This is an AI tool grounded in your own documents that will save you hundreds of hours when learning new subjects in 2026. I use it regularly. It’s extremely easy to use, highly effective, and free.

Unlike most AI tools, NotebookLM only works with the data you provide. You can feed it with: Google Docs, YouTube videos, websites, PDFs, text, audio, Word documents, and more this means: no hallucination in responses, full control over sources, and more accurate and verifiable results (it provides inline citations)

In an era of AI-generated misinformation, NotebookLM’s greatest strength is its transparency. Every claim the AI makes includes inline citations. Clicking a citation doesn’t just tell you the source; it highlights the exact paragraph in your PDF or the specific timestamp in a YouTube video transcript.

NotebookLM is no longer just a “notebook.” It is a private, secure workspace that bridges the gap between raw data and true mastery. In 2026, if you aren’t using a grounded AI to manage your knowledge, you’re working twice as hard for half the results.

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Artificial intelligence systems like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude have become household names. They write emails, answer questions and generate content at impressive speed. But despite the hype, these tools all share a major limitation: they don’t actually understand how the real world works.

What they do is predict words, now a new class of AI is emerging that could change everything. They’re called world models, and according to researchers and industry leaders, they may become one of the most talked-about technologies before the end of the year.

Traditional AI models learn by consuming massive amounts of text books, articles, websites and social media posts. From this, they learn statistical patterns that allow them to predict what word or sentence should come next. That’s why a chatbot can accurately describe what happens when a coffee cup falls off a table: gravity pulls it down, the coffee spills and the cup might break. But the AI doesn’t understand gravity. It has never seen an object fall or collide with the ground. It’s simply repeating patterns it has seen in text.

World models work differently. Instead of learning primarily from text, they are trained on videos, images and simulations, allowing them to understand 3D space, motion, cause and effect, and physical interactions. Rather than predicting the next word, they predict what happens next in the real world. A common analogy used by researchers is this: Text-based AI reads the driver’s manual. World models actually get behind the wheel.

The world’s largest AI companies are now investing heavily in world models.

Google recently unveiled Genie 3, a system capable of generating interactive 3D environments from a single image. Runway, another AI company, launched a world-model-based system that is already being used in Hollywood to generate realistic video scenes.

OpenAI is reportedly working on a successor to its video model, internally referred to as Sora 2, designed to simulate complex physical environments and behaviours.

Yann LeCun, one of the pioneers of modern AI and a Turing Award winner. He recently left his role at Meta to launch a new startup focused entirely on world models, called Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI Labs). According to reports, the company attracted as much as $5 billion in funding before releasing a product.

Industry experts believe world models could be the key to making AI truly useful beyond screens and chat boxes.

Robots powered by world models could operate safely in unpredictable environments, such as warehouses, hospitals and homes. Self-driving cars could better understand complex situations like school zones or busy intersections.

Tesla has been quietly training its own world models using billions of miles of driving footage. Robotics company Figure AI is applying similar technology to humanoid robots designed to work alongside humans without causing damage.

Even smartphones could soon benefit. With embedded world models, a phone camera might not just identify a leaking pipe, but guide a user step by step through fixing it because the AI understands how plumbing systems actually work.

For years, AI progress has focused on language: chatbots that talk, write and explain. World models represent a shift toward AI that acts systems that can reason about the physical world and interact with it safely.

As competition intensifies and products begin to ship, analysts expect world models to move quickly from research labs into consumer devices, robots and vehicles.

If current trends continue, “world models” may soon be as familiar a term as “chatbot” or “generative AI.” And when that happens, the conversation around artificial intelligence may change for good.

FOM GYEM Writes from Pr nigeria centre

gyemfom111@gmail.com

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By As-sayyidul Arafat Abdulrazaq,

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming our world—often in ways most people do not fully understand. While the headlines focus on convenience and innovation, the deeper realities of AI are far more complex, and sometimes alarming.

Here are some shocking facts you likely never knew:

1. AI Can Predict Death

Advanced AI models trained on medical data can predict a patient’s likelihood of dying—sometimes with over 90% accuracy. This tech could revolutionize healthcare, but it also raises unsettling ethical questions.

2. Training AI Burns Massive Energy

Training a single large AI model can emit as much CO₂ as 125 round-trip flights from Abuja to Beijing. As AI expands, its environmental toll grows, consuming electricity comparable to entire nations.

