#001: Welcome to AISOC Digest!
Your biweekly roundup of AI developments, African innovation, and community insights.
Hi Daniel here 👋
Welcome to the AISOC Biweekly Digest where we explore the latest developments in the AI community. From AISOC Special updates to groundbreaking research, African community spotlights, and global AI developments - we've got you covered.
This week, we're diving into exciting developments in the African AI space while exploring global trends and achievements in artificial intelligence.
🌟 AISOC SPECIAL
AI Summer of Code is Back!
The AI Summer of Code (AISOC) is back with a bang! And we set the ball-rolling with our first Twitter Space on the 5th of July, 2025. AISOC is the world's largest community for incubating AI talents - an annual convergence of global AI experts with enthusiastic learners worldwide seeking to upskill and excel in the science and engineering of AI systems.
📅 What's Coming Up:
🎙️ Next Twitter Space Session
Date: July 19th 2025
Topic: Career Paths in AI
AISOC 2025 Opening Conference
Date: July 26th 2025
Theme: Build The Future
Time: 10:00 AM (WAT)
🌍 GLOBAL COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHTS
Google Acquires Windsurf in $2.4B Deal
Google has acquired Windsurf, securing top AI coding talent and executives in a massive $2.4 billion deal. This acquisition gives Google's DeepMind division access to Windsurf's technology through non-exclusive licensing rights, further solidifying Google's position in the AI market. It also lends credence to the latest reverse-acquihire in which a behemoth hires a startup’s talent and licenses its technology but does not acquire the company.
The deal between Windsurf and Google follows a series of talks between the startup and OpenAI for OpenAI’s chance of acquiring the startup for $3Billion, a move that failed due to dispute over intellectual property (IP) rights and a conflict of interest with Microsoft.
OpenAI Delays Open-Source Model Release
Disappointing news for the AI community: OpenAI has delayed the release of its highly anticipated open-source model. The company cited the need for additional safety testing as the reason for the postponement.
This delay comes amid growing public pressure for OpenAI to deliver on its promise of open-source AI development, literally living up to its name.
Perplexity Launches Comet AI Browser
Perplexity has launched Comet, an AI-powered web browser that directly challenges Google's search dominance. This move positions Perplexity as a serious contender in the search engine space.
Comet will be available to Perplexity’s subscribers first at launch for $200-per-month max plan. Furthermore, invitees who have signed up to the waiting list will also be given access to the newly minted search engine. According to Perplexity, the assistant can summarize emails and calendar events, manage tabs, and navigate web pages on behalf of users.
🌍 AFRICAN COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT
MTN Genova: AI-Powered Network Optimization
MTN has launched Genova, a transformation program to operationalize AI at scale in Nigeria. This initiative represents a significant step forward for AI adoption in African telecommunications. To move this initiative further, MTN has set up shop with the establishment of an Artificial Intelligence Centre of Excellence (CoE). This centre is responsible for the development of endemic AI solutions at scale.
Key Developments:
Streamlined network operations through Artificial Inteligence.
Improved service delivery for customers
Establishment of an Artificial Intelligence Centre of Excellence (CoE)
Focus on developing indigenous AI solutions at scale
🔬 RESEARCH IN AI
Moonshot AI Releases Kimi K2 with MuonClip Optimizer
Moonshot AI has released Kimi K2, their most advanced model yet. This open-source Mixture of Experts (MoE) model boasts impressive specifications that push the boundaries of AI capabilities. Unlike the popularly-used Adam optimizer, Kimi k2 is trained using MuonClip optimizer on 15.5 trillion tokens.
Technical Specifications:
1 Trillion total parameters 🤯
32 Billion active parameters per token
Trained using MuonClip optimizer (not the traditional Adam optimizer)
15.5 trillion training tokens.
Novel Design Features:
384 experts with routing to 8 active experts per token
1 shared expert for global context
Multilingual and multimodal support
MuonClip Optimizer - a modified version of Muon for stable large-scale training
Performance: Kimi K2 outperforms Claude Sonnet 4 and GPT-4.1 in coding and agentic reasoning. Its architecture is built natively for agentic workflows (action-based) rather than conventional conversational systems.
💼 AI/ML OPPORTUNITIES
Looking to advance your AI career? Check out these opportunities:
Cavista: Python Engineer (AI/ML)
DSN - Data Science Nigeria: AI Agent Challenge.