Technology News

Twitter Now Needs Users to Sign In to View Tweets, Owner Elon Musk Calls it ‘Temporary Emergency Measure’ Twitter will now require users to have an account on the social media platform to view tweets, a move that owner Elon Musk on Friday called a "temporary emergency measure". Users who try to view content on the platform will be asked to sign up for an account or log into an existing account to see their favourite tweets.

Spotify Planning to Test Full-Length Music Videos in App Spotify Technology is reportedly considering adding full-length music videos to its app, which could help the streaming service better compete with Alphabet’s YouTube and ByteDance’s TikTok. The firm is said to have already begun talking to partners about the product.

Indus Gets Accessibility Features With Support From Google’s AI-Powered Project Gameface Pune-based developer SuperGaming has partnered with Google’s Project Gameface to add some accessibility features to its upcoming Indo-futuristic battle royale game, Indus. The AI-powered technology enables further inclusivity by letting players control in-game actions using head movements and various facial expressions. The feature is largely aimed towards PC gamers...

Google, Apple Representatives to Meet Parliamentary Panel to Discuss Cyber Security The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance has called representatives of several banks such as the Punjab National Bank as well as global and national tech majors, including Google, Apple and Paytm, next week to discuss issues related to cyber security and rising cases of cyber crimes.

Steam Summer Sale 2023 Best Deals: Dark Souls 3, God of War, FIFA 23, Cyberpunk 2077, and More The Steam Summer Sale 2023 is here, bringing steep discounts of up to 85 percent off on PC games. The sale is scheduled to end on July 13, at 10:30pm IST, and offers discounts on popular titles such as Elden Ring, God of War, FIFA 23, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Red Dead Redemption 2, Cyberpunk 2077, Dark Souls trilogy, and more.

Windows 11 Preview Adds Biometric Login for Websites and Apps via Windows Hello: Details Windows 11 will soon add support for passkeys with biometric authentication, allowing users to log in seamlessly to a site or application without entering a password. Here's how Microsoft is adding support for password-less logins on Windows 11.

US Considers New Regulations on Export of AI Chips to China: Report The United States is reportedly considering new restrictions on exports of artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China. The Commerce Department will stop the shipments of chips made by Nvidia and other chip companies to customers in China as early as July, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

India Preparing Multi-Billion-Dollar Subsidy Scheme for Domestic Battery Manufacturing: Report The Indian government is reportedly working on a new multibillion-dollar subsidy scheme for companies making electricity grid batteries as part of its transition to clean energy. The draft proposal for a production-linked incentive subsidy scheme would offer Rs. 216 billion ($2.63 billion) from this year through to 2030 for companies to set up manufacturing capacity f...

Inflection AI Raises $1.3 Billion Investment From Microsoft and Nvidia Inflection AI, a startup backed by several Silicon Valley heavyweights, said on Thursday it had raised $1.3 billion (nearly Rs. 10,670 crore) from investors including Microsoft and Nvidia, amid a boom in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector. The investment, a mix of cash and cloud credit, valued the one-year-old company at $4 billion (nearly Rs. 32,840 crore), a so...

Byju's Close to Achieving Profitability at the Group Level, Claims CEO Edtech major Byju's is growing slowly but sustainably and is close to achieving profitability at the group level, the company's CEO Byju Raveendran said on Thursday. The company organised a town hall with Raveendran to allay apprehensions about the uncertainty around the company's growth and its future.

OpenAI Sued in US for Allegedly Misusing Artists' Work to Train ChatGPT Two US authors sued OpenAI in San Francisco federal court on Wednesday, claiming in a proposed class action that the company misused their works to "train" its popular generative artificial-intelligence system ChatGPT. Massachusetts-based writers Paul Tremblay and Mona Awad said ChatGPT mined data copied from thousands of books without permission, infringing the autho...

Internet Shutdowns in India Cost $1.9 Billion to the Country's Economy in the First Half of 2023: Report Internet shutdowns by law enforcement agencies like the one in Manipur and Punjab cost $1.9 billion (nearly Rs. 15,590 crore) to the Indian economy in the first half of 2023, a report said on Thursday. The shutdowns also led to a loss of nearly $118 million (nearly Rs. 968 crore) in foreign investment and triggered over 21,000 job losses, the global non-profit Interne...

