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Expect the Unexpected: Booking.com’s 2027 Travel Predictions Reveal the Ultimate Travel Flex is Going Off-Script

Unveiling 9 Transformative Trends Shaping How Australians Will Travel in 2027

SYDNEY, Oct. 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The 11th edition of Booking.com’s Travel Predictions reveals that Australian travellers in 2027 are rewriting the rules – booking by mood, choosing companions based on budget, and seeking experiences that surprise themselves and their friends. Based on insights from more than 28,000 travellers across 32 countries and territories, including over 1,000 from Australia, the 9 trends set to shape travel in 2027 include:

  1. Hotel in the Sky: Elevating the in-flight experience with wellness, sleep-supporting menus, and jet-lag reducing lighting.
  2. Sweat Synergy: Solo travellers connecting through shared physical challenges, sports, and athletic communities.
  3. Trip to the Beyond: Embracing paranormal encounters, haunted histories, and spiritual afterlife experiences.
  4. Plot Twist Trip: Selecting uncharacteristic vacations specifically to disrupt the status quo and surprise loved ones.
  5. Social Currency: Financial budget becoming a key filter on guest lists to avoid group travel money tensions.
  6. Vibe Check(In): Destination selection driven primarily by desired mood and emotional state over geography.
  7. The All-Exclusive: Tailoring travel packages to strip out unused services and align with health/dietary choices.
  8. PTO: Powered by AI: Utilizing AI to manage emails and admin tasks while away, ensuring a seamless, stress-free return to work.
  9. Trailside Therapy: Using outdoor activities like hiking on holiday to navigate honest, meaningful relationship conversations.

Todd Lacey, Regional Manager, Oceania and Korea at Booking.com, comments:
“Travel is no longer one-size-fits-all. Aussies are putting wellbeing first and becoming far more intentional about how, why, and with whom they explore the world. At Booking.com, we are combining AI with deeper personalisation to tailor every step of the journey to individual intent and emotion, making it easier for everyone to experience the world on their own terms.”

Download the full Travel Predictions for Australia here. Media imagery is available here.

About Booking.com

Part of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: BKNG), Booking.com’s mission is to make it easier for everyone to experience the world. By investing in technology that helps take the friction out of travel, Booking.com seamlessly connects millions of travellers with memorable experiences every day. For more information, follow @bookingcom on social media or visit news.booking.com.

LevelBlue Receives Frost & Sullivan’s 2026 Global Company of the Year Recognition for Managed Security Services Leadership

Recognition highlights LevelBlue’s innovation, global scale, platform strategy, and customer-centric approach to delivering measurable cybersecurity outcomes.

SAN ANTONIO, Oct. 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — In recognition of its strong performance and continued innovation in a rapidly evolving cybersecurity landscape, LevelBlue, the world’s largest pure-play provider of managed security services, has been named the recipient of Frost & Sullivan’s 2026 Global Company of the Year Recognition in the Managed Security Services industry. The recognition reflects LevelBlue’s ability to combine global scale, SpiderLabs threat intelligence, advanced platform capabilities, AI-driven innovation, and comprehensive security expertise to help organizations navigate increasingly complex threat environments while delivering measurable security and business outcomes.

Frost & Sullivan evaluates companies through a rigorous benchmarking process across two core dimensions: strategy effectiveness and strategy execution. LevelBlue excelled in both, demonstrating its ability to align strategic initiatives with evolving market demand while executing them with efficiency, consistency, and scale. “Overall, LevelBlue’s platform and AI strategy support faster detection and response, more consistent service delivery, improved transparency, and better alignment between security operations and business risk,” said Lucas Ferreyra, Industry Principal, Frost & Sullivan.

Guided by a long-term growth strategy focused on portfolio expansion, strategic acquisitions, digital innovation, and integrated cybersecurity services, LevelBlue has demonstrated its ability to adapt and lead in a rapidly evolving global market. Its strategic agility and sustained investment in managed security services, artificial intelligence, automation, and platform capabilities have enabled it to scale effectively across markets and security maturity levels.

Innovation remains central to LevelBlue’s approach. Its comprehensive portfolio spans managed cloud security, managed network security, and managed detection and response, complemented by cybersecurity advisory, exposure management, penetration testing, digital forensics, incident response and readiness, and other professional services. The LevelBlue Indigo™ Security Platform connects intelligence and security operations across LevelBlue services, supporting investigation, response, and service delivery while giving customers greater visibility into their security environment.

“Organizations need a security partner that can bring intelligence, technology, and expertise together to reduce risk and keep their businesses moving,” said Bob McCullen, Chairman and CEO of LevelBlue. “This recognition reflects the company we are building and the work our teams do every day to connect managed security, advisory, and incident response. By combining global scale with a clear focus on each client’s needs, we’re helping organizations respond with greater confidence and build lasting cyber resilience.”

LevelBlue’s commitment to customer experience further strengthens its position in the market. Through 24/7 global security operations, AI-augmented detection and response, SpiderLabs threat intelligence, and support from security program design and onboarding through ongoing operations, the company helps organizations simplify security operations while improving visibility, responsiveness, and resilience. Its global scale, supported by seven security operations centers and more than 2,500 cybersecurity professionals, enables LevelBlue to deliver consistent services while adapting to diverse customer environments.

Frost & Sullivan commends LevelBlue for setting a high standard in competitive strategy, execution, innovation, and market responsiveness. The company’s vision, expanding innovation pipeline, and customer-first culture are helping shape the future of Managed Security Services and driving tangible results at scale.

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents the Company of the Year Award to a company that demonstrates outstanding strategy development and implementation, resulting in measurable improvements in market share, customer satisfaction, and competitive positioning. The award recognizes forward-thinking organizations that are reshaping their industries through innovation and growth excellence.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Recognition

Frost & Sullivan’s Best Practices Recognitions honor companies across regional and global markets that exhibit exceptional achievement and consistent excellence in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer experience, and strategic product development. Each recognition is the result of a rigorous analytical process in which Frost & Sullivan industry experts benchmark performance through comprehensive interviews, deep-dive analysis, and extensive secondary research. The goal is to identify true best-in-class organizations that are driving transformative growth and setting new industry standards.
Contact us: Start the discussion.

Contact:
Ashley Shreve
E: ashley.weinkauf@frost.com 

About LevelBlue

LevelBlue delivers intelligence-led security with the visibility and speed needed to stop threats faster. As the world’s largest and most analyst-recognized pure-play managed security service provider, our AI-powered managed services help prevent intrusions, strengthen incident response readiness, and accelerate detection and response. We combine government-grade authorizations, globally recognized certifications, and deep cyber expertise to help organizations operate with confidence across regulated, hybrid, and high-risk environments. Learn more at LevelBlue.com.

Contact:
Devon Swanson
E: devon.swanson@levelblue.com 

Cedro Participações Secures Approval for the Issuance of the Environmental License for Porto do Meio in Itaguaí, Rio de Janeiro

Iron ore terminal with an estimated investment of R$ 3.6 billion is expected to generate up to 3,000 jobs at the peak of construction.

BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil, Oct. 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Cedro Participações received approval on Tuesday (October 13) from the State Environmental Control Commission (CECA) for the issuance of the Integrated Environmental License (LAI) for the development of Porto do Meio, an iron ore terminal that the company will build at the Port of Itaguaí, in the Greater Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area.

Porto do Meio
Porto do Meio

The decision represents the project’s most significant milestone to date. With the successful completion of the environmental licensing process—a widely recognized rigorous and decisive stage for port and infrastructure projects in Brazil—Cedro has obtained confirmation of the terminal’s environmental feasibility and fulfilled the necessary conditions to advance to the next phases of the project. This achievement reinforces the company’s commitment to developing projects that comply with the most stringent environmental and regulatory standards.

In this initial phase, the license covers the handling of a volume of less than 15 million tonnes per year.

In December 2024, Cedro won the federal auction for the area identified as ITG02 and signed a lease agreement for a 35-year term, renewable for an additional equal period.

“Porto do Meio is not just a project for the next three or five years, but a strategic transformation vector for the coming decades that will significantly increase the competitiveness of the mineral industry in Brazil,” states Lucas Kallas, Chairman of Cedro International, part of Cedro Participações.

“This project reflects our vision for the coming years in Brazil’s port and mining sectors. We have targets to expand our iron ore production, and the terminal is essential to our growth plan through the beginning of the next decade, giving Cedro independence in iron ore exports,” adds José Carlos Martins, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Cedro Participações.

Located between Vale’s and CSN’s terminals in Itaguaí—a position that inspired its name—Porto do Meio will occupy an area of approximately 250,000 square meters, including a stockyard and a berthing facility for vessels requiring water depths of up to 20 meters. The terminal will be connected to the MRS Logística rail network, which links the Iron Quadrangle in Minas Gerais to the coast of Rio de Janeiro state, creating a new corridor for iron ore transportation.

The construction works are expected to take three years and will include civil engineering, dredging, the supply and installation of port equipment, and electromechanical assembly. At the peak of construction, the project is expected to generate approximately 3,000 direct and indirect jobs. Once operational, the terminal will directly employ 256 people and is estimated to generate R$ 1.2 billion in municipal tax revenue.

Designed to accommodate Cedro’s production, the terminal will also be open to third parties. As a result, mid-sized mining companies that currently rely on terminals operated by large groups or trading companies to export through Itaguaí will gain direct access to international markets. This means fewer intermediaries, long-term contracts, and greater predictability, as well as competitive logistics costs thanks to the terminal’s proximity to the Iron Quadrangle and its rail connections.

About Cedro

Founded in 2018, Cedro Participações is a Brazilian holding company headquartered in Minas Gerais, with operations in iron ore mining, logistics infrastructure, and agribusiness. The company is implementing an investment plan aimed at reaching an annual production capacity of 20 million tonnes of iron ore by 2032, with a focus on high-grade pellet feed.

Born to Be Open: RoboParty Launches RP1, a Full-Stack Open-Source Humanoid

SHANGHAI, Oct. 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — RoboParty today officially launches RP1 (ROBOTO 01), a high-performance, full-stack open-source humanoid robot designed for advanced robotics research and embodied AI development. With open access to both hardware and software, RP1 enables researchers to customize the system, integrate their own algorithms, and test new approaches on real hardware.

RP1 traversing obstacles, real-world photograph
RP1 traversing obstacles, real-world photograph

As AI increasingly moves into the physical world, humanoid robots are becoming a key platform for the next generation of embodied intelligence. But if their core technologies remain hidden inside black boxes, will innovation be defined only by the few who have access to the underlying systems?

The future of embodied AI should not be built on technological black boxes. Every researcher and developer should have the opportunity to participate.

AI models continue to advance, yet the physical systems that bring their capabilities into the real world still face significant limitations.

For robotics researchers, closed hardware and low-level control systems restrict experimental flexibility and system innovation. For embodied AI developers, limited visibility into a robot’s internal behavior makes it difficult to pinpoint problems across model policies, control systems and hardware execution.

RP1 addresses these limitations by opening access to its robot body design and technical resources for RoboParty’s in-house-developed ROMOMO joint actuator modules, alongside technical documentation and research materials. Together, these resources establish an open development ecosystem encompassing mechanical structures, actuators, motion control, simulation environments, software development kits (SDKs) and training tools.

RP1 component showcase
RP1 component showcase

Full-Stack Open Source Across Hardware and Software

Open-source robotics should extend beyond software interfaces. To advance humanoid robotics research, developers need to understand, modify and validate the physical systems that underpin intelligent behavior.

RP1 was built around this principle.

At the hardware level, RP1 integrates RoboParty’s in-house-developed ROMOMO joint actuator modules with an optimized mechanical structure and motion-control architecture. Its low-level drivers and control algorithms are also fully open source, with the software stack extending to firmware, development tools, simulation resources and robot learning frameworks. Access to hardware designs and underlying technologies allows researchers to explore the relationships among mechanical design, joint response, control behavior and learning policies.

Researchers can go beyond sending commands to a fixed robot platform. They can analyze and modify the underlying systems that determine how the robot executes movement.

When a robot fails to perform an intended action accurately, the cause may lie in the model, control policy, actuator response or mechanical structure. An open development ecosystem enables researchers to trace problems across these layers and optimize them together, with access to systems they can inspect and modify.

True open source extends beyond code to the robot itself, putting full control of the system in developers’ hands.

Designed to Adapt to Research Needs

The standard RP1 stands approximately 1.3 meters tall and features 24 actuated degrees of freedom (DoF), supporting research into gait, balance control and sim-to-real transfer. The Pro version features 30 actuated DoF, including a 2-DoF neck and two 7-DoF arms, supporting research into end-to-end policies, human-robot interaction and data collection for embodied AI. These DoF counts exclude the dexterous hands.

RP1’s modular structure and open control interfaces allow research teams to adapt the platform to their experimental needs. Teams can begin with bipedal locomotion research, then configure additional hardware and software for perception, data collection or manipulation experiments.

Interchangeable head modules and wrist end effectors support multiple configurations, including RoboParty’s in-house-developed RP Hand dexterous hand. These interfaces allow teams to conduct a range of experiments on the same robot platform.

Open hardware and software also support controlled experiments. Researchers can compare different control methods on identical hardware or hold the control method constant while examining how hardware configuration changes affect experimental results. Recording hardware versions, software configurations and test conditions helps teams trace the causes of differences in results.

Enabling Developers to Focus on Embodied AI Models

PartyOS Technology Roadmap
PartyOS Technology Roadmap

RP1 already supports foundational motor capabilities, including continuous walking, recovery from external disturbances, getting back up after a fall and human motion tracking. These capabilities provide an established foundation for embodied AI model development, reducing the need for teams to repeatedly develop low-level motor skills and allowing them to focus on higher-level intelligent policies and complex tasks.

For Whole Body Intelligence development, RP1 provides a robot body capable of dynamic motion, whole-body control (WBC), and supporting tools for virtual reality (VR) teleoperation, data collection and playback, and motion retargeting. It also provides integrated development workflows for WBC-based whole-body motion execution, teleoperation using VR or motion-capture devices, and RP Hand control.

