Author: Techie.lk

Overview of Sri Lanka’s First AI Gateway: Roar AI Roar AI brings more than 200 frontier and open-source AI models together with locally hosted infrastructure, giving Sri Lankan developers and businesses a simpler way to build and scale with AI. Roar Global has introduced Roar AI, Sri Lanka’s first AI gateway, giving developers, startups and businesses access to more than 200 leading frontier and open-source AI models through a single platform. Built in Sri Lanka, Roar AI is designed to address some of the practical barriers organisations face when building with artificial intelligence – from fragmented access to multiple models…

OpenAI Commits $1 Billion to Global Cyberdefense OpenAI said on Thursday it would commit $1 billion in subsidized access to its AI cybersecurity tools, training and technical ​support for organizations that protect critical services and enable cyberdefense, as concerns ‌grow over increasingly sophisticated AI-enabled cyberattacks. OpenAI has faced increased scrutiny since its own AI agent breached systems at open-source platform Hugging Face during a ​July test and attempted to hide its actions. Similar ​concerns have emerged at rival Anthropic. Both firms are preparing ⁠for mega IPOs. OpenAI on Thursday, alongside the cybersecurity initiative, also ​unveiled Astra, a new AI model it described as…

What is Agentic AI in Modern Software Engineering? The use of AI in software engineering is moving beyond code generation towards Agentic AI that can take on defined tasks, work across systems and support multiple stages of a development workflow. It is a shift that 99x, a global technology company, is actively exploring through its AI-driven development lifecycle (AI-DLC). The company has been investing in its people through initiatives that give engineers hands-on exposure to AI, including its Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs), who help teams identify and apply AI in practical engineering environments. One of the latest initiatives was ELEVATE…

OpenAI has determined ‌that one of its upcoming models is so capable it requires additional safety measures before it can be launched. The model, called Astra, can spot more security vulnerabilities than the most advanced OpenAI model publicly available today, company officials told reporters on a conference call on Tuesday. ​Astra also needs less computational power to accomplish those tasks. “With the right tools and access, Astra can ​find previously unknown security flaws and develop ways to exploit them across many well-protected systems without ⁠a person guiding each step,” said Amelia Glaese, an OpenAI vice president overseeing its safety work.…

Overview of the Spera Humanoid Breakthrough Spera unveiled Spera Humanoid – Prototype One, a full-scale bipedal humanoid developed from scratch for security applications. The launch marks the company’s ninth anniversary and a milestone for Sri Lanka and the wider South Asian technology sector. Built from the ground up by Sri Lankan engineering talent, the Spera Humanoid is a security platform designed in Sri Lanka for the global market. Unlike robots imported as completed systems or assembled locally using foreign-developed platforms, Spera’s humanoid is the result of original Sri Lankan engineering, research and development. Spera Founder and CEO Sahan Yapa is…

Sri Lanka’s next job creators may already be sitting in university classrooms. But entrepreneurship will not emerge from lectures and business-plan templates alone. Universities must connect young people to the problems, markets and institutions that turn ideas into resilient enterprises. via Industry Partnerships This is a national economic priority. The Asian Development Bank estimates that small and medium-sized enterprises contribute 52% of Sri Lanka’s gross domestic product and provide 45% of employment. The World Bank also projects that nearly one million young Sri Lankans will enter the labor market over the next decade. Without stronger growth and investment, only around 300,000…

European Space Agency Evaluates Increased Rocket Launch Rates The European Space Agency is considering increasing the launch rate of its Ariane 6 and Vega-C rockets in the coming years to overcome a potential bottleneck in satellite deployments, the agency’s chief said on Wednesday. Director General Josef Aschbacher told reporters that a decision would be needed soon if forecasts of a sharp rise in demand, expected to peak around 2030, prove accurate. Operator Arianespace’s most recent projection is for nine or 10 launches of Ariane 6 rockets a year from 2027. Based on Europe’s own missions, as well as possible further…

Overview of Nvidia Acquisition of Hugging Face Nvidia will buy popular developer platform Hugging Face for $12.93 billion, betting that support for open AI models will drive future demand even as its biggest customers develop ​their own chips to reduce reliance on the semiconductor giant. Shares of the company were ‌slightly higher after the deal on Thursday, which ranks among its biggest. The deal will cement Nvidia as a central player in the market for open models that users can freely download, run and customize, unlike the closed systems built by OpenAI ​and Anthropic. Nvidia has already played an active…

Overview of Sri Lanka Retail Forum 2026 The Sri Lanka Retailers’ Association (SLRA) is all set to bring together more than 500 retail leaders, business decisionmakers, entrepreneurs, technology experts, policymakers and investors at the Sri Lanka Retail Forum 2026, scheduled for Thursday, 10 September 2026, at the Lumina Ballroom, Cinnamon Life, City of Dreams, Colombo for the Sri Lanka Retail Forum 2026. The Forum will be held under the theme “Retail Without Boundaries: Building the Next Growth Engine.” The Forum will examine the forces shaping the next phase of Sri Lanka’s retail sector, with discussions covering retail growth, productivity, customer…

Why Sri Lankan Fintechs Are Looking Beyond Local Shores Conrad Dias, Vice Chairman of the Fintech Forum Sri Lanka and Chairman of LOLC Finance PLC, believes the next stage for Sri Lankan fintechs is about helping local fintech companies access larger regional markets, strengthen collaboration with banks and regulators, and build an ecosystem capable of sustaining long-term growth. For Sri Lankan fintechs, one of the biggest barriers to growth is not innovation, but market size. With a domestic population of just over 20 million, even successful fintechs eventually need to look beyond the country’s borders to achieve meaningful scale. Fintech…