3. AI is Creating Original Art

AI-generated art is making waves. In 2018, a painting made by an algorithm sold for over $432,000. Machines are now redefining creativity—blurring the line between human and artificial expression.

4. AI Sometimes Hallucinates

AI can confidently give false information—a phenomenon called “hallucination.” In some tests, up to 10% of responses from large models like ChatGPT are factually incorrect but sound convincing.

5. AI Outperforms Humans in Many Fields

AI is already better than humans at tasks like diagnosing breast cancer and translating languages. It is also generating music, code, and artwork that many cannot distinguish from human-made.

6. AI Can Manipulate You

From personalized content feeds to deepfakes, AI subtly influences opinions and decisions. Algorithms are engineered to keep you engaged—even if it means manipulating your views without your awareness.

7. A Few Companies Control AI’s Future

Just five tech giants—Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, Meta, and Amazon—control 80% of AI research and infrastructure. This concentration of power poses serious risks to ethics, accessibility, and global equity.

AI is no longer science fiction. It is real, it is powerful, and it is already reshaping how we live, work, and think.

Staying informed is the first step toward using AI wisely—and safeguarding against its unintended consequences.

As-sayyidul Arafat Abdulrazaq is a corps member at the Centre for Crisis Communication (CCC), in Abuja. He can be reached at: as.sayyid21@gmail.com.

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The release of OpenAI’s GPT models, particularly ChatGPT and GPT-3, sent shockwaves across the globe. These systems, with their ability to generate human-like text and perform tasks previously considered the exclusive domain of human intelligence, astounded observers.

Prior to ChatGPT, AI was largely confined to narrow applications such as basic chatbots or manufacturing automation. OpenAI’s breakthrough, however, revolutionized the AI landscape. ChatGPT, with its ability to engage in conversations, compose essays, write poetry, and even debug code, demonstrated an unprecedented level of fluency and adaptability. Users, initially expecting responses akin to earlier, more rudimentary chatbots, were often left awestruck by the system’s insightful and human-like output.

Social media platforms quickly became inundated with examples of ChatGPT’s prowess within days of its release. Users shared screenshots of its detailed answers, creative writing, and even humorous outputs, often accompanied by comments like “Is this real?” or “I can’t believe AI knows this!”. For many, this was their first encounter with AI that truly seemed to “think” in a natural and human-like manner.

Overnight, individuals with no prior technical background found themselves wielding powerful AI tools. The experience of interacting with ChatGPT felt akin to having a personal genius assistant, empowering users with newfound capabilities.

The subsequent release of GPT-4, with its multimodal capabilities (processing both text and images) and enhanced features inherited from its predecessors, further solidified the perception of having reached the pinnacle of AI advancement.

It is, therefore, unsurprising that Image Merchants Promotion Limited (IMPR), publishers of PRNigeria and Economic Confidential, during their three-day staff retreat at the PRNigeria Centre Kano, announced their commitment to leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) and emerging technologies to enhance productivity in 2025.

In 2024, the organization integrated AI to improve the efficiency and accuracy of its operations, particularly in in-depth special reports and fact-checking.

Mr. Yushau Shuaib, Chief of IMPR, emphasized the need for companies in the strategic communication and public relations industry to fully embrace AI solutions. He stressed the importance of combining human intelligence and creativity with AI to enhance staff productivity and maintain a competitive edge in the face of stiff competition among tech giants.

It was during this retreat that we delved into the apparent rivalry between the West and the East in the realm of Artificial Intelligence. This discussion was particularly fueled by the recent launch of “DeepSeek-V3” by Chinese tech firms, a groundbreaking AI model that has set a new global benchmark for AI applications with its affordability, exceptional performance, and open-source development strategies.

DeepSeek-V3 has taken the AI community by storm. Its performance surpasses many top-tier AI models, including closed-source AI, challenging the notion that open-source AI could only play a secondary role.

DeepSeek-V3 boasts an impressive speed and efficiency, processing information at a blistering 60 tokens per second – a threefold increase over its predecessor.
The model employs a “Mixture-of-Experts (MoE)” architecture. This architecture comprises multiple neural networks, each optimized for specific tasks. When DeepSeek-V3 receives a prompt, a “router” intelligently directs the request to the neural network best suited to handle it. Each of these individual neural networks within the MoE structure possesses 34 billion parameters.

