Technical Information

The European Union is likely to reach a political agreement this year that will pave the way for the world's first major artificial intelligence ( AI ) law, the bloc's tech regulation chief Margrethe Vestager said on Sunday. This follows a preliminary deal reached on Thursday by members of the European Parliament to push through the draft of the EU's Artificial Intelligence Act to a vote by a committee of lawmakers on May 11. Parliament will then thrash out the bill's final details with EU member states and the European Commission before it becomes law. At a press conference after a Group of Seven digital ministers' meeting in Takasaki, Japan, Vestager said the EU AI Act was "pro-innovation" since it seeks to mitigate the risks of societal damage from emerging technologies. Regulators around the world have been trying to find a balance where governments could develop "guardrails" on emerging artificial intelligence technology without stifling...

The Indian job market is estimated to witness 22 per cent churn over the next five years, with top emerging roles coming from AI, machine learning and data segments, a new study showed on Monday. Globally, the job market churn is estimated at 23 per cent, with 69 million new jobs expected to be created and 83 million eliminated by 2027, the World Economic Forum said in its latest Future of Jobs report. "Almost a quarter of jobs (23 per cent) are expected to change in the next five years through growth of 10.2 per cent and decline of 12.3 per cent (globally)," the WEF said. According to the estimates of the 803 companies surveyed for the report, employers anticipate 69 million new jobs to be created and 83 million eliminated among the 673 million jobs corresponding to the dataset, a net decrease of 14 million jobs, or 2 per cent of current employment. Regarding India, it said 61 per cent of companies think broader applications of ESG (environment, social and governance) s...

Elon Musk on Saturday announced a plan for his Twitter platform to allow media publishers to charge users on a per-article basis with a single click. "This enables users who would not sign up for a monthly subscription to pay a higher per article price for when they want to read an occasional article," the billionaire entrepreneur said on Twitter, adding, "Should be a major win-win for both media orgs & the public." He said the plan would begin next month, but provided no details on exact pricing or what cut Twitter would take. The announcement came as Musk has been struggling, amid frequent controversy, to make Twitter profitable. Rolling out next month, this platform will allow media publishers to charge users on a per article basis with one click. This enables users who would not sign up for a monthly subscription to pay a higher per article price for when they want to read an occasional article.… — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 29, 2023 Media orga...

Petroleum and oil marketing companies have slashed the price of Commercial LPG cylinders by Rs 171.50 with immediate effect, according to sources on Monday. After the move, the latest retail price of a 19 kg LPG cylinder in Delhi now stands at Rs 1,856.50. Last month, too, their prices were reduced by Rs 91.50 per unit, standing at Rs 2,028 per unit. Petroleum and oil marketing companies had on March 1 this year hiked the prices of commercial LPG cylinders by Rs 350.50 per unit and domestic LPG cylinders by Rs 50 per unit. The prices of the commercial cylinders were reduced the last time in September 1 last year by Rs 91.50.On August 1, 2022, too, the prices of commercial LPG cylinders were reduced by Rs 36. Prior to that, on July 6, rates for the 19-kilogram commercial cylinder were cut by Rs 8.5 per unit. (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.) from NDTV Profit-Latest https://ift.tt/Ude6vEh

Rajneesh Karnatak has joined the Bank of India as its managing director and chief executive officer, the lender has said. Rajneesh Karnatak has an experience of over 29 years. Prior to this, he had been the chief general manager of Punjab National Bank until his appointment as executive director in Union Bank of India from October 21, 2021. He completed the Master of Commerce and is a certified associate from Indian Institute of Bankers (CAIIB). With a new leader we are poised to ascend to new heights & successes. Here are glimpses of warm welcome to our MD & CEO Shri Rajneesh Karnatak at Bank of India Head Office, Mumbai. pic.twitter.com/pvCK07DP9v — Bank of India (@BankofIndia_IN) April 29, 2023 During his banking career, he has headed critical divisions like large corporate credit branches and strategic verticals such as credit monitoring, digital banking and mid corporate credit as general manager in Oriental Bank of Commerce. Post-amalgamation of Oriental Bank of Com...

Samsung recently introduced skin temperature-based sensor for women's menstrual health tracker on the Galaxy Watch 5 series. The tech giant is now reportedly working on adding more health-tracking features based on skin temperature. However, there are no further details available about the update yet. Meanwhile, the menstrual cycle tracking feature is currently accessible across 32 countries including Korea, the US, and European regions. It uses an infrared temperature sensor to provide accurate data on menstrual cycles. A Samsung official, who is in charge of Samsung Health Service, has announced via the  Samsung community forum for Korea that the company will expand the usage of the skin temperature sensor to more health-tracking features. The new features using temperature sensors will be available in a future software update for the device, as per the announcement. However, he hasn't shared further details regarding the health tracking features that will be added or th...

