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Today's Pulse · July 24, 2026

The Philippines just became AI's newest battleground.

A US-PH megaproject to build AI chips in Clark, the training gap Filipino workers are living, and three more that moved today.

5 stories3-minute readBy AI Pulse PH
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In today's brief
01
Philippines

A 4,000-acre AI city rises in Clark

The US and the Philippines are building the first "AI-native industrial acceleration hub" on 4,000 acres in New Clark City, Tarlac. It will assemble and package computer chips under a US-led program called Pax Silica.

why it mattersGroups are pushing back on how much water and electricity the data centers will draw, and on mining the minerals they need. The jobs are real; so are the costs.
02
Philippines

78% of us use AI at work. 35% were taught.

Sprout Solutions surveyed 3,516 Filipino employees across 13 industries from May 8 to 29. Nearly 8 in 10 use AI every workday, but only about 1 in 3 got any training for their actual role.

why it mattersThe people getting trained report more output and less stress. If your company hands you the tool but not the lesson, ask for the lesson.
03
Defense

An AI just flew a real F-16 fighter jet

DARPA and the US Air Force let an AI fly a standard F-16 at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. A human pilot stayed in the cockpit the whole time, watching. They announced it on July 16.

why it mattersThe trick is that they did not rebuild the jet. Ordinary fighters already in service can be upgraded, which is why this one test matters more than it sounds.
04
Free Tools

Baidu's free tool reads any document

Baidu released Unlimited-OCR, which pulls the text out of photos, scans and full PDFs in a single pass. It is free, the code is public, and the MIT license means you can use it in a business.

why it mattersIf you have ever retyped a scanned contract or a receipt by hand, this is the thing that stops you doing that.
05
GitHub

Block built a Slack where AI has an account

Buzz, from the company behind Cash App, is the most popular new project on GitHub today with over 7,100 followers. It is a team chat where people and AI assistants sit in the same channels and do the work together.

why it mattersMost companies bolt AI on as a side panel. This starts from the opposite idea: the assistant is a colleague in the room, not a button.

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Tools · July 24, 2026

Globe's AI Fiesta bundles ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini from 49 pesos

One Globe plan now gives you five of the biggest AI chatbots in a single app, and you can start for the price of a snack.

Read →Tools · July 24, 2026

Formbricks: the open-source survey tool that keeps your data yours

A self-hosted alternative to Typeform and Qualtrics that puts every response on infrastructure you control.

Read →Tools · March 20, 2026

GCash put an AI money coach inside the app 90 million Filipinos already use

Pera Coach is the country's first AI financial coach built into an e-wallet. It talks to you in Taglish about your budget, and it is free.

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