Google Pixel 8 and Google Pixel 8 Pro smartphones will be coming to India, the company has announced. The internet giant showed off the Pixel 8 smartphone in a teaser, which suggested that the smartphone will come at least in a Pink, or the rumoured Rose colour option.Google Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro launch in IndiaBoth the Google Pixel 8 and Google Pixel 8 Pro will be launched on October 4. “You know what they say, great things come in eights,” the company said in the teaser. The phone will be available for pre-orders from October 5 in India. Just like every year, the smartphones can be purchased from Flipkart.Google Pixel Watch 2Google has shared two different teasers on its social media platforms. In the teaser, which is likely not aimed at the Indian market, the company has teased the Google Pixel 8 Pro and Pixel Watch 2. The teaser also briefly shows a pair of TWS earbuds that look like the Google Pixel Buds Pro.It could be possible that the company is bringing a new or an updated version of its TWS earphones. It may also mean that the company is launching a new colour variant of the Pixel Buds Pro that matches the colour options of the Pixel smartphones. However, the company hasn’t said anything in this regard.Google Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro colours, specs (expected)Recently, it was reported that Google may launch the Pixel 8 in four colour options: Hazel, Obsidian, Rose and Mint. The Pixel 8 Pro is said to debut in three colour options: Obsidian, Porcelain and Mint. An image of Pixel 8 Pro was leaked in a Porcelain colour on the Play Store listing.Reports suggest that the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro will be powered by Tensor G3. The pro model is said to come with the Night Sight video feature.

Apple Inc. shares tumbled on Thursday, on track to wipe out $200 billion of market value in just two days, as China plans to expand a ban on the use of iPhones to government-backed agencies and state companies.Shares of the Cupertino, California-based company fell as much as 5.1%, bringing its two-day slump to 6.8%. Apple is the biggest component in major US equity indexes, adding to a broader selloff sparked in part by a litany of woes in China.The world’s second-biggest economy has been slumping amid a protracted crisis in its real estate market, threatening demand for everything from commodities to consumer electronics. The iPhone maker counts China as its biggest foreign market and global production base.Adding to Apple’s troubles are rising US Treasury yields as bonds sell off on worries the Federal Reserve will have to step up its fight against inflation as the US economy remains resilient.The news is having a widespread effect on the markets, with investors selling everything from chips, mega-cap technology to US-listed Chinese stocks.“The Nasdaq is sinking as one bad Apple spoils a bunch of mega-cap tech stocks,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA. “Apple’s growth story is heavily reliant on China and if the Beijing crackdown intensifies that could pose a big problem to the bunch of other mega-cap tech companies that rely on China.”The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index was trading lower by about 1%, meanwhile the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, which consists of several Apple suppliers, was down 2.5% on Thursday.Interesting TimingBank of America Corp. analyst Wamsi Mohan notes that the “timing of the potential ban is interesting” given the recent launch of Huawei Technologies Co. high-end 5G-capable smartphone.Huawei’s Mystery Phone Shows Wireless Speeds as Fast as AppleThe teardown of the new device shows that Beijing seems to be making early progress in a nationwide push to circumvent US efforts to contain its ascent, with Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro being powered by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp.’s 7nm chips, according to an analysis that TechInsights conducted for Bloomberg News.If Beijing goes ahead with a ban, the unprecedented blockade might also affect several other US technology companies that rely on sales and production in China. Apple suppliers across continents were trading lower on Thursday as multiple reports confirmed China’s latest changes.However, bullish analysts like Wedbush Securities’ Daniel Ives think the effect of an “iPhone ban is way overblown” as it would affect less than 500,000 iPhones of the roughly 45 million he expects to be sold in the country over the next 12 months.“Despite the loud noise Apple has seen massive share gains in China smartphone market,” Ives, who has an overweight rating on the stock, wrote in a note.

