Google CEO Sundar Pichai has announced that the tech giant will soon launch an Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered chatbot called 'Bard', aimed at countering the popularity of the ChatGPT tool backed by Microsoft. According to a blog post by Pichai, the conversational AI service will be assessed by a group of "trusted testers" before being rolled out to the public in the coming weeks. "Bard can be an outlet for creativity, and a launchpad for curiosity," Pichai, the Indian-origin CEO of Google and parent company Alphabet, said on Monday, adding that Google's chatbot will be able to explain complex subjects like new discoveries from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to a nine-year-old.
At 250 million unique visitors a month, MX Player has for long been in the same bracket as YouTube (454 million) and Meta (324 million) in reach.
After failing to get a court order to block an antitrust ruling, Google on Wednesday said it will allow users in India to choose default search engine on Android-based smartphones. As part of the key changes the tech giant will make to its platforms and business in India in the aftermath of the landmark CCI ruling, OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) will be able to license individual Google apps for pre-installation on their devices. Google is also updating the Android compatibility requirements to introduce changes for partners to build non-compatible or forked variants, the company said in its blog.
'What scares me is the fact that there is so much content that people have content indigestion.' 'How do you entice people who have indigestion of content?'
The ministry of information and broadcasting (I&B) on Wednesday held an inter-ministerial meeting with various departments to discuss issues regarding revenue sharing between Big Tech companies and digital news publishers, according to sources. The meeting - chaired by I&B Secretary Sanjay Jaju - invited senior officials from the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA), Competition Commission of India (CCI), ministry of electronics and information technology (Meity) and departments of promotion of industry and internal trade, legal affairs and consumer affairs.
JioMeet, which has already got the endorsement of top government officials and politicians, saw a huge surge in its ranking on Google Play, based on its downloads.
If it was Andhra Pradesh last Budget, it's poll-bound Bihar that has now turned to Centre with a list of demands. How the NDA government is delivering on promises.
'It was the early days of my 5th standard school vacation, and my mother asked me, 'Robotics classes or swimming classes for the weekends?' I chose robotics classes because technology fascinated me.'
Industry leaders including Google's India-born chief executive Sundar Pichai on Wednesday mourned the death of Ratan Tata, saying the veteran industrialist cared about making India better. "He leaves an extraordinary business and philanthropic legacy and was instrumental in mentoring and developing the modern business leadership in India. He deeply cared about making India better," Pichai said in a post on X. Pichai recalled that his last meeting with Tata was at Google's office where they spoke about the progress of self-driving car Waymo.
Bill Aitken came to India nearly 60 years ago. He never returned. An Indian citizen since 1972, he tells Rediff.com's Archana Masih how India changed his life forever.
TikTok's app effectively shut down in the US, just hours before a law banning the popular video-sharing platform was set to go into effect. The app was shut down on Saturday, displaying a message that the app "isn't available right now," but expects resolution under President-elect Trump. The Supreme Court on Friday unanimously upheld the divest-or-ban law, which gave TikTok's China-based parent company ByteDance until Sunday to divest from the app. President Trump said Saturday that he would most likely give TikTok a 90-day extension. Following Friday's Supreme Court decision, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew thanked the president-elect for his commitment to finding a solution to keep the app accessible in the US.
While prevalent web conferencing apps have been charging fees for getting a large number of users in a session, Jio is neither charging any fee nor has put any time limit on the sessions at present.
Trump spoke approvingly of his recent telephone conversation with Xi Jinping. This could indicate the possibility of America and China reaching some level of tactical accommodation, which would not be good news for India, points out Ambassador Shyam Saran, a former foreign secretary.
The Jammu and Kashmir government has banned the use of third-party tools like WhatsApp and Gmail for transmitting sensitive official documents, citing security concerns. The order, issued by the General Administration Department, states that these platforms are not designed to handle classified information and their security protocols may not meet the stringent standards required for official communications. It highlights potential risks such as unauthorized access, data breaches, and leaks of confidential information. The order emphasizes the importance of using government email facilities, instant messaging platforms, and secure networks for handling sensitive information. It also prohibits the use of digital assistants and smartphones during discussions on classified matters. The government has warned of disciplinary action for non-compliance with these directives.
Google has announced a slew of new features including new privacy settings, AI tools and release of the first beta of Android 12 that will become part of its products over the course of the year. Kicking off Google I/O 2021 in a virtual format from the Mountain View campus, Google CEO Sundar Pichai also announced additions to Google Workspace that will enable richer collaboration, especially in view of the pandemic that has driven enterprises across the globe to embrace remote working solutions. Pichai said that COVID-19 has deeply affected every community over the past year, and "places like Brazil, and my home country of India, are now going through their most difficult moments yet".
