Weekend Bites: Google, Sebi, Fraud Accounts, And A New Space Odyssey

However, in a bit of relief to Google, the NCLAT reversed four directives that could have led to uninstalling of pre-installed apps on Android devices and set aside the CCI’s directives that would have forced Google to allow individual app store developers to distribute their stuff through Google Play Store.

The competition watchdog, for its part, was reported as saying that Google had used its money-spinning search engine as the castle and the rest of the other apps to play the defensive role of moat, and that this “

” strategy was nothing but data hegemony, which meant a big market player would get bigger and bigger while a small entrant struggled to attain a critical mass of users and user data. The CCI went to the extent of

 that companies that did not sign Google’s contracts to use Android and developed their own version of the operating system became extinct. 

The Supreme Court

borrowers should be allowed to be heard before a bank declared their account “fraudulent”. The Reserve Bank of India had issued a master circular in 2016 that allowed banks to classify accounts of wilful defaulters as fraudulent without hearing them.

In more bad news coming out of EdTech, Unacademy announced

 — the fourth in the last one year — trimming 12 per cent of its workforce, or 380 employees, in its bid to “meet the goals in current realities".

Watch it: From our hot audio-visual serving

 

Today is the beginning of a new financial year, with which a new personal finance regime will dawn on us. The bevy of tax changes announced in this year’s budget kick in today. The default tax regime has changed and taxation of mutual funds and market-linked debentures has changed as well. Brace up for it with

. 

Last June, Blake Lemoine became famous. He was in Google’s Responsible AI organization and part of tests to see if artificial intelligence used discriminatory or hate speech. He made headlines for his claim that during an interface with LaMDA, Google’s AI chatbot generator, during which Lemoine was typing about religion, he found the chatbot talking about its rights. He reported other, probably more intense, chats with the chatbot and presented what he thought was “evidence” that LaMDA was sentient. He thought the technology was amazing. 

For his troubles, he was first placed on administrative leave for violating Google’s confidentiality code. Later, his services were terminated.

 

This week, 1,100 people in the global technology industry

 calling for labs to stop training powerful AI systems for at least six months to allow for the development of shared safety protocols. 

The call comes in the wake of AI projects in the recent months that do a good job of imitating human work – some say better – in tasks such as writing emails and articles. “Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable,” said the open letter published on the Future of Life Institute website.

 

The signatories to the letter include Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak, both of them known pushers of technological boundaries. 

Make of it what you will.