Groww cofounder Lalit Keshre said the startup has got approval from SEBI for the Groww Nifty Total Market Index Fund Earlier this year, Groww acquired the mutual fund business of Indiabulls Housing Finance, clearing the path for it to launch mutual fund offerings The competition in the country’s mutual fund space is heating up, with the likes of Groww’s rival Zerodha and Jio Financial Services also set to enter the sector Groww has received approval from the market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to launch its first index fund, paving the way for the stockbroking platform’s entry into the mutual fund space. “Groww Mutual Fund got approval for its first NFO – Groww Nifty Total Market Index Fund,” Groww cofounder Lalit Keshre posted on X (erstwhile Twitter). Earlier this year, Groww acquired the mutual fund business of Indiabulls Housing Finance for a consideration of INR 175.6 Cr. This cleared the path for it to launch mutual fund offerings. The latest development comes days after Groww’s rival Zerodha submitted draft offer documents with the market regulator for the launch of two funds, the Zerodha Tax Saver (ELSS) Nifty Large Midcap 250 Index Fund and the Zerodha Nifty Large Midcap 250 Index Fund (ZN250). Zerodha has tied up with smallcase for its foray into the mutual fund space. Last month, the bootstrapped stockbroking unicorn received the final approval from SEBI to start the operations of its asset management company (AMC).  With this, the stage is set for Zerodha and Groww to expand their competition to the mutual fund sphere as well. Founded in 2017 by former Flipkart employees Lalit Keshre, Harsh Jain, Neeraj Singh, and Ishan Bansal, Groww offers an online stockbroking platform and direct mutual funds.  It competes with Zerodha, ETMoney and StockGro, among others. Last month, PhonePe also launched a share trading platform, Share.Market. Of late, Groww’s has been focusing on diversifying its product portfolio. It started offering instant personal loans on its platform after it received a licence to operate as a non-banking finance company (NBFC). In July, it also launched the UPI payments feature. Groww slipped into the red in the financial year 2021-22 (FY22), posting a loss of INR 239 Cr as against a profit of INR 167.6 Cr in FY21. However, operating revenue jumped 11.8X YoY to INR 350.9 Cr in FY22 from INR 29.5 Cr in the previous year. The entry of Groww and Zerodha in the mutual fund space comes at a time when Jio Financial Services has formed a joint venture with the world’s biggest asset manager BlackRock to grab a share in India’s $540 Bn mutual fund industry. The joint venture has earmarked an initial investment of $300 Mn to establish itself.

Snap, the parent company of Snapchat has announced new features to further protect kids between the age of 13-17 years from potential online risks. These features will begin to roll out in the coming weeks. The latest safeguards build on the protections that are already available to limit unwanted interactions or potentially risky contact on the platform.What will these features do?The new features are aimed to protect teens from being contacted by people they may not know in real life. They will also provide a more age-appropriate viewing experience on the content platform. Along with a new strike system and new detection technologies, these features will also enable more effective removal of accounts that may be trying to market and promote age-inappropriate content. “As a messaging platform for real friends, the goal is to help Snapchatters communicate with people that matter to them, and to ensure that the content they view on the app is informative, fun and age-appropriate,” the company said. What are new features?In-App Warnings: This feature will send a pop-up warning to a teen if someone tries to add them as a friend when they don’t share mutual contacts or the person isn’t in their contacts. The message will urge teens to carefully consider if they want to be in contact with this person. Stronger friending protections: Snapchat already requires 13-to-17-year-olds to have several mutual friends in common with another user before they can show up in Search results. The company is now raising the required number of friends needed to show up in search. Immediate banning of accounts: Snapchat does not allow harmful content such as sexual exploitation, pornography, violence, self-harm and misinformation on the platform. If an account is found engaging in this activity, it will be immediately banned. “Our latest features are thoughtful in-app features that are designed to empower teens to make smarter choices, and talk openly about staying safe online. We’re committed to making sure Snapchat is a place where you can be creative and stay safe and above all, the safety and well-being of our community in India, which includes over 200 million users, is our top priority,” said Uthara Ganesh, head public policy-South Asia at Snap.New tools for familiesIn addition to the new safeguards, Snap is also releasing new resources for families, which include an updated parents guide at parents.snapchat.com. The guide lists protections for teens, tools for parents and a new YouTube explainer series.

