AI Journal 178th Edition

Your weekly edge in the world of artificial intelligence.

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AI Journal
September 12, 2025

Today’s Highlights

Equifax Launches AI Innovation Lab in Wexford to Drive Financial Inclusion

Equifax has opened its AI Innovation Lab in Wexford, Ireland, expanding global R&D in credit risk, fraud detection, and data-driven solutions. Supported by IDA Ireland, the facility strengthens Equifax’s EFX.AI strategy, empowering financial institutions with advanced AI tools to enhance decision-making, improve consumer access, and promote financial inclusion worldwide.

OpenAI Projects $115B Cash Burn Amid Chip Push and Cloud Expansion

OpenAI has sharply increased its projected spending, aiming to develop proprietary AI chips with Broadcom and expand data center capacity with Oracle and Google Cloud. The company now expects a total cash burn of $115 billion through 2029, with yearly costs rising from $17 billion in 2026 to $45 billion by 2028.

China Accelerates AI Adoption with Strategy, Ethics, and Regulation

China advances its AI agenda with the "AI Plus" plan, targeting 90% sector adoption by 2030. Major investments from Alibaba, Tencent, and DeepSeek, alongside ethics rules and mandatory AI labeling, aim to ensure accountability, fairness, and transparency. Non-compliance may trigger fines, business suspension, or criminal liability.

AI is Redefining Software Engineering: Mastering the Future of Intelligent Development

Harsh Varshney highlights how AI is transforming software engineering, enabling faster workflows and smarter applications. Engineers must now master AI, machine learning, and data science to innovate, solve complex problems, and create impactful products. Success lies in combining AI as a tool and building intelligent systems from start to finish.

ByteDance Unveils Seedream 4.0 to Challenge Google’s AI Image Tools

ByteDance has launched Seedream 4.0, an AI image-generation tool positioned against Google’s Gemini 2.5 Flash Image. Combining text-to-image and editing features, it delivers faster inference, cheaper pricing, and improved accuracy. Available in China and on Volcano Engine, Seedream 4.0 underscores ByteDance’s push into the competitive global generative media market.

AI Funding

  • Penguin Ai, a healthcare AI startup, raised $29.7M led by Greycroft to expand hiring, product development, and deployments. Its generative AI platform streamlines administrative workflows, cutting costs and boosting efficiency for payers and providers, enabling greater focus on patient care. Link

  • Perplexity, the AI search startup rivaling Google, raised $200M at a $20B valuation, boosting total funding to $1.5B. With ARR nearing $200M, Perplexity strengthens its market position despite Google’s continued dominance after avoiding a forced Chrome divestiture. Link

  • Klaar, a San Francisco-based AI-powered performance management platform, launched in the U.S. with $5M Series A led by Prime VP. The funding will scale U.S. growth, expand its India AI hub, and transform performance management with predictive, unbiased, and actionable insights. Link

Interesting Posts

Oracle’s stock surged 40%, making Larry Ellison the world’s richest, fueled by bold AI-driven growth projections tied to OpenAI—though risks loom over sustainability, cash burn, and echoes of the dot-com bubble

Three ex-Google X scientists launched TwinMind, an AI app that acts as a virtual second brain by passively capturing background audio to create notes, to-dos, and context-aware answers. It raised $5.7M seed funding.

Wearable Devices Secures U.S. Patent for Breakthrough Gesture and Voice-Control Technology with Biometric Authentication, Enhancing Natural, Secure Human-Machine Interaction and Strengthening Leadership in AI Wearables Market

OECD to launch "Governing with Artificial Intelligence" report on September 18, showcasing 200 global AI use cases in government, highlighting opportunities, risks, safeguards, and strategies for trustworthy, effective AI governance

AI Journal Podcast

Stay ahead in the AI revolution with AI Journal Podcast — your thrice-weekly dose of insights, breakthroughs, and future trends.

AI Tools

Auris AI offers free AI-driven audio/video transcription, translation, and subtitling with multi-language support to boost content accessibility

Laxiz streamlines sales workflow with AI-powered lead generation, automated meeting transcription, and CRM integration for sales teams.

2short.ai automatically converts long YouTube videos into engaging, branded short clips with animated subtitles, perfect for social platforms.

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That’s a wrap for this week’s AI insights! Stay curious, stay informed, and don’t forget next Friday brings more breakthroughs your way

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