SFS Seeks 30 Acre Land in Karnataka to Set Up Rs. 250 Crore Mobile Components Manufacturing Unit Mobile components manufacturer SFS, which is interested in setting up a unit by investing Rs 250 crore, has sought 30 acres of land in Belagavi from the state government. SFS is a manufacturer of mobile components for companies including Apple. The proposed unit is estimated to generate 500 direct jobs for technologists in the next three years.

PlayStation Plus July 2023 Free Games: Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Alan Wake Remastered, and More PlayStation Plus monthly free games for July have been revealed. Starting July 4, PS Plus Essential, Extra, Premium, and Deluxe subscribers can add Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Alan Wake Remastered, and Endling – Extinction is Forever to their game library. Access ends on July 31, after which players will need to hold onto their subscriptions to keep playing.

Google to Set Up Its Global Fintech Operation Centre in Gujarat Google is also investing $10 billion (roughly Rs. 81,980 crore) in the India digitisation fund, said CEO Sundar Pichai.

Elon Musk Says Tesla Looking to Invest in India; Starlink Will Also Enter the Country Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that the electric carmaker is looking to invest in India "as soon as humanly possible." Musk said it hopes to bring Starlink satellite Internet service to India as well. Executives of Tesla visited India and held talks with Indian bureaucrats and ministers last month on establishing a manufacturi...

Indictment Details Former Samsung Executive's Plan to Steal Company Secrets for Foxconn China Chip Factory When former Samsung executive Choi Jinseog won a contract with Taiwan's Foxconn in 2018, he tapped his former employer's supplier network to steal secrets to help his new client set up a chip factory in China, an indictment by South Korean prosecutors alleges.

Byju's in Talks With Potential New Backers to Raise $1 Billion in Funding Amid Shareholder Revolt Byju’s is in advanced talks with prospective new shareholders for a $1 billion (roughly Rs. 8,200 crore) fundraising round, seeking to stave off attempts by some investors to clip founder Byju Raveendran’s control over the beleaguered tech startup.

Microsoft Explored Acquiring Sega, Bungie, Niantic to Strengthen Xbox Game Pass and Mobile Portfolio: Report Microsoft was looking to acquire gaming giants such as Sega, Bungie, and Niantic in the past few years, court documents from the ongoing FTC v Xbox parent’s trial revealed. The emails detailed that Xbox chief Phil Spencer wrote to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood, requesting strategy approval to approach Sega Sammy for a potential game studio acquisition...

Nefarious Anatsa Android Trojan Caught Stealing Banking Information and Performing On-Device Fraud Anatsa, a banking trojan on Android, has been spotted by a security firm on the Play Store. Five apps posing as productivity apps were actually infected with the trojan that was identified by the firm in 2021. It is also capable of monitoring banking information and performing on-device fraud to steal funds from the victim's bank accounts.

US Newspaper Chain Gannett Sues Google, Says Tech Giant Holds Monopoly on Online Ads Gannett, the largest US newspaper chain, on Tuesday sued Google, accusing the social media company of violating federal antitrust law by trying to monopolize the market for online advertising.

Google Parent Alphabet, Airtel Bet on Laser Technology to Deliver Internet Service in Remote Areas Taara executives and Bharti Airtel, one of India's largest telecommunications and internet providers, told Reuters they are now moving toward larger-scale deployment of the new laser internet technology in India. Financial details were not disclosed.

‘Not a Given That AI Will Only Have a Positive Impact’: After AI Boom, Investors Wary of Possible Risks The rapid adoption of generative artificial intelligence has boosted markets this year, but after the initial euphoria, investors are waking up to the possible risks, including the need to be highly selective in stock-picking.

Facebook, Instagram to End News Access in Canada Over Incoming Law on Paying Publishers Facebook and Instagram users in Canada will be blocked from viewing Canadian news soon after parliament-approved legislation requiring internet giants to pay news publishers comes into effect. The legislation, known as the Online News Act, was approved by the Senate upper chamber earlier on Thursday.

Facebook, Instagram to End News Access in Canada Over Incoming Law on Paying Publishers Facebook and Instagram users in Canada will be blocked from viewing Canadian news soon after parliament-approved legislation requiring internet giants to pay news publishers comes into effect. The legislation, known as the Online News Act, was approved by the Senate upper chamber earlier on Thursday.

YouTube Internally Testing Product for Playing Online Games: Report YouTube is internally testing a product for playing online games, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday citing an email sent to employees at parent company Google. The company invited its employees to begin testing the new YouTube product called 'Playables', the report said, adding that games available for testing included titles such as arcade game Stack Bounce.