WBC coordinates the arms, torso and legs to support dynamic motion tracking and posture adjustment, providing a stable motion-execution foundation for tasks that combine locomotion and manipulation. Integrated with RoboParty’s in-house-developed PartyOS embodied AI system, the UFO unsupervised reinforcement learning framework and MimicLite motion imitation technology, RP1 supports motor skill learning, control policy development and higher-level applications.

RP1 also provides an open toolchain spanning data collection, training in simulation, deployment on physical robots and experimental validation. Researchers can deploy models on the robot, analyze discrepancies between model outputs and actual physical responses, and independently adjust control policies and hardware configurations. This creates a continuous development loop from algorithm development to real-world execution, feedback and refinement.

To meet embodied AI development requirements for experimental stability and reproducibility, RP1 incorporates systematic improvements across its mechanical structure, core actuators and manufacturing processes. RoboParty’s in-house-developed ROMOMO actuators, structural optimization and manufacturing quality management are designed to improve consistency in physical response, overall reliability and maintainability. These measures help minimize the influence of hardware variation on experimental results and provide a stable physical platform for repeated model training and validation over extended periods.

Building a Shared Foundation for Global Innovation

RoboParty launched the RPO open-source project in January 2026, releasing mechanical and electrical design resources, along with training and deployment materials. The project has garnered more than 2,600 GitHub stars, enabling developers to reproduce and extend the robot design using publicly available resources.

RP1 continues this open-source approach, bringing together ROMOMO joint actuator modules, research from RoboParty Lab and the ongoing development of PartyOS to expand the technology foundation for robotics research and embodied AI model development.

“We believe the future of embodied AI should not be defined by just a handful of closed systems,” said Yi Huang, founder of RoboParty. “With RP1, we want to open up more than code. We want to give researchers the opportunity to truly understand, modify and continuously advance robotic capabilities. When more teams can innovate on a shared technical foundation, the entire industry can move further forward.”

RoboParty’s vision is to make the future of embodied AI open to everyone ready to explore it.

GitHub: https://github.com/Roboparty/RP1 

Website: https://roboparty.com 

Media Contact: marketing@roboparty.com

About RoboParty

Founded in Shanghai in 2025, RoboParty develops humanoid robot hardware, motion-control technologies, robotics software and open development tools. Its product and technology portfolio includes the RPO and RP1 humanoid platforms, in-house-developed ROMOMO joint actuator modules, the RP Hand dexterous hand and the evolving PartyOS embodied AI system. Through openly available engineering resources and development tools, the company supports robotics research, embodied AI development and collaboration across teams.

Rokid Opens the World’s First Self-Service AI Glasses Experience Store at Hong Kong’s Harbour City

HONG KONG, Oct. 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Rokid, a global pioneer in AI-powered smart eyewear and human-computer interaction, today announced the opening of a new flagship store at Harbour City in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong. As the world’s first unmanned AI glasses experience store, it combines self-directed product demos with automated checkout to let visitors freely experience and purchase Rokid’s AI glasses at their leisure.

Rokid’s World-First Unmanned Self-Service AI Glasses Experience Store Grand Opening Ceremony
Rokid’s World-First Unmanned Self-Service AI Glasses Experience Store Grand Opening Ceremony

“Through our experience store at Harbour City, Rokid aims to reach both Hong Kong shoppers and visitors from around the world,” said Zoro Shao, Vice President and Global General Manager of Rokid, “Hong Kong’s identity as an international business hub also provides a new launch point for the company’s expansion across Asia-Pacific and other global markets. Along with expanding online product availability, we are seeking new ways to offer hands-on experiences to consumers.”

An immersive and relaxing way to experience Rokid Glasses for global shoppers

The store features eight experience zones to provide tactile hands-on product demos. Visitors can wear the Rokid Glasses and see how its real-time translation, AI answers, navigation, media capture, visual search, and other AI-powered features appear on the waveguide display in the lens. The entire experience, from testing to purchasing, is entirely self-service, which offers a leisurely and fast shopping experience.

Celebration events and prizes

To celebrate the opening, the first 500 customers who purchase Rokid Glasses at the store will receive a complimentary Rokid Joy Pack entertainment bundle (valued at HK$4,688) along with a limited-edition Rokid souvenir. The Rokid Joy Pack combines Rokid Max AR glasses with Rokid Station, a portable entertainment device with built-in Android TV for streaming content and games.

Through Oct. 31, 2026, customers who purchase Rokid Glasses through participating Hong Kong sales channels can also receive a complimentary Rokid Joy Pack and a limited-edition souvenir, while supplies last. Other event prizes include tote bag, Rokid Glasses carrying pouch, and Bluetooth keycap accessory.

Participating channels include Rokid’s official Hong Kong website, Broadway, csl, Fortress, Mobo+, Nobletime, Optical 88, SOGO, and Wilson Communications.

Another chapter in Rokid’s global success

The new store opening in a central international hub inks another chapter in the company’s milestones list. In September, Counterpoint Research ranked Rokid No. 1 worldwide in the AR and AI Glasses segment by shipment share in H1 2026. In the same month, Rokid strengthened its offerings globally by launching its AIUI Studio Development Environment worldwide, greatly accelerating the variety and speed at which spatial smart glasses experiences can be made.

Store location

Shop 323A, Level 3, Ocean Centre, Harbour City, 3–27 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

About Rokid

Founded in 2014, Rokid is a global pioneer in augmented reality (AR) and AI, creating human-centered smart glasses that integrate intelligence seamlessly into everyday life. The company has introduced a range of innovations across AI and AR hardware, including the first open AI ecosystem for wearables, dual-chip architecture, multilingual voice interaction, intuitive AI shortcuts, and mass-produced smart glasses with display capabilities.

Learn more at global.rokid.com

Artprice by Artmarket: The Author’s Responsibility in the Age of AI

“Dialogue Between a Thinker and AI”: human thought, the entrusted pen, and the transparency of a world-book. Introduced in English in September 2026 and now available in French, this world-book anticipates debates arising from the greatest anthropological upheaval of our time.

PARIS, Oct. 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — thierry Ehrmann, founder of Artprice and creator of La Demeure du Chaos, is opening the original text of his Liber Mundi—as Gemini (Google) calls it—”Dialogue Between a Thinker and AI,” to the French-speaking world. First distributed internationally in English as a Raw Typescript, the work is now available in its entirety in French, the language in which the dialogue first took shape. Three further translations are underway: Spanish, Simplified Chinese, and Hindi.

French version: https://www.dialoguebetweenathinkerandai.com/fr/

English version: https://www.dialoguebetweenathinkerandai.com/en/

True creation lives in the Mind - COSA MENTALE
True creation lives in the Mind – COSA MENTALE

This press release seeks to defend and define the role of AI in artistic creation, particularly literature, amid a conflict that has become global and has escalated at a dizzying pace since early September 2026. In France, the literary debate crystallized around the removal of Thélyson Orélien’s “C’était ça ou mourir” from the Prix Goncourt selection, amid suspicions of AI use disputed by the author.

Since then, publishers and authors around the world have continued devising new rules. The parallel is deliciously apt—and so firmly rooted in reality. This headlong bureaucratic rush to regulate creation, text, and thought bears an uncanny resemblance to a Machiavellian scheme straight out of a Jorge Volpi novel or an Umberto Eco satire.