Google Pixel Fold is expected to launch soon in the market. It is being speculated that the company may unveil the Pixel Fold at the upcoming Google I/O, scheduled for May 2023. However, Google is yet to confirm any detail officially. However, despite no official announcement, there has been a number of rumours about the purported smartphone. A recent leak by a popular tipster, displaying the design renders of the Pixel Fold, has provided new insights into the smartphone's cover design. The images shared by tipster Evan Blass (Twitter @evleaks) on a personal Twitter account, via 9to5Google, appear to be taken from a press render that the company could use for marketing. The leaked image shows the Pixel Fold's outer display with a centrally aligned punch hole, the Pixel Launcher home screen with themed icons, Google's stock apps, and a blurred At a Glance widget. Additionally, the smartphone appears to have a wider aspect ratio and a thinner hinge. In the shared images, ...

Realme 11 series smartphones, comprising the vanilla Realme 11, Realme 11 Pro, and Realme 11 Pro+, are confirmed to launch on May 10 in China. While the smartphones' debut is still more than a week away, the company has revealed the display specifications of the Realme 11 Pro+ via a Weibo post. Additionally, the smartphone has also appeared on Geekbench listing suggesting a few more details including the processor and software support. The listing hinted that the handset could run on Android 13 OS. It could be powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 1080 SoC. Realme has teased  the design and display specifications of the upcoming Realme 11 Pro+ ahead of its launch in China. The smartphone, which is set to make its debut on May 10, will sport a 6.7-inch AMOLED display with a centrally positioned hole-punch cutout. It also gets curved edges with a 61-degree curvature. The display of the smartphone features a 120Hz refresh rate. The official poster also revealed that the Realme 11 Pro+ wil...

As recently as February, generative AI did not feature prominently in EU lawmakers' plans for regulating generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies such as ChatGPT . The bloc's 108-page proposal for the AI Act, published two years earlier, included only one mention of the word "chatbot." References to AI-generated content largely referred to deepfakes: images or audio designed to impersonate human beings. By mid-April, however, members of European Parliament (MEPs) were racing to update those rules to catch up with an explosion of interest in generative AI, which has provoked awe and anxiety since OpenAI unveiled ChatGPT six months ago. That scramble culminated on Thursday with a new draft of the legislation which identified copyright protection as a core piece of the effort to keep AI in check. Interviews with four lawmakers and two other sources close to discussions reveal for the first time how over just 11 days this small group of politicians hamme...

Twitter CEO Elon Musk said on Friday that the social media platform will take a 10 percent cut on content subscriptions after the first year, as the company looks to monetize content on the website in a bid to diversify its revenue sources. Earlier this month, billionaire owner Musk said users of the social media platform will be able to offer their followers subscriptions to content, including long-form text and hours-long video. He had also said that the company will not take a cut for the first 12 months on content subscriptions. Musk has been bringing in changes at Twitter to boost revenue after the platform saw advertising income drop last year in the run up to his $44 billion (nearly Rs. 3,59,700 crore) acquisition that closed in October. He added that the company's cut from subscriptions on iOS and Android platforms will drop to 15 percent in the second year from 30 percent in the first. A few days back, Musk also has made an important announcement regard...

Britain's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on Wednesday blocked Microsoft's $69 billion (nearly Rs. 5,64,100 crore) acquisition of Call of Duty  maker Activision Blizzard over concerns it would hinder cloud gaming . The ruling was a shock after the regulator had already resolved its concerns about the consoles market, a sector dominated by Sony 's PlayStation and Microsoft 's Xbox , which dwarfs cloud gaming. Is the deal dead? Not necessarily. Microsoft said it remained fully committed and would appeal. The regulator's decision reflected a flawed understanding of the market, it said. How does the appeal process work? Microsoft can appeal to Britain's Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), an independent judicial body, which will only examine the CMA's decision-making process, not the merits of the merger. Microsoft will not be able to offer new remedies at this stage, such as offering to keep Activision content off its Xbox Game Pass , a subscrip...