Google's chief privacy officer, Keith Enright, has warned policymakers that frequent and large-scale sharing of citizen data, even if anonymized, can damage users' privacy. Pointing to research that shows data sets lose their anonymity if shared consistently over time, he said: "I would encourage policymakers and companies to be extremely circumspect while proceeding in that direction." Anonymization is a technique that removes or modifies personally identifiable information, resulting in data that cannot be associated with any one individual.
'Unsurprisingly, Trump shared Modi's podcast with Fridman on his Truth account.' 'The intentions of Trump, a transactional president, are never easy to tell.' 'We will know in the next fortnight if and when he unfolds reciprocal tariffs on Indian goods, whether Modi's flattering words made any significant difference to Trump's compass,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The scheduled meeting of Internet search engine Google's founders and promoters with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was called off late on Monday.
The sources said the Centre had decided in 2007 to frame a policy on this issue and Wednesday's meeting was the first move in this connection.
Facebook and Google officials in New Delhi on Tuesday deposed before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology on the issue of misuse of social media platforms.
The US on Wednesday mourned the death of veteran industrialist and philanthropist Ratan Naval Tata, remembering him as someone who drove India to greater prosperity and development. Tata, the former Tata Group chairman who transformed a staid group into India's largest and most influential conglomerate, breathed his last at south Mumbai's Breach Candy Hospital at 11.30 pm on Wednesday. He was 86. "My last meeting with Ratan Tata at Google, we talked about the progress of Waymo and his vision was inspiring to hear. He leaves an extraordinary business and philanthropic legacy and was instrumental in mentoring and developing modern business leadership in India.
Divya Nair/Rediff.com speaks to students and experts to find out whether it is better to study management in India or try for an international MBA.
A tech architect must have certifications across ERP platforms (SAP, Oracle, Microsoft) and Cloud platforms (MS, Google, Low code SAAS platforms such as Salesforce, and ServiceNow).
Demi Lovato and Meghan Markle top the list.
With both the Nexus phones touted to be the first to carry Android's Marshmallow edition, the latest offerings from Google seem tempting, but surely, gone are the days of cheap Nexus phones, says Himanshu Juneja
India's e-commerce market alone is projected to reach $200 billion by 2026, making it a prime industry for ambitious entrepreneurs, explains rediffGURU Harsh Bharwani.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged CEOs of US majors to take advantage of India's growth story as the country is making all efforts to become the third largest economy of the world in his third term. India is currently the fifth largest economy of the world after the US, China, Germany and Japan with a GDP of around $3.9 trillion. India has been the fastest growing large economies of the world with GDP growth rate of over 7 per cent for the last three consecutive years.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio on Friday announced deferring the roll-out of the JioPhone Next - the low-priced smartphone it has developed with Google - to Diwali. The phone was previously to be launched on September 10. Ambani at the shareholder meeting of his flagship Reliance Industries in June, had stated that the JioPhone Next will be available for purchase on September 10.
Google's multi-device plan also helps Android attract many third-party apps. But over 3 billion apps have been downloaded for the iPhone and iPod touch from the App store. So even if Android phones outsell the iPhone, Google will have to do a lot of running to catch up with Apple, which is not sitting idle either.
Google is all set to launch its newest line of smartphones and maybe a whole bunch of other hardware products
'When there was a match, he would be up all night watching it on his laptop with Kishori Amonkarji singing on the side.'
The Indian men and women's hockey teams have turned tech-savvy in order to maintain social distancing while continuing with their indoor workout regime during the coronavirus-forced lockdown. The core probable group housed in the Sports Authority of India Centre here suspended high-intensity hockey training in the third week of March following a nationwide lockdown.
The dairy company has alleged that Google India and also goDaddy.com were misusing their platforms for earning revenues through advertisements on fake B2B campaigns that duped innocent individuals seeking Amul franchise across India.
The company said this new approach allows developers to train artificial intelligence models without the user data leaving the device, while allowing it to do more with less data.
The Delhi high court on Wednesday directed Facebook and Google to remove alleged derogatory material related to Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sasikala Pushpa who claimed that her image was being tarnished by purported morphed photos and videos with a man on social media.
Google's email service, Gmail, is facing a disruption in service since Thursday morning, affecting some users in various parts of the world.
Foxconn's business in India has grown to over $10 billion till 2024.
The publishing of compliance reports by Google, Facebook and Instagram is bound to turn up the heat on Twitter, which has been engaged in a tussle with the Indian government over the new social media rules.
Two Indian girls Shree Bose and Naomi Shah emerged winners at the Google Science Fair held last month for their projects on ovarian cancer and treatment of asthma respectively. Read on to know more about their interesting projects.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday met top officials of the finance and corporate affairs ministries to review the implementation of various announcements of the Union Budget FY24. "The finance minister underlined the importance of continuous assessment of progress to ensure that various announcements are implemented in a time-bound manner," the finance ministry said in a tweet. Sitharaman also discussed in detail various issues on the digital competition laws with Rajeev Chandrashekhar, the minister of state for entrepreneurship, skill development, electronics and technology.
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