• Hugging Face acquires open-source robotics firm
• ChatGPT unveils new reasoning AI models
• Sparkle joins earthquake detection project

In today’s industry news roundup: Hugging Face expands into open-source humanoid robots with the acquisition of Pollen Robotics, as it aims to make AI-driven robotics more accessible; OpenAI releases o3 and o4-mini foundational AI models in a move towards “agentic ChatGPT”; Telecom Italia’s Sparkle joins forces with research project to use subsea cables to detect earthquakes and tsunamis; and much more!

AI never sleeps, and not a week goes by without a deluge of news about it. A couple of quick items to end this short week (roll on the Easter break...) First, Hugging Face, the leading AI developer platform, is broadening its activities with the acquisition of France-based Pollen Robotics for an undisclosed sum. Pollen Robotics was established in 2016 and builds open-source humanoid robots designed for advanced research and real-world applications. Its latest generation is the $70,000 Reachy 2, which has been designed to explore human-robot interactions, machine learning applications and practical AI-driven tasks. “We believe robotics could be the next frontier unlocked by AI, and it should be open, affordable and private,” said Thomas Wolf, co-founder and chief scientist at Hugging Face. Hugging Face already had an interest in robotics, creating its LeRobot library last year to support open robotics development. It says that in twelve months, the GitHub repository has grown from zero to more than 12,000 stars, “truly democratising access to robotics technology”.

And staying with AI... ChatGPT just shipped its latest o3 and o4-mini models, the latest in its series of “omni” foundational AI models. It says that for the first time, its reasoning models can now agentically use and combine every tool within ChatGPT, including searching the web, analysing uploaded files and other data with Python, reasoning deeply about visual inputs and generating images. The new models are trained to reason about when and how to use tools to produce detailed answers in the right output formats, typically in less than a minute. The company notes that this is “a step toward a more agentic ChatGPT that can independently execute tasks on your behalf”. OpenAI o3 is now the most powerful reasoning model in the portfolio, while OpenAI o4-mini is a smaller model optimised for fast, cost-efficient work. They replace the existing o1 and o3-mini models and are available to paying users. An additional o3-pro version is expected to be released within the next few weeks with full tool support.

Sparkle, the global operator business of Italy’s TIM Group, has joined the European Union-funded research project Ecstatic to develop solutions aimed at enhancing the detection capabilities of submarine cable systems for identifying seismic phenomena. It is hoped that integrating high-speed optical communication with sensing could turn submarine fibre-optic cables into a global distributed sensing system for earthquake and tsunami detection and infrastructure monitoring. However, to achieve this, new communication techniques, signal characteristics and network architectures will be required. The Tyrrhenian segment of Sparkle’s BlueMed submarine cable system, from Genoa to Palermo, is being used to validate the use of these new technologies and involves Sparkle’s Network Operation Center (NOC) in Catania for data storage. “Our involvement in the Ecstatic project is a clear example of Sparkle’s vision to push the boundaries of what digital networks can achieve,” said Enrico Bagnasco, CEO of Sparkle. “By using our existing global fibre infrastructure, we demonstrate how the telecommunication industry can play a critical role in seismic monitoring and network protection.” The integration of advanced data processing and AI/ML ensure real-time sensing of events and network conditions with high accuracy, and it is hoped that this work will pave the way for eventual standardisation and more widespread adoption.

Lyft, the US-headquartered “ride-hailing marketplace” company (as it likes to be known), has announced it is to acquire FreeNow, a European multi-mobility app based on a taxi-hailing service. The all-cash deal is valued at €175m ($197m) and is subject to the usual regulatory closing conditions. Current owners of FreeNow are BMW Group and Mercedes-Benz Mobility, and the service operates across nine countries and more than 150 cities across Europe. The deal will nearly double Lyft’s total addressable market to more than 300 billion personal vehicle trips per year and should increase its annualised gross bookings by approximately €1bn. “We’re on an ambitious path to build the best, most customer-obsessed mobility platform in the world, and entering Europe is an important step in our growth journey,” said David Risher, CEO of Lyft. FreeNow was formed in 2009 as MyTaxi, before merging with UK-based Hailo in 2016. The FreeNow rebrand was created when it decided to branch out into other mobility services, including e-bikes and e-scooters (sigh). Around 90% of FreeNow’s gross bookings come from taxis, with the service linking to existing taxi fleets in its operational countries. It claims to have “strong relationships with regulators, unions and taxi fleet operators in every market”. However, these are all human-driver taxis and, whilst Lyft is focused on conventional taxis, it is also a player in the autonomous vehicle (AV) market, with its latest figures showing a total of 100,000 paid autonomous rides. In a blog post in February, Jeremy Bird, executive vice president of driver experience at Lyft, said: “We recently signed agreements with partners like May Mobility, Mobileye and Marubeni to start rolling out AVs on our platform as soon as this summer. And over time, AVs will account for a larger share of cars, and a larger percentage of rides.” How long before Lyft brings AVs to Europe?

AT&T has said that FirstNet, a dedicated broadband network in the US designed for public safety agencies and their mission-critical communications, will trial a satellite communications service in the country later this year, following a decision this week from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to grant AST SpaceMobile, in coordination with AT&T, the ability to test direct-to-cellular connectivity on public safety’s Band 14 spectrum via their BlueBird satellites. “Satellite connectivity on FirstNet is being built with public safety’s unique needs in mind,” said Matt Walsh, assistant vice president for FirstNet and NextGen 9-1-1 products at AT&T. “First responders need more than the minimum and we are excited to continue building out our comprehensive network to serve the public safety community.” Last year, AT&T successfully tested mission-critical capabilities, such as push-to-talk services, and this latest federal authorisation will help increase FirstNet network’s multi-layered coverage. FirstNet has a fleet of more than 180 satellite-based deployable network assets, including Satellite Cell on Light Trucks (SatCOLTs). It says that satellite-to-cellular connectivity will be complimentary to and extend the reach of the FirstNet network for first responders in rural or off-grid locations.

– The staff, TelecomTV