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      Latest Stories

        * Mozilla’s CTO thinks AI should be built like the internet

            8 min read

        * Why we should all be worried about AI in elections

            5 min read

        * How one VC burns through hundreds of millions of tokens a day to find the next unicorn

            3 min read

        * Beijing is forcing a mass breakup with AI lovers

            5 min read

        * Arizona wants Taiwan’s investors to think beyond chips

            2 min read

        * The offline messaging apps challenging internet shutdowns

            3 min read

        * Growth without work: The human cost of the AI revolution

            6 min read

        * The global grassroots gatherings trying to humanize the AI boom

            6 min read

        * Why Silicon Valley is divided over China’s powerful, cheap AI models

            5 min read

        * Can we train AI to choose safety over speed?

            2 min read

        * With Moonshot’s free Kimi K3, China changes the sovereign AI playbook

            4 min read

        * Anxious Chinese students are trusting AI to help pick colleges and majors

            6 min read
      Explore latest stories >
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    Rest of World/Getty Images

        Ideas

      Why we should all be worried about AI in elections

        Deepfakes dominate headlines, but the real danger lies in opaque AI systems that make up election infrastructure.

        By Lisa Poggiali and Samson Itodo

        Q & A

      Mozilla’s CTO thinks AI should be built like the internet

        Raffi Krikorian explains that while consumers flock to ChatGPT and Claude, companies are increasingly turning to open models that they can customize and control.

        By Itika Sharma Punit

        Global

      Support Our Global Journalism

        Nearly four billion Internet users live outside the West, building and using tech products & platforms that most Americans have never heard of.

        By Rest of World Staff

        Q & A

      How one VC burns through hundreds of millions of tokens a day to find the next unicorn

        The investor behind a $75-million AI-focused fund explains why reading research papers and testing frontier models has become part of his job.

        By Ananya Bhattacharya

        LIVE EVENT

      Register: The cost of building AI data centers

        Join Osama Manzar, founder-director of nonprofit Digital Empowerment Foundation on August 19 to discuss all things AI data center construction.

        By Rest of World Staff

    Rest of World/iStock

        Innovation

      Beijing is forcing a mass breakup with AI lovers

        Beijing is pioneering regulations that could shape how governments around the world govern emotionally intelligent chatbots.

        By Kinling Lo

        Global

      Support Our Global Journalism

        Nearly four billion Internet users live outside the West, building and using tech products & platforms that most Americans have never heard of.

        By Rest of World Staff

        LIVE EVENT

      Register: The cost of building AI data centers

        Join Osama Manzar, founder-director of nonprofit Digital Empowerment Foundation on August 19 to discuss all things AI data center construction.

        By Rest of World Staff

        Innovation

      The offline messaging apps challenging internet shutdowns

        Jack Dorsey’s Bluetooth messaging app surged during India’s internet blackout — and the government’s response suggests a new tech battleground.

        By Ananya Bhattacharya

        Q & A

      How one VC burns through hundreds of millions of tokens a day to find the next unicorn

        The investor behind a $75-million AI-focused fund explains why reading research papers and testing frontier models has become part of his job.

        By Ananya Bhattacharya

      A world of tech in your inbox

      Exclusive stories, on-the-ground reporting, and analysis from our global newsroom — twice a week, every week. See the full picture of how technology is shaping the world.

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The AI Race >

      How one VC burns through hundreds of millions of tokens a day to find the next unicorn

        The investor behind a $75-million AI-focused fund explains why reading research papers and testing frontier models has become part of his job.
        By Ananya Bhattacharya

      Beijing is forcing a mass breakup with AI lovers

        Beijing is pioneering regulations that could shape how governments around the world govern emotionally intelligent chatbots.
        By Kinling Lo

      The global grassroots gatherings trying to humanize the AI boom

        Local tech groups in Kenya, India, and the U.S. are building communities and conversations around AI, but also face questions about privilege and reach.
        By Rina Chandran

EV Revolution >

      Indian EV makers beat Tesla and BYD on energy efficiency

        Tata Motors and Mahindra topped a global ranking of battery efficiency, showing India's strength in building frugal electric cars — even as they lag on charging speed and driving range.
        By Ananya Bhattacharya

      China’s EV makers are taking over the European factories Ford and Nissan can’t fill

        What seems like a rescue could prove to be a retreat, as Chery leads its rivals into the heart of Europe’s car industry.
        By Indranil Ghosh

      What happened to China’s overseas EV factory boom?

