Siemens and HD Hyundai added momentum to moves to apply AI in specific ways, agreeing to develop methods to improve shipbuilding processes in a deal primarily intended to boost capacity in the US.

The deal is valued in the low-triple-digit millions of dollars range and involves using Siemens’ Xcelerator digital business platform to provide an overview of engineering, manufacturing, supply chain and shipyard operations.

Siemens explained the “digital shipyard” concept holds the potential to speed production and improve quality, facets expected to benefit the entire shipbuilding value chain.

It stated such a step-up would help satisfy growing “demand for greater and more advanced shipbuilding capacity in the US and other markets”.

Siemens anticipates benefits for full modernisation schemes along with projects taking a more staged approach to upgrades.

President and CEO Roland Busch said the companies are moving to use AI to help shipbuilders manage the “enormous complexity” of producing “advanced vessels”.

The companies are “building the operating system for industrial AI” by “connecting data, software and automation”.

Siemens and HD Hyundai also plan to back the Korea-US Shipbuilding Partnership Centre, a site opened in Washington D.C. yesterday (23 July) to foster collaborations on digitising shipbuilding which The Korea Times reports forms part of a $150 billion investment in the industry in the US agreed in a bilateral trade deal with South Korea in 2025.

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Regulatory pressure over TikTok’s child safety measures continued to mount as the European Commission (EC) warned a preliminary look at the company’s protections found it wanting in various aspects.

The initial results of a formal probe into potential breaches of the Digital Services Act (DSA) show TikTok is falling short of the required standards. The EC explained a public-access setting means child accounts can still be viewed by all kinds of people whether they use the social media platform or not.

Another risk involves the content of 16- and 17-year-olds, which the EC found can be featured in recommendations to other users, presenting the risk of “unwanted contact” or cyberbullying.

It is inviting TikTok to view and respond to the preliminary findings and emphasised there is no prejudice to any final decisions in the investigation.

If TikTok is ultimately judged to be in breach of the DSA, the EC “may issue a non-compliance decision, which can trigger a fine”.

Other areas of concern the EC highlighted include an ability to view the profile pictures of children even when accounts are set to private mode, with discovery available if they are contacts of other users or by non-users of TikTok.

The EC explained the DSA requires platforms which children can use to “ensure a high level of privacy, safety and security”, a standard it considers TikTok may not be meeting.

UK regulator Ofcom is conducting its own probe into TikTok’s child protection measures.

The EC previously warned TikTok over its “potentially addictive design” as part of the same investigation.

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Telefonica and materials producer Wurth Group boxed clever in applying advanced computing and AI to a logistics scenario, delivering various benefits in packing efficiency and a reduced environmental impact.

The companies worked with Spanish applied research and technology development centre Tecnalia and quantum computing start-up QCentroid to test a means of optimising logistics packing processes.

Telefonica explained the approach employs quantum computing and AI algorithms and was proven to improve packing efficiency “across 14% of the more than 6,000 orders processed”.

The sum translated to a 3% cut in the number of boxes used, in turn lowering the volume of cargo transported by road along with cardboard usage.

Leonor Ostos, director of product and service development with Telefonica Espana, said the work with the domestic unit of Wurth proved a combination of quantum computing and AI could improve services, provided of course the underlying communications network is up to the task.

Wurth Espana chief operations officer Begona Lopez said the fastenings and assembly materials producer is always seeking ways to improve efficiency and the project enabled it to explore the potential of the technologies “from a highly practical and operations-focused perspective”.

Telefonica is establishing something of a reputation for researching the potential of quantum computing, with work on data protection and pharmaceutical research notable examples.

The operator asserts a leading position in providing “quantum-safe communications services”, pointing to a pilot with a Spanish police force and the opening of a dedicated research centre which it employed in the Wurth work.

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Rockwell Automation and industrial AI company Augury spotted an opportunity to help industries make sense of the vast pools of data the technology is now generating, teaming on a product focused on delivering usable information to manufacturers.

The US-headquartered automation company explained the partnership with Augury would benefit businesses seeking to employ AI in predictive ways spanning maintenance, reliability and overall industrial performance.

Rockwell Automation’s own research indicates less than half of all data collected is being used in effective ways, despite the growing ability for AI to execute on the insights it provides.

“Manufacturers don’t need more alerts, they need a faster path to action,” Angela Rapko, VP and GM of Visualisation and Asset Management at Rockwell Automation explained.

