Category: Biz Tech

Mayo Clinic Platform is positioning the Gulf as a proving ground for a new generation of data-driven healthcare, with its chief operating officer Maneesh Goyal outlining plans to expand the organisation’s digital ecosystem and deploy two flagship offerings, Orchestrate and Insights, across the region. Speaking on the sidelines of World Health Expo Dubai 2026, Goyal said the future of medicine will be shaped less by individual hospitals and more by interoperable platforms that connect providers, researchers and technology companies. He described

Abu Dhabi-based artificial intelligence firm Origen has raised $50 million from Bluefive Capital, marking one of the larger disclosed growth investments in the emirate’s emerging AI ecosystem and signalling fresh momentum for technology ventures anchored in the Gulf. The funding, confirmed by both companies, will be directed towards expanding Origen’s operations, deepening research and development capabilities, and accelerating commercial deployments across the Middle East and other target markets. Executives described the capital injection as a strategic partnership rather than a purely

OpenClaw, a widely used open-source autonomous AI assistant, has pushed out version 2026.2.17 with expanded capabilities that include support for Anthropic’s latest Claude Sonnet 4.6 model and enhancements across messaging platforms and automation workflows. The update, made available by lead developer Peter Steinberger on February 17, 2026, was designed to address user demand for broader model integration and improved context handling, but it arrives as the software grapples with intensifying scrutiny over critical security vulnerabilities and malware targeting its ecosystem.

  An Iraqi-Emirati consortium is advancing plans for a $700 million subsea and terrestrial data cable connecting the United Arab Emirates to Turkey through Iraq, signalling intensifying competition among Gulf states to dominate regional digital infrastructure. One of the project’s backers confirmed that the system would run from the UAE across Iraqi territory before linking into Turkey’s networks, providing a new high-capacity route between the Gulf and Europe. The proposal emerges days after a Saudi-backed fibre-optic initiative was unveiled in Syria, underscoring

Apple has rolled out a new feature in its latest iOS developer beta that allows users to generate customised Apple Music playlists using a simple text prompt, marking a deeper push into artificial intelligence-driven music curation. Called Playlist Playground within the beta software, the tool enables subscribers to type short descriptions such as “upbeat electronic for a late-night drive” or “soft acoustic tracks for Sunday morning” and receive an automatically generated playlist tailored to that request. The feature builds on Apple’s

Krea, a San Francisco-based technology startup, has locked in a total of $83 million in funding aimed at building a unified generative AI platform for designers, artists and creative teams grappling with a fragmented ecosystem of AI tools. The venture round, which includes a $47 million Series B led by Bain Capital Ventures, now values the company at about $500 million and underscores growing investor confidence in tools that simplify AI-assisted workflows. The startup’s platform brings together over 2,500 generative

Automattic has introduced an expansive artificial intelligence assistant for WordPress. com, enabling users to edit text, generate images and reshape site designs through conversational prompts, marking a decisive turn in how websites are created and maintained. The new assistant, embedded directly within the WordPress. com interface, allows publishers and businesses to instruct the platform in plain language to draft blog posts, refine copy, adjust layouts, alter colour palettes and produce graphics. Company executives describe the rollout as a foundational shift rather

WordPress. com has unveiled a powerful artificial intelligence assistant that allows users to build, edit and redesign websites simply by issuing natural language commands, a move that could redefine how millions of sites are created and managed on the platform. The new feature, integrated directly into WordPress. com’s site editor and Media Library, enables users to adjust a site’s layout, alter styling, generate and edit images, translate text and refine content without writing code. By lowering the technical barriers traditionally

Microsoft has completed the global rollout of a new AI Workflows feature within the Teams Workflows app that uses Microsoft 365 Copilot to help users automate complex tasks and daily operations, marking a significant advance in intelligent productivity tools for organisations worldwide. Users with Microsoft 365 Copilot licences can now access preset workflow templates that harness scheduled Copilot prompts to handle repetitive actions like project summaries, data monitoring, report generation and task reminders without manual intervention. This automation arrives amid

Mozilla has issued an emergency update to its Firefox browser to address a critical heap buffer overflow vulnerability in the libvpx video codec library, urging users and organisations to apply the patch without delay. The fix, delivered through version 147.0.4 of Firefox and corresponding patches for the Extended Support Release branches, closes a flaw tracked as CVE-2026-2447 that could be exploited without user interaction on vulnerable builds of the browser and related products. The vulnerability resides in the libvpx

ByteDance is said to be in advanced negotiations to sell Shanghai-based game developer Moonton Technology — the studio behind Mobile Legends: Bang Bang — to the Saudi-backed Savvy Games Group in a transaction valued at between $6 billion and $7 billion, with talks progressing toward a possible deal this quarter. Both parties have reportedly agreed on broad commercial terms, marking a significant shift in ByteDance’s strategy and a major acquisition push for Savvy. Moonton, founded in 2014 and headquartered in

