead study author Ziga Avsec said that long sequences -- up to a million DNA letters long -- were &quot;required to understand the full regulatory environment of a single gene&quot;.&nbsp;And the high resolution of the model allows scientists to study the impact of genetic variants by comparing the differences between mutated and non-mutated sequences.&nbsp;&quot;AlphaGenome can accelerate our understanding of the genome by helping to map where the functional elements are and what their roles are on a molecular level,&quot; study co-author Natasha Latysheva said.&nbsp;The model has already been tested by 3,000 scientists across 160 countries and is open for anyone to use for non-commercial reasons, Google said.&nbsp;&quot;We hope researchers will extend it with more data,&quot; Kohli added.&nbsp;&#39;Breakthrough&#39;&nbsp;Ben Lehner, a researcher at Cambridge University who was not involved in developing AlphaGenome but did test it, said the model &quot;does indeed perform very well&quot;.&nbsp;&quot;Identifying the precise differences in our genomes that make us more or less likely to develop thousands of diseases is a key step towards developing better therapeutics,&quot; he explained.&nbsp;However, AlphaGenome &quot;is far from perfect and there is still a lot of work to do&quot;, he added.&nbsp;&quot;AI models are only as good as the data used to train them&quot; and the existing data is not very suitable, he said.&nbsp;Robert Goldstone, head of genomics at the UK&#39;s Francis Crick Institute, cautioned that AlphaGenome was &quot;not a magic bullet for all biological questions&quot;.&nbsp;This was partly because &quot;gene expression is influenced by complex environmental factors that the model cannot see&quot;, he said.&nbsp;However, the tool still represented a &quot;breakthrough&quot; that would allow scientists to &quot;study and simulate the genetic roots of complex disease&quot;, Goldstone added.

Google’s AI, AlphaGenome, studies DNA, especially “non-coding” parts, to see how genes work and how changes can cause disease. It helps scientists understand genetics better, though it can’t account for all environmental effects.

Google unveils AI tool probing mysteries of human genome

BRUSSELS: Google must provide rival AI services equal access to its features and other search engine platforms access to data, the EU said on Tuesday, as it said it would help the giant over six months to comply with rules.&nbsp;The EU executive said it would launch proceedings to help <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/eu-launches-antitrust-probe-into-googles-data-use-for-ai" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">Google</a> prepare measures in line with its flagship rulebook, the Digital Markets Act (DMA).&nbsp;Under the DMA, the world&#39;s biggest tech companies must open up to competition to give consumers more options and limit abuses linked to market dominance.&nbsp;US President Donald Trump&#39;s government has railed against the law and its sister content moderation law the Digital Services Act, accusing Brussels of unfairly targeting US firms.&nbsp;The European Commission wants to ensure Google gives rival AI service providers equal access to its Android operating system, and demands the American titan grants competing search engines access to search data.&nbsp;Brussels believes the move will allow rivals &quot;to optimise their services and offer users genuine alternatives to Google Search&quot;.&nbsp;The EU step is not a formal investigation that could lead to fines.&nbsp;But if Brussels is not satisfied with Google&#39;s efforts, it can later conclude the company is not complying.&nbsp;And any DMA violations can lead to fines of up to 10 percent of a company&#39;s total global turnover.&nbsp;&quot;We want to help Google by explaining in more detail how it should comply with its interoperability and online search data sharing obligations under the Digital Markets Act,&quot; EU competition chief Teresa Ribera said in a statement.&nbsp;Google pushed back, insisting Android is open by design.&nbsp;&quot;We&#39;re already licensing search data to competitors under the DMA,&quot; Google&#39;s senior competition counsel Clare Kelly said in a statement.&nbsp;&quot;However, we are concerned that further rules which are often driven by competitor grievances rather than the interest of consumers, will compromise user privacy, security, and innovation.&quot;&nbsp;The commission said it would conclude the proceedings within six months.&nbsp;Google already faces a fine under the DMA for favouring its own services in a probe launched in March 2024.&nbsp;The giant has also been subject to a separate DMA probe since November over suspicions it pushed down news outlets in search results.&nbsp;The scrutiny does not end with the DMA. Google also faces cases under the bloc&#39;s competition rules.&nbsp;In December, the EU said it had opened a probe to assess whether Google breached antitrust rules by using content put online by media and other publishers to train and provide AI services without appropriate compensation.&nbsp;That came after the EU slapped Google with a 2.95-billion-euro ($3.5 billion) fine in September for breaking competition rules.

The EU told Google to give rival AI and search engines equal access under the Digital Markets Act, launching a six-month compliance process. Non-compliance could trigger major fines, as Google already faces multiple EU probes.

