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Business Times
16-07-2025
- Business
- Business Times
Singapore-based AI firms seek to grow revenue globally
[SINGAPORE] Some small Singapore firms are aiming to build a sustainable business model overseas – with or without venture capital backing. By leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), distribution channels and the Singapore brand, they are planning to grow revenue from across the globe. Take cybersecurity startup for example. It has about US$1.2 million in annual recurring revenue from 19 enterprise clients, none of which are in Singapore, as its distributor partnership in the city-state began only two months ago, said its vice-president of finance, Steven Wu. The Business Times spoke to health-tech firm Carecam and fact-checking platform AI Seer, at the SuperAI event held at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre in June. AI Seer is another company that earns the bulk of its revenue from customers in the US. Its latest product, uses a scaffold of large language models such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Llama to provide fact-checking services for text inputs. The startup is backed by venture capitalists. has a monthly user growth rate of 17.1 per cent, with most of its paying users using it for research purposes. A significant portion of its users are from journalism, tech and finance industries. Carecam, on the other hand, has primarily local clients, but is getting ready to take a crack at the overseas market. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Friday, 8.30 am SGSME Get updates on Singapore's SME community, along with profiles, news and tips. Sign Up Sign Up The company's flagship product, 3DGait, can spot early signs of frailty by analysing a short video of the way a person stands up and walks from a sitting position. The product, currently used at the National Heart Centre Singapore and Sengkang General Hospital for research purposes, was recently listed by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This means that 3DGait has met the basic requirements of the FDA and can be sold in the US. AI reduces need for big teams As they position themselves to capture clients overseas, AI can help these firms to grow. 'With the current advent of AI, it no longer makes sense to have a very big team,' said Dr Ramanpreet Pahwa, chief technology officer of Carecam. Currently, Carecam has a small headcount of six staff based in Singapore, but it expects to increase this number up to 15, and deploy some new staff to sell products in the US. Dennis Yap, chief executive officer of AI Seer, also believes that the rise of AI means that the company will be able to scale up while keeping its headcount low. AI Seer now has four full-time employees and an intern, all based in Singapore. While has a 28-person team (mainly engineers based in Jakarta) serving 19 enterprise clients across the region, the startup plans to hire more account managers for its various markets as it expands. 'We need to have account managers to visit the clients and sell the products,' said Wu. The cybersecurity firm is already profitable on an Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) basis, but wants to improve its product to stay competitive, he said. Support network Being among the 10 finalists of the recently concluded Genesis startup competition at the SuperAI event, the three companies enjoyed fast-tracked reviews by VC firm 500 Global's investment team, and were provided free startup exhibition stands. benefited from being selected by CyberSG's 'CyberBoost Catalyse' programme, which provides support for selected cybersecurity firms to integrate into the local and global cybersecurity industry. Wu said that it would have been 'quite hard' for to access distributors without such a support network. Dr Ramanpreet from Carecam started working on 3D technology while doing his PhD, and continued his research in Singapore when he worked at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star). He delved into new fields of application for the technology during the Covid pandemic, and moved into its healthcare applications. As an SME, Carecam tapped into the SGInnovate programme to attract and train talents; it hired a software engineer under the programme. Expansion plans The firms are planning to improve and scale their products. AI Seer is now backed by multiple funders and collaborators. The aim is to keep up the momentum and raise US$2.5 million in a seed-funding and equity round. The startup intends to use the funds to improve on current products and expand their distribution network. It will also file patents for its products in more countries. AI Seer's was one of 14 AI products named among Time magazine's best inventions of 2024. AI Seer also plans to expand into the digital space, particularly the Web3 space, partnering with Web3 firms such as Virtuals Protocol and Nexus to drive its expansion. Web3 is an umbrella term for companies and individuals engaged in concepts such as decentralisation and blockchain. remains focused on scaling up its operations to different countries, while keeping its revenue as the 'pure No. 1' priority to attract more ventures. Similarly, Carecam aims to remain cash-positive in three years by focusing on integration with US electronic medical records.
NDTV
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- NDTV
"This Will Sell': Elon Musk's Grok Introduces AI Companions Featuring A Goth Anime Girl
Elon Musk's artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Grok has introduced a new feature called AI companions, in which users have access to customisable 3D animated characters, including a goth anime girl. The other character is a furry red panda named Bad Rudy that has a mean, sarcastic personality and a vulgar streak. "This is pretty cool," Musk wrote in one of his recent posts on X, sharing an image of the anime companion Ani, who is a blonde, pigtailed character wearing a black corset, short dress, and thigh-high fishnets. Musk confirmed that the AI companion feature is currently in a soft launch and will be easier to activate for Super AI subscribers in a few days. The companions seem to be the latest in a series of features aimed at boosting user engagement and offering greater personalisation for paid users. See the post here: Update your app to try out @Grok companions! — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 14, 2025 It remains unclear if these AI companions are meant to role-play as romantic interests or serve as different skins for users on the app. Some users have pointed out that the feature is similar to where users are able to talk to chatbots based on real-life and fictional characters. Social media reacts As the news of the new feature went viral, social media users joked that Mr Musk may have found a way to turn the AI business profitable. "I mean, that sh*t is probably going to sell, especially with more characters, with different personalities," said one user while another joked: " is shaking in their boots lol another wrapper gone." A third commented: "Can I customise it to look like Karl Marx and read the news with an anti-capitalist bias to propagandise my friends in the bar? That's all I want!" A fourth said: "There's a lot of data to indicate huge amounts of loneliness in the modern world and perhaps an AI 'companion' can help to off-set this. There isn't any real reason to prevent people from using AI in this way." What is Grok? Grok is Mr Musk's answer to his rivals, such as Google and Meta, who have come up with their respective chatbots to take a lead in the AI race. xAI launched Grok 4 last week, with the billionaire touting it one of the most advanced chatbots capable of solving almost any query. "With respect to academic questions, Grok 4 is better than PhD level in every subject, no exceptions," said Mr Musk during the launch. "At times, it may lack common sense, and it has not yet invented new technologies or discovered new physics, but that is just a matter of time." It was in April 2024 that Mr Musk and the xAI team decided that to develop the most advanced AI, they needed to build their own data centre. With a strict deadline, the team managed to get the first 100,000 GPUs operational in just 122 days, calling it a "monumental effort." This massive computing power has continuously improved Grok, allowing it to function in three modes: DeepSearch, Think, and Big Mind.