Meta, OpenAI CEO Express Support for EU Regulation on AI Technology company executives Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman expressed support for government oversight of artificial intelligence after discussions with European Commission Thierry Breton. The commissioner said that he and Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms, were “aligned” on the EU’s regulation of artificial intelligence, which is now in fin...

Amazon to Invest Additional $15 Billion in India, Says CEO Andy Jassy Amazon.com Inc will invest an additional $15 billion (roughly Rs. 12,297 crore) in India, the company's Chief Executive Andy Jassy told Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his meeting on Friday. The investment will take the e-commerce giant's total India investment across all businesses to $26 billion (roughly Rs. 21,314 crore) by 2030, he said.

Byju's Investors Confirm Two Board Members' Resignations Two top investors in Byju's confirmed on Friday that their representatives had resigned from the board of the once high-flying Indian startup, which has been battling pressure from lenders amid a steep drop in its valuation.

Infosys Launches Free AI Certification Training on Springboard Virtual Learning Platform IT services company Infosys on Thursday announced it has launched a free Artificial Intelligence (AI) certification training on Infosys Springboard Virtual Learning Platform. According to a statement, Infosys AI-first specialists and data strategists, responsible for delivering Infosys Topaz AI-first set of services, solutions, and platforms will hel...

Microsoft Expects Next-Gen Xbox and PS6 to Launch in 2028, Claims It Has Been Losing Console Wars: Report The next generation of gaming consoles should be out in 2028, Microsoft claimed during its ongoing Activision Blizzard FTC trial. The timeline coincides with Sony’s statement from 2022, which alluded that the next console generation won’t be here until 2027. Microsoft also admitted that it’s been losing the console wars since 2001 and therefore is opting out of ...

Facebook Asked to Evaluate Political Violence Promotion on Platform by Parent Meta’s Oversight Board Meta's Oversight Board has asked Facebook to evaluate efforts to prevent the promotion of political violence on its platform after it allowed a video calling for violence post the 2022 Brazilian election to stay online.

Amazon's Acquisition of iRobot Faces EU Antitrust Investigation, Sources Say Amazon's acquisition of robot vacuum cleaner maker iRobot faces a full-scale EU antitrust investigation, people familiar with the matter said. The European Commission is scheduled to launch a four-month investigation following the end of its preliminary review of the deal on July 6.

Facebook, Instagram to End News Access in Canada Over Incoming Law on Paying Publishers Facebook and Instagram users in Canada will be blocked from viewing Canadian news soon after parliament-approved legislation requiring internet giants to pay news publishers comes into effect. The legislation, known as the Online News Act, was approved by the Senate upper chamber earlier on Thursday.

Applied Materials to Invest $400 Million to Set Up New Engineering Centre in India US semiconductor toolmaker Applied Materials will invest $400 million (roughly Rs. 3,278 crores) over four years in a new engineering center in India, the company said on Thursday.

Micron Confirms Up to $825 Million Investment to Set Up Chip Factory in Gujarat US memory chip firm Micron Technology said on Thursday it would invest up to $825 million (roughly Rs. 6,760 crore) in a new chip assembly and test facility in Gujarat, India, its first factory in the country.

Elon Musk's Starlink High-Speed Internet Service Eyes India, Faces Resistance From Reliance Jio Over Auctions Elon Musk is eager to bring his Starlink satellite broadband to India, but the world's richest man faces strong resistance from Mukesh Ambani, Asia's wealthiest, who runs Indian telecom giant Reliance Jio. Following a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the US on Tuesday, Musk said he was keen to launch Starlink in India which "can be incredibly helpfu...

Google Filed Complaint Against Microsoft for Dominant Cloud Services Position: Report Alphabet's Google formally filed a complaint to the US Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday saying Microsoft used its dominant position in enterprise software to push customers towards its cloud services, The Information reported on Wednesday. Microsoft used the licensing terms in its Office 365 productivity software to lock customers into separate contracts with its A...

Amazon to Help Indian Customers Exchange Rs. 2,000 Note via Amazon Pay Wallet: Here's How Amazon customers can now use their Rs. 2,000 notes to top up their Amazon Pay balances during cash-on-delivery orders, as it offers a doorstep solution to ease the stress of exchanging such currency. Customers can deposit cash of up to Rs. 50,000 per month, including notes of Rs. 2,000 denomination, Amazon said. The cash load at doorstep service by Amazon Pay is help...

