Compared to January 2016, India had 14 times more people who added AI skills to their profiles as of June 2023, securing fourth spot on the list The rate of AI skills diffusion was the fastest in Singapore, which saw a 20X increase between January 2016 and June 2023 According to LinkedIn, AI skills were adopted across segments such as technology, retail, education and financial services At a time when artificial intelligence (AI) has taken the world by storm, India is witnessing rapid growth in the talent pool for the technology. The country is now among the top five fastest-growing AI talent hubs in the world, according to a report by professional social network LinkedIn. “Singapore, Finland, Ireland, India, and Canada are experiencing the fastest rate of AI skills diffusion,” said LinkedIn’s ‘Future of Work Report – AI at Work’, adding that the number of  AI-skilled members was 9X higher globally in June 2023 compared to January 2016. Compared to January 2016, India had 14 times more people who added AI skills to their profiles, enough for the country to secure a fourth spot on the list of fastest-growing talent hubs. The rate of AI skills diffusion was the fastest in Singapore, which saw a 20X increase between January 2016 and June 2023. Other countries ahead of India were Finland (16X) and Ireland (15X). Canada (13X) was in the fifth position on the list. The fastest-growing AI skills included Question Answering, Classification, Recommender Systems, Computer Vision and Natural Language Processing (NLP). According to LinkedIn, the AI skills were adopted across segments such as technology, retail, education and financial services. The analysis of 25 countries by the LinkedIn report also showed that the number of LinkedIn members who added AI skills to their profiles nearly doubled after the launch of ChatGPT last year. The figure rose to 13% in November 2022-June 2023 from 7.7% in May-November 2022. For context, ChatGPT was launched in November 2022. “To realise the full promise of AI productivity gains depends on the diffusion of skills across geographies, industries, and talent. AI adoption and optimisation of its use will of course take time, but at this early stage, it appears that the pace of diffusion is getting underway. The brightest global economic outcome is one where innovation can scale borders and boost productivity growth for all,” said Karin Kimbrough, chief economist at LinkedIn. India has seen a rapid rise in AI adoption since the launch of ChatGPT. Indian companies and startups have jumped on the AI bandwagon, building products on top of OpenAI’s APIs and also building new algorithms for use cases across edtech, fintech, SaaS and others. The latest funding activity in the segment includes Kombai’s $4.5 Mn round, along with ZuAI and SocialBoat securing early stage funding.

Ann, a stroke survivor, can communicate using a digital avatar that decodes her intended speech. Photograph: Noah Berger/UCSF There are trade-offs to both group’s approaches. Implanted electrodes, like the ones the Stanford team used, record the activity of individual neurons, which tends to provide more detailed information than a recording from the brain’s surface. But they’re also less stable, because implanted electrodes shift around in the brain. Even a movement of a millimeter or two causes changes in recorded activity. “It is hard to record from the same neurons for weeks at a time, let alone months to years at a time,” Slutzky says. And over time, scar tissue forms around the site of an implanted electrode, which can also affect the quality of a recording. On the other hand, a surface array captures less detailed brain activity but covers a bigger area. The signals it records are more stable than the spikes of individual neurons since they’re derived from thousands of neurons, Slutzky says. During the briefing, Willett said the current technology is limited due to the number of electrodes that can be safely placed in the brain at once. “Much like how a camera with more pixels yields a sharper image, using more electrodes will give us a clearer picture of what is happening in the brain,” he said. Leigh Hochberg, a neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brown University who worked with the Stanford group, says 10 years ago few people would have imagined that it would someday be possible to decode the attempted speech of a person simply by recording their brain activity. “I want to be able to tell my patients with ALS, or brainstem stroke, or other forms of neurologic disease or injury, that we can restore their ability to communicate easily, intuitively, and rapidly,” Hochberg says. Though still slower than typical speech, these new BCIs are faster than existing augmentative and alternative communication systems, writes Betts Peters, a speech-language pathologist at Oregon Health and Science University. These systems require users to type out or select messages using their fingers or eye gaze. “Being able to keep up with the flow of conversation could be an enormous benefit to many people with communication impairments, making it easier to fully participate in all aspects of life,” she told WIRED by email. There are still some technological hurdles to creating an implantable device with these capabilities. For one, Slutzky says the error rate for both groups is still quite high for everyday use. By comparison, current speech recognition systems developed by Microsoft and Google have an error rate of around 5 percent. Another challenge is the longevity and reliability of the device. A practical BCI will need to record signals constantly for years and not require daily recalibration, Slutzky says. BCIs will also need to be wireless, without the clunky cables required of current systems so they can be used without patients needing to be hooked up to a computer. Companies such as Neuralink, Synchron, and Paradromics are all working on wireless systems. “Already the results are incredible,” says Matt Angle, founder and CEO of Austin-based Paradromics, who wasn’t involved in the new papers. “I think we will start seeing rapid progress toward a medical device for patients.”