        Three charts show China’s promised overseas production hasn’t materialized — yet.
        By Ananya Bhattacharya

Gulf War >

      Big Tech is moving data out of the Gulf through Iraqi oil pipelines

        U.S. hyperscalers secure "dark fiber" capacity along Iraqi land route to reduce latency and provide a backup to vulnerable subsea cables.
        By Indranil Ghosh

      War in the Gulf could tilt the cloud race toward China

        Strikes on U.S. data centers highlight the risks of concentration and the growing role of geopolitics in cloud competition.
        By Kinling Lo

      “Data embassies” and safeguarding digital assets during wartime

        To avoid collateral damage, countries consider ditching giant server hubs for smaller, distributed ones—especially now that military and civilian data live side-by-side.
        By Rina Chandran

Features >

  Deeply-reported long reads from around the globe

  Adriana Zehbrauskas for Rest of World

      A Mexican surveillance giant you’ve never heard of is now watching the U.S. border

        Grupo Seguritech quietly built a $1.27 billion surveillance empire. Now it's expanding into the U.S. and across Latin America.
        By José Olivares

      “This is unprecedented”: America’s AI boom is leaving the rest of the world behind

        Tech leaders called AI a democratizing force. But it’s concentrating power and wealth in a handful of American companies.
        By Issie Lapowsky

      Death of an Indian tech worker

        A wave of suicides and widespread AI-fueled layoffs reveal a workforce under extreme pressure.
        By Parth MN

China Outside China >

      China’s EV makers are taking over the European factories Ford and Nissan can’t fill

        What seems like a rescue could prove to be a retreat, as Chery leads its rivals into the heart of Europe’s car industry.
        By Indranil Ghosh

      When Americans choose Chinese AI

        Developers say DeepSeek is good enough for a fraction of the cost. “You don’t need God to write your email.”
        By Viola Zhou

      China builds a rival satellite constellation as SpaceX goes public

        A Chinese state-backed satellite company is signing the partners and governments Starlink has pushed aside, days before SpaceX’s record listing.
        By Indranil Ghosh

Big Tech pushback >

      Meta’s Oversight Board races to govern the AI surge

        As generative AI explodes on social media, the board’s slow, human-led review model faces a breaking point.
        By Ananya Bhattacharya

      Countries are outlawing online gambling ads. Meta is selling them anyway

        A Rest of World analysis found Meta is disregarding local laws and the company’s own guidelines in at least 13 countries.
        By Hazel Gandhi

      Indigenous creators are clashing with YouTube’s and Instagram’s sensitive content bans

        Deep in the heartlands of Brazil, Indigenous creators are having to censor themselves to avoid getting banned on social platforms.
        By Gabriel Daros

The India Story >

      Silicon Valley’s lure is fading for India’s tech talent

        India’s elite tech talent is starting to see big tech jobs in a new light.
        By Ananya Bhattacharya

      U.S. companies have an AI problem. Indian IT wants to be the solution

        As firms find ROI elusive, India’s tech giants are betting they can fill the AI “deployment gap” for U.S. clients, before automation eats their own back-office business.
        By Itika Sharma Punit

      India’s VCs are beating American investors at home

        A decade after U.S. venture capital firms fueled India’s startup boom, local investors are now dominating deals.
        By Itika Sharma Punit

    Editor's picks

      2025

      2024

      2023

      Prev

          After Musk joined Trump, countries rolled out the red carpet for Starlink

          Newly revealed contract between Starlink and Bangladesh shows how these deals are made.

          December 3, 2025

          When the world connected on Skype

          Rest of World readers remember how Skype changed their world

          April 22, 2025

          Digital Divinity

          Where ancient traditions meet modern technology

          September 30, 2024

          🏆 Society for News Design

          Inside the BJP's WhatsApp Machine

          How India’s ruling party uses the app to campaign free from public scrutiny

          May 14, 2024

          The changing face of protest

          Mass protests used to offer safety in numbers. Facial recognition technology changes the equation

          March 27, 2024

          🏆 Society for News Design

          Riders in the Smog

          After equipping gig riders across South Asia with pollution monitors, the readings were off the charts

          February 27, 2024

          How different languages laugh online

          Laughter is universal, but lol is not

          December 18, 2023

          🏆 National Magazine Award

          China, the World's Shopping Cart

          E-commerce platforms like Shein and Temu are going global with big ambitions

          November 14, 2023

          🏆 National Magazine Award

          How AI is reducing the World to Stereotypes

          3,000 AI images analyzed to show how image generators see cultures

          October 10, 2023

          🏆 Online Journalism Award

          40 Companies Beating the West

          Faster, smarter, more adaptable: The emerging market pioneers outmaneuvering Silicon Valley

          October 5, 2023

          🏆 National Magazine Award

          Inside the World's last internet cafes

          Documenting them before they vanish

          July 25, 2023

          Welcome to the Ambaniverse

          It's Mukesh Ambani's world — we're just living in it

          November 15, 2022

          🏆 Society for News Design

          Chinese citizens use puns to get past internet censors

          Chinese social media companies and users are locked in a never-ending battle

          October 11, 2022

          🏆 Society for News Design

          How to Buy

          E-commerce isn't the same around the globe

          May 31, 2022

          In the dark

          60 countries, 935 internet shutdowns: How authoritarian regimes found an off switch for dissent