EU to show Google how to open up to rival AI services

BEIJING: Before DeepSeek shook up the tech world and put Chinese artificial intelligence on the map, Wu Chenglin&rsquo;s own startup had nearly folded three times &mdash; but in the past year, it has raised $30 million. The January 2025 release of a low-cost generative AI model from DeepSeek, which performed at a similar level to <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/openai-introducing-ads-to-chatgpt" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 115, 230);">ChatGPT </a>and other top American chatbots,&nbsp;upended assumptions of US dominance in the sensitive sector. The breakthrough has galvanised China&rsquo;s AI scene, despite relations with the United States and fears of a global market bubble. &ldquo;It gave a lot of people confidence&rdquo; that China&rsquo;s AI community previously lacked, Wu told AFP. His venture, DeepWisdom, whose flagship product is an AI-powered software development platform, had struggled to stay afloat despite its popularity among programmers. But as excitement around DeepSeek fuelled a spending boom, Wu raised 220 million yuan in two funding rounds. Meanwhile, Shi Yaqiong and her team at Beijing-based Jinqiu Capital have closed deals with more than 50 AI firms over the past 12 months. Shi, the fund&rsquo;s vice-president, described a &ldquo;clear surge&rdquo; in enthusiasm around Chinese AI and competition among investors since the DeepSeek shock. &ldquo;The kind of projects with an initial valuation in 2024 of $10-20 million were, in 2025, expected to have initial valuations around $20-40 million,&rdquo; she said. Engineer dividendShares in two leading Chinese AI startups, Zhipu AI and MiniMax, soared on their Hong Kong market debuts this month. Frenzy over the much-hyped <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/asian-markets-bounce-as-nvidia-takes-centre-stage-amid-ai-bubble-fears" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(41, 105, 176);" rel="noopener noreferrer">potential of AI </a>to change the world is driving global stocks to record highs, led by chipmakers and<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/meta-partners-with-us-nuclear-companies-to-power-ai-data-centers" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" rel="noopener noreferrer">&nbsp;tech giants</a>. But the big-spending euphoria has sparked fears of a market crash, with many investors hyper-focused on any sign the AI bubble could burst and questioning when new companies will become profitable. Access to top-end chips made by <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/trump-says-us-will-allow-sale-of-nvidia-ai-chips-to-china" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(41, 105, 176);" rel="noopener noreferrer">US giant Nvidia</a> is also restricted in China under White House policies aimed at curbing China&rsquo;s technological development. But that hasn&rsquo;t dampened the spirits of young developers in the world&rsquo;s second-largest economy. At an AI networking event held last week on a brisk winter afternoon in a stylish Beijing cafe, animated discussion filled the air about the future of the fast-moving industry. Chip export controls mean Chinese AI is more likely to be &ldquo;open-source and cheap&rdquo;, which could make it more useful to society, said one participant, entrepreneur Li Weijia. China is often said to enjoy an &ldquo;engineer dividend&rdquo; that benefits its AI sector, and talent is flocking to the field. Online hiring platform Zhilian Zhaopin reported a 39% increase in applications to AI-related jobs in the first three quarters of 2025, after DeepSeek&rsquo;s breakout. &lsquo;Cost-efficient&rsquo;&ldquo;China has a huge application developer ecosystem, and people are very good at building apps,&rdquo; Shen Qiajin, founder of ideaFlow, told AFP. &ldquo;But for a very long time, we didn&rsquo;t have a good, cost-efficient model,&rdquo; he said. That is a gap DeepSeek has now filled. The firm began in 2023 as a side project of a data-driven hedge fund co-founded in the tech hub Hangzhou by Liang Wenfeng, which had access to a cache of powerful Nvidia processors. Today, the company &mdash; expected to release its next AI model within weeks &mdash; holds 4% of the global chatbot market share, according to web traffic analysis company Similarweb. ChatGPT dominates at 68 percent, while Google&rsquo;s Gemini is catching up at 18%, according to Similarweb estimates. DeepSeek&rsquo;s decision to make its systems&rsquo; inner workings public, in contrast to the closed AI models sold by OpenAI and other Western rivals, has boosted adoption of its tools by developers and businesses, said Neil Shah at&nbsp; Counterpoint ResearchIts tools have had &ldquo;strong adoption in cost-sensitive emerging markets&rdquo;, he said. But in the West, users are more cautious, &ldquo;primarily on account of privacy and national security concerns&rdquo;. Even so, the domestic market is huge. By June 2025, more than half a billion Chinese internet users reported having used generative AI products, according to the China Internet Network Information Center. Entrepreneur Yang Yiwen said her parents had their first meaningful encounter with AI during last year&rsquo;s Chinese New Year, when they watched her use DeepSeek to plan a family trip. &ldquo;They found it quite fun,&rdquo; she said.