After Noise, another domestic wearable manufacturer has entered the smart ring segment. Boat has officially teased its first smart ring in India. Boat has teased its upcoming smart ring on its official website. Named as Boat Smart Ring, the wearable will sport a ceramic design. The smart ring will also be able to keep track of your daily activities.Boat Smart Ring featuresExpected to launch soon, the Boat Smart Ring will come with all essential features. The company has revealed that the Boat Smart Ring will come with advanced tracking capabilities. The smart ring will sport a premium ceramic and metal build. The wearable will offer smart touch controls. The company claims that the Boat Smart Ring will feature swipe navigation functionality and will offer intuitive touch controls. Boat has also revealed that users will be able to play and pause music, change tracks, click pictures and navigate applications using the Boat Smart Ring. The device will work with its companion Boat Ring app. The app will curate detailed insights of the user’s health. The yet-to-launch Boat Smart Ring will come equipped with heart rate monitor, SpO2 sensor and body temperature monitor. The device will also keep track of users sleep and it will also feature menstrual tracking functionality. The wearable will sport axis motion sensors and will feature a water-resistant design.Boat Smart Ring to compete with Noise Luna RingThe upcoming smart ring from Boat will face competition from the yet-to-launch Noise Luna Ring. According to the company, the Noise smart ring is crafted with the intention of promoting cognitive well-being while advocating for the positive integration of technology. The ring furnishes three primary metrics – Sleep, Readiness, and Activity – with the purpose of furnishing practical observations that contribute to enhancing the user’s overall state of health. The Luna Ring is outfitted with state-of-the-art sensors and sturdy construction, empowering users to efficiently enhance their lifestyle choices.

Cloud computing providers are very aware that their customers are struggling for capacity. Surging demand has “caught the industry off guard a bit,” says Chetan Kapoor, a director of product management at AWS. The time needed to acquire and install new GPUs in their data centers have put the cloud giants behind, and the specific arrangements in highest demand also add stress. Whereas most applications can operate from processors loosely distributed across the world, the training of generative AI programs has tended to perform best when GPUs are physically clustered tightly together, sometimes 10,000 chips at a time. That ties up availability like never before. Kapoor says AWS’ typical generative AI customer is accessing hundreds of GPUs. “If there’s an ask from a particular customer that needs 1,000 GPUs tomorrow, that’s going to take some time for us to slot them in,” Kapoor says. “But if they are flexible, we can work it out.” AWS has suggested clients adopt more expensive, customized services through its Bedrock offering, where chip needs are baked into the offering without clients having to worry. Or customers could try AWS’ unique AI chips, Trainium and Inferentia, which have registered an unspecified uptick in adoption, Kapoor says. Retrofitting programs to operate on those chips instead of Nvidia options has traditionally been a chore, though Kapoor says moving to Trainium now takes as little as changing two lines of software code in some cases. Challenges abound elsewhere too. Google Cloud hasn’t been able to keep up with demand for its homegrown GPU-equivalent, known as a TPU, according to an employee not authorized to speak to media. A spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment. Microsoft’s Azure cloud unit has dangled refunds to customers who aren’t using GPUs they reserved, the Information reported in April. Microsoft declined to comment. Cloud companies would prefer that customers reserve capacity months to years out so those providers can better plan their own GPU purchases and installations. But startups, which generally have minimal cash and intermittent needs as they sort out their products, have been reluctant to commit, preferring buy-as-you-go plans. That has led to a surge in business for alternative cloud providers, such as Lambda Labs and CoreWeave, which have pulled in nearly $500 million from investors this year between them. Astria, the image generator startup, is among their customers. AWS isn’t exactly happy about losing out to new market entrants, so it’s considering additional options. “We’re thinking through different solutions in the short- and the long-term to provide the experience our customers are looking for,” Kapoor says, declining to elaborate. Shortages at the cloud vendors are cascading down to their clients, which include some big names in tech. Social media platform Pinterest is expanding its use of AI to better serve users and advertisers, according to chief technology officer Jeremy King. The company is considering using Amazon’s new chips. “We need more GPUs, like everyone,” King says. “The chip shortage is a real thing.” 