Instagram Rolls Out Ability to Download Reels From Public Account: Here's How It Works Instagram has introduced the ability to download Reels shared by public accounts. The announcement has been made by Instagram head Adam Mosseri in his Instagram broadcast channel. The feature is currently rolling out in the US only. Until now, Instagram allowed users to directly share the Reels in their Stories or via chat.

Microsoft and Google Rivalry Could Supercharge Development of AI Microsoft and Google recently invested heavily in two of the most valuable companies in artificial intelligence (AI). ChatGPT creator OpenAI received investment from Microsoft, while Google has pumped money into Anthropic. The companies’ financial support for AI has pushed an ongoing rivalry into the public spotlight.

YouTube’s First Live E-Commerce Shopping Channel to Launch in South Korea: Report YouTube will reportedly launch its first official shopping channel for live commerce in South Korea on June 30. The new channel will operate in the Korean language and will start as a 90-day project. It will reportedly provide a live-commerce platform to companies in the beginning and plans to livestream shopping content from about 30 brands.

Electronic Arts Goes Through Massive Shake-Up, Splits Into EA Sports and EA Entertainment Electronic Arts is undergoing a massive internal shake-up, splitting EA Games’ studios into two separate organisations — EA Games and EA Sports. The former has now been rebranded to EA Entertainment, suggesting that the company is looking to expand into media beyond video games. The division will continue to build on owned and licensed IP, while EA Sports focuses ...

Spotify HiFi Lossless Streaming Will Launch Soon With More Expensive 'Supremium' Subscription Tier: Report Spotify HiFi will reportedly be launched by the company with support for lossless streaming soon. The new lossless tier will compete with Apple Music and Amazon Music — services that also offer support for lossless audio at no additional cost. Spotify is expected to increase the subscription price for users who want to stream "lossless" audio.

Twitter Employees Sue Social Media Company, Claiming It Refuses to Pay 2022 Bonuses Despite Promises Twitter employees sued the Elon Musk-led company claiming it refuses to pay 2022 bonuses, despite promises that they would be paid out at 50 percent of their target amounts. As per the lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court, Twitter has a cash performance bonus plan that is paid out annually and in the months leading up to Elon Musk’s acquisition of the compan...

US Newspaper Chain Gannett Sues Google, Says Tech Giant Holds Monopoly on Online Ads Gannett, the largest US newspaper chain, on Tuesday sued Google, accusing the social media company of violating federal antitrust law by trying to monopolize the market for online advertising.

WhatsApp Rolls Out 'Silence Unknown Callers' Feature on iOS and Android WhatsApp is rolling out a new feature that will silence unknown callers on the platform. The new will prevent calls from unknown contacts from disturbing users, but WhatsApp will still display these calls in the app and notification area. The feature is available for both Android and iOS WhatsApp users.

Meta Voicebox Unveiled as New Text-to-Speech Generative AI Model: All Details Meta has unveiled Voicebox, an advanced artificial intelligence (AI) model that can be used to generate speech from text. It can deliver speech in six languages and can be used for noise removal as well.

Alibaba Appoints Eddie Wu as New CEO; Joseph Tsai to Be New Chairman Starting September 10 Chinese tech giant Alibaba said Tuesday it will replace chairman and CEO Daniel Zhang with Joseph Tsai as chairman and Eddie Wu as CEO. Both appointments will take effect on September 10.

Kraven the Hunter Trailer: Aaron Taylor-Johnson Goes on an Animalistic Rampage Sony Pictures just dropped a trailer for Kraven the Hunter, marking the live-action debut of the animalistic anti-hero, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson. The film serves as an origin story, charting his complicated relationship with his father, leading all the way up to his wild hunts in the name of taking out evil. The film also stars Russell Crowe, Ariana DeBose, Chri...

Reddit Hackers Threaten to Leak 80GB of Data Stolen in Ransomware Attack Over API Changes: Report Reddit hackers behind a breach of the company in February have threatened to leak 80GB of data stolen from the platform in February. The hacking group wants Reddit to pay a ransom of $4.5 million (roughly Rs. 37 crore) and reverse its controversial API policy changes aimed at third-party apps.

Softbank CEO Says He is ‘Heavy User’ of ChatGPT, Speaks to OpenAI’s Sam Altman Often SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son said on Tuesday he is a "heavy user" of ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence-powered chatbot from Microsoft-backed startup OpenAI. He added that he is speaking "almost everyday" to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

Byju Said to Lay Off Between 500-1,000 Employees in Another Round of Job Cuts Popular Indian edu-tech startup Byju's will lay off between 500 and 1,000 employees in another round of job cuts to cut costs, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Monday. The company, which employs around 50,000 employees, is one of India's largest startups, once valued at $22 billion (nearly Rs. 1,80,250 crore).