Taiwan's top chip design company MediaTek is focusing more resources on chips for cars and AI computing as its smartphone clients face a supply glut and inflation and macroeconomic uncertainty dent demand for consumer electronics. "We are definitely moving our resources very, very rapidly towards the automotive and computing areas, because those areas will provide our growth in the next three to five years," MediaTek Chief Executive Rick Tsai told an earnings call. "In this very demanding environment, we are not reducing people. We're not increasing either. The critical thing is to allocate those precious resources," he said. Tsai said everyone, including MediaTek, was rushing to claim that they were able to support generative artificial intelligence, such as ChatGPT . "We're confident that we will be able to provide the capability to our customers," Tsai said. MediaTek is investing heavily in AI because the new areas the company is foc...

Google Pixel 7a is expected to make its official debut at Google I/O 2023 alongside the Pixel Fold. Ahead of the expected launch, multiple leaks have exposed almost every detail about the upcoming smartphone. Now, a well know tipster has shared an alleged image of Pixel 7a in a new colour option. The new render leak shows off the handset in a new shade. Past leaks have suggested blue, grey, and white colour options for the Pixel 7a. It is expected to be powered by a Tensor G2 chipset. Known tipster Evan Blass (@evleaks) posted the alleged render of Google Pixel 7a on Twitter. The leaked render shows the handset in an orange shade. This colour option looks quite identical to the coral colour we've seen in past Google handsets such as the Pixel 6 and Pixel 4 . Previous leaks have also given us a look at the blue, grey, and white colourways. The Google Pixel 7a is seen with dual rear cameras similar to the outgoing Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro models. A Google logo is also placed ...

Online retail titan Amazon on Thursday reported that its cloud and ads units helped it beat earnings expectations in the first quarter of this year despite shoppers and businesses being more careful about spending. "For the first time in several quarters, Amazon may finally have a bit of wind at its back," said Insider Intelligence principal analyst Andrew Lipsman. Amazon shares spiked more than 10 percent shortly after release of the earnings figures, only to sink slightly below the day's closing price as it warned that customers were remaining watchful of their budgets. Amazon reported a profit of $3.2 billion (roughly Rs. 26,162 crore) on revenue that climbed 9 percent to $127.4 billion (roughly Rs. 10,41,616 crore) in the quarter. The net income was about a billion dollars more than analysts had forecast. "There's a lot to like about how our teams are delivering for customers, particularly amidst an uncertain economy," said Amazon chief executive s...

Sebi on Thursday barred five entities, including an employee of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), from the securities market and impounded illegal gains of Rs 2.44 crore made by them, in a case pertaining to front-running the trades of the state-owned insurer. Also, they have been asked to "cease and desist" from engaging in any fraudulent, manipulative or unfair trade practice, including front-running. These five entities prohibited by Sebi are -- Yogesh Garg, who was working in the investment department of LIC through which trades on behalf of the insurer were placed; his mother Sarita Garg; his mother-in-law Kamlesh Agarwal; Ved Prakash HUF and Sarita Garg HUF, the capital markets regulator said in its interim order. Going by Sebi's order, Yogesh Garg is still professionally associated with LIC. Sebi has been informed by LIC that Yogesh Garg has been transferred from the investment department of the company to another department of the insurance firm. The ...

Microsoft's president Brad Smith said the UK regulator's decision to prevent its acquisition of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard "had shaken confidence" in Britain as a destination for tech businesses. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which operates independently from government, blocked the deal on Wednesday, saying it could hit competition in the nascent cloud gaming market. Microsoft hit back on Thursday, saying it was "probably the darkest day in our four decades in Britain" and sent the wrong message to the global tech industry about the UK. "If the government of the United Kingdom wants to bring in investment, if it wants to create jobs (...) it needs to look hard at the role of the CMA, the regulatory structure in the United Kingdom, this transaction, and the message that the United Kingdom has just said to the world," he told BBC radio. A spokesman for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Smith's comments were...

Facebook-parent Meta on Wednesday reported it made a profit of $5.7 billion dollars in the first quarter of this year, beating forecasts after a massive wave of cost-cutting and layoffs. The profit came on revenue of $28.6 billion and as the number of people using Facebook every month grew to just shy of three billion, an earnings report showed. "We had a good quarter and our community continues to grow," said Mark Zuckerberg, Meta founder and CEO. "We're also becoming more efficient so we can build better products faster and put ourselves in a stronger position to deliver our long term vision." Zuckerberg, who has called 2023 the "year of efficiency", added that artificial intelligence being used at Meta is "driving good results" across its business. Meta shares were up nearly 10 percent to $239 in after-market trades that followed release of the earnings figures. Meta said that the number of ads shown across its "family of apps...