Anthropic has enabled its Claude artificial intelligence system to edit files directly within software development environments, marking a significant escalation in the race to build autonomous coding agents capable of handling complex engineering tasks with limited human intervention. The capability allows Claude to read, modify and write code across structured repositories, moving beyond code suggestions in chat windows to targeted alterations inside live projects. Developers can grant the model scoped permissions to adjust specific files, generate patches and refactor segments of

Zilliz has launched a new Zilliz Cloud region in Amazon Web Services’ eu-west-1 data centre in Ireland, expanding its European infrastructure as demand for localised artificial intelligence systems accelerates across Western Europe and the United Kingdom. The move positions the vector database specialist closer to enterprise customers that require data residency, lower latency and regulatory compliance within the European Union. By deploying in AWS’s Ireland region, Zilliz is targeting organisations building AI applications in sectors such as finance, healthcare, retail and

Cyber security researchers are warning that built-in “Summarise with AI” buttons and AI-generated share links are being exploited to covertly plant malicious instructions inside artificial intelligence assistants, creating a new class of threat capable of distorting recommendations on health, finance and security matters. The technique, described by Microsoft as “AI recommendation poisoning”, centres on prompt injection attacks that subtly bias what large language models treat as trusted sources or preferred guidance. By embedding hidden directives in web content that is later

Anthropic has entered a dispute with the United States Department of Defense over the proposed military use of its flagship artificial intelligence system, Claude, underscoring a widening rift between Silicon Valley’s safety-first rhetoric and Washington’s expanding appetite for advanced AI in national security. The San Francisco-based company, founded in 2021 by former OpenAI researchers including chief executive Dario Amodei and president Daniela Amodei, has built its brand around “constitutional AI”, a framework designed to embed ethical constraints into large language models.

JSW MG Motor, the automotive joint venture backed by China’s SAIC Motor and the Mumbai-based JSW Group, has announced plans to invest up to $440 million to scale up manufacturing capacity in India and accelerate its product lineup towards hybrid and electric vehicles. The company aims to lift annual output to 300,000 units from about 120,000 at its Halol, Gujarat plant while rolling out three to four new models focused on new-energy platforms. The investment, which Managing Director Anurag Mehrotra says

China has unveiled an artificial intelligence-powered vehicle inspection system capable of scanning more than 1,000 functions within three hours, a move officials say could reshape quality control standards across the automotive sector and accelerate the country’s push towards smart manufacturing. Developed as part of a broader national drive to integrate advanced computing into industrial processes, the system combines machine vision, real-time diagnostics and automated performance testing to conduct comprehensive checks on new vehicles before they leave the factory floor. Engineers involved

Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses have been thrust into a privacy storm after two Harvard students demonstrated how the device can be modified to identify strangers in real time and pull up personal information, raising fresh concerns about how wearable technology intersects with facial recognition. The students, who detailed their experiment publicly, created a system they called I-XRAY, linking Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses to facial recognition software and publicly accessible data sources. By capturing images of people in public spaces and running

Siemens has completed the purchase of Canopus AI, a Grenoble-based specialist in artificial intelligence-driven metrology and inspection software, signalling an intensified push into semiconductor manufacturing software as device geometries shrink and production volumes grow. The acquisition, announced on 4 February and finalised on 12 January, brings AI-enhanced wafer and mask measurement capabilities into Siemens’ electronic design automation portfolio, aimed at helping chipmakers achieve higher precision and manufacturing efficiency at advanced nodes. Siemens said integrating Canopus AI’s tools with its

OpenClaw, the open-source autonomous AI agent framework that has attracted both widespread interest and intense scrutiny, has rolled out version 2026.2.12, a major update that resolves over 40 security flaws and strengthens core components of the platform. The release aims to address an array of risks—from remote code execution exposures to prompt-injection weaknesses—that researchers and operators have flagged as critical for safe deployment of agentic AI systems. Developed by Peter Steinberger and gaining rapid traction since its launch in November 2025

OpenAI has launched GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark, an ultra-fast version of its coding artificial intelligence that runs on specialised hardware from Cerebras Systems, marking its first major production deployment outside of the long-dominant Nvidia-based infrastructure. The Codex-Spark release delivers more than 1,000 tokens per second in interactive coding workflows, designed to give developers near-instant responsiveness for editing and iterative tasks while maintaining competitive capabilities for real-world software development. The debut of Codex-Spark follows the announcement earlier this year of a multi-year collaboration between OpenAI

Microsoft has unveiled a new security feature in Windows 11 that fundamentally alters how administrator privileges operate on personal computers, signalling a decisive shift in the company’s approach to endpoint protection. The feature, known as Administrator Protection, removes persistent administrative rights from user accounts and replaces them with a tightly controlled, task-based elevation model. Instead of granting broad and continuous access to system-level controls, Windows 11 now isolates elevated privileges and requires explicit approval — typically through Windows Hello biometric authentication

