Yellow.ai deploys 30% of global generative AI bots domestically

While markets like the US are mostly using GenAI for customer support in a bid to cut costs, India Inc. is using them as an opportunity to grow revenues, generate business leads and sales support, Yellow.ai cofounder and chief executive Raghu Ravinutala told ET.

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Binance, SEC face off over regulator's crypto oversight

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday defended its authority to oversee certain cryptocurrency assets in court, as Binance urged a federal judge to dismiss the regulator's case against the world's largest crypto exchange.

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Happiest Minds to create verticals, gen AI unit to get new business

Happiest Minds, which was founded by IT veteran Ashok Soota, is also emphasising on GenAI with a business unit to get newer clients and logos. In that unit, the company is training a team of 100 people in the latest technologies including AI, open source models with data understanding.

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With Irdai opening doors, insurtech firms look to transform into general insurers

Insurtech firms such as Bengaluru-based Onsurity and Pune-based Loop Health help employers offer group health policies to their employees and run a platform to offer employee wellness services, too. They want to capitalise on the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) move of opening the heavily regulated sector to new participants.

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Top cop to head Karnataka fact-checking unit

For the Karnataka fact-check unit, five firms have been shortlisted - Gauri Media, Logically Infomedia, Trylika Technology, Newsplus Communications, and OW Data Leads. Senior IPS officer Pronab Mohanty, who is currently the additional director general of police (ADGP), cyber economics and narcotics (CEN), criminal investigation department will oversee the fact-checking unit.

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Tech boost? several US federal contracts up for renewal in next two quarters

Experts are of the view that while it's still hard for Indian companies to crack large US federal deals that are up for renewals over the next two quarters, there is a more positive attitude towards Indian-heritage suppliers.

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AI and death: Sundance films grapple with our digital afterlife

Two documentaries premiered at Sundance explore the ethics of AI and its relationship to death. 'Eternal You' focuses on predatory AI-powered startups profiting from bereaved customers seeking to communicate with deceased loved ones. The film highlights the addictive nature of these services and the potential harm caused by AI programs going astray.

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OpenAI suspends bot developer for Congressman Dean Phillips: report

OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, has banned the use of its AI tools in a political campaign after a bot mimicking Congressman Dean Phillips was created by a super PAC named We Deserve Better. The bot, called Dean.Bot, was powered by OpenAI's ChatGPT and was created by entrepreneurs Matt Krisiloff and Jed Somers.

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Davos 2024: Top quotes from tech world’s leading minds on artificial intelligence

​​In all, about 60 heads of state and 800 CEOs were in attendance among a total of 2,800 participants, as they discussed wide-ranging issues — from climate change to economic slowdowns — at both formal and informal gatherings.

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The rise & rise of new-age stock brokers; and other top tech, startup stories this week

A crop of tech-first stockbrokers is not only leading from the front in adding new customers, they’re also generating strong revenues and profits. These stock-broking platforms, which have diversified beyond stock trading to position themselves as full-fledged financial services firms, have left behind the traditional players in terms of user sign-ups.

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Ram Mandir: UP government cracks down on deepfakes ahead of consecration

The Ram Mandir consecration is scheduled on January 22 and the Uttar Pradesh government is cracking down on AI-generated images and videos of Lord Rama to avoid any communal disturbance during the mega event. The government has roped in Staqu Technologies, which has installed 400 AI-enabled cameras in and around the mandir premises.

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Sam Altman seeks to raise billions for network of AI chip factories

Altman has had conversations with several large potential investors in the hopes of raising the vast sums needed for chip fabrication plants, or fabs, as they’re known colloquially, said the people, who requested anonymity because the conversations are private.

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Insurtech startups check expenses to secure profits

Insurtech startups such as Acko and Digit have switched gears to health insurance which is a more long-term product despite starting with motor insurance, which is mandatory for vehicle owners in India, as their principal product.

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Meta bringing together AI research and product teams

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Thursday that the company was bringing its AI research team "closer together" with a more business-focused generative AI team launched last year, doubling down on a push to get the technology into products.

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Insurtech startup Bharatsure raises $1 million in funding round led by Capital-A

Insurtech startup Bharatsure, the parent of Healthysure, has raised $1 million in a funding round led by early-stage venture capital fund Capital-A.

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Court bars US Apple Watch imports during appeal over ban

Apple on Wednesday failed to convince a federal appeals court to allow U.S. imports of Apple Watches with technology for reading blood-oxygen levels while it challenges a government tribunal's decision that the devices infringe patents belonging to medical technology company Masimo.