Localized data refers to information or content obtained from and restricted to access from a specific location. Data of this nature contains aggregated information that could provide businesses with insights into customer behavior and preferences of specific populations. On the other hand, Business Intelligence (BI) refers to methods and means by which companies facilitate data collection, collation, analysis and, presentation. However, no definition or concept of BI is complete without including the data and the quality of the data. For an international business, localized data is especially important to the quality of BI systems because of its peculiarity to the population of interest. However, countries are increasingly localizing data, citing security reasons. This article will explain how localized data impacts business, what they are used for, and how to harvest them with a location proxy. How Does Localized Data Impact Business Intelligence In business, data helps identify patterns and correlations that are not usually obvious. Based on the scope of data collection, data can be local or international. Local data originates from the home country of the business, while international data is obtained from foreign markets. Localized data is the type of data that businesses seek to obtain as part of an international data collection operation. With proper analysis and interpretation, this type of data can give businesses an edge in a business sphere that can seem crowded. That said, here are specific ways that Localized data can affect business intelligence: Improved accuracy of insights. Data informs insight, and accurate data means accurate insights. Localized data is the most accurate form of data obtainable on a population. For instance, any survey of a population can identify customer distribution, but localized data can accurately chart the distribution in a region. Specific cultural and regional relevance. Localized data can point to cultural beliefs and preferences affecting consumer behavior. For instance, an international fast-food business looking to operate in India might be aware of the general stance on beef consumption. However, localized data could help point out that the Hindus make up the vast majority of the population, thus ruling out beef-containing meals as a potentially nationally successful meal. Accurate assessment of expansion prospects. Businesses planning to expand into new markets can better assess the security of their position by using localized data. In this case, they can use localized data to understand local competition, determine demand and preferences, evaluate regulatory measures, and optimize the efficiency of their operations. Fairer analysis of global performance. Using localized data, businesses can assess the performance of products and services with more contextual knowledge. So they can make smarter decisions and develop strategically sound plans. How Web Scraping and Proxy Servers Help Localized Data Collection Localized data may frequently have geographical restrictions to prevent residents outside the region from gaining access. A web-scraping tool and a location proxy can help businesses work around these restrictions if they exist. The location proxy server receives the internet traffic from the computer collecting the data. Once received, it then forwards the traffic (in this case, a scraping request) to the target servers of the website. This means that the target website would recognize the traffic as originating from the location of the proxy server. On the other hand, after the target website receives the scraping request, the web scraper downloads the HTML contents of the site and extracts the needed data from within. In this way, the location proxy and web scraper complement one another to bypass geographical and IP restrictions on data and automatically retrieve them. Women using computers with cloud network How the Quality of Proxy Providers Affects Localized Data Collection A large pool of IP addresses and variability in locations within the pool are attractive features for business proxies. A location proxy provider with many addresses in many countries is beneficial for localized data collection in the following ways: Access to more locations. More variation in the countries means the business can access localized data from more locations if needed. Some proxy providers have access to over 150 countries. Such a proxy would allow its users to access data from a vast pool of locations, increasing the reach of their data collections. For instance, a business owner in the UK can extract information from a US website using a US proxy and vice versa. Efficient load distribution and scalability. Any proxy provider with many addresses allows users to rotate their proxies during data collection. However, the size of the address pool within a location can make rotations more efficient. A larger pool means that users do not have to reuse an address (and risk an IP block) very often. Conclusion There is no business intelligence without data, and the more accurate the data collected, the more valuable the intelligence obtained would be. Considering the importance of localized data to BI, businesses prioritize obtaining them, regardless of the obstacles or restrictions surrounding their acquisition. The result of this in the business world is that companies hire the best people, utilize the best technologies, and try to collect localized data. Web scraping and proxy providers work in tandem to make this possible. Any business looking to positively distinguish its performances from those of its competitors should be doing the same.