India Today
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- India Today
Grok now has AI companions including a goth anime girl, says Elon Musk
Elon Musk has introduced a new feature to his AI chatbot Grok called customisable AI companions. The first characters released as part of this feature are a goth-style anime girl named Ani and a red panda named Rudy. The new characters are available to Super Grok subscribers, which is the $30-per-month tier of X Premium+.'This is pretty cool,' Musk wrote in one of his recent posts on X, sharing an image of the anime companion Ani. Ani is a blonde, pigtailed character wearing a black corset, short dress, and thigh-high fishnets. Musk confirmed that the AI companion feature is currently in a soft launch and will be easier to activate for Super AI subscribers in a few days. advertisementBoth of the new characters, Ani and Rudy, a red panda-style figure, can be accessed through the Grok app by adjusting the settings. While xAI has not yet shared official details around the AI companions and their features, the avatars appear to be fully interactive and capable of engaging in typical Grok-style of the X Premium+ subscription Super Grok is part of the broader X Premium+ subscription, which includes the AI chatbot's advanced features such as DeepSearch, real-time data access, image generation, and a reasoning mode for complex problem-solving. The companions seem to be the latest in a series of features aimed at boosting user engagement and offering greater personalisation for paid users. While the launch of Grok's AI companions is generating significant interest, early reports from users and testers also point to the inclusion of adult-themed content. One of the avatars, Ani, is said to feature a not-safe-for-work (NSFW) mode that alters her appearance, including suggestive clothing, reports The Verge. Although xAI has not officially detailed the feature, NSFW visuals connected to the character have already surfaced on X, raising concerns around content moderation and rollout of AI companions has also reignited the broader debate around the psychological impact of AI relationships. While Grok's avatars haven't been explicitly marketed as romantic or emotional partners, their stylised design and customisable features does place them in a category of AI interactions that blur the line between utility and emotional the meantime, users have spotted a third character, named Chad, who may soon be added to the Grok AI companion lineup. Grok already includes a voice chat mode, allowing for interactive spoken conversations, suggesting that xAI may be planning to further expand its persona-driven experience.- Ends
Nikkei Asia
08-07-2025
- Business
- Nikkei Asia
Inside China's AI rise: Youth infusion pushes country past 'follower' status
SINGAPORE/HONG KONG -- At last month's SuperAI event in Singapore, investors, consumers and other attendees gathered around the booth of Manus, eager to know more about the startup that burst onto the artificial intelligence scene in March. Originally dually-based in Beijing and Wuhan, the company made waves in March when it unveiled what is described as the world's "first general AI agent."
Hans India
24-06-2025
- Business
- Hans India
Most AI tools suffer from ‘hallucination'
Most artificial intelligence systems suffer from the flaw of 'hallucination' and are not meant for India's small enterprises in the manufacturing sector, deep-tech company Vexoo Labs has said and claimed its AI solutions are for the 'real world'. 'The focus on factual accuracy is both rare and crucial,' said Ajay Kumar, senior business leader, AI Evangelist and a board advisor at Vexoo Labs. He said most AI tools today are built for showcase, not for reliability. In the industrial alleys of Rajkot, the looms of Tiruppur, and the machining units of Coimbatore, India's small and mid-sized manufacturers are facing a silent crisis, he noted. 'It's not rising input costs or labour shortages alone - it's the growing complexity of data, and the absence of any reliable AI system to help make sense of it,' Kumar said. According to Kumar, despite the global boom in artificial intelligence, 'most systems on the market today suffer from a dangerous flaw: hallucinations — confidently delivering factually incorrect information. For India's MSMEs, where decisions have direct operational and financial consequences, this isn't just a flaw, it's a liability.' He further said that even at global AI showcases like Super AI, dozens of platforms claim to be transformative. But behind the gloss lies a glaring truth — most are built atop general-purpose language models that continue to hallucinate. 'While the world chases scale and speed, accuracy has quietly fallen through the cracks,' he said, adding, Vexoo Labs' reasoning-first architecture, compact models, and local execution capabilities make it especially relevant for Tier-II and Tier-III cities, where India's manufacturing momentum truly lies. He said the company's focus on trustworthy AI for real-world India is already resonating across enterprise and public sector conversations. 'We didn't set out to build a shinier chatbot. We set out to solve the core flaw in AI itself — hallucinations,' added Aditya Vardhan, co-founder of Vexoo Labs. 'Manufacturers in Ludhiana, Surat or Bhiwadi shouldn't have to rely on guesswork. They deserve AI that answers clearly, correctly, and fast — and that's what we're building at Vexoo Labs,' Vardhan explained. He said that as India eyes to become a $5-trillion economy, the 'real digital leap may not come from big cities or billion-parameter models, but from trust-first intelligence deployed deep within India's industrial backbone'.
