[DigitalToday reporter Chi-gyu Hwang (황치규)] The race to build AI agents aimed at individual users is heating up. Meta has released its AI assistant app Muse for Mac. The Mac version of Muse connects to files, messages, calendars, notes and mail so users can work within each default app.

· Meta launches Muse app for Mac, expanding its personal AI agent to desktop · Meta launches personal AI agent Muse, introducing monthly $20 and $100 plans

Startups are also stepping up their moves. Sphere Street Technology, the developer of the personal AI assistant service Instinct, is pushing to raise $1 billion in funding. The expected valuation is $10 billion. Instinct, first released earlier this year to some users, can handle tasks such as replying to text messages and booking dinner reservations. The service still requires an invitation, but as access has widened, the number of users has surpassed 100,000. There are reports that Chinese AI startup Manus, which returned to an independent path after a planned sale to Meta fell through, is seeking to raise $500 million at a $4 billion valuation. Earlier, AI coding startup Cognition acquired the text-based AI assistant Poke operated by The Interaction Company of California.

· Personal AI agent Instinct seeks to raise $1 billion at a $10 billion valuation · Manus in talks to raise $500 million after Meta merger deal collapses · Cognition acquires AI assistant Poke, adding a "friend-like conversation" experience to Devin

The article also summarised moves by companies in and outside South Korea around AI.

Hancom unveiled its first TV advertisement for its AI workforce platform Nomadian. Hancom will open a beta service for Nomadian in the United States at the end of December and commercialise it as a subscription service in 2027. AI work agent company Madras Check said its collaboration tool Flow was registered as an official app on OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude.

· Hancom starts TV ads for AI workforce platform Nomadian, targeting the U.S. market · Hancom launches AI workforce platform Nomadian, to open U.S. beta in December · Korean collaboration tool Flow enters OpenAI ChatGPT and Anthropic Claude

Enhans, an enterprise agentic AI company, raised 51.2 billion won in a Series C funding round. Enhans will use the funds to advance data, process and execution infrastructure for AgentOS. Nums AI, a company developing a tabular data foundation model (TFM), unveiled its in-house model Causilo. Naver Cloud is moving to target the defence AI transformation (AX) market by promoting "sovereign AI", in which the military directly holds control of data and AI models, along with full-stack capabilities spanning infrastructure, models, data platforms and applications. Xenon, a company specialising in generative AI solutions, released as open source its AI model "Hunmin VLM 397B", which recognises and directly manipulates computer screens to perform tasks.

· Enhans raises 51.2 billion won in Series C to advance AgentOS · Nums AI unveils tabular data foundation model, ranks No. 1 on global benchmark · Naver Cloud says it will take on defence AX with sovereign full stack, linking models, data and cloud · Xenon releases "Hunmin VLM 397B" as open source

OpenAI is testing advertising-based agent functions within ChatGPT with some U.S. advertisers. Anthropic integrated the Claude Chat and Claude Co-Work screens into a single interface. It said this is intended to reduce confusion about which tab users should use for each task. Anthropic also introduced Claude for Financial Advisors aimed at financial advisory firms.

· OpenAI tests sponsored AI agent functions with some advertisers · Anthropic integrates Claude Chat and Co-Work into a single window, adding document and slide functions · Anthropic launches Claude service for financial advisory firms, linking with BlackRock and Charles Schwab

Cloudflare introduced a designation system for accountable operators applied to AI crawling. It also launched a function called Disallow AI Training that blocks only AI training while keeping search exposure. Cohesity unveiled "Cohesity Agent Resilience", which backs up enterprise AI agent memory and settings and restores them to a trusted point in time if problems occur. Adobe will build an AI-based content supply chain in collaboration with the National Football League (NFL).

· Cloudflare launches function that lets websites keep search exposure while blocking AI training · Cohesity unveils Agent Resilience, restoring malfunctioning AI agents · Adobe to help the NFL build an AI-based global content supply chain

Naive AI, a Chinese AI model startup founded in February by a Tsinghua University professor, raised $400 million from Tencent and others across three investment rounds at a valuation of more than $1.4 billion. Typesafe AI, founded by former OpenAI researcher Diogo Almeida (디오고 알메이다), has also drawn interest from developers after unveiling a new AI model called Jev that outputs probability values instead of text. U.S. startup Arcee AI, which develops open-weight AI models, raised Series B funding after being valued at about $1 billion. Canadian enterprise AI company Cohere signed a $20 billion merger agreement with German company Aleph Alpha.

· Another Chinese AI startup, Naive AI, emerges with a bet on LLMs focused on mid-training and post-training · Developers focus on new AI model released by ChatGPT co-developer · U.S. open-weight AI model startup Arcee AI surpasses $1 billion valuation · Cohere and Aleph Alpha agree to $20 billion merger

As enterprise software companies boost their presence in the AI era, recent moves around software interfaces have emerged as a key point to watch. According to the relevant industry, two broad patterns are unfolding around software interfaces. One prioritises getting users to seek out and use a software platform directly. The other does not mind software being used through external AI tools such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and places greater weight on wider adoption.

· In the AI era, diverging paths for software UIs: who wins?

From the second half of 2027, a certification system that evaluates reliability and stability when private cloud companies provide services to public institutions will be unified into a single verification framework aligned with the National Intelligence Service's National Network Security Framework (N2SF). As a result, the Ministry of Science and ICT's Cloud Security Assurance Program (CSAP) will be abolished and cloud security certification will be integrated into the N2SF system. Barriers to entry for private cloud companies to obtain certification will also be somewhat lower than under CSAP, and the room for global cloud companies to operate in the public sector market is expected to expand relatively.

· Overhaul of public cloud security certification seen expanding access for global companies