          April 26, 2022

          🏆 Society for News Design

          The Global Gig Workers

          The platform work model is reshaping entire economies, sectors, lifestyles, and livelihoods

          September 21, 2021

Tech Giants >

      The Gulf built oil pipelines to avoid Hormuz. It’s now doing the same for data

        Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE are financing competing data corridors through Syria, Iraq, and East Africa to bypass the two maritime choke points that threaten their digital connectivity.
      OpenAI cuts its last and most important link to China

        A milestone in the militarization of AI.
        By Russell Brandom

      In its push to become Big Tech’s data center hub, India overlooks local resistance

        Google and Microsoft’s multibillion-dollar projects under construction in India are facing backlash from farmers, while the government offers huge tax relief to foreign companies setting up data centers.
        By Ananya Bhattacharya

      Worldcoin may not be legal in Colombia, but that’s not stopping it

        Scan eyeballs first, answer government inquiries later.
        By José Luis Peñarredonda

Innovation >

      The UAE’s OPEC exit frees up oil wealth as it bets big on AI

        More oil revenue means deeper pockets for the UAE’s AI investment funds, and more gas means more electricity for its data centers.
        By Indranil Ghosh

      How Facebook became working-class Mexico’s favorite food delivery app

        The platform has emerged as a hack around Uber Eats and Rappi's high fees.
        By Leo Schwartz

      Who is most at risk from the billions of leaked Facebook and Google passwords?

        CyberNews researchers flag breach as “blueprint for mass exploitation.”
        By Damilare Dosunmu

Innovation >

      Chinese boxing robots win fans in San Francisco

        American companies are staging boxing matches with VR-controlled Chinese humanoids to enthusiastic fans. A researcher says it is just robot theater.
      Taiwan’s chips power the global economy. China holds the leverage

        Big Tech’s reliance on TSMC makes the China-Taiwan dispute the world’s most dangerous geopolitical flashpoint, says writer Eyck Freymann ahead of this week’s Xi-Trump meeting in Beijing.
        By Rina Chandran

      The Gulf war is reshaping how Asia works

        The global oil crisis triggered by the U.S.-Iran war is making Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Pakistan, and India get conservative with energy.
        By Ananya Bhattacharya

      Morocco wants to build AI that speaks for Africa

        Morocco’s Minister of Digital Transition on governing AI when the rules keep changing, building language models for Africa, and why regulation can coexist with innovation.
        By Indranil Ghosh
      Mozilla’s CTO thinks AI should be built like the internet

        Raffi Krikorian explains that while consumers flock to ChatGPT and Claude, companies are increasingly turning to open models that they can customize and control.
        By Itika Sharma Punit

    Charts

    A view of Rest of World through all our charts and graphics.

    Explore charts >

    3 August 2026

    Bitchat weekly app downloads in India
    11 August 2026

    The venture-funded open-source AI ecosystem

    See details >

          * The venture-funded open-source AI ecosystem

          * Bitchat weekly app downloads in India

          * China’s smartphone reading boom

          * Energy consumption of battery-operated EVs for the world’s 22 largest automakers

          * Share of foreign-born talent in Science & Engineering roles in the U.S.

          * H-1B applications decline under Donald Trump's presidency

          * Far more Chinese clean tech outbound FDI has been announced than actually completed

          * China's exports eclipse outbound FDI in EV and battery manufacturing

          * Chinese FDI announcements in clean tech in the last decade

          * Shifting foreign production plans for Chinese EV and battery makers

          * Where does AI spending go?

          * How much do AI models cost?

          * Global EV sales last year exceeded 20 million for the first time

    South Asia >

      Why we should all be worried about AI in elections

      How one VC burns through hundreds of millions of tokens a day to find the next unicorn

      The offline messaging apps challenging internet shutdowns

    China >

      Mozilla’s CTO thinks AI should be built like the internet

      Beijing is forcing a mass breakup with AI lovers

      Why Silicon Valley is divided over China’s powerful, cheap AI models

    Africa >

      The global grassroots gatherings trying to humanize the AI boom

      Data centers should benefit the cities that power them

      Spotify’s post-English AI future

    Latin America >

      Fed up with Big Tech, communities turn to data collectives for control

      Can AI beat a goldfish at calling the World Cup?

      AI powers citizen-led disaster relief from afar for Venezuela

    Asia >

      Arizona wants Taiwan’s investors to think beyond chips

      Growth without work: The human cost of the AI revolution

      The hidden cost of Myanmar’s rare earth mines

    Eastern Europe >

      The Great AI Divide: Navigating U.S. and Chinese dominance

      Temu’s global rise runs into a regulatory wall

      When war destroys the internet economy

    Middle East & North Africa >

      AI is shrinking video game development teams to one

      The problem AI content moderation cannot solve

      The Gulf has billions to spend on AI. It still needs Nvidia

  South Asia

  China

  Africa

  Latin America

  Asia

  Eastern Europe

  Middle East & North Africa

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