Netflix Tudum Trailers: Heart of Stone, One Piece, 3 Body Problem, and More Heart of Stone starring Gal Galot and Alia Bhatt, One Piece live-action, Avatar: The Last Airbender, 3 Body Problem, Zoya Akhtar’s The Archies, Money Heist Berlin, and more — the biggest trailers, announcements, and first looks from Netflix Tudum 2023 event.

The Flash Speeds Into Sluggish $139 Million Debut at the Global Box Office The Flash has opened to a sluggish $139 million (about Rs. 1,140 crore) opening at the global box office. Marking the reset point got the DC Universe, it has earned $75 million (about Rs. 615 crore) from markets outside the US and Canada, below the expected $85–$95 million margin. Its lead Ezra Miller was largely barred from making public appearances for promotion, ...

Elon Musk Says Twitter Video App for Smart TVs Is ‘Coming’ as Platform Plans to Focus on Video Content A Twitter video app for smart TVs is in the social media company's plans, owner Elon Musk said in a tweet on Saturday, a move that would be in line with the company's new plans to focus on growing video content on the platform.

Microsoft Says Service Outages in Early June Were Caused by Cyberattacks; No Evidence of Data Breach Microsoft said on Friday that the outages that affected certain services of the company through some of the earlier days of this month were the result of cyberattacks, but said it saw no evidence of any customer data being accessed or compromised.

Meta Lowers Minimum Age for Quest Headsets Users From 13 Years to 10 Years Meta is lowering the minimum age for its virtual reality headsets from 13 years to 10 years. Preteens will be required to get their parent’s approval to set up an account and download apps onto the virtual reality headsets.

Bing Chat Gets New iOS Widget, Expand Text-to-Speech Support to More Indian Languages Microsoft is releasing a new Bing widget for iPhone and iPad users. This would allow users to directly engage with the Chatbot without opening the app. Additionally, the company has expanded text-to-speech support for more than 30 additional languages including Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Telugu and Urdu.

Valorant Team Deathmatch Mode Is Coming June 27 in Episode 7 Update: Details Riot Games has just confirmed that Valorant is getting its long-requested team deathmatch mode (TDM) soon. The mode will be available June 27 as part of the Episode 7 update, and pits players in 5v5 contests to rack up the most kills. TDM introduces three new custom maps, ability cooldowns, recovery orbs for healing up, and more. It also gets rid of the economy system...

Barbie Could Dominate in Early Box Office Standings Against Bout With Oppenheimer: Report Early box office tracking for Barbie vs Oppenheimer suggests that the former would open ahead in terms of revenue. The clash between this year’s biggest releases has been brewing for months now, with Barbie becoming a social media phenomenon and the general crowd favourite, as per a report. The fact that both movies share a release date — July 21 — is also a hug...

Amazon Gets UK CMA Clearance for $1.7 Billion Roomba-Maker iRobot Acquisition Britain's competition regulator on Friday cleared Amazon's planned $1.7 billion (roughly Rs. 13,900 crore) acquisition of iRobot, maker of the Roomba vacuum cleaner. The CMA said it had concluded that the deal would not lead to competition concerns in the UK.

Bharatmeta, Indian Metaverse Platform by Kiya.AI Showcased at Tech Event in Paris India-based Kiya.ai, which is into Artificial Intelligence and other emerging technology-based solutions services, showcased its version of the metaverse called Bharatmeta at the ongoing VivaTech 2023 event in Paris 2023.

Sony Locks Dates for Two Untitled Marvel Movies for 2024 and 2025 Sony Pictures has locked dates for two untitled Marvel movies in the coming years. The first one is labelled ‘untitled Sony/Marvel,’ releasing November 8, 2024, while the other is marked as ‘untitled Sony/Marvel live-action,’ set for June 27, 2025. Let the speculation begin — it could be Venom 3 or even the Tom Holland-led Spider-Man 4. It’s also worth not...

WhatsApp Reportedly Testing Multi-Account Feature For Android Beta Users WhatsApp is reportedly working on a new feature for Android users. A multi-account feature was spotted on the latest WhatsApp Business beta version for Android. This will allow users to access multiple WhatsApp accounts from the same device.

