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AI in ASIA
Thursday, 5 March 2026

3Before9

3 must-know AI stories before your 9am coffee

Who should pay attention

Students | Educators | Small Business Owners | AI Developers

What changes next

The AI model quality and trust race will intensify.

1

Apple's MacBook Neo Is Real, and It's $599

Apple officially announced the MacBook Neo yesterday at its Special Experience event in New York, London and Shanghai. The name leaked a day early in regulatory filings, but the details are now confirmed: A18 Pro chip (the same one in iPhone 16 Pro), 13-inch Liquid Retina display, 8GB RAM, 16-hour battery life, and four colours: Silver, Blush, Citrus, and Indigo. Base price is $599 with 256GB storage, or $699 for 512GB and Touch ID. Education pricing starts at $499. Pre-orders are live now, with shipping from March 11.

Why it matters for Asia

At $400 less than the MacBook Air, this is the Mac Apple has never been willing to build before. For Southeast Asia, where Chromebooks and budget Windows machines dominate classrooms and SME desks, this is a genuine category disruptor. Every MacBook Neo runs Apple Intelligence on-device. The on-device AI conversation in schools and small businesses just got a lot more affordable.

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2

OpenAI Ships a Less Preachy ChatGPT

OpenAI released GPT-5.3 Instant on Tuesday, an update to its most-used model focused on something most users have complained about for months: tone. The previous version would open responses with "Stop. Take a breath." and similar phrases that derailed conversations. The new model cuts unnecessary caveats, reduces moralising preambles, and reportedly brings hallucinations down 26.8% when using web search. Available to all ChatGPT users now. OpenAI then immediately teased GPT-5.4 with a single post: "5.4 sooner than you think."

Why it matters for Asia

OpenAI is accelerating its iteration cycle under real competitive pressure. The week's Anthropic drama sent Claude to the top of global app store charts, and ChatGPT uninstalls spiked 295% after the Pentagon deal backlash. The model quality race is now also a trust race, and OpenAI knows it.

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3

The Anthropic Fallout Is Getting Wider

Defence tech companies are now actively telling employees to stop using Claude following the Pentagon blacklist. Ten portfolio companies at defence-focused VC firm J2 Ventures have already dropped Claude for government use cases. Palantir, which counts on government contracts for 60% of its US revenue and embedded Claude into classified networks, is under pressure to migrate. Meanwhile Congressional Democrats and at least one Republican senator have called the whole episode "sophomoric," with Senator Ron Wyden pledging to "pull out all the stops" to fight back and seek bipartisan legislation.

Why it matters for Asia

This is no longer just a US story. Any Asian enterprise with exposure to US defence supply chains, or using Claude as a core AI dependency, is watching a live test of what AI governance looks like when a government decides to make an example. The precedent being set this week will shape how AI contracts are written in boardrooms across the region.

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Recent Editions

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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Thursday

26 February 2026

  • 1.Nvidia reported Q4 FY2026 revenue of $68.1 billion, a 73% year-on-year increase, driven largely by its Data Centre division.
  • 2.ByteDance's new AI video model, Seedance 2.0, is generating hyper-realistic celebrity videos, causing intellectual property disputes with Hollywood studios.
  • 3.Google and Sea Ltd are collaborating to build an agentic AI shopping prototype for Shopee, aiming to automate product discovery and transactions.
Read edition

Wednesday

25 February 2026

  • 1.Nvidia reports Q4 earnings today with high anticipation around Blackwell chip demand, China sales, and the next-gen Rubin architecture amidst significant AI infrastructure spending.
  • 2.ByteDance's new AI video model, Seedance 2.0, is generating hyper-realistic celebrity clips, causing anxiety in Hollywood regarding China's rapid AI advancements in creative fields.
  • 3.Google and Sea are partnering to develop an agentic AI shopping prototype for Shopee, aiming to automate product discovery and transactions across their platforms in Southeast Asia.
Read edition