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Elon Musk's X approved for Virginia money transmitter license

Social media platform X received approval for a money transmitter license in Virginia, the 17th U.S. state to grant approval, as the Elon Musk-owned company advances efforts toward introducing payment features.

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Samsung bets on Google-powered AI features in smartphone revamp

At its Unpacked conference Wednesday in San Jose, California, Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S24, S24+ and S24 Ultra phones, which all add AI tools based on the Gemini technology from Alphabet Inc.’s Google. The devices can live-translate phone calls, transcribe voice recordings, summarize web articles, fix handwriting and use generative AI to fill in parts of photos.

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DMI Group acquires ZestMoney in a firesale

The news comes as ZestMoney had informed employees last month about its plans to shut down by the end of December.

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Startup Awards: Three southern states figure among five best performers

Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu shared the recognition with Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. In the startup ranking, while Himachal Pradesh is placed among Category-B states, the others are Category-A states.

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Centre may allot Rs 10,000 crore for quantum computing hubs

An announcement to this effect is likely to be made during Global Artificial Intelligence Summit and Awards scheduled to be held here on January 18 and 19, a government official said.

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Baidu denies report that its Ernie AI chatbot is linked to Chinese military research

Technology company Baidu on Monday refuted a newspaper report that said its artificial intelligence chatbot Ernie was linked to Chinese military research.

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Google India's gross ad revenue grows 12.49% to Rs 28,000 crore

Google India's FY23 operating revenue decreased by 0.11% to Rs 9,275 crore from Rs 9,286 crore in FY22. The company has demerged its IT services business to an independent entity, Google IT Services India.

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Upgrad in talks for $100 million to close US edtech Udacity buy

Upgrad founder Ronnie Screwvala, who owns 22.4% in Upgrad, likely to participate in $100 million round. The company has pitched to external investors for about $50-60 million. The rest would be from existing investors like Temasek.

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Data brokers know everything about you: what FTC case against ad tech giant Kochava reveals

Kochava, the self-proclaimed industry leader in mobile app data analytics, is locked in a legal battle with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over its secretive data acquisition and AI-aided analytics practices. The FTC's recently amended complaint reveals that Kochava collects and sells sensitive location and personal data, which allows it to predict and influence consumer behavior.

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Netflix reels in viewers with three-word hooks

The two- or three-word tags, meant to convey the gestalt of a show or movie, regularly help viewers choose a show from the service's nearly endless library, the company says. The words are selected by about 30 employees -- so-called taggers.

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Google removes Binance, other offshore crypto apps from Play Store

Less than 24 hours after access to web platforms of crypto wallets such as Binance was cut off for Indian users, theirapps were also taken down from Google Play Store..

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The AI-ceberg of innovations: Meet AI-first startups shaping India's tech future

Over the last 12 months, a new generation of AI-driven companies and generative AI tooling startups have attracted investments, but this represents only a small percentage of the companies driving innovation in this space. Under the surface lies vast, untapped potential for more.

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ET Explainer: OpenAI’s response to NYT’s copyright lawsuit

OpenAI has refuted some of these allegations and claimed that the fair use doctrine of copyright laws will apply in its case. ET explains the case and its ramifications.

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Centre blocks web platforms of offshore crypto apps, including Binance, Kucoin and others

India blocked access to foreign cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance, Kucoin, and OKX, as well as virtual digital asset service providers. The Android versions of these apps are also expected to be removed.

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Bitwise bitcoin ETF draws most inflows on first trading day, company says

Bitwise reported that its spot bitcoin ETF received the most inflows out of the 10 products that began trading on Thursday. The SEC approved 11 spot bitcoin ETFs this week, including BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust and Grayscale Bitcoin Trust.

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US firm ACI Worldwide sees a spot in cross-border payments business here

Says technology for cross-border payments is already available, needs regulatory push for greater adoption

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K-12 edtech startup ConveGenius raises $7 million in funding

ConveGenius, a K-12 edtech startup, has raised $7 million in funding led by UBS Optimus Foundation. The funding round also saw participation from Mount Judi Ventures and existing investors. ConveGenius provides schools with conversational AI tools like chatbots.

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Indian govt should continue to keep China apps in check: FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr

The chief of FCC also said he found the work India is doing to provide access to the internet and telecommunication services to every citizen “very admirable”.

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The Baker’s Dozen raises Rs 33 crore in funding round led by Wipro Consumer VC unit

The funds will be used to enhance distribution growth, expanding reach into non-metro cities and international markets. It will be also employed for brand-building and marketing initiatives.