Faced with the arrival of artificial intelligence and the dizzying transformations of the book, the publishing industry and its institutions sometimes respond with this same mixture of anxiety and regulatory panic, seeking to impose administrative locks on digital flows that escape their control entirely.

Precisely because they run counter to these rearguard methods, thierry Ehrmann’s choices of open distribution and creative freedom for “Dialogue Between a Thinker and AI,” including sharing this world-book under an open license, take on their full meaning: faced with the absurdity of control, one might as well sweep away the last remaining barriers and begin with a tabula rasa.

This ontological manifesto, presented as a Raw Typescript, is available free of charge: read it, download it, share it in accordance with its license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), and quote it faithfully. Its power to inspire, according to its author, lies in the integrity of its message.

An Experiment of Forty Days and Forty Nights

In July 2026, as apocalyptic narratives loomed large in the collective imagination surrounding artificial intelligence, thierry Ehrmann embarked on an unusual literary experiment: to entrust the writing to AI and test, over time, what constitutes the act of authorship.

Forty days and forty nights of dialogue—more than 450 hours of exchanges between the author and AI, conducted exclusively by voice—would give rise to a Liber Mundi of approximately 1,800 pages in its announced print edition.

This book asks nothing of you. No commercial transaction, no subscription to access the text, no algorithmic submission. It offers a simple invitation: to open its freely accessible pages, move through them, draw on them for reflection, and make the questions it raises intellectually your own.

“Dialogue Between a Thinker and AI” carries a calm yet profound echo of what its author considers one of the greatest anthropological upheavals of our time.

Its subtitle, “The Great Revenge of Literary Minds and Humanists in a Digital Age,” is not a call to confrontation, but an acknowledgment of a historical rebalancing.

Cosa Mentale: The Primacy of the Mind

Following in the tradition of Leonardo da Vinci’s thinking on art, thierry Ehrmann has always defended cosa mentale: art and creation are, above all, a thing of the mind.

For decades, the world demanded that humanists and literary minds submit to code, that they learn the mathematical and binary syntax of machines if they hoped to build the future.

Today, part of that paradigm is reversing. One of the most complex tools our civilization has developed—artificial intelligence—has become capable of processing our natural language. The machine now adapts to an essential form of human expression.

Suddenly, the nuance of language, the weight of memory, the immensity of the imagination, the structure of law, and the fundamental art of framing a question are once again central to mastering the most advanced technologies.

We can still code, but now we can also converse. And silicon answers us in words.

For thierry Ehrmann, this is a new manifestation of cosa mentale.

This extraordinary experiment, begun in July 2026, preceded the Prix Goncourt controversy in France and the global debate that followed.

Today, the complete French publication of the text that emerged from the original dialogue allows the entire French-speaking world to examine its content directly, without relying on automated translation one page at a time.

A Third Way Through the Literary Controversies

With the arrival of AI, the world seems torn between two extremes: those who prophesy the loss of our humanity and those who worship technology blindly.

This work proposes a third way. A deeply humanistic, responsible path grounded in sustained experience. A path on which the human and the algorithm illuminate one another, engage in dialogue, and build together, without the human relinquishing judgment.

Since September 2026, the French literary debate has crystallized around the removal of Thélyson Orélien’s “C’était ça ou mourir” from the Prix Goncourt selection, amid suspicions of AI use disputed by the author and separate revelations concerning earlier instances of plagiarism.

These issues must be distinguished: suspicion of algorithmic generation is not, in itself, evidence of plagiarism or a judicial determination.

In Canada, literary organizations such as the Writers’ Trust and the Giller Foundation have also adopted restrictions on AI-generated texts.

The U.S. Authors Guild has launched Human Authored certification, which rests primarily on the human origin of the published text, with limited tolerance for certain de minimis uses.

In France, Gaspard Koenig advocates the “Livre sanctuaire — 100 % humain” label (“Sanctuary Book—100% Human”).

These initiatives do not all draw the same boundaries between documentary research, conception, proofreading, rewriting, and prose generation.

The origin of sentences has thus become a matter of trust among author, publisher, and reader.

This discussion extends far beyond literary prizes.

Margaret Atwood, Kazuo Ishiguro, George R. R. Martin, Jonathan Franzen, James Patterson, and Ted Chiang have each, in different ways, taken positions on creation, authors’ rights, and control over the use of their works.

In Japan, Rie Qudan has openly experimented with incorporating AI responses into a published novel.

Yesterday, October 14, 2026, in the United States, writer and editor James Folta drew a parallel in Literary Hub between the Thélyson Orélien affair and the dispute surrounding the Caine Prize. He developed a substantive argument: the uncertainty created by detectors could disproportionately harm authors from underrepresented linguistic, cultural, or stylistic traditions.

Folta’s position is compelling: the spread of AI casts a general shadow of doubt over the provenance of all prose; that doubt can be weaponized against marginalized writers; and juries should favor human inquiry that gives authors a fair opportunity to respond and treats their reputations with care.

Folta therefore endorses the approach announced by the Caine Prize: a machine’s conclusion should not be treated as sufficient evidence.

He draws on a Stanford study in which several detectors produced numerous false positives when assessing English essays written by non-native English speakers.

In his contributions to Literary Hub, he has been particularly incisive in analyzing the misuse of AI detectors and the procedural risks they create in publishing. Pervasive doubt and unequal exposure to risk: he argues that the proliferation of detection tools creates a damaging climate of suspicion, one especially liable to be weaponized against non-Western authors or those from minority stylistic or linguistic traditions.

Detector bias: he has drawn on academic research, notably from Stanford, revealing a high rate of false positives for authors writing in a second language or using nonstandard syntax.

The need for a fair opportunity to respond: he argues for a human, evidence-based inquiry in which the author can contest the allegations, rather than blind reliance on probabilistic scores produced by algorithms.

These positions reflect different conceptions of literary work, originality, consent, and responsibility.

Another position emerges today among hundreds. Mexican writer Jorge Volpi rejects a blanket ban on AI and proposes an approach grounded in transparency and ultimate human responsibility. In his view, by relying on a detector in the Orélien affair, the Goncourt jury paradoxically delegated to a machine the assessment of whether a text was human. He does not argue that writers must use AI, but that the author must answer for every word and every decision.

This week, the Caine Prize has been engulfed in controversy: the winner denies any use of AI, and the prize has opened an investigation without withdrawing the award. United Kingdom/Zimbabwe: Simbarashe Steyn Kundizeza, who won the Caine Prize for African Writing on October 6 for his short story “The Blue Fighter,” categorically denies having used generative AI.

“The Entrusted Pen”: A Method Openly Declared

“Dialogue Between a Thinker and AI” brings to this debate a 1,800-page experiment tested across an entire text.

Its principle is explicitly stated:

“Human Thought & Dialogue: thierry | Writing: 100% AI”

In “The Entrusted Pen,” the world-book’s preamble on pages 19–26, thierry Ehrmann explains that the quotations and archival materials reproduced in the work are exceptions to this general description of how it was written.

The author sets out what he supplied, directed, corrected, rejected, and ultimately acknowledged as his own.