Samsung Big TV Days Sale Goes Live With Free Galaxy S23 Ultra, Freestyle Projector, Soundbars, Other Offers Samsung Big TV Days 2023 sale is now live in India with discounts, freebies, and a host of other offers. The sale will run on Samsung's online store as well as leading physical stores across the country.

Government's Relationship With Social Media Platforms Is Through Compliance of Law and Rules: MoS IT The government's relationship with any social media platform is simply through the prism of compliance of law and rules, and therefore there is nothing personal or adversarial against one platform or the other, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has said. The platforms have to respect the Indian laws, the Minister of State for IT and Electronics asserted.

Google Said to Have Warned Employees Against Using Confidential Information on AI Chatbot Alphabet is cautioning employees about how they use chatbots, including its own Bard, at the same time as it markets the program around the world, four people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The Google parent has advised employees not to enter its confidential materials into AI chatbots, the people said and the company confirmed, citing long-standing policy on...

Netflix Bites Restaurant to Open in Los Angeles Serving Food From Chef’s Table, Nailed It! and More Netflix is opening a restaurant in Los Angeles, in an effort to expand beyond the streaming and mobile gaming space. The place is called Netflix Bites and will serve dishes from their original shows including Chef’s Table, Is It Cake, and Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend. It opens June 30 in Los Angeles — for a limited time — and requires every customer to pa...

Google Lens Updated With Support for Skin Condition Detection; Google Bard Adds Lens Support Google Lens has been updated with a new feature that allows you to point your phone's camera at your skin with a rash or some sort of irritation to identify the skin condition. Like the regular image-recognition feature on Google Lens, you can also select an image from your gallery while using the new skin condition detection feature, according to Google.

People Trust TikTok More Than Traditional Media, Study Shows The number of people globally who initially access news through a website or app has dropped by 10 points since 2018, and younger groups prefer to access news through social media, search or mobile aggregators, according to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism in its annual Digital News Report.

Reddit Communities Go Dark as Thousands of Subreddits Protest New Policy: Here's Why Several Reddit communities dedicated to topics ranging from Apple to gaming and music locked out their users on Monday in protest against the company's plan to charge for access to its data. The Apollo app has said the exorbitant fees have "made it impossible" to continue offering the service.

AI Draft Rules: EU Lawmakers Agree to Make Changes in Draft Artificial Intelligence Regulations EU lawmakers agreed on Wednesday to changes in draft artificial intelligence rules proposed by the European Commission in a bid to set a global standard for a technology used in everything from automated factories to bots such as ChatGPT. They will now have to detail out the regulations with European Union countries before the draft rules become legislation.

Google Charged by EU Antitrust Regulators for Anti-Competitive Adtech Practices The EU antitrust regulators have charged Alphabet's Google with anti-competitive practices in its digital advertising business. The tech giant may have to sell part of this business to address their concerns. The European Commission set out its charges in a statement of objections, two years after it opened an investigation into the case.

Prateik Babbar Joins the Cast of Lioness, Starring Aditi Rao Hydari and Paige Sandhu Prateik Babbar is set to star in the Aditi Rao Hydari and Paige Sandhu-led Indo-UK film Lioness. The film inspired by the research of Peter Bance, the historian who discovered the story of Princess Sophia Duleep, is the story of two British Punjabi women living in the UK, a century apart. Sophia was one of the key leaders of the suffragette movement in the UK — a ti...

Ubisoft, French Videogame Firm, Looks at AI, VR as the ‘Next Big Thing’ in Gaming Ubisoft is eyeing artificial intelligence and virtual reality as the next big things in gaming, its chief executive said, especially ahead of the release of the Apple Vision Pro headset.

The Last of Us Part I Is Now Steam Deck Verified, With v1.1.0 Update In a tweet, Naughty Dog confirmed that The Last of Us Part I is now Steam Deck verified. While you could run the game on the handheld device before, the verification certifies that most performance and graphical issues have been dealt with. The news comes as part of the v1.1.0 update, which also targets many optimisation issues on the PC version, starting with lowerin...

Diablo IV Review: A Devilishly Fun Loot-Fest Set Across the Fires of Hell Diablo IV review: If you’re in the mood to slay blood-lusting demons with an unhealthy dose of loot-clicking, Diablo IV is perfect for you. The sequel doesn’t re-shape the dungeon-crawling genre in any way but borrows ideas to offer intensely frenetic combat, robust progression, and totally knocks it out of the park with its dark, sacrilegious themes. The shift to...