Before DeepSeek shook up the tech world and put Chinese artificial intelligence on the map, Wu Chenglin’s own startup had nearly folded three times — but in the past year it has raised $30 million.

Inside China's buzzing AI scene year after DeepSeek shock

WASHINGTON: The IMF upgraded its 2026 global growth forecast Monday, citing a boost from tech investments but warning that a reevaluation of AI productivity gains or renewed trade tensions could bring disruptions.&nbsp;World economic growth is projected to hold steady at 3.3 percent this year, the International Monetary Fund said, raising its forecast by 0.2 percentage points from October. This would be the same pace of growth as in 2025.&nbsp;But the Washington-based lender cautioned in its World Economic Outlook update that &quot;the resilience exhibited so far is driven largely by a few sectors,&quot; signaling vulnerability.&nbsp;While the global economy appears to be &quot;shaking off the trade and tariff disruptions of 2025,&quot; this does not mean they had no impact, said IMF chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas.&nbsp;Instead, the challenges were offset by &quot;tailwinds from the AI and tech investment boom,&quot; he told reporters.&nbsp;This was especially true in North America and Asia, the IMF said.&nbsp;The private sector also showed adaptability in dealing with trade shocks, while fiscal and monetary support provided boosts.&nbsp;Looming tariffsAfter he returned to the White House last January, US President Donald Trump unleashed sweeping tariffs that hit allies and competitors alike, roiling financial markets and supply chains while causing trade tensions to rocket.&nbsp;But temperatures cooled over the year as the Trump administration struck tariff deals with several partners and crucially reached a temporary truce with the world&#39;s second-biggest economy, China.&nbsp;For now, global inflation is expected to drop from an estimated 4.1 percent in 2025 to 3.8 percent in 2026.&nbsp;Trump&#39;s latest tariff threats against eight European countries in a standoff over the Danish territory of Greenland have thrown a spanner in the works.&nbsp;&quot;We see that we&#39;re in this world in which trade tensions can erupt, geopolitical tensions can erupt. And that&#39;s a downside risk for the global economy,&quot; Gourinchas told AFP during an interview in Brussels.&nbsp;Heightened uncertaintyNonetheless, the IMF said trade policy uncertainty remains much higher than in January 2025 and there could still be occasional flare-ups.&nbsp;The US Supreme Court is also due to rule on the legality of Trump&#39;s use of emergency economic powers to impose tariffs on goods from virtually all trading partners.&nbsp;The high court is widely expected to deliver a decision in early 2026, the fund said.&nbsp;The strikedown of some duties would &quot;inject another dose of trade policy uncertainty into the global economy,&quot; Gourinchas added.&nbsp;One concern is how Trump could tap other legal authorities to reimpose tariffs. Another issue is how the court ruling would impact government revenues, and therefore fiscal policies, he added.&nbsp;Besides trade, the AI boom pushing the global economy forward comes with its own risks, Gourinchas said.&nbsp;He flagged the risk of a &quot;market correction&quot; if expectations about AI gains, productivity and profitability are not realized.&nbsp;A major catalyst of recent Wall Street stock records has been bullish sentiment about artificial intelligence.&nbsp;However, if growth due to AI turns out to be unrealistic, a big drop in the stock market -- a correction -- could damage the economy if consumers pull back.&nbsp;DivergenceThe pickup in tech investment and expenditure was estimated to add around 0.3 percentage points to average annualized US GDP growth in the first three quarters of 2025.&nbsp;This offset a drag from the lengthy government shutdown late in the year.&nbsp;Gourinchas noted the divergence between the United States -- which is seeing a jump in AI tech investment -- and other advanced economies.&nbsp;The IMF estimates US growth at 2.4 percent this year, 0.3 percentage points higher than predicted in October.&nbsp;In contrast, it expects euro area growth of 1.3 percent, and a slower pace in Japan.&nbsp;Growth in China and India is also &quot;relatively strong&quot; compared with other emerging markets, Gourinchas said.&nbsp;Most of the upward revision in global growth this time was accounted for by the United States and China, the IMF said.&nbsp;Looking ahead, Gourinchas stressed the need for central bank independence, so that they can pursue their mandate of price stability and financial stability.&nbsp;He did not comment on an ongoing US Justice Department probe into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.&nbsp;But he noted that the importance of the US dollar for the international monetary system means it is &quot;even more important&quot; the Fed is able to do its job and do it well.

IMF raised its 2026 global growth outlook to 3.3%, citing AI and tech investment resilience, but warned that renewed trade tensions, tariff uncertainty, or overestimated AI productivity could trigger market corrections and economic disruption globally.

Articles tagged with "AI"