Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s declaration that artificial general intelligence (AGI) has arrived following the release of OpenAI’s latest model, Astra, has ignited debate over whether AI’s holy grail is now reality. As China races to close the gap with the US, leading Chinese AI companies are declaring their ambitions to pursue AGI, even as Beijing appears to maintain a cautious stance towards the concept. Here is a primer on what AGI means, where top Chinese AI developers stand, and how Chinese...

US President Donald Trump lands in Ireland under tight security on Saturday for two days of diplomacy and golf, on a trip that again blurs the lines between his presidency and personal business interests. At least 4,000 police and other personnel, including snipers, have been mobilised for the visit, in what has been dubbed one of the biggest security operations ever mounted in Ireland. Trump spoke briefly to reporters on the tarmac ahead of his flight to Dublin saying “we’re having a lot of...

US health authorities on Friday declared the ⁠nation’s largest recorded cyclosporiasis outbreak ⁠over, after contaminated iceberg lettuce sickened thousands, though ⁠the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it was still investigating how the parasite entered the food supply. The outbreak, which federal investigators linked to lettuce from central Mexico sourced by Taylor Farms, prompted one of the largest food recalls in recent years and renewed scrutiny of food-safety controls for imported...

A two-hour commute for a 14km (8.7-mile) journey. For Julius Dalay and millions of other Filipinos, this is just how public transport works in Manila: a mishmash of jeepneys, trains and buses that commuters are left to figure out for themselves. Dalay, an environmental planner, is resigned to the chaos. Reaching his destination usually involves hailing a jeepney, then cramming into a packed train and enduring a slow bus crawl along the capital’s main thoroughfares. “You either wait the jeepney...

Leaders from some of the world’s largest emerging economies are gathering in New Delhi this weekend for a summit marking the 20th anniversary of Brics, a fast-expanding group of developing nations. Chinese President Xi Jinping, along with his Russian and Iranian counterparts Vladimir Putin and Masoud Pezeshkian, are among those meeting in the Indian capital for one of the group’s most closely watched gatherings in years. Brics can point to some achievements over that time, with analysts...

The death of Tung Chee-hwa at age 89 has prompted a necessary reckoning with the legacy of Hong Kong’s first chief executive. Two decades after his resignation, the question endures: was Tung a hapless administrator overwhelmed by crisis, or a prescient leader constrained by circumstance and an unforgiving political environment? The contrasting assessments of political scientist Sonny Lo Shiu-hing and former Central Policy Unit head Lau Siu-kai frame this debate sharply. Their divergent analyses...

A teenage girl in mainland China travelled to Hong Kong to attend a concert of her idol, resulting in her family losing their government living allowances due to her actions being classified as a form of “high-end consumption.” This incident has sparked intense debate in China and has divided public opinion since it was reported by the mainland news portal, The Cover. According to a social media post shared by the girl’s cousin in early September, the girl is a technical secondary school student...