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SaaS accelerator Upekkha announces first close of $40 million VC fund

The fund was created with a leading investment from WestBridge Capital, among other limited partners including Godard Abel, founder and CEO of G2, a business-to-business marketplace that ranks SaaS companies.

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OpenAI launches new store for users to share custom chatbots

OpenAI has launched an online store where people can share customized versions of the company’s popular ChatGPT chatbot, after initially delaying the rollout because of leadership upheaval last year.

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DPDP Rules: Furore over leeway to some companies on use of kid’s data

Digital privacy and cybersecurity experts as well as lawyers ET spoke to also said that there needs to be additional deliberation on the finer workings of the consent artefact architecture, including how giving and revoking consent will work.

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Blue-collar jobs may weather raging AI storm better: experts

Only 1% of blue-collar jobs were currently at risk of being automated by AI, according to HR services firm TeamLease Services. In addition, AI can enhance blue-collar workers’ productivity in ways that could improve their pay, and companies are already investing in such technology.

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AI will become companion to creative process, not its master: Anand Mahindra

The chairman of the Mahindra and Mahindra Group said what ChatGPT does is aggregate data but what it doesn't do is capture what a human being has experienced and concluded about something.

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Voice actors air their fears about voice-stealing AI

With different GenAI models working on cloning voices, they can create a five-hour-long audiobook within minutes or even dub an entire OTT web series in 10 different languages. Regarding this, the Association of Voice Artists has reached out to FICCI to represent its concerns before the IT Ministry.

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Microsoft executive Dee Templeton joins OpenAI board: report

The ChatGPT maker had made headlines in November, when CEO Sam Altman was briefly ousted by the OpenAI board and reinstated days later after more than 700 employees threatened to quit and join backer Microsoft in solidarity.

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A crystal ball gaze at the best tech of 2024

This year will have big tech showcasing advancements in AI and other technologies.

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Cracking the code: Charting the consumer landscape of India

India’s consumer tech sector stood at $100 billion in FY-22, something that is expected to go up to $300 billion by 2027, growing at an annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 25%.

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Confident of Aditya L1’s insertion in halo orbit around L1: Nigar Shaji

Aditya was launched from the Sriharikota spaceport on September 2 and the spacecraft has traversed a distance of 1.5 million km from Earth. The final manoeuvre will involve firing a group of thrusters for a short period of time till 4 pm on Saturday. Aditya L1 has 12 thrusters.

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System that could help power proposed Indian Space Station tested successfully: Isro

The 100W class polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell based power system (FCPS) was tested in space on PSLV Orbital Experimental Module or POEM, launched onboard PSLV-C58 on January 1.

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Search startup Perplexity AI valued at $520 million in funding from Bezos, Nvidia

Perplexity's search tools enable users to get instant answers to questions with sources and citations. It is powered by a variety of large language models (LLMs) that can sum up and generate information, from OpenAI to Meta's open-source model Llama.

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Apple suffers second rating downgrade in tough start to 2024

Apple has been grappling with a demand slowdown since early last year and forecast holiday-quarter sales below Wall Street estimates.

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Govt may amend IT Act to add new rules for AI, GenAI models

The amendments to the IT rules are likely to mandate that GenAI platforms which use artificially intelligent algorithms or language models to train their machines are free from “bias” of any kind.

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India's space startups report success of in-orbit experiments onboard ISRO's POEM

ISRO's PSLV Orbital Experimental Module (POEM) enables in-orbit scientific experiments using the spent PS4 stage as an orbital platform.

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Catamaran president Deepak Padaki sees startup valuations falling further

In an interview with ET’s Beena Parmar, Deepak Padaki, who joined Catamaran Ventures last August, also talks about its investment exits, deal sizes and corporate governance at startups. Edited excerpts:

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Apple hits seven-week low after Barclays downgrade

Barclays is the second brokerage to have the equivalent of a "sell" rating on the stock, which now has its most number of bearish recommendations in at least two years, per LSEG data.

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More startups want to ‘flip’ back to India; SoftBank’s returns from listed firms

Startups are moving their overseas holding entities to India ahead of their forthcoming public listings, especially in the fintech sector which is governed by the country’s central bank regulations.

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Meesho’s early backers eye new secondaries at $3-3.5 billion valuation

Norwest Venture Partners, WestBridge Capital are among entities said to be in talks to pick up stake in ecommerce firm Meesho. The development underscores the growing trend of secondary share sales in late-stage firms.

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