Not in a perverse way but the Covid-19 pandemic turned to be quite advantageous for many companies. Zoom was one such company as remote working, video conferencing became the need of the hour. Zoom’s popularity increased and so did the revenue. However, in the post-pandemic world majority of companies are calling employees back to work. Joining the list is none other Zoom. According to a report by Business Insider, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan told employees in an all-hands meeting that the biggest problem the company is facing currently is the culture. “The number one problem we are facing is company culture,” Yuan told employees, as per the report. He said that the company cares about all its employees but at “the same time we build trust from our employees who care about our business as well.”An earlier report by Business Insider revealed that the company had asked employees who live within 50 miles of a Zoom office need to report at least twice a week. Those who want to leave can do soYuan also said that employees who want to leave the company because of the new changes are welcome to do so. “For any ‘Zoomies’ who feel like this is not a company I want to work for, absolutely OK,” he said. “We wish you all the best. Again, we want to make sure we support each other and focus on the company.”The Zoom CEO was asked whether it is a case of come to office or resign. He said, “This is not something simple and straightforward.” He urged the company employees to think from “others’ perspectives and think about it from a business perspective and what we can do differently. Otherwise, I can tell you, even if we have a great opportunity ahead of us, we cannot deliver unless we address the culture problem.”

Nature’s nourishment: This superfood is so versatile that it can be part of all your health diet, in different avatars Sweet potato health benefits: Beyond its deliciousness and versatility, sweet potatoes pack a nutritional punch like none else. Laden with fibre, vitamins and antioxidants, it boasts a low glycemic index, making it a boon for blood sugar control, helps keep heart healthy, and is very effective for weight management.

The company has successfully tested a reusable rocket launch vehicle, which attained an altitude of 3 kms The launch was conducted on August 21 at a foreign location, and the results of the flight were evaluated by the company in the wee hours of August 23 DroneAcharya plans to increase the altitude to 10 kms and payload by 3X to collect atmospheric and meteorological data Close on the heels of Chandrayaan-3’s historic landing on the Moon, drone manufacturer DroneAcharya on Wednesday (August 23) also announced its foray into the spacetech industry. In a press statement, the company said it successfully tested a reusable rocket launch vehicle, which attained an ‘altitude of 3 kms over the ground surface’.  Speaking with Inc42, DroneAcharya’s founder and managing director Prateek Srivastava said that the launch was conducted on August 21 at a foreign location. The results of the flight were evaluated by the company in the wee hours of August 23.  “This spacetech initiative by DroneAcharya directly compliments our existing drone tech solutions as the former correlates with the macro solutions of overall climatic studies while the latter deals with drone-based Imagery and on-ground situational studies,” said Srivastava. Equipped within the launch vehicle were an air pressure sensor, a heat sensor, an internal combustion sensor, an air friction sensor, and a miniature parachute for onboard equipment recovery. The company claimed that it successfully landed the vehicle with the help of a parachute and was able to recover all vital sensors and equipment.  As per the company, the objective of the test was to determine the burn rate of the solid propellant fuel between attaining an altitude of 3 kms and returning to the ground in ‘operational condition’. Srivastava also told Inc42 that the company has been experimenting with the project for the past three months and ran simulations and trials before the test launch. He added that the company took help from a couple of ISRO employees, who helped formulate the test launch.  The space launch vehicle, as per the founder, is 3 ft to 3.5 ft tall and uses a solid-fuel propellant with different sensors in its cavity. Going forward, DroneAcharya plans to increase the altitude to 10 kms and payload by 3X to collect atmospheric and meteorological data. It is eyeing the nano/ micro category of reusable rocket launch vehicles.  This could enable the company to tap into wider applications including suborbital testing, aerodynamic designs, as well as aerospace system and parabolic testing. DroneAcharya is also looking to find use cases for the product to leverage data for climate and environmental studies. “Our aim is CubeSats and NanoSats and we would like to have our own constellation for civilian, aircraft and defence purposes,” Srivastava said.  The company wants to build a constellation of satellites high up in the sky and is targeting the B2C and B2G segments.  Elaborating on a use case, he said that the vehicle could find usage in the meteorological department which has to send a balloon every day (along with sensors) in the sky to measure atmospheric parameters. Srivastava says that he wants to change this with a reusable launch vehicle, which can safely land on the ground with all sensors intact.  The company claims that the launch vehicle was completely made from scratch in India and was ‘not expensive’ as against common perception. “Everything was made in India be it the body, the cylinder or the sensors. Even coding was done in Pune to ensure it was entirely a Made In India product,” Srivastava said.  Lately, DroneAcharya has been scaling up its drone operations. In May, Srivastava said that the IPO helped the company secure ‘expansion funding’, allowing it to ‘think more audaciously when the opportunities present themselves’. Founded by Srivastava in 2017, DroneAcharya offers an array of drone solutions and training programmes to its customers.  The drone manufacturer continues to post healthy numbers. The Pune-based startup’s profits jumped 742% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 3.42 Cr in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23) against an operating revenue of INR 18.57 Cr. Shares of DroneAcharya closed 1.91% down at INR 156.40 on the BSE SME platform on Wednesday (August 23).