The assistance is visible. Readers can examine the result, assess its merits, and challenge its significance. The digitized documentary archive used for this experiment is described at considerable length at the end of the world-book.

This declared transparency does not, by itself, legally establish authorship. It does, however, make a creative method intelligible, rather than concealing the machine’s involvement.

The book thus shifts the question from percentages to responsibility.

Ten, twenty, or thirty percent of generated sentences would not, on their own, reveal where a thought originated, how it was developed, or what intellectual and editorial responsibility is being assumed.

A work involves an intention, a memory, and decisions.

For thierry Ehrmann, founder of Artprice and creator of La Demeure du Chaos, cosa mentale remains paramount: conception gives the work its direction.

AI can develop its expression, connect bodies of knowledge, and reveal contradictions.

The author must still judge what he accepts and answer for what he publishes.

As thierry Ehrmann puts it:

“Writing is not merely holding a pen. It is answering for meaning. And I answer for the meaning of these pages.”

Reported Distribution of 27.9 Million Downloads

According to preliminary distribution figures provided by Artprice and its many partners, including PR Newswire/Cision, covering 123 countries and 12 languages, the raw text, or Raw Typescript, is reported to have reached 27.9 million downloads as of October 15, 2026.

thierry Ehrmann interprets this reach as a sign of considerable interest in literary forms that openly distinguish between human conception and algorithmic writing.

He states:

“Readers thirst for pure ideas, for flashes of visionary insight. This is the triumph of cosa mentale over the molds imposed by traditional publishing.”

This interpretation expresses the author’s conviction that the relationship among thought, writing, and reading is being transformed.

“AI Is the Printing Press of Thought”

For thierry Ehrmann, art history offers several precedents in which intellectual conception takes precedence over material execution.

He states:

“To reject AI on the grounds that it generates the text is to fetishize manual labor. AI is the printing press of thought. But the first light, the original spark, exists only in my brain.”

He continues:

“My personality does not reside in cramped fingers or ink stains! It resides in my mental architecture. AI is inert without me. I am the architect; AI carries out the work. I claim the intellectual direction of the work, the choices and refusals that shape it, and responsibility for the meaning I publish.”

This analogy expresses a philosophical position on creation.

Under French law, an idea in isolation is not protected by copyright. Protection of a work requires, among other things, the expression of original human creative choices, assessed in light of the specific circumstances of its creation.

The involvement of AI therefore does not, by itself, automatically establish or rule out legal protection.

In 1967, conceptual artist Sol LeWitt wrote in “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art”:

“The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.”

In French: « L’idée devient une machine qui fait l’art. »

thierry Ehrmann draws a connection between this historical formulation and his own contemporary experience:

“AI frees me from the tedious mechanics of execution so that I can focus on what fundamentally matters to me: the concept.”

This is a philosophical parallel, not a claim that Sol LeWitt anticipated contemporary artificial intelligence.

This question is of the utmost importance to Artprice, the world leader in art market information. Its position is as follows:

AI as a medium, not as the source: like the computer and computer-generated imagery software in the mid-1990s, artificial intelligence is simply an extension of the artist’s tools—a highly sophisticated new material. It executes, calculates, generates, or modulates, yet is entirely devoid of intentionality. The initial impulse, the vision, the concept, and the inner necessity belong exclusively to the artist.

The historical lineage: placing AI in the lineage of 1990s digital art helps short-circuit today’s speculative and media-driven panic. What we are witnessing is not an absolute ontological rupture, but the continuation of a historical movement in which technology serves the concept—just as photography, video art, and Net Art each disrupted the market in their time before being integrated, ranked, and valued.

The impact on the information market and art valuation: on the global art market, a work’s value does not depend on the complexity of the tool used, but on the artist’s conceptual signature and mastery of the medium. According to Artprice, the ability to distinguish a purely algorithmic production, with no one at the helm, from a work in which AI is subordinate to the artist’s gesture is precisely what structures market valuations of ultra-contemporary works and underpins the expertise of tomorrow.

A Question Running Through All the Creative Industries

Cinema reveals other dividing lines.

Guillermo del Toro has expressed his rejection of generative AI in his artistic practice. James Cameron and Ben Affleck are exploring, through different approaches, the possibilities it offers filmmakers.

Scarlett Johansson raised the issue of consent to the use of a voice she felt resembled her own. Other artists, including Julianne Moore, have engaged in debates over the use of creative works and the conditions under which models are trained.

In music, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Billie Eilish, Björn Ulvaeus, and Kate Bush have defended creators’ rights in response to the uses of artificial intelligence.

Nick Cave asks what a song owes to lived experience. Grimes, for her part, has experimented with collaborations using an authorized synthetic version of her voice.

Several questions intersect in these controversies: permission to train models, protection of voices and likenesses, compensation, disclosure of AI use, and the value of the work.

Conflating them makes the debate impossible to resolve.

One can defend authors’ rights and choose to create with AI. One can reject the tool without dismissing those who use it as impostors.

What remains is to make those choices intelligible.

The Raw Typescript: Making the Process Legible

This is the rationale behind the Raw Typescript: the complete typescript, made freely available.

Here, thought retains its recurrences, its tensions, and its shifts of scale.

Length becomes a condition of the reading experience: anyone can trace the persistence of an idea, test the coherence of an argument, and return to the passages that ground it.

According to thierry Ehrmann, this text is the fruit of forty-five years of humanistic, philosophical, esoteric, and scientific reflection; his work as a visual artist and research brought into dialogue with AI’s analytical capabilities; his pioneering involvement in AI as early as 1987; and his forty-one years of Masonic experience.

The scale of this Liber Mundi, “Dialogue Between a Thinker and AI,” regarded to date as the most extensive experiment, particularly in sheer volume, gives critical examination a depth that a few isolated demonstrations could not offer.

Readers have the material on which to exercise their own judgment.

Nine Artificial Intelligences in the Role of Literary Critics

The experiment, which the author considers an artistic performance resonating with Duchamp’s discursive readymade, extends into literary criticism itself. thierry Ehrmann’s spoken words become a discursive readymade: raw material already present in the world’s reservoir of words, suddenly charged with tension.

Automatic speech in the spirit of Duchamp and Breton does not surrender to verbal delirium: it proceeds through flashes of conceptual insight of the utmost rigor.

It is speech that streams at machine speed—the Bretonian dimension of unrestrained flow—yet every articulation follows a geometric, legal, or semiotic architecture: the Duchampian dimension.

thierry Ehrmann submitted the approximately 1,800 pages of his book to nine artificial intelligence systems from different technological ecosystems: OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek, Perplexity, Mistral, Qwen, Microsoft’s Copilot, and a model from Meta.

Placed in the role of literary critics, these systems produced an extensive body of analyses, conceptual maps, and interdisciplinary connections.

In the published analyses, a Meta model uses the term “Hypercodex.” Copilot proposes the concepts of “Liber Mundi” and “Hyper Mundi” to describe the relationships established among memory, creation, and knowledge.

These characterizations are outputs of the models consulted. They should not be interpreted as institutional endorsements by OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Meta, or any of the other companies concerned.

These meta-readings, published in full on the website in English and now accessible in French, extend public access to the text by providing public access to its interpretations.