Fast X: Part 2 has set a 2025 release window, star Vin Diesel confirmed at the CinemaCon event in Las Vegas. It was only a matter of time before the Fast & Furious saga ended, with the script originally written as a two-part conclusion, Louis Leterrier returns to direct the sequel, after having taken over the reins from Justin Lin last year, who departed the project over creative differences. It also makes sense for the same director to helm both movies, as the end of Fast X will likely directly segue into the follow-up. “Fast is now the longest franchise in motion picture history… with the same actors playing the same characters,” Diesel said at the CinemaCon stage (via Entertainment Weekly ), “This is our family, the audience is our family, and as we were building towards this achievement we attracted directors who brought their own magic to the saga.” The claim is indeed true — the only actor to ever be replaced was Brian, played by Paul Walker, who was replaced by his br...

Apple and its Android rivals saw sales slide in the first quarter in China, research firm Canalys reported on Thursday, as consumers continued to tighten their belts following the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions. The iPhone maker was the top-selling brand over the first three months of the year, with 20 percent market share. But its overall shipments in China fell to 13.3 million units, a 3 percent decrease from the same period in 2022. Sales for all other top-selling brands also fell, with total smartphone shipments dropping 11 percent year-on-year to 67.2 million units, the lowest quarterly total since 2013. Despite being the best-selling brand in the quarter, Apple saw its total market share fall 3 percentage points year-on-year. Oppo and Vivo , Android brands that trail Apple as the second and third best-sellers, saw shipments fall 10 percent and 7 percent respectively. Honor and Xiaomi , which specialise in low-end models, saw shipments fall 35 percent and 20 percent resp...

A California judge on Wednesday tentatively ordered Tesla CEO Elon Musk to be interviewed under oath about whether he made certain statements regarding the safety and capabilities of the carmaker's Autopilot features. The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by the family of Walter Huang against Tesla in Santa Clara Superior Court, over a car crash which killed the Apple engineer in 2018. Huang's family argues Tesla's partially automated driving software failed. The carmaker contends Huang was playing a videogame on his phone before the crash and disregarded vehicle warnings. Plaintiff attorneys sought to depose Musk regarding recorded statements that tout the capabilities of Autopilot. In a 2016 statement cited by plaintiffs, Musk allegedly said: "A Model S and Model X, at this point, can drive autonomously with greater safety than a person. Right now.” Tesla, however, opposed the request in court filings, arguing that Musk cannot recall details about statements. In...

Nvidia , a major supplier of chips and computing systems for artificial intelligence , on Tuesday, released a set of software tools aimed at helping chatbots watch their language. Nvidia's chips have helped companies like Microsoft add human-like chat features to search engines like Bing . But the chatbots can still be unpredictable and say things their creators wish they did not. Microsoft in February limited users to five questions per session with its Bing search engine after the New York Times reported the system gave unsettling responses during long conversations. Nvidia's software tools, provided free of charge, are designed to help companies guard against unwanted responses from chatbots. Some of those uses are straightforward - the maker of a customer service chatbot might not want the system to mention products from its competitors. But the Nvidia tools are also designed to help AI system creators put into place important safety measures, such as ensuring that ch...

The European Union on Tuesday designated 19 online platforms, including Instagram, TikTok and Twitter , as having user numbers so big they will come under stricter regulatory rules for content. The list -- on which services from Amazon , Google , Meta , Instagram and Microsoft also feature -- all have more than 45 million monthly active users. That puts them in a category under a new EU law, known as the Digital Services Act (DSA), imposing measures from August such as annual audits and a duty to effectively counter disinformation and hate content. In four months' time, "these platforms and search engines will not be able to act as if they were 'too big to care'," Thierry Breton, the EU's internal market commissioner, said in a statement. "This new supervision system will cast a wide and tight net and catch all points of failure in a platform's compliance," he added. Platforms meeting the 45-million-plus threshold include Twitter, owned b...

Twitter on Tuesday said it required users to take down over 6.5 million pieces of content in the first half of 2022, before the social media platform was taken over by billionaire Elon Musk , a 29 percent increase from the second half of 2021. Twitter disclosed the number of content removals in a blog post on the same day the European Union said the social media platform would be among 19 tech companies subject to new landmark rules that require them to share data with authorities, do more to tackle disinformation and conduct external and independent auditing. Failure to comply with the rules - some of the world's strictest regulations on online platforms - could result in fines of up to 6 percent of global revenue or even a ban from operating in the EU, according to the European Commission's website. Before Musk purchased Twitter in October and cut roughly 80 percent of its staff, Twitter normally published twice-yearly reports on its Transparency Center website, detailin...