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Recap of our latest events, Claws made in Austria taking over the world, record number of events and jobs and more

This year’s carnival season turned into crustacean season.

🚀 AI Austria news

🇦🇹 Event Recap - CIO Forward 2026

On 29th January CIO Forward 2026 brought together leading CIOs, executives, and AI experts from across Austria for an in-depth discussion on how Artificial Intelligence is strategically established, governed, and scaled within large enterprises.

While AI adoption is clearly progressing, the exchange highlighted the continued need for structured approaches, cross-company learning, and practical implementation insights. A key theme throughout the event was venture clienting as a strategic lever to actively integrate innovation and startups into corporate environments.

A sincere thank you to IBM and Business Circle as partners for making this high-level forum possible.

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🇦🇹 Event Recap - AI4Industry 2026

More than 100 decision-makers joined the AI Austria “Managing & Leading AI Edition” last Thursday for an intense and highly engaged discussion on how to successfully implement AI in Enterprises. Around our expert Ruben Hetfleisch the panel was filled with fellow high-level experts Sebastian Schlund (Fraunhofer Austria), Thomas Inführ (PwC), Klaudia Ebner (EVN) & Daniel Toth (Klartext AI). The fully audience-driven panel reflected the current reality of AI: high impact, diverse opinions, little consensus — and no simple playbook for leaders.

A sincere thank you to all panelists, keynote speakers, and participants - also to PwC for their amazing location.

🇦🇹 Latest developments

🦞 OpenClaw takes over the world

Clawdbot has quickly become one of the most talked-about open AI agent projects in Europe, driven by its ability to act autonomously rather than just generate text. Built by Austrian coding legend Peter Steinberger, the project gained traction for running locally and executing real workflows - from coding tasks to system automation - giving developers a sense of real “agentic” power.

The hype accelerated through Moltbook, where Clawdbot-powered agents interacted publicly, creating viral experiments that showcased multi-agent dynamics in action - a social network for agents (human prohibited).

At the same time, early adopters and researchers raised security concerns around unvetted plugins and overly broad access permissions, prompting debates about safety and sandboxing. Having received global attention from SF-Celebs like Sam Altman and Mark Zuckerberg, Peter hosted a meet-up for more than 500+ Clawd-Fans just this week in Vienna.

🎶 AKM Invests in AI: A Digital Boost for Music Rights

The Austrian collecting society AKM has become a strategic investor in the Swiss AI startup nowon to modernize music rights management. By leveraging advanced audio recognition with a 5x higher accuracy than traditional tools, they are automating royalty distribution and simplifying setlist reporting for live events. Most notably, the partnership focuses on identifying AI-generated music to ensure fair compensation for creators in the generative era. » more

🎓 ÖAW AI Winter School: Bridging the Gap for the Humanities

The Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) is hosting its 5th AI Winter School from February 16–20, at the Campus Akademie in Vienna. This edition specifically targets researchers in the humanities, providing a foundation in machine learning and AI for those without prior technical depth. It’s a unique opportunity for students and faculty across all levels to integrate data-driven methods into their scholarly work. » more

💰 ISTA Receives €5M Donation for Trustworthy AI

The Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) has secured a €5 million donation from Uber co-founder and philanthropist Garrett Camp. This landmark giftwill specifically fund the development of trustworthy and human-centered AI. The funding bolsters ISTA’s interdisciplinary research into AI transparency, causal reasoning, and resource efficiency, reinforcing Austria’s position as a global hub for responsible innovation. » more

🟢 Google’s First Austrian Data Centre Gets the Green Light

Nearly two decades after purchasing the land, Google has finally received permit approval to build its first company-owned data centre in Kronstorf. The 29,000-square-meter facility, strategically located between Vienna and Salzburg, will provide a massive boost to Austria’s digital infrastructure. Driven by the surge in AI demand and cloud adoption, this long-awaited project marks a major milestone for the local tech landscape and the region’s reliance on renewable energy. » more

🌏 Asia spotlight

Ant Group has open-sourced its 100-billion-parameter medical model ‘AntAngelMed,’ marking it as China’s largest and most specialized open-source vertical model to date. This release is set to accelerate the large-scale adoption and accessibility of AI in clinical decision support, professional medical Q&A, and patient services.

JD.com uses “JD AI Shopping” to shift the shopping entry point from “shelves + search” to “conversation + scenarios.” With a minimalist interface and an always-on chat box, users can describe what they want in a single sentence, and the AI generates options, comparisons, and conclusions, offloading the decision-making work that used to require checking specs, reading reviews, and doing extensive research.