The WTO has raised its 2026 forecast for global merchandise trade growth to 3.9%, driven by AI-related goods. These goods make up 14.8% of trade but 47% of its growth in value in the first half, with Asia dominating and Europe’s export share small.
InstaDeep, founded in Tunis in 2014, was bought by BioNTech in 2023 for up to £562 million, the largest acquisition of an African startup. It has since become the group’s AI engine, with the Kyber supercomputer and genomic models such as Nucleotide Transformer.
AI is now involved in every step of holiday planning, from inspiration to booking, and hotels, agencies and destinations are trying to adapt. Le Monde notes the questions it raises about errors, standardization, jobs and environmental cost.
A drop in visits to news sites in September has heightened publishers’ concerns about the rise of AI, particularly Google’s AI Overviews in search.
Olivia Moore of venture firm a16z sees a large opportunity in consumer AI. She says it depends on finding revenue beyond subscriptions and API fees.
Startup Instinct launched its AI agent in August with an invite-only approach and almost no marketing, and it quickly drew praise for its text-message interface. The Verge asks whether it can withstand competition from Muse.