NEWS YOU CAN’T MISS

Saudi Arabia Brings OpenAI to Its Shores

Saudi Arabia has just brought OpenAI’s most advanced open-source models fully onshore, thanks to a new deployment by Saudi AI company HUMAIN.

HUMAIN is a Saudi company backed by the Public Investment Fund, the Kingdom’s $900+ billion sovereign wealth fund, which focuses on building AI infrastructure. Think of HUMAIN as the tech backbone that allows Saudi Arabia to run powerful AI systems without relying on foreign servers.

With their latest project, HUMAIN has brought two of OpenAI’s advanced models into Saudi-based data centers. This means all data stays inside the country, and the models can respond, analyze, and reason in real time.

Why this matters: when most people use tools like ChatGPT, their prompts travel to servers in another country. The model processes it there, then sends a response back. This means slower speeds and less control over how your data is handled.

But Saudi Arabia is doing it differently. Everything (from the input to the AI’s output) now happens locally.

The models run on Groq, a US-based AI company building ultra-fast processors for large-scale AI. Saudi Arabia invested $1.5 billion to develop its Groq infrastructure, including a data center in the city of Dammam, bringing the capability fully onshore.

This move is part of a global shift to “Sovereign AI,” where nations control their own AI infrastructure. For Saudi Arabia, it’s a big step toward tech independence in a field vital to education and security.

Meta’s New Interview Test: Vibe Coding

Meta is shaking up the job interview process by letting some coding candidates “cheat” on their tests using AI.

The company says it wants interviews to feel more like real work, where many engineers already use tools such as ChatGPT or GitHub Copilot. In trials with volunteers, the aim is to see who can actually use these tools effectively. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has even said that most of Meta’s code will soon be written by AI.

Now imagine the same approach in law: trainee lawyers using an AI assistant like Harvey during their job interviews. 🤔

Back in the coding world, critics warn that over-reliance on AI could create developers who can’t fix the mistakes their AI makes. Some call this vibe coding — when programmers lean on AI suggestions without fully understanding the code. What do you think?

Meet Akanksha Jagwani & Avni Agrawal, co-founders of SixSense

Celebrating this week’s Women in Tech 🥳: Meet Akanksha Jagwani & Avni Agrawal, the duo behind SixSense - a Singapore-based tech startup using AI to improve how computer chips are made.

Founded in 2018, SixSense helps detect and predict tiny defects in computer chips, cutting manual inspection work by up to 90%. The company just raised $8.5M in Series A funding.

Akanksha Jagwani is the company’s CEO. She studied Mechanical Engineering at IIT Gandhinagar, where she made the Dean’s List. Her early career included engineering roles at Altair and leadership positions at startups like Embibe and Headout, where she built automation tools.

Avni Agrawal is SixSense’s CTO. A Computer Science graduate from Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, she previously worked at D.E. Shaw and Visa, building large-scale analytics systems - some later patented as trade secrets.

Jagwani and Agrawal started SixSense after noticing a big gap in chip manufacturing: most factories were still carrying out quality checks manually. This meant defects were often missed, slowing things down and hurting quality.

The two created an easy-to-use AI platform that helps factory engineers spot and sort defects using images from the production line - no coding needed.

The platform is now used by major chipmakers like GlobalFoundries and JCET, and has scanned over 100 million chips. Factories using SixSense have seen production move up to 30% faster and with fewer mistakes. 😎

AI Around The World:

In Brazil, AI startup OmniChat has raised $9M to grow Whizz, its no-code tool that lets businesses create AI-powered sales agents for WhatsApp. Unlike traditional bots, the agents can lead full sales conversations with a human touch. OmniChat’s clients already include big names like Acer and Decathlon.

In the US, Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam has raised $100M for his new brain interface startup, Nudge. Its first product is a headband-style device that uses ultrasound to gently alter brain activity, without surgery or lasting effects, according to the company. Ehrsam says it could help people think more clearly or focus better.

In Germany, AI startup n8n has seen its valuation skyrocket from $350M to $2.3B in just 4 months. Known for its low-code automation platform, n8n lets users build automated workflows without needing to code. It's positioned as an open-source alternative to tools like Zapier, and is seeing a lot of demand as businesses seek more flexible solutions.