Reports

Huawei Launches Ascend 910B AI Chip to Replace Nvidia

Hak

24 Apr 2025 — 3 min read

It's Thursday, April 24, 2025, and you're reading the Agentive Daily Report.

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Huawei launches Ascend 910B AI chip to fill the gap left by US export restrictions on Nvidia

OpenAI would bid for Chrome browser if Google was forced to divest it, aiming to create an "AI-first" experience

AI systems outperform PhD virologists by nearly 2x in troubleshooting labs, raising biosecurity concerns

Physical Intelligence's π0.5 robot demonstrates it can generalize household cleaning to new environments

Character.AI launches AvatarFX, letting chatbot personas come to life with photorealistic video

Instagram deploys AI to detect teens lying about their age on the platform

Today's Top Stories

Huawei Steps In to Replace Nvidia in China's AI Supply Chain

Huawei has launched the Ascend 910B AI chip, aiming to fill the vacuum created by US export restrictions that cut off China's access to advanced Nvidia GPUs like the A100 and H100. The chip is already powering major AI models from Chinese tech giants iFlytek and Baidu, indicating market traction.

This development highlights China's strategic push toward tech self-sufficiency. While Huawei's chip might not match Nvidia's performance specs, its availability within China's domestic market is the critical advantage. This move demonstrates how export controls can accelerate indigenous technology development rather than simply hampering progress.

OpenAI Shows Interest in Acquiring Chrome Browser

In testimony at Google's antitrust trial, OpenAI's head of product for ChatGPT, Nick Turley, stated the company would bid for Chrome if regulators forced Google to divest it. This represents a strategic play to gain direct access to billions of users and their browsing data, which would be valuable for training agentic AI models.

The implications are significant: rather than building its own Chromium-based browser from scratch, acquiring Chrome would immediately give OpenAI a massive user base. This signals how AI companies are looking beyond traditional distribution channels to integrate deeper into users' digital lives. It also reveals OpenAI's ambition to compete directly with Google on multiple fronts.

AI Outperforms Virologists in Lab Troubleshooting, Raising Biosecurity Concerns

A study from the Center for AI Safety and MIT's Media Lab found that modern AI models like OpenAI's o3 and Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro significantly outperform PhD-level virologists in solving complex lab problems. AI systems achieved nearly double the accuracy rate compared to human experts in troubleshooting wet lab scenarios.

The findings present a double-edged sword: while these capabilities could accelerate biomedical research, they also lower the expertise barrier for creating bioweapons. Researchers are calling for stricter access controls to these AI systems, third-party audits, and government regulation to prevent misuse. This case demonstrates how AI's rapid progress is outpacing our ability to implement safety guardrails in sensitive domains.

Other Developments Worth Noting

Instagram's AI Age Verification: Meta is using AI to detect teens lying about their age on Instagram by analyzing content, behavior, and friend networks. When suspicious activity is flagged, accounts get restricted until age is confirmed, marking an evolution of AI from personalization tool to digital gatekeeper.
Physical Intelligence's Robot Adaptation: PI's π0.5 robot can now clean new homes it's never seen before by understanding both what tasks to perform and how to execute them. This represents a significant advance in robot generalization from training to real-world environments.
Character.AI's AvatarFX Launch: Character.AI released AvatarFX, which generates photorealistic, emotionally expressive videos from static images. The technology maintains strong temporal consistency and supports multi-speaker dialogues, bringing AI characters to life with more engaging visual presence.
Washington Post Partners with OpenAI: The Washington Post joined over 20 other publishers in partnering with OpenAI, allowing ChatGPT to summarize and link to its original reporting. This comes as ChatGPT Search approaches 45 million monthly EU users, just below the threshold that would trigger stricter regulations under the Digital Services Act.
Oscars Embrace AI with Conditions: The Academy Awards announced that AI can be used in films eligible for awards, provided that the artist maintains creative control. This represents a pragmatic approach to emerging technology, acknowledging AI as a tool while preserving human artistic judgment.

New Tools Discovered

Vectr: A free vector graphics editor that uses AI to generate clean, scalable logos from rough ideas or prompts with suggested typography, layouts, and color palettes.
Foundor: An AI platform helping founders draft business plans, generate financial projections, and prepare pitch materials in minutes, specifically designed for pre-seed and early-stage ideas.
37x: A no-code platform for creating affiliate marketplaces across SaaS, newsletters, and apps, with built-in analytics, SEO features, and customizable templates.
Veo-2: LTX Studio's AI video generation tool offering high-quality outputs at industry-leading rates ($0.68 per generation), with options for promotional credits on annual plans.
Dia 1.6B: An open-source text-to-speech model from Nari Labs designed for expressive, human-like dialogue that interprets nonverbal cues and supports emotional tone variations.

Discover more tools at Agentive.Directory

That's a wrap for today! Thank you for reading this report.

Have thoughts on today's edition? Hit reply and let us know what you're thinking. Or if you've discovered a cool AI tool we should feature, drop us a line.

Until tomorrow,
Hak from Agentive.Studio