AMD Expected to Reveal Details on New AI 'Superchip' in Bid to Challenge Nvidia's Dominance Advanced Micro Devices on Tuesday is expected to reveal new details about an AI "superchip" that analysts believe will be a strong challenger to Nvidia Corp, whose chips dominate the fast-growing artificial intelligence market.

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Expansion Release Date Set for September 26, Gets New Action-Packed Trailer Cyberpunk 2077’s Phantom Liberty expansion is slated to release September 26, across PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S/X. The trailer brings us to Dogtown, a previously unexplored, walled-off district in Night City, where you embark on a high-stakes spy mission to save the President of the New United States of America. The add-on brings back Keanu Reeves in the role of Joh...

Threat Actors Do Not Have Access to CoWIN Portal and Backend Database, Claims Cybersecurity Firm After the Union health ministry dismissed reports of a data breach on the CoWIN platform, cyber security firm CloudSEK has said that threat actors do not have access to the entire portal nor the backend database. "Based on matching fields from Telegram data and previously reported incidents affecting health workers of a region, we assume the information was scraped th...

Star Wars Outlaws Gameplay Trailer Promises a Unique Open-World, Dogfights, and More Star Wars Outlaws just got a lengthy gameplay trailer at the Ubisoft Forward Live event. The open-world game is set between Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi movies, and follows Kay Vess, a cunning scoundrel who has a huge bounty placed on her head. Accompanying her on the journey is an adorable fur companion Nix, who can be commande...

Twitter Was Threatened With Shutdown in India, Turkey and Nigeria, Says Founder Jack Dorsey Twitter was threatened with shut down in India, Nigeria and Turkey unless it complied with orders to restrict accounts, with India wanting to curb journalists' and protesters' use of the social media platform, co-founder Jack Dorsey said on Monday.

CoWIN Data Breach: Government Responds, Says no Direct Breach of CoWIN App or Database The government on Monday shared a detailed response to reports of an alleged data breach of the CoWIN database, following reports that an automated bot on Telegram was surfacing personal details of people who had registered with the CoWIN platform to receive COVID vaccinations during the pandemic.

COVID-19 Vaccine Recipients' Personal Data Leaked in Alleged Data Breach via Telegram: Report The personal data of COVID-19 vaccine recipients in India was reportedly leaked online via a Telegram. Details of an alleged data breach surfaced on Twitter on Monday, and the leaked data also includes the personal information on several politicians and journalists. The bot appears to have been taken offline after the reports of the leaked data emerged.

Former Samsung Executive Indicted Over Alleged Company Data Theft to Build Chip Factory in China South Korean prosecutors said they indicted a former Samsung Electronics executive on Monday on suspicion of stealing the company's technology to build a chip factory in China. The defendant, who also formerly worked at SK Hynix as a vice president, is accused of illegally acquiring Samsung data to build a factory in the Chinese city of Xian between 2018 and 2019, the...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Says 'Optimistic' on Global AI Coordination The CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI on Monday said a tour of capital cities had left him "quite optimistic" about prospects for global coordination on artificial intelligence (AI).

AI Voice Scams Rampant in US as Cybercriminals Use Technology to Spread Disinformation The voice on the phone seemed frighteningly real -- an American mother heard her daughter sobbing before a man took over and demanded a ransom. But the girl was an AI clone and the abduction was fake.

Twitter Refuses to Pay Google Cloud Bills Ahead of Contract Renewal: Report Twitter has refused to pay its Google Cloud bills as its contract comes up for renewal this month, which could result in the social media company's trust and safety teams being crippled, Platformer reported on Saturday.

Binance Operations Declared Illegal by Nigerian Market Regulator, Asked to Discontinue The Nigerian markets regulator has ordered the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance to halt its operations in the country, saying a local unit that courted Nigerian investors through a website was illegal.

Twitter to Pay Verified Content Creators For Ads in Replies Twitter will soon begin paying verified content creators for ads in their replies, with the first payment block of around $5 million (roughly Rs. 41 crore), company owner Elon Musk said on Friday. Since Musk's takeover, Twitter has struggled to retain advertisers, who have been wary about the placement of their ads after the company laid off thousands of employees.

Netflix, Amazon, JioCinema-Backed Group Protests New Tobacco Warning Rules in India An Indian group representing Netflix, Amazon and Disney has told the government its new tobacco warning rules are impossible to implement for streaming giants and will impinge on content creators' freedom of expression, a letter seen by Reuters showed. As part of India's anti-tobacco drive, the health ministry last month ordered streaming platforms to insert static he...

