With OpenAI announcing custom GPTs for its paying customers at its first developer conference on November 6 and announcing a plan to launch a GPT marketplace in December, the iPhone Appstore/Google Play moment for artificial intelligence (AI) is here and now.

Although the world's first Artificial Intelligence (AI) Safety Agreement was signed in the UK last week, many top scientists who have the most amount of knowledge and expertise in AI, including William Wei, former Foxconn and MIH chief technology officer and now Executive VP, CMO to Taiwan-based AI startup Skymizer, voiced disagreement and concern over the overblown fear.

In an era defined by global economic shifts, supply chain complexities, and ever-increasing uncertainty, companies must constantly adapt to survive and thrive. One company at the forefront of this transformative journey is Kinaxis, a Canadian supply chain solution provider co-founded by Duncan Klett in 1984. Kinaxis is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, with a market cap of nearly US$3 billion as of November 2023.

In a significant move to foster global cooperation in the field of satellite industry, Telesat embarked on a mission to Taiwan and South Korea. The Ottawa-based company is actively engaging with both corporations and government agencies to introduce its ambitious Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite project known as "Lightspeed Constellation," which has raised its largest fund at US$500 million.

Panel giant AUO is targeting the automotive industry by acquiring BHTC, the company's first international acquisition. Frank Ko, CEO and president of AUO, admits his company was "quite jittery" when the acquisition was first announced, with automakers looking forward to AUO becoming a Tier 1 supplier.

In the dynamic landscape of space exploration and satellite deployment, Scottish-based startup Skyrora is making waves and offering a unique perspective. At the forum of TASTI 2023 organized by the Taiwan Space Agency (TASA), Skyrora emphasized the evolving launch industry and the pivotal role played by small startups. Volodymyr Levykin, Skyrora's CEO, unveiled that Skyrora set to make its first orbital launch early in 2024.

A recent UBS Evidence Lab's tear-up activity on a BYD Seal electrical vehicle showed that a high level of import substitution in automotive chips is taking place at China EV brands, and the trend is evident in the power semiconductor sector, said Jimmy Yu, China technology analyst, UBS Securities.

AI expert Andrew Ng visited Taiwan at the end of September for a 4-day trip. Before leaving, he sat down for an interview with DIGITIMES and discussed his views on US tech giants, the trend of AI PCs, opportunities and challenges in the GPU market, and more.

UK compound semiconductor firm CEO Americo Lemos said that IQE is aiming to establish Taiwan as an important development base for compound semiconductors in Asia to overcome the changing geopolitical and supply chain restructuring challenges, and expects to increasingly use Taiwanese wafer foundries for gallium arsenide (GaAs) and gallium nitride (GaN).

In a rapidly evolving technological landscape, the convergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and hardware is reshaping how people perceive computing and its potential applications. Lien Wei-han, the chief CPU architect at Tenstorrent, an innovative Canadian AI startup that has the potential to challenge Nvidia, AMD, and Intel in AI chips and now building its AI servers, shared intriguing insights into the AI revolution and the role hardware plays in enabling it in an exclusive interview with DIGITIMES Asia.

Manufacturing is the cornerstone of many Asian countries. Profet AI helps manufacturers improve efficiency by empowering their employees with AI. The Taiwan-based AI software developer has launched an ambitious plan to expand in Asia, especially China, Japan and Vietnam.

In 2024, the semiconductor sector will face several major changes. At the forefront of these changes are innovations in high-performance computing (HPC) and AI server supply chains. DIGITIMES will spotlight these transformations at the "2024 Next-Gen Intelligence Symposium" on November 3, 2023. The event will feature insights from DIGITIMES' senior analysts and industry experts from Supermicro, with the aim to offer a deep understanding of Asia's supply chain dynamics and the evolving tech landscape.

Even though major players including Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron have already cut production significantly, the prices of DRAM and NAND Flash memory products took a nose dive in the first half of 2023. The global foundry industry's combined revenues in 2023 are also expected to shrink more than 10% on year after growth of nearly 30% in 2022, according to DIGITIMES Research. What is the chance for a market recovery in Q4? And how about 2024?

In alignment with trends across various sectors, semiconductor firms are vigorously exploring AI-powered solutions to refine operations and boost productivity. A notable development in this domain is the recent collaboration between Cadence and Renesas. In a conversation with DIGITIMES Asia, Jayashankar Narayanankutty, the Group Director of Cadence Design Systems, explained that this alliance is poised to influence every developmental initiative embarked upon in India.

Qualcomm recently announced that it will be launching a computing platform for motorcycles and various other types of mobile vehicles and that it will be collaborating with several companies, including Taiwan's Gogoro.