it’s become a veritable meme subgenre at this point: a photo of Linda Hamilton as The Terminator’s Sarah Connor, glaring into the camera, steely eyed, with some variant of the caption “Sarah Connor seeing you become friends with ChatGPT.” Our society has interpreted the sudden, dizzying rise of this new chatbot generation through the pop cultural lens of our youth. With it comes the sense that the straightforward “robots will kill us all” stories were prescient (or at least accurately captured the current vibe), and that there was a staggering naivete in the more forgiving “AI civil rights” narratives—famously epitomized by Star Trek’s Commander Data, an android who fought to be treated the same as his organic Starfleet colleagues. Patrick Stewart’s Captain Picard, defending Data in a trial to prove his sapience, thundered, “Your honor, Starfleet was founded to seek out new life: Well, there it sits! Waiting.” But far from being a relic of a bygone, more optimistic age, the AI civil rights narrative is more relevant than ever. It just needs to be understood in its proper context. There are understandable fears that seemingly naive narratives about AI or robots being “just like us” have only paved the way for the morally impoverished moment in which we now find ourselves. In this way of looking at things, we need more fear of AI in order to resist the exploitation we’re now faced with, surely. Thus, we need to retrench into the other AI narrative cliché: They’re here to kill us all. But analogizing ChatGPT or Google’s Bard to even embryonic forms of Skynet is priceless PR for tech companies, which benefit greatly from the “criti-hype” of such wild exaggerations. For example, during a 60 Minutes interview, Google vice president James Manyika remarked, “We discovered that with very few amounts of prompting in Bengali, [Bard] can now translate all of Bengali.” In his narration, CBS journalist Scott Pelley glossed this comment by saying “one Google AI program adapted on its own after it was prompted in the language of Bangladesh, which it was not trained to know”—suggesting that this learning was a potentially dangerous “emergent property” of Bard. But it also implied that Bard had no Bengali in its training data, when in fact it did. Such hyperbole, which portrays the algorithms as bordering on self-awareness, makes these tools seem far more capable than they really are. That, of course, hasn’t stopped some of my fellow nerds, reared on C-3PO and Data, from being all too eager to join the final frontier of civil rights battles—even when every other one remains woefully unfinished. So what’s the use in continuing to tell the happier “AI deserves civil rights” stories? After all, we’re a long way from boldly arguing for the rights of such beings in a Starfleet courtroom, and such stories might only further engender anthropomorphization, which only helps companies profit from tools that fall short even at their stated functions. Well, those stories might help us keep our priorities straight. Far from being a relic of a bygone, more optimistic age, the AI civil rights narrative is more relevant than ever. It just needs to be understood in its proper context. It’s easy to forget that, in fiction, the AI/robot is almost always a metaphor. Even in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Data and the androids like him were analogized to humanity’s ugly history of slavery—the grotesque dream of free labor that never questions, never fights back. This was equally evident in Ex Machina, a horror film about how an AI woman, built to be a classic “fembot,” liberates herself from a male tech baron who wants nothing more than to build a woman who loves to be abused. What we yearn for in machines is so often a reflection of what we yearn for in humanity, for good and ill, asking us what we really want. Stories of such yearnings also illustrate a key requirement for sapience: resistance to oppression. Such qualities take us back to the earliest forms of fiction that humans wove about the prospect of creating artificial life. Not just Karel Čapek’s 1921 Rossum’s Universal Robots (RUR), but the Jewish legend of the golem that it clearly drew inspiration from. In that tale, artificial life exists to defend people against violent oppression. Although the original fable sees the golem run amok, the idea of the creature endures as an empowering fantasy in a time of rising anti-Semitism. The myth has left its mark on everything from superhero fantasies to tales of benevolent robots—narratives where artificial or alien life is in communion with human life and arrayed against the ugliest forces that sapience can produce. If that isn’t relevant, nothing is.

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Governments around the world are rushing to embrace the algorithms that breathed some semblance of intelligence into ChatGPT, apparently enthralled by the enormous economic payoff expected from the technology. Two new reports out this week show that nation-states are also likely rushing to adapt the same technology into weapons of misinformation, in what could become a troubling AI arms race between great powers. Researchers at RAND, a nonprofit think tank that advises the United States government, point to evidence of a Chinese military researcher who has experience with information campaigns publicly discussing how generative AI could help such work. One research article, from January 2023, suggests using large language models such as a fine-tuned version of Google’s BERT, a precursor to the more powerful and capable language models that power chatbots like ChatGPT. “There’s no evidence of it being done right now,” says William Marcellino, an AI expert and senior behavioral and social scientist at RAND, who contributed to the report. “Rather someone saying, ‘Here’s a path forward.’” He and others at RAND are alarmed at the prospect of influence campaigns getting new scale and power thanks to generative AI. “Coming up with a system to create millions of fake accounts that purport to be Taiwanese, or Americans, or Germans, that are pushing a state narrative—I think that it’s qualitatively and quantitatively different,” Marcellino says. Online information campaigns, like the one that Russia’s Internet Research Agency waged to undermine the 2016 US election, have been around for years. They have mostly depended on manual labor—human workers toiling at keyboards. But AI algorithms developed in recent years could potentially mass-produce text, imagery, and video designed to deceive or persuade, or even carry out convincing interactions with people on social media platforms. A recent project suggests that launching such a campaign could cost just a few hundred dollars. Marcellino and his coauthors note that many countries—the US included— are almost certainly exploring the use of generative AI for their own information campaigns. And the wide accessibility of generative AI tools, including numerous open source language models anyone can obtain and modify, lowers the bar for anyone looking to launch an information campaign. “A variety of actors could use generative AI for social media manipulation, including technically sophisticated non-state actors,” they write. A second report issued this week, by another tech-focused think tank, the Special Competitive Studies Project, also warns that generative AI could soon become a way for nations to flex on one another. It urges the US government to invest heavily in generative AI because the technology promises to boost many different industries and provide “new military capabilities, economic prosperity, and cultural influence” for whichever nation masters it first. Like the RAND report, the SCSP’s analysis also draws some gloomy conclusions. It warns that generative AI’s potential is likely to trigger an arms race to adapt the technology for use by militaries or in cyberattacks. If both are right, we are headed for an information-space arms race that may prove particularly difficult to contain. How to avoid the nightmare scenario of the internet becoming overrun with AI bots programmed for information warfare? It requires humans to talk with one another. The SCSP report recommends that the US “should lead global engagement to promote transparency, foster trust, and encourage collaboration.” The RAND researchers recommend that US and Chinese diplomats discuss generative AI and the risks around the technology. “It may be in all of our interests not to have an internet that’s totally polluted and unbelievable,” Marcellino says. I think that’s something we can all agree on.