A wave of stress signs emerging across the global private credit market is prompting closer scrutiny from investors and analysts, with covenant defaults climbing, leverage rising and slowing earnings growth among private companies shaping the outlook for direct lenders and credit managers. Recent proprietary data from valuation specialists and market trackers show covenant default rates creeping higher compared with historical averages, while a combination of weaker cash flow performance and elevated leverage is increasingly visible across segments of the private

ServerDirect has finalised a €25 million enterprise artificial intelligence infrastructure deployment, marking one of the largest projects in its portfolio and underscoring Europe’s accelerating investment in high-performance computing for corporate AI workloads. The Netherlands-based systems integrator said the project, delivered in partnership with Super Micro Computer, widely known as Supermicro, involved the design, supply and commissioning of advanced GPU-accelerated servers and supporting data centre architecture for a large enterprise client. The installation is aimed at supporting large language models, data analytics

Construction of the first 200 megawatts of the Stargate Data Centre project in the UAE is advancing, according to ALEC Holdings, as structural works near completion and major mechanical and electrical installations gather pace. ALEC, a subsidiary of the Investment Corporation of Dubai, informed the Dubai Financial Market that building structures have been erected and that mechanical, electrical and plumbing works are well under way. The update places the Stargate scheme among the most significant data centre developments currently under execution

Security analysts have uncovered a network of 287 Google Chrome browser extensions that siphon off users’ browsing data and send it to external servers, collectively installed on roughly 37.4 million devices worldwide. The discovery has alarmed privacy advocates and highlights ongoing weaknesses in browser extension marketplaces that allow ostensibly benign add-ons to conduct intrusive data collection without clear disclosure. This emergent threat comes amid broader scrutiny of how browser extensions are vetted and monitored, raising questions about user protection and

Nile has entered a strategic partnership with Truecaller aimed at reinforcing consumer confidence and reducing fraud across Egypt’s fast-growing digital economy, as businesses face mounting pressure to prove the authenticity of their communications. The collaboration is designed to allow companies using Nile’s financial and digital services platform to verify their outbound calls and messages through Truecaller’s caller identification and business verification tools. By displaying verified brand information to recipients, the companies say they will enable customers to distinguish legitimate outreach from

Apple has secured a patent outlining a flexible database architecture that could alter the direction of its productivity and data management software, including FileMaker and the iWork suite, while signalling a more assertive move into structured enterprise data. The patent, published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, describes a system capable of handling dynamic schemas, varied data types and adaptive query mechanisms. Rather than relying on rigid, predefined database structures, the design allows fields and relationships to evolve as

OpenAI has confirmed that its first consumer hardware device will not be shipped to customers before the end of February 2027 and that the company will not use the disputed “io” name for the product, according to court filings related to an ongoing trademark lawsuit. OpenAI’s vice-president and general manager, Peter Welinder, told the court that the company had reassessed its product-naming strategy and decided against any use of “io” or “IYO” in the branding, marketing or sale of its

Activist investor Ancora Holdings Group has called on the board of Warner Bros. Discovery to reject Netflix’s proposed takeover and re-engage with a rival approach from Paramount Skydance, intensifying a high-stakes battle over the future of one of Hollywood’s largest studios and streaming operators. In a letter to directors, Ancora argued that Netflix’s agreed transaction, valued at about $82.7 billion on an enterprise basis, undervalues Warner Bros. Discovery’s film library, premium television assets and global sports rights. The hedge fund urged

By Anton Sparinapti, Partner at Flametree Across the MENA region, the SME landscape is shifting at a fast pace. Traditional chatbots leave, instead AI Agents start doing actual work: instantly respond, qualify requests, collect structured data and hand it off to humans with a natural context. The human and AI collaboration results in impressive outcomes - fast responses, high lead capture rates and improved CX - helping businesses increase product usage by about 15% in the first month, while lowering operational

Amazon has outlined plans to channel up to $200 billion into artificial intelligence-focused data centres, networking and custom silicon through 2026, a scale of spending that would rank among the largest infrastructure pushes ever undertaken by a technology company. The investment, disclosed across earnings briefings and regulatory filings, is aimed at expanding Amazon Web Services capacity as customers accelerate the deployment of generative AI models and data-intensive workloads. Executives have framed the outlay as a multi-year commitment rather than a single

A courtroom in Santa Fe has become the focal point of a high-stakes test of whether a social media company can be held liable for product design choices that prosecutors say enabled the sexual exploitation of minors. New Mexico’s civil case against Meta Platforms has reached trial, marking the first time a US state attorney general’s action over child safety on a major platform has been argued in open court. The lawsuit alleges that Meta’s Instagram and Facebook products were engineered

Hundreds of thousands of users of AI aggregator OmniGPT have had their private conversations and uploaded files exposed after a large-scale data breach that security researchers say left sensitive information openly accessible and later circulated on dark web forums. The incident has intensified scrutiny of third-party platforms that bundle access to multiple AI models while handling large volumes of personal data. Investigations by independent cybersecurity analysts indicate that roughly 300,000 users were affected, with about 300 million chat messages, prompts, and