Xiaomi’s sub-brand Redmi launched the A2+ entry-level smartphone in May. The smartphone sports an HD+ display and is powered by a MediaTek chipset. At launch, Redmi offered the A2+ smartphone in a single 4GB+64GB variant which was priced at Rs 8,499. The Chinese smartphone maker has now introduced a new model of the smartphone that offers more storage, 128GB. The company took to X (previously Twitter) to announce the new storage variant for the Redmi A2+ smartphone. Apart from the increased storage, the latest model also offers similar features to the phone that was launched earlier this year. Redmi A2+ new storage variant: Price and availability The 4GB RAM+128GB storage variant of the Redmi A2+ is also priced at Rs 8,499. The latest model will be available via Amazon, MI.com, and Xiaomi retail partners.Redmi A2+: Key specsRedmi A2+ sports a 6.52-inch HD+ display that supports 720×1600 pixel resolution. The smartphone’s display also offers a 60Hz refresh rate and up to 400 nits of peak brightness. The smartphone is powered by an octa-core MediaTek Helio G26 chipset paired with up to 4GB of RAM.Redmi A2+ now offers two storage variants — 64GB and 128GB internal storage options. Users can also expand the storage of the smartphone with a microSD card.This smartphone runs Android 13 Go Edition and offers dual SIM support. The Redmi A2+ also houses a single 8MP rear camera setup and a 5MP front shooter for selfies and video calls.Redmi A2+ packs a 5000mAh battery that comes with 10W charging support. The smartphone is also equipped with a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor.

Believe it or not, in the last couple of years, Gold saw growth, but only by a tiny 1.3%, a rather disappointing number. The hope was for more—you know? While investors were optimistic, the outcomes fell far short of the mark—diminished demand in China and the Federal Reserve’s ‘bulldog’ approach to rate hikes, along with a muscular U.S. dollar, all played a role. And here’s what’s surprising: despite a subpar year, many analysts see a brighter 2023. Hope springs eternal! photo credit: Annie Spratt / Unsplash A Glint of Optimism in 2023? Excited whispers surround gold’s predicted value growth in 2023. On the other hand, the eternal kerfuffle of increased federal interest rates, U.S. Treasuries’ rising values, the unfathomable strong U.S. dollar and China’s iffy demand cast long shadows—you know? Still, even amidst doubt, gold stands firm in volatile times where “buy-and-hold” is the trump card to deal with riskier investments. The Golden Confusion—Is Gold Truly an Inflation Hedge? If you’re wondering just how much gold can save us from inflation, some may say that it’s a 100% foolproof option. But is it really? Here lie the facts; gold is tangible—a finite asset that should hold its value even if your crisp green bills lose theirs. Sounds great, right? However, let’s take a closer look. Rewind to America’s significant inflation period beginning in 1973; gold magnificently stood as an inflation hedge with an annualized return of 35%, outshining the bleak 8.8% inflation rate. But this golden era was short-lived. By 1984, as inflation steadied at 6.5%, gold saw a yearly value decrease of 10% and a persistent negative return even during 1988-1991’s mild inflation. So, to recap, the rule of thumb about gold being a constant inflation hedge? Not so accurate after all. Experienced investors bring in a more nuanced approach; they know that it’s not simply about inflation—other factors play a part as well. Understanding Gold’s Underperformance In the face of 2022’s peak inflation of 9.1%, one might expect the gold price to surge. But did they? Nope, they rose a meager 1.3%. The sly foxes who affected this were the aggressive interest rates hike by the Federal Reserve and the rising values of U.S. Treasuries (which, believe it or not, has a negative impact on gold and bonds). Add to this the U.S. dollar flexing its muscles throughout most of the year, and you have the journey of gold in 2022. And with that, my dear investors, here’s the long story short: dive into the world of precious metal investment—but make sure you’ve done your homework. Do not rely solely on predictions. Consider all factors, keep an eye on those market trends, and make your moves carefully.