The Ministry of Finance notified amendments to the Central GST law for calculating the value of supply by online gaming platforms The order also stated that winnings by any player will remain tax-neutral as the entire tax is collected at the first stage itself The development comes a month after the Parliament approved amendments to the Central and Integrated GST laws to levy a 28% tax on the full face value of bets for online gaming Putting its rubber stamp on the 28% GST regime, the union government on Friday (September 1) notified amendments specifying valuation methodology to be used by online gaming platforms for calculating tax liability.  Following the GST Council’s recommendations, the Ministry of Finance notified amendments to the Central GST law for calculating the value of supply by online gaming platforms. Further clearing the air, the order stated that winnings by any player will remain tax-neutral as the entire tax is collected at the first stage itself.  The development comes a month after the Parliament approved amendments to the Central and Integrated GST laws to levy a 28% tax on the full face value of bets for online gaming. Reacting to the development, EY Tax Partner Saurabh Agarwal told news agency PTI that the notification is expected to effectively settle the ambiguity and uncertainty around this matter. He, however, added, “… the aspect of whether the mere deposit of money in a wallet qualifies as a supply is unclear, and may be challenged by the industry.” This follows the GST Council’s decision to impose a 28% GST on the amount being paid at the entry level for online gaming in July this year. As the government moved ahead with its plans to solidify the levy, Indian online gaming platforms made a beeline, seeking revocation of the proposed plans.  Despite criticism from all quarters of the gaming industry, the Centre stuck with plans and passed the amendments in the Parliament. Since then, the gaming ecosystem has been gripped by crises.  Last month, Mobile Premier League (MPL) slashed half of its workforce to cut corners. This was followed by Hike and Spartan Poker firing employees in droves as they grappled with the tax burden.  On top of that, Inc42 recently reported that more than 20-25% of online gaming platforms are mulling to get acquired or acquihired. An analyst even said that these startups were selling for pennies on a dollar.  As the crisis mounts, it remains to be seen how the industry reacts to the new curveball.

AI-generated content is almost everywhere now. Companies like Google, Microsoft among others have AI tools that can generate text, images, video, audio, and much more. Keeping in mind, the potential misuse of AI-generated content, Google has made changes to its political content policy. Starting in November, Google will require election advertisers to put a disclaimer. “All verified election advertisers in regions where verification is required must prominently disclose when their ads contain synthetic content that inauthentically depicts real or realistic-looking people or events,” said Google in a post on its support page. In other words, if a video has any form of content that has been generated using AI, then it should come with a disclaimer. “This disclosure must be clear and conspicuous, and must be placed in a location where it is likely to be noticed by users,” said Google. The rule will apply to image, video, and audio content.Google also gives examples of what can be classified as “synthetic” content. An ad with synthetic content that makes it appear as if a person is saying or doing something they didn’t say or do. Or an ad with synthetic content that alters footage of a real event or generates a realistic portrayal of an event to depict scenes that did not actually take place. What ads won’t need a disclaimer?Google also said that “ads that contain synthetic content altered or generated in such a way that is inconsequential to the claims made in the ad will be exempt from these disclosure requirements. “This includes editing techniques such as image resizing, cropping, color or brightening corrections, defect correction (for example, “red eye” removal), or background edits that do not create realistic depictions of actual events,” said Google.In the US, a few political campaigns have seen the rise of AI content in videos.