To illustrate, imagine a classroom where each student specializes in a different subject, such as mathematics, storytelling, or art. When a problem arises, the teacher (router) determines which student (neural network) is best equipped to address it. This architecture ensures that users receive the most relevant and effective responses.

Furthermore, DeepSeek-V3 was trained on a massive dataset of 14.8 trillion tokens. In data science, tokens represent units of raw data, with 1 million tokens roughly equivalent to 750,000 words. This translates to the model being trained on an astonishing 11 trillion words.

Prior to DeepSeek-V3, GPT-4 held the record for the largest training dataset with approximately 1 trillion tokens. Considering GPT-4’s impressive performance with that amount of data, one can only imagine the capabilities of DeepSeek-V3.

Another remarkable aspect of DeepSeek-V3 is its remarkably low production cost. The company revealed that they spent only $5.5 million to train the model, a figure significantly lower than the costs associated with developing other leading models, such as GPT-4, which reportedly cost over $100 million.
Moreover, DeepSeek-V3 outperforms other AI models across various benchmarks and evaluation metrics commonly used to assess AI performance.

Reports indicate that DeepSeek-V3, with its 6.71 trillion parameters, surpasses Meta’s Llama 3.1 and outperforms mainstream closed-source models like GPT-4 in numerous benchmark tests. This achievement not only signifies a breakthrough in Chinese AI technology but also represents a significant innovation in the global AI landscape.

The realization that these powerful features are not only accessible but also entirely free to use is truly extraordinary. It underscores the immense potential that can be unlocked without any financial barriers.

The United States and China are undoubtedly the leading forces in AI development, with the US currently holding a slight technological edge. In October 2022, the US implemented export controls to restrict China’s access to advanced NVIDIA AI chips – specialized hardware crucial for accelerating computationally intensive tasks such as deep learning, natural language processing, and computer vision. This move aimed to hinder China’s AI progress and reduce competition in AI technology advancement.

Despite these restrictions, China has demonstrated its ability to overcome obstacles and achieve groundbreaking innovations. The development of DeepSeek-V3 not only defies expectations but also serves as a potential model for the US in advancing and refining its own domestically-driven AI systems. It exemplifies the adage, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

The development of DeepSeek-V3 marks a pivotal moment in the evolution of AI technology. It challenges the conventional norms established by previous models like GPT-4 and demonstrates that cutting-edge AI does not have to be prohibitively expensive. DeepSeek-V3 proves that innovation can be achieved while maintaining affordability, setting a new standard for future AI development that emphasizes accessibility and affordability.

The bar has been raised. Now, it is incumbent upon innovators, researchers, and developers to collaborate, compete, and strive to push the boundaries of AI even further.

The future of AI will be shaped by collaboration, healthy competition, and a shared commitment to creating even better and more powerful systems. Together, we can shape the next generation of AI that will define the future.

Shuaib S. Agaka, Tech Journalist, writes from PRNigeria Centre Kano.

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TECH DIGEST- The European Union is set to scrutinize the impact of key technologies, including semiconductors, artificial intelligence (AI), quantum technologies, and biotechnology, on its economic security. This evaluation could potentially result in restrictions on exports and investments in third countries, with China being a prominent focus of concern.

The European Commission unveiled its European Economic Security Strategy in June, identifying technologies that, if shared or exported, could pose risks if used for military purposes or human rights violations by certain nations. The Commission has now compiled a list of four such technologies and intends to investigate an additional six in due course.

READ ALSO: Nigeria Government Targets 50,000 AI Jobs by 2030

The four technologies selected for immediate assessment include advanced semiconductor technologies (covering microelectronics and chipmaking equipment), AI (specifically data analytics and object recognition), quantum technologies (encompassing cryptography, communications, and sensing), and biotechnology (with a focus on genetic modifications and genomic techniques).

While the assessment is not explicitly targeted at any specific third country, the EU’s economic security strategy emphasizes collaborating with like-minded nations and reducing reliance on specific countries, most notably China.

The European Commission is also considering proposing risk assessments for additional technologies in early 2024. This move by the EU aligns with similar initiatives undertaken by the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Australia in safeguarding their strategic technologies.

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