"Canada's AI strategy: A flawed approach"

The EU has launched a 1.1 billion euro plan to boost European AI sovereignty, which sounds ambitious but misses the core point. Politics does not need to invest itself, it needs to understand its role in creating the right conditions so that the private economy can take the lead. Without attractive and reliable frameworks that encourage real investment, this plan will remain more symbolic than transformative. Or am I wrong? For further reading: https://lnkd.in/ea_86ZCu #ArtificialIntelligence #AIAgents #EU #AI #GenAI

“…The project targets various industries, including healthcare and energy. It's a response to the perception that the EU is behind on AI…” https://lnkd.in/gbuEqbZa

Reflection AI's $2B Bet: America's Open Frontier Lab Takes on Global AI Giants Reflection AI, founded by ex-Google DeepMind veterans, just raised an astounding $2 billion, skyrocketing its valuation to $8 billion in under a year. The company's ambition? To become America’s open source beacon in frontier AI research, directly challenging established labs like OpenAI and Anthropic, as well as rival players in China such as DeepSeek. With a core team of 60 top-tier researchers and engineers, Reflection AI promises an open-access large-scale LLM training platform, blending cutting-edge tech with open intelligence ideals. What sets Reflection AI apart is its commitment to openness—releasing their model weights for public use while keeping certain parts of data and infrastructure proprietary, striking a balance between innovation and business viability. Their approach leverages advanced Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) architectures, once the exclusive domain of massive closed labs, aiming to democratize frontier AI capabilities. This mission also carries a nationalistic undertone; leaders like CEO Misha Laskin emphasize the risk of ceding leadership in global AI intelligence if the U.S. doesn’t step up its game against China’s growing open-source breakthroughs. Beyond technology, Reflection AI’s model targets enterprise and government users who demand control, customizability, and sovereignty — a growing need given legal and ethical concerns around foreign AI models. The business model foresees free research use but monetizes large-scale commercial and sovereign deployments, embodying a strategic hybrid of openness and enterprise pragmatism. As the company plans to release its first powerful frontier language model next year, stakeholders including Nvidia, Sequoia, and Citi are betting heavily on this new chapter for American AI innovation. A bold move that could reshape the AI landscape — and America’s role in it. #AIInnovation #OpenSourceAI #FrontierAI

EU Launches $1.1B Plan to Jumpstart European AI Sovereignty: The project targets various industries, including healthcare and energy. It's a response to the perception that the EU is behind on AI.

Sweden is running a national experiment in AI, offering free access to AI tools at a population level in the hope of boosting its economy and tech literacy.

**🚀 AI funding just hit warp speed - $2B rounds are becoming the new normal!** • **Reflection AI raises $2B at $8B valuation** - Ex-Google DeepMind researchers (who built Gemini and AlphaGo) just secured massive funding to challenge Chinese AI dominance. The startup jumped 15x in valuation from $545M just 7 months ago, positioning itself as America's answer to DeepSeek and other Chinese models. They're planning to release a frontier language model next year trained on "tens of trillions of tokens" with backing from Nvidia, Sequoia, and DST. This isn't just about money - it's about AI sovereignty and who controls the future of intelligence. https://lnkd.in/ePKCygan The AI arms race is intensifying with geopolitical undertones. American companies are racing to maintain their edge while Chinese models like DeepSeek prove that innovation knows no borders. The question isn't just about technology anymore - it's about which nation's AI will shape our future. What do you think: Can American AI companies maintain their technological leadership, or will we see a more distributed global AI landscape? If you are interested in UK specific AI connections and events, please subscribe to this chat group https://lnkd.in/erbc4Ux2 #AI #GenAI #ReflectionAI #Nvidia #OpenAI #DeepSeek #Google #Sequoia #ArtificialIntelligence #TechFunding #AIStartups #Innovation #TechNews

The AI arms race just got real. 🚀 Reflection AI—founded by the brilliant minds behind Google's AlphaGo—just raised a staggering $2 billion at an $8 billion valuation. That's a 15x jump in just 7 months. Let that sink in. But here's what makes this different: 🎯 They're not just another AI startup. This is America's strategic response to Chinese AI dominance, specifically targeting labs like DeepSeek. 🧠 The founding team? Misha Laskin (Gemini reward modeling) and Ioannis Antonoglou (AlphaGo co-creator). These aren't just researchers—they're the architects of AI breakthroughs that changed the world. 💪 60 top-tier AI researchers. Massive compute resources. Backing from Nvidia, Sequoia, and Eric Schmidt. Their mission: Build open-source frontier AI models that can compete head-to-head with OpenAI and Anthropic. Here's why this matters for every business leader: ✅ Open-source AI democratizes access to cutting-edge technology ✅ Competition drives innovation faster than monopolies ✅ Geopolitical AI leadership is becoming a national security issue The next frontier language model they're building will be trained on "tens of trillions of tokens"—that's unprecedented scale. We're witnessing the birth of AI's next chapter. The question isn't whether AI will transform your industry—it's whether you'll be ready when it does. What's your take on the AI arms race? Are we moving too fast, or not fast enough? #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #TechNews #Innovation #Startups #VentureCapital #OpenSource #DeepLearning #MachineLearning #TechLeadership #DigitalTransformation #FutureOfWork

AI has outgrown the lab — it’s now an industry. ⚙️🤖 Nathan Benaich’s State of AI 2025 report captures the new reality: 🌍 AI power is concentrating — the biggest breakthroughs now come from billion-dollar compute clusters. 🇨🇳 China is catching up fast, launching open-weight models that rival the West. 🧠 AI agents are multiplying, coordinating tasks across software like early digital employees. ⚠️ Yet AI safety funding remains a rounding error next to infrastructure spend. We’ve entered the compute-industrial age — where capital, talent, and national strategy collide. The question isn’t what AI can do, but who controls the means to do it. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/g5FPeCv9 #AI #Geopolitics #Innovation #Leadership #StateofAI

Sakana AI is in discussions to raise $100 million at a $2.5 billion valuation. The Tokyo-based AI developer plans to use the funds to expand its engineering and sales teams. The company has already secured deals with major Japanese financial institutions. Founded by former Google researchers, Sakana AI aims to develop AI inspired by natural evolution, differing from the transformer architecture used by companies like OpenAI. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eYuNHD4W 📰 Subscribe to the Daily AI Brief: https://lnkd.in/epHYTU3i #ai #artificialintelligence #ainews #aifunding