QtrendsByteDance and Alibaba disable AI agents amid energy and safety concerns
ByteDance and Alibaba have disabled AI agents in China, citing concerns over energy consumption and operational safety. New research suggests AI agents could consume over a hundred times more energy than standard AI inference. Meanwhile, ByteDance researchers report discovering a new scaling law that could sustain the AI boom by measuring agent improvement through real-world task performance. The broader industry is beginning to shift from AI experimentation toward wider deployment.
Sources:
AI experimentation moving to wider industry deployment
(China Daily)
AI’s energy tax was already concerning. Research says AI agents are over hundred times worse
(Digital Trends)
AI agents are not your “coworkers”
(MIT Review)
A growing chorus of experts argues that current AI systems are 'not smart' in any meaningful sense, prompting questions about what comes next in artificial intelligence. Early research results suggest that reliance on AI tools is eroding core human skills rather than augmenting them. However, studies also show that AI's success in strategic games like Go is inspiring humans to become better players themselves, revealing a more nuanced picture.
Chinese memory module giant Longsys reported first-half net profit could jump more than 600-fold to up to 11 billion yuan, driven by strong demand and tight global wafer supply. Separately, robotics company Unitree plans an IPO that could raise 4.2 billion yuan, testing investor appetite in the robotics sector amid a flood of venture capital. Beijing's first government-backed token factory has also reached a daily output of 1.4 trillion tokens.
Alibaba has classified Anthropic's Claude Code as a 'high-risk' tool and banned its internal use after discovering hidden code that tracked Chinese users. The move marks a significant escalation in corporate cybersecurity as Chinese tech firms tighten controls over AI coding assistants. TechCrunch confirmed the ban, which also reflects growing tensions between Chinese tech giants and US-based AI companies.
Sony has confirmed it will stop releasing PlayStation games on physical discs starting in 2028, marking a historic shift to all-digital distribution. The company said it will still manufacture discs for games released before that date. The decision signals the final phase of the transition from physical media to digital downloads in the console gaming industry.