Improvements to a number of Apple services - including a more personalised version of its virtual assistant, Siri - are to be powered with AI provided by Google. The tech giants have announced a multi-year collaboration which will see the iPhone-maker base some of its key tech on Google's Gemini AI models. In a joint statement, the two firms said the partnership would unlock innovative new experiences for Apple users. However, experts say it demonstrates how Apple's cautious approach to building and rolling out its own AI tools has left it reliant on other companies. By outsourcing the foundational layer of its AI to Google, Apple is effectively admitting that its internal efforts couldn't compete with Google's Gemini in terms of capability and scale in the short term, IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo said.

In a joint statement, bodies representing thousands of creatives dismissed the proposal made by ministers on Tuesday that would allow companies such as Open AI, Google and Meta to train their AI systems on published works unless their owners actively opt out. The coalition includes the British Phonographic Industry, the Independent Society of Musicians, the Motion Picture Association and the Society of Authors as well as Mumsnet, the Guardian, Financial Times, Telegraph, Getty Images, the Daily Mail Group and Newsquest. Their intervention comes a day after the technology and culture minister Chris Bryant told parliament the proposed system, subject to a 10-week consultation, would "improve access to content by AI developers, whilst allowing rights holders to control how their content is used for AI training". The Conservative chair of the Commons culture, media and sport select committee, Caroline Dinenage, alleged the government had "fully drunk the Kool-Aid on AI". But Bryant told MPs: "If we were to adopt a too tight a regime based on proactive, explicit permission, the danger is that international developers would continue to train their models using UK content accessed overseas, but may not be able to deploy them in the UK … this could significantly disadvantage sectors across our economy, including the creative industries, and sweep the rug from underneath British AI developers."

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. The U.S. handed over its last military base in Niger -- one of two crucial hubs for American counterterrorism operations in the country -- to local authorities, the U.S. Department of Defense and Niger's Ministry of Defense announced in a joint statement on Monday. The handing over of Airbase 201 in the city of Agadez came after the U.S. troops withdrew earlier this month from Airbase 101, a small drone base in Niger's capital of Niamey. U.S. troops have until Sept. 15 to leave the Sahel country following an agreement with Nigerien authorities.

The London Metropolitan Police have been condemned by writers, journalist unions and activists for questioning and detaining a French publisher under the United Kingdom's Terrorism Act. Ernest Moret, foreign rights manager for popular science fiction author Alain Damasio as well as Editions La Fabrique, was on his way to the London Book Fair when he was stopped by police officers on Monday evening. Editions La Fabrique, in a joint statement with the British publishing house Verso Books, said police officers pulled Moret aside for questioning under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act after he arrived at London's St Pancreas railway station. The legislation gives police officers the power of stopping, questioning and detaining people to determine if they were involved in the "preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism", read a Metropolitan police's definition. The officers said Moret took part in demonstrations in France against a controversial pension reform, the publishers said in their statement.

E3, the video game industry's biggest annual expo, has been cancelled. The show had been due to make a return after years of Covid-19 disruption this June in Los Angeles, but in a joint statement, the US's Entertainment Software Association (ESA) and events company Reedpop announced it would no longer be going ahead. Known as "video game Christmas" by fans, E3 has been a fixture in the games industry calendar since 1995, and has traditionally been where game publishers and console manufacturers announce what's next for players. The Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii U are among the consoles that have been announced at the event. Its cancellation leaves the games industry without a dominant focal point for marketing new titles; instead, since Covid, the trend has been towards live-streamed shows where publishers announce and show new titles virtually.

Three groups focused on increasing diversity in artificial intelligence say they will no longer take funding from Google. In a joint statement released Monday, Black in AI, Queer in AI, and Widening NLP said they acted to protest Google's treatment of its former ethical AI team leaders Timnit Gebru and Margaret Mitchell, as well as former recruiter April Christina Curley, a Black queer woman. "The potential for AI technologies to cause particular harm to members of our communities weighs heavily on our organizations," the statement reads. "Google's actions in the last few months have inflicted tremendous harms that have reverberated throughout our entire community. They not only have caused damage but set a dangerous precedent for what type of research, advocacy, and retaliation is permissible in our community."

NEW DELHI: India on Friday sought to add meat to its strategic partnership with Germany by wooing industries to invest in defence corridors of Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. At their biennial summit in New Delhi, India and Germany also sought to give momentum to revive stalled negotiations for free-trade agreement with the European Union. Proposed in 2007, the negotiations hit a roadblock in 2013 when the two sides arrived at an impasse on tariffs and market access. Disagreements on standards and practices exacerbated the situation and negotiations were shelved for five years. Germany has been an advocate of the deal and welcomed the resumption of negotiations last year.

DUBAI, UAE – The United States of America and the United Arab Emirates reaffirm their shared commitment to a strong bilateral relationship within the framework of the U.S.-UAE Strategic Energy Dialogue first established in 2010 and reiterated in 2017. U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry and UAE Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence Omar bin Sultan Al-Olama met to exchange views on the responsible use of Artificial Intelligence in improving grid resilience, increasing energy exploration and environmental sustainability, optimizing transportation and enabling smarter cities, improving water resource management, and in the discovery of new materials and compounds. They identified opportunities for DOE's Artificial Intelligence & Technologies Office and the Dubai Futures Foundation to hold further discussions, and agreed to explore the potential to expand the U.S.-UAE Strategic Dialogue to include cooperation on areas of mutual interest in AI. The parties also reiterated the importance of addressing energy security challenges through public and private sector partnerships and investment to support the research, development and deployment of all forms of energy and technologies.

"We will work constructively with other WTO members to undertake necessary WTO reform with a sense of urgency," the statement said. Hiroshige Seko, minister of economy, trade and industry, said that it is significant that specifics concerning WTO reform were included in a G20 ministerial statement for the first time. Improving the organization's system for resolving disputes was one of the issues raised. "We agree that action is necessary regarding the functioning of the dispute settlement system consistent with the rules as negotiated by the WTO members," the statement said. Foreign Minister Taro Kono said it was a "big feat" for Japan, which places importance on this issue, that the need to address the system was explicitly mentioned in the statement.

A group of nongovernmental organisations called on the Trump administration to clarify its policy on drone use, saying they are concerned about reported changes to US rules and a lack of transparency in the decision-making process. "We are deeply concerned that the reported new policy, combined with this administration's reported dramatic increase in lethal operations in Yemen and Somalia, will add to an increase in unlawful killings and in civilian casualties," a joint statement said. The organisations include Amnesty International, the US-based Center for Constitutional Rights, Human Rights Watch, the ACLU and others. President Donald Trump signed the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act in December. The act funds the US military but also requires Trump to make known to Congress any changes to previous drone policies by March 12.