The set-up uses relevant products from each company to provide the route highlighted by the executive: Rockwell Automation stated it enables manufacturers to go beyond “early issue detection and diagnosis”.

It emphasised the use of an Augury reliability agent and its own maintenance assistant as a key differentiator.

The Augury agent “continuously analyses machine conditions” for potential problems and generates ideas on how to avoid or fix them. Rockwell Automation’s assistant is used to make sense of the recommendations to provide “maintenance workflows, work orders and orchestration of execution activities”.

Rockwell Automation indicated the partnership could be foundational in future agentic AI developments in addition to the companies’ more practical aim of helping industrial players to improve the efficiency of their manufacturing operations.

The companies aim to provide initial access to the set-up from September.

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Fibre proved fruitful for BT Group in the opening quarter of its fiscal 2027 (the period to end-June), becoming the key generator of broadband revenue as the operator booked record levels of connections and uptake.

BT added 514,000 FTTP connections in the three-month period alone, leaving it with a total of 23.4 million. The operator declared it is experiencing record demand for fibre services at its Openreach and consumer businesses.

In wireless, BT asserted EE “maintained its mobile leadership”, pointing to the receipt of a consumer award with category-topping figures in reliability, coverage and performance.

Its 5G network coverage hit 77% of the population.

CEO Allison Kirkby (pictured) declared it a “solid start” to the fiscal year, with gains in consumer customers increasingly backed by BT’s selection for “mission-critical” connections.

She said the consumer business is benefiting from ongoing investment in BT’s brands and services. It is also “stabilising” service revenue in its Business division on “sales order growth from major customers”.

Kirkby was of course positive about a recently-forged JV with Verizon and said BT is unparalleled in the “scale and pace” of work to upgrade the “digital backbone” of the UK.

BT’s numbers leave it “on track to deliver our targets, including cashflow of circa £2 billion”, the CEO explained.

The rising cost of finance impacted pre-tax profit, with the figure for continuing operations dropping from £526 million in fiscal Q1 2026 to £505 million. Revenue was flat at £4.3 billion.

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Telus lured a former executive back to the company from the world of private equity, as it lined up the team it hopes will drive a transformation of its core telecom business.

David Fuller is set to become EVP and group president of Telus Communications on 1 September in an executive shuffle to advance a rejig of the Canadian operator’s business by focusing capital on high margin products, services and customer segments.

Telus president and CEO Victor Dodig (pictured, right) said he has “no doubt” Fuller would “engage and focus our team”, branding the executive “one of the most talented and experienced telecom executives in Canada”.

Fuller ended a 15-year tenure at Telus in 2019 and is returning from a role with Silverlight Capital Partners. He is not long out of the Canadian telecoms sector, though, having been president of Rogers Wireless between 2021 and 2022.

Current Telus Business Solutions president Navin Arora is to become EVP and group president of its Global Platform business, which covers health, agriculture, consumer goods and digital services.

Arora is also to head up enterprise corporate strategy, along with Telus Global Ventures, corporate development and data centre planning.

Dodig described Arora as being given a “critical” position involving “driving value” from the various business units involved.

Current Telus Consumer Solutions EVP Zainul Mawji is to leave, ending a spell of more than 20-years with the company. Dodig said she played key roles in a fibre expansion project and providing products spanning its “residential, security, automation and health lines of business”.

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KDDI predicted a greater role for drones in disaster response after completing tests operating a craft connected through satellite rather than its terrestrial mobile network.

It noted tests conducted in May using SpaceX’s Starlink satellites advance the potential role for drones in disaster recovery by removing gaps in the reach of mobile networks from the operational equation.

KDDI stated the satellites were confirmed as a viable means of connecting remotely operated drones, boosting potential use cases for public and private sector organisations.

It expects search and rescue, environmental monitoring and infrastructure inspection to be among the use cases the expanded drone operations could deliver.

The operator worked with specialist division KDDI Smart Drone on the trial and stated the pair are committed to developing a set-up enabling access to remotely-controlled craft anywhere in Japan in under ten-minutes.

KDDI plans to further develop its remote drone operation capabilities by authenticating the best combination of network connectivity and refining the handoff between mobile and satellite networks.

It aims to create a reliable beyond-visual-line-of-site remote drone operation system which could be tailored to specific use cases and geographies.

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