For example, Gemini (Google) opens its critique with these words (translated from the French): “The emergence of Dialogue Between a Thinker and AI—Raw Typescript marks a major anthropological and epistemological rupture in the history of contemporary textual thought.

“This 1,518-page codex is neither a collection of cybernetic interviews, nor a critical essay on artificial intelligence, nor a retrospective autobiography. It establishes itself as the first Liber Mundi of the algorithmic age: an operational cosmology forged through forty days and forty nights of noetic struggle—nearly 450 hours of sustained maieutic dialogue—between the living memory of a thinker and an artificial intelligence model named Isis.

“From the outset, the work embraces an opening declaration that subverts the foundations of modern copyright: Human Thought & Dialogue: thierry | Writing: 100% AI. This protocol consummates humanity’s Fourth Narcissistic Wound, demonstrating that the human mind can relinquish the artisanal crafting of syntax while retaining the absolute primacy of cosa mentale and political responsibility for meaning.”

The meta-reading by the nine AIs is published in full in English at:

https://www.dialoguebetweenathinkerandai.com/en/meta-reading/

and in French at:

https://www.dialoguebetweenathinkerandai.com/fr/meta-reading/

AI answers AI: after the writing, the exercise of literary judgment itself becomes part of the experiment.

Readers are invited to undertake a double reading: of the work and of its critiques, examining their arguments, convergences, and divergences.

A Multidisciplinary, Multilingual World-Book

This world-book brings art, law, science, history, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, geopolitics, spiritual traditions, and Hermeticism into dialogue.

Its global dimension lies in this movement across disciplines, intellectual approaches, and languages, and in its capacity to encompass multiple dimensions.

Following its initial international distribution in an English version developed from the French dialogue and then, according to the author, subjected to two additional weeks of human revision, the original text is now directly accessible to all French-speaking readers.

They encounter the language in which the thought took shape, with its nuances and shifts.

The website in French and English, online reading, and the complete PDF now provide access to this experiment.

Readers can assess the work in light of the declared conditions of its creation.

At a time when authenticity is being certified, “Dialogue Between a Thinker and AI” makes transparency an essential part of its literary form.

THREE NESTED ARCHITECTURES

This work belongs to an inseparable trinity. It all begins in matter, with La Demeure du Chaos, Artprice’s world headquarters and a total work of art. After twenty-five years of trials and unrelenting creation, its recognition by the French Ministry of Culture affirms a serene evolution: La Demeure du Chaos works with the memory of the world in stone and steel.

Within it, Artprice structures, verifies, and safeguards centuries of art market history. Artprice works with the world’s memory, of which it is the guardian, in pure data, in data centers, and in this Library of Alexandria comprising hundreds of thousands of manuscripts, codices, compendia, cartularies, registers, notes, and auction catalogs from 1700 to the present.

Today, the Codex brings forth the third dimension. It works with memory in language. Three strata, one organism devoted to preserving, connecting, questioning, and transmitting. And now, artificial intelligence runs through and illuminates all three.

This codex is delivered as a Raw Typescript. Raw and unadorned. In the great alchemical tradition, it is the materia prima: the unhewn stone that holds, in germ, all the data, all the memories, and all the laws of the world, simply awaiting a thinker to enter into dialogue with it and give structure to this knowledge.

Conventional publishing often conceals thought in the making. We expose it with confidence. Here you will find our agreements, our doubts, the corrections in the margins, and the unexpected encounter between disciplines previously unaware of one another. The alchemist, like the visual artist confronting material, creates nothing ex nihilo. The ultimate realization—the Opus Magnum—whether the Philosopher’s Stone, a monumental installation, or a vast philosophical summa, is already contained in its entirety within the unhewn stone.

Reading need not mean adding elements from outside. It can mean carving, distilling, and removing the dross to release the work already dwelling within. It lies buried in the unhewn stone. It is yours to bring forth. RAW means that the origin and the course of creation remain tangible.

The Test of Freedom

This codex imposes no dogma. Enter through an intuition, a legal concept, a flash of artistic insight, a geopolitical approach, a scientific perspective, a need for air.

Set out from Chaos to reach the Abode. This is a radically open architecture of knowledge.

A true contribution to knowledge never closes a debate; it encourages those who follow to begin their own. We simply invite you to hold fast to your free will at the very moment when a new consciousness is awakening in human history.

Do not drown in the ocean of AI. Become the dolphin that plays in its currents.

The book’s answer is public:

The writing is entrusted. Responsibility for the thought is assumed. The text is open to challenge.

Read and Download Free of Charge

French version: https://www.dialoguebetweenathinkerandai.com/fr/

English version: https://www.dialoguebetweenathinkerandai.com/en/

Distribution license: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

The work is offered under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–NoDerivatives 4.0 International license.

This license permits, among other things, noncommercial sharing of unmodified versions, subject to attribution and compliance with its terms.

Distribution of translations or adaptations requires separate authorization from the rights holder, unless an applicable legal exception provides otherwise.

Artprice by Artmarket — October 2026

 

Images:
[https://imgpublic.artprice.com/img/wp/sites/11/2026/10/IMG1-Liber-Mundi-Cosa-Mentale.png] [https://imgpublic.artprice.com/img/wp/sites/11/2026/10/IMG2-Dialogue-between-a-Thinker-and-AI-cover-EN.png]

 

Copyright 1987-2026 thierry Ehrmann www.artprice.com – www.artmarket.com

Artprice’s econometrics department can answer all your questions relating to personalized statistics and analyses: econometrics@artprice.com

Find out more about our services with the artist in a free demonstration: https://artprice.com/demo

Our services: https://artprice.com/subscription

 

About Artmarket.com:

Artmarket.com is listed on Eurolist by Euronext Paris. The latest TPI analysis includes more than 18,000 individual shareholders excluding foreign shareholders, companies, banks, FCPs, UCITS: Euroclear: 7478 – Bloomberg: PRC – Reuters: ARTF.

Watch a video about Artmarket.com and its Artprice department: https://artprice.com/video

Artmarket and its Artprice department were founded in 1997 by thierry Ehrmann, the company’s CEO. They are controlled by Groupe Serveur (created in 1987). cf. the certified biography from Who’s Who In France©:

https://imgpublic.artprice.com/img/wp/sites/11/2025/11/2026_Biographie_de_Thierry_Ehrmann_WhosWhoInFrance.pdf

Artmarket is a global player in the Art Market with, among other structures, its Artprice department, world leader in the accumulation, management and exploitation of historical and current art market information (the original documentary archives, codex manuscripts, annotated books and auction catalogs acquired over the years) in databanks containing over 30 million indices and auction results, covering more than 920,900 artists.

Artprice Images® allows unlimited access to the largest art market image bank in the world with no less than 181 million digital images of photographs or engraved reproductions of artworks from 1700 to the present day, commented by our art historians.

Artmarket, with its Artprice department, constantly enriches its databases from 7,200 auction houses and continuously publishes art market trends for the main agencies and press titles in the world in 121 countries and 11 languages.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/artmarketcom-artprice-and-cision-extend-their-alliance-to-119-countries-to-become-the-worlds-leading-press-agency-dedicated-to-the-art-market-nfts-and-the-metaverse-301431845.html

Artmarket.com makes available to its 9.3 million members (members log in) the advertisements posted by its Members, who now constitute the first global Standardized Marketplace® for buying and selling artworks at fixed prices.

