OpenAI and Anthropic are rolling out new AI models as open-source rivals press them on cost efficiency. Meta also unveiled its Muse Spark 1.3 large language model, saying it has narrowed performance gaps with major AI companies. Separately, interest in open-source AI is growing after Nvidia officially announced it would acquire open-source model-sharing platform Hugging Face for $12.9 billion. The article also rounds up moves by Google, Perplexity, Adobe and others, plus domestic developments and funding news.

South Korea\'s Ministry of Science and ICT will expand the number of universities participating in its science and engineering researcher living allowance support programme to 48. The ministry selected five universities as new participants for the second half of 2026. The programme links government support to student stipends paid through universities’ industry-academic cooperation foundations and guarantees minimum monthly amounts for master’s and doctoral students. The ministry said it will provide consulting and monitoring and plans a two-stage rollout through 2030.