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Friday, 23 January 2026

3Before9

3 must-know AI stories before your 9am coffee

Who should pay attention

AI leaders, founders, enterprise decision-makers, and teams deploying AI across Asia.

What changes next

Regulatory expectations tighten, infrastructure buildout accelerates, and enterprise AI governance matures.

1

South Korea enacts comprehensive AI regulation under new AI Basic Act

South Korea has implemented the AI Basic Act, a broad legal framework governing artificial intelligence that mandates human oversight for high-impact applications and clear labelling for generative AI outputs, with phased enforcement and support for compliance.

Why it matters for Asia

this is one of the first complete national AI regulatory frameworks in Asia, shaping expectations around safety, accountability, and innovation for domestic and foreign tech firms.

2

Singapore unveils agentic AI governance framework at Davos

Singapore has introduced a governance guide focused on AI agents, systems capable of autonomous action, outlining responsible deployment principles and human accountability requirements to mitigate risks from independent decision-making systems.

Why it matters for Asia

this framework sets Asia’s first targeted governance expectations for agentic AI, influencing risk practices across enterprises adopting autonomous systems.

3

Alibaba plans spinoff of AI chip unit T-Head amid rising chip demand

Alibaba Group is preparing to spin off its semiconductor unit T-Head for an independent listing, capitalising on strong domestic demand for AI chips and bolstering China’s homegrown semiconductor ecosystem.

Why it matters for Asia

a separate listing for T-Head could accelerate investment into AI-focused silicon development and alter competitive dynamics among Chinese and global chip makers.

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Recent Editions

Friday

6 March 2026

1.GPT-5.4 offers native computer use, achieving 75% on the OSWorld-Verified benchmark, surpassing human performance.
2.It boasts a 1 million token context window, direct integrations with Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets, and a 47% reduction in token usage for specific agentic tasks.
3.OpenAI’s new model matches or exceeds human professionals in 83% of 44 evaluated occupations, according to their GDPval benchmark.

Thursday

5 March 2026

1.Apple launched the MacBook Neo, a new budget-friendly laptop priced from $599, featuring the A18 Pro chip and a 13-inch Liquid Retina display.
2.OpenAI released GPT-5.3 Instant, an updated ChatGPT model designed to be less preachy, with reduced moralising and fewer conversational preambles.
3.This update also reportedly decreased hallucinations by 26.8% when utilising web search, suggesting an improvement in model accuracy and user experience.

Wednesday

4 March 2026

1.Anthropic's refusal to allow military use of its AI led to a US government ban, prompting industry-wide calls for ethical AI limits and boosting consumer support for Claude.
2.Apple is launching its most affordable Mac to date, powered by an A18 Pro chip, targeting students and emerging markets with a competitive price point and colourful designs.
3.NVIDIA invested $4 billion in photonics companies Lumentum and Coherent, securing critical supply for its next-generation data centre interconnects.

Tuesday

3 March 2026

1.Claude experienced a significant global outage yesterday, affecting various services including its app, Code, console, and government platforms.
2.Anthropic attributed the outage to "unprecedented demand" and confirmed that while the core enterprise API was mostly stable, some methods malfunctioned.
3.This incident highlights the critical need for enterprise AI buyers to implement robust failover strategies and consider multi-provider fallbacks to mitigate supply-side reliability risks.

Monday

2 March 2026

1.Vietnam has implemented a new AI Act, becoming the first Southeast Asian nation with a comprehensive regulatory framework for artificial intelligence.
2.The legislation, closely mirroring the EU AI Act, mandates human oversight for generative AI, requires deepfake labelling, and supports national AI infrastructure development.
3.Businesses operating in Vietnam must now comply with these new legal obligations, setting a potential precedent for other ASEAN countries to follow.

Friday

27 February 2026

1.Anthropic has refused the Pentagon's ultimatum to remove AI safeguards, citing concerns over autonomous weapons and mass surveillance.
2.The Pentagon threatens to use the Defense Production Act or blacklist Anthropic, while xAI has agreed to the government's terms.
3.Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S26, promoted as the first agentic AI smartphone, integrating three AI engines for autonomous multi-step task execution.