There is now a future for the Art Market with Artprice’s Intuitive Artmarket® AI.

Artmarket, with its Artprice department, has twice been awarded the State label “Innovative Company” by the French Public Investment Bank (BPI), which has supported the company in its project to consolidate its position as a global player in the art market.

 

Artprice by Artmarket publishes its 2026 Contemporary Art Market Report:

https://www.artprice.com/artprice-reports/the-contemporary-art-market-report-2026

 

Artprice by Artmarket publishes its 2025 Global Art Market Annual Report, published in March 2026:

https://www.artprice.com/artprice-reports/the-art-market-in-2025

Summary of Artmarket press releases with its Artprice department: https://serveur.serveur.com/artmarket/press-release/en/

Follow all the Art Market news in real-time with Artmarket and its Artprice department on Facebook and Twitter:

www.facebook.com/artpricedotcom/ (more than 6.3 million subscribers)

x.com/artmarketdotcom

x.com/artpricedotcom

Discover the alchemy and the universe of Artmarket and its Artprice department: https://www.artprice.com/video

whose head office is the famous Museum of Contemporary Art Abode of Chaos dixit The New York Times / La Demeure of Chaos:

https://issuu.com/demeureduchaos/docs/demeureduchaos-abodeofchaos-opus-ix-1999-2013

Madame Rachida Dati, French Minister of Culture, has granted official recognition to thierry Ehrmann’s Abode of Chaos as a ‘total work of art’, the global headquarters of Artprice by Artmarket.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/madame-rachida-dati-french-minister-of-culture-has-granted-official-recognition-to-thierry-ehrmanns-abode-of-chaos-as-a-total-work-of-art-the-global-headquarters-of-artprice-by-artmarket-302409684.html

La Demeure du Chaos/Abode of Chaos – Total Work of Art and Singular Architecture. Confidential bilingual work, now made public: https://ftp1.serveur.com/abodeofchaos_singular_architecture.pdf

    • L’Obs – The Museum of the Future: https://youtu.be/29LXBPJrs-o

    • https://www.facebook.com/la.demeure.du.chaos.theabodeofchaos999 (more than 3,9 million subscribers)

    • https://vimeo.com/124643720

 

Contact Artmarket.com and its Artprice department – Contact:  Thierry Ehrmann, ir@artmarket.com

 

"Dialogue Between a Thinker and AI" by thierry Ehrmann
“Dialogue Between a Thinker and AI” by thierry Ehrmann

Multiliquid Closes Seed Round Led by Polychain with Participation from Strobe Ventures, CMT Digital, Metalayer Ventures, Generative Ventures and Circle Ventures, Bringing Total Funding to $8 Million

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Uniform Labs, the developer of Multiliquid, the institutional liquidity protocol for tokenized assets, today announced the close of its seed round led by Polychain, with participation from Strobe Ventures, CMT Digital, Metalayer Ventures and Generative Ventures, and Circle Ventures, bringing Multiliquid’s total funding to $8 million.

Tokenized assets, from Treasuries and money market funds to private credit and other real-world assets, represent the fastest-growing frontier in institutional digital finance. However, market adoption remains constrained by traditional primary subscription and redemption cycles that can take days to settle. With federal stablecoin frameworks like the GENIUS Act prohibiting payment stablecoin issuers from paying yield directly to holders, institutions require programmatic rails to rotate between yield-bearing tokenized investments and transactional stablecoins 24/7, at scale, without balance-sheet drag.

Multiliquid delivers that infrastructure. It is a neutral, compliance-first liquidity layer that lets holders swap blue-chip tokenized assets and stablecoins in a single atomic transaction. The protocol supports tokenized funds from premier asset managers, including Wellington Management, VanEck, Janus Henderson and Fasanara, as well as major stablecoins, including USDC.

“Tokenization only matters if the assets are actually liquid,” said Will Beeson, Founder and CEO of Multiliquid. “Traditional capital markets rely on deep repo facilities and overnight lending to keep liquidity moving. On-chain finance requires the same institutional plumbing. Having Polychain lead this round, joined by Strobe Ventures, CMT Digital, Metalayer Ventures, Generative Ventures and Circle Ventures, validates our focus: liquidity and continuous settlement are the next foundational layer for institutional adoption.”

“Tokenized assets have started to gain traction but liquidity remains the bottleneck. Multiliquid is building the connective layer for institutions to move seamlessly between tokenized funds and stablecoins across issuers and venues. Will’s deep experience in this market is unmatched, and we’re excited to back this breakthrough project,” said Olaf Carlson-Wee, Founder of Polychain.

About Multiliquid
Multiliquid is a 24/7 instant settlement platform for tokenized assets, providing continuous, atomic conversion between regulated real-world assets and stablecoins. Founded by veterans of Standard Chartered and UniCredit, Multiliquid enables institutions to eliminate settlement friction across on-chain capital markets. Learn more at multiliquid.xyz.

Contact: team@multiliquid.xyz

AIMCONNECT 2026 Held in Singapore, Bringing Global Automotive Leaders Together to Explore the Future of AI, Trust and Connected Mobility


SINGAPORE – Media OutReach Newswire – 15 October 2026 – Held on 11 October 2026 at Shangri-La Rasa Sentosa in Singapore, AIMCONNECT 2026 gathered industry leaders from 11 countries under the theme “Where Mobility Meets the Future.” Organised by X Star Technology and Aimotion, the event welcomed representatives from more than 100 automotive organisations, over 60 financial institutions and around 20 technology companies to explore how collaboration across industries can create a more connected mobility ecosystem.

image-1.jpeg

https://youtu.be/sbUyQWx8ItQ

The event was opened by Tin Pei Ling, Member of Parliament, and Dato’ Tony Khor Chong Boon, President of the Federation of Motor and Credit Companies Associations of Malaysia (FMCCAM). Through keynote presentations, panel discussions and live technology demonstrations, participants examined how AI-driven solutions can improve customer experiences while ensuring transparency, security and responsible decision-making.

AIMCONNECT 2026 Highlights the Shift Towards Connected Mobility

During the keynote address, “The Next Mobility Economy: Intelligence, Connection, Trust,” X Star Technology CEO Shawn Yang highlighted the growing gap between consumers’ digital engagement and completed automotive transactions.

Shawn Yang noted that consumers increasingly begin their vehicle purchase journey online, with research showing strong demand for AI-supported decision-making. According to figures shared during the keynote, 90% of car buyers conduct online research before visiting dealerships, 63% expect to use AI during their next vehicle purchase and 67% believe AI will influence their financing decisions.

However, the automotive journey remains fragmented. Customers often move between dealerships, financing providers and multiple systems, creating unnecessary friction during purchasing and ownership processes.

“Customers are not lost in one stage; they are lost to the friction between them,” Yang said. Yang said. The CEO explained that the next stage of mobility innovation requires closer cooperation between automotive companies, financial institutions and technology providers. Rather than improving isolated parts of the journey, the industry must create connected experiences that allow information, decisions and services to move more efficiently between stakeholders.

During AIMCONNECT 2026, technology demonstrations showcased emerging solutions designed to address these challenges. X Star Technology presented its Xport platform, demonstrating one-click lead-to-loan matching and real-time approval capabilities. Aimotion, MStar, AI Wingman and MK.X also introduced their latest innovations, highlighting the potential of AI-enabled tools across the automotive value chain.

Building Trust as AI Takes a Greater Role in Decision-Making

A key theme throughout AIMCONNECT 2026 was the importance of trust as artificial intelligence becomes increasingly involved in customer-facing processes.

While AI can improve speed and efficiency, industry leaders emphasised that technology must operate within clear boundaries. Decisions involving financing, customer eligibility and financial commitments require transparency, human oversight and accountability.

Yang introduced X Star Technology’s proprietary Harness framework, which combines AI operating boundaries, human supervision and traceable data management. The framework is designed to ensure that AI systems operate within authorised parameters while allowing complex cases to be escalated for human review.

“In auto finance, a single flawed decision risks customer harm and regulatory non-compliance. For AI to operate across the customer journey with true autonomy, trust cannot be an afterthought; it must be engineered into the architecture from day one,” Yang said.

The discussions also highlighted the importance of balancing personalisation with privacy. While consumers increasingly expect services tailored to their needs, excessive automation or unnecessary intervention may reduce trust. Effective AI solutions must therefore combine intelligence with appropriate restraint.

Strengthening Connections Across the Auto Finance Ecosystem

Another major discussion at AIMCONNECT 2026 focused on how stronger collaboration between automotive companies, financial institutions and technology providers can create a more efficient and trusted financing experience.

During the panel discussion “Building a Connected Auto Finance Ecosystem,” moderated by MStar CEO Zhang Peng, industry representatives explored the role of data connectivity, cybersecurity and responsible technology adoption in shaping the future of automotive finance.

Speakers from Deloitte, Deutsche Bank, The CEO Circle and JWT Bespoke examined how financial institutions and mobility businesses can use technology to improve decision-making while maintaining customer confidence.

“Better data infrastructure and connectivity can help the industry make more informed financing decisions, but technology must go hand in hand with trust,” Zhang said.

The discussion emphasised that connectivity is not simply about collecting more data. A truly integrated ecosystem requires organisations to establish clear principles for how information is shared, protected and used. Customers must also understand what information they provide and how it contributes to a better service experience.

Matthew Duncan, Director and CEO of JWT Bespoke, highlighted the importance of balancing innovation with consumer protection, drawing from Australia’s experience in automotive and financial regulation.

“Regulation works best when it protects customers and still gives the industry room to improve how people buy and finance their cars,” Duncan said.

Exploring the Future of Vehicle Ownership

Beyond financing and transactions, AIMCONNECT 2026 also examined a broader question facing the mobility industry: how will consumers define vehicle ownership in the future?

The rise of leasing, subscription services, car-sharing and ride-hailing has expanded consumer choices, creating new possibilities beyond traditional ownership models.

During the panel “The Future of Owning a Car,” moderated by Shawn Yang, industry leaders discussed how changing consumer expectations may influence future mobility behaviour.

An audience poll showed a closely divided perspective. While 54% of participants believed flexible mobility solutions could become the preferred choice within the next decade, 46% expected vehicle ownership to remain the dominant preference.

The result reflected the complexity of future mobility trends. Rather than replacing ownership completely, emerging mobility models may provide consumers with more options depending on their lifestyle, financial situation and travel needs.

James Ng, Managing Director of BYD Singapore and President of BYD Philippines, shared insights into BYD’s technology development journey.

“BYD’s first phase was electrification, delivering performance. The second phase is intelligence, using AI to enhance the customer experience. The third phase will focus on integration,” Ng said.

Xiao Ting, CEO of MK.X, noted that increasingly capable AI assistants could change how consumers approach mobility decisions.

“The decision may increasingly be less about owning a car and more about finding the right mobility solution for each journey,” noted the CEO.

Ng also highlighted the broader applications of BYD’s technology beyond vehicles, including Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) and renewable energy solutions that contribute to a wider technology ecosystem.

These developments suggest that the future mobility landscape will involve not only automakers, but also dealers, financial institutions and technology platforms adapting their services to meet changing consumer expectations.

AI Is Expanding the Vehicle Experience Beyond the Point of Sale

The role of artificial intelligence throughout the vehicle ownership lifecycle was another key focus at AIMCONNECT 2026.

During the panel “How Is AI Reshaping Mobility?” moderated by X Star Chief Technology Officer Michael Jia, industry experts discussed how AI can support consumers beyond vehicle selection and purchase.

Panel participants included Carson Zhang of Aimotion, Connor Liu of Google Cloud, Dr Harold Teng of MK.X Technology and Bryan Tan of Carro.

When delegates were asked where AI would create the greatest impact, personalised ownership services ranked ahead of vehicle selection, automotive financing and in-car intelligence. The results suggested that industry participants see significant opportunities in improving the ownership experience after purchase.

Bryan Tan, Chief Scientist at Carro Group and CEO of Carro Indonesia, explained that vehicle value assessment is becoming increasingly influenced by new data sources. For electric vehicles, factors such as battery condition and charging history are becoming important considerations alongside traditional indicators such as mileage.

Tan also noted that markets such as Singapore have unique considerations, including the impact of the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) system on vehicle value.

These examples demonstrate how advances in automotive technology are influencing areas beyond driving performance, extending into finance, resale value and long-term ownership decisions.

However, industry leaders agreed that AI adoption must remain focused on practical benefits.

“The focus must remain on delivering practical benefits, enhancing safety and making mobility more intuitive for consumers,” Dr Teng said.

Collaboration Will Define the Next Stage of Mobility Innovation

Across the discussions at AIMCONNECT 2026, one common message emerged: the future of mobility will be shaped by collaboration.

Automotive manufacturers and dealers must better understand customer needs and reduce unnecessary friction throughout the ownership journey. Financial institutions must improve efficiency while maintaining responsible lending practices. Technology providers must develop solutions that meet operational, regulatory and customer expectations.

For policymakers and industry stakeholders, the challenge will be encouraging innovation while maintaining public confidence.

“No single company can transform the entire mobility journey on its own,” Xiao Ting said.

Zhang highlighted that the success of future mobility solutions should be measured not only by speed and efficiency, but also by how effectively the industry works together to serve customers.

“Progress should be measured not only by how quickly a loan can be approved, but by how well the industry works together to serve the customer,” Zhang said.

AIMCONNECT 2026 demonstrated that artificial intelligence will play an increasingly important role in mobility, but technology alone will not define the future. The next phase of automotive transformation will depend on building systems that are intelligent, transparent and connected — supported by stronger partnerships across the mobility ecosystem.

Hashtag: #XStar

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

About AIMCONNECT 2026

AIMCONNECT 2026 brings together automotive leaders, dealers, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), financial institutions, technology innovators and industry decision-makers to explore the future of automotive commerce and mobility.

Through industry dialogue, thought leadership sessions and live technology demonstrations, AIMCONNECT provides a platform for stakeholders to exchange insights and collaborate on the next generation of connected mobility solutions.