Reddit's New API Policy Forces Third Party Apps Like Apollo, Sync, RIF, More to Shut Down Reddit will implement a new API policy on July 1 that would charge excessive fees to developers of third-party apps for the website, thereby resulting in the shutdown of popular applications such as Reddit is Fun (RIF), Sync for Reddit, Apollo, and ReddPlanet.

AI in Current Form Lacks Logic, Reasoning; No Threat to Jobs: Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar Artificial Intelligence as a technology in its current form is largely task-oriented and not capable of dealing with a situation where logic and reasoning are needed, according to Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar. On Thursday, OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman, whose company deals with artificial intelligence technologies and has created ChatGPT, met Prime ...

In Apple We Trust … With More and More Personal Data At its World Wide Developers Conference this week, the company announced new products that would process more personal information about consumers than ever before, from retinal scans to mental health data. But privacy advocates this week were like mimes in a library — completely silent.

Summer Game Fest 2023: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Gets Gameplay Trailer, Spider-Man 2 Release Date Announced The Summer Game Fest 2023 unveiled a slew of new trailers and announcements, live from the YouTube Theatre in Los Angeles on June 8. Key highlights include Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, a release date for Spider-Man 2, some Mortal Kombat 1 and Alan Wake 2 gameplay, a playable demo for Lies of P, a new Prince of Persia game, and a whole lot more.

India, New Zealand to Increase Cooperation for Facilitation of UPI System India and New Zealand on Thursday decided to increase cooperation in areas such as facilitation of UPI system, timely resolution of trade issues, work visa, and improving the banking relations. Looking at the present quantum of bilateral trade between the two countries, both sides acknowledged the huge potential and the need for bringing in synergy for enhanced econom...

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 Publisher Is Refunding All Physical Edition Pre-Orders All Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 physical pre-orders will be refunded, publisher Paradox Interactive confirmed. As development on the much-awaited horror RPG sequel continued, it saw significant changes in content and therefore is offering refunds as a means for customers to re-purchase it after seeing the new results. Bloodlines 2 was originally slated fo...

Adobe to Offer AI Tool Firefly to Its Large Business Customers Adobe said it will offer Firefly, its artificial intelligence tool for generating images, to its large business customers, with financial indemnity for copyright challenges involving content made with the tools. The move to include compensation comes amid a rise in lawsuits around the image data used in AI services from companies that can generate imagery from just a ...

Dragon’s Dogma II Confirmed for Capcom Showcase Event Next Week Dragon’s Dogma II has been confirmed to be a key attraction at the Capcom Showcase event, next week. The event is scheduled to take place June 13 at 3:30am IST in India/ June 12 at 3pm PT in the US, across Capcom’s official YouTube and Twitch channels. The show is also expected to offer new information on the team-based shooter Exoprimal and Ghost Trick: Phantom D...

JioTag, Apple AirTag-Like Bluetooth Tracker Launched in India: Price, Specifications JioTag, an Apple AirTag-like Bluetooth tracker for devices and accessories, was launched in India on Thursday. Users can place it in their wallet, handbag, or any other personal item to keep track of the items.

Instagram 'Most Important Platform' for Paedophiles Spreading Child Sex Abuse Content: WSJ, Stanford University Instagram is reportedly the "most important" platform utilised by paedophile networks to promote and sell content showing child sexual abuse. A report by the Wall Street Journal and Stanford University shows that features like recommendation algorithms and direct messaging reportedly help connect buyers and sellers of content showing child sexual abuse on Instagram.

OpenAI Against Regulating Smaller Startups in AI Field, Says CEO on India Visit OpenAI is against regulating smaller startups in the field of artificial intelligence, Sam Altman, Chief Executive of the firm behind ChatGPT, said at a conference in India's New Delhi. "We have explicitly said there should be no regulation on smaller companies. The only regulation we have called for is on ourselves and people bigger," he said, speaking at an event

Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO Switches Studios as BioWare Shifts Focus to Dragon Age, Mass Effect Star Wars: The Old Republic, the long-running space-set MMORPG, is switching studios from BioWare to a third-party developer. Broadsword Online Games, best known for classic MMOs Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot, will soon take over development, with some of the BioWare staff being brought over. EA will remain as the game’s publisher while BioWare focuses on th...

6.1 Percent Indians Are Optimistic About Generative AI Tools: Survey From ChatGPT to Dall-E and all the technologies in between, the new wave of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is transforming businesses at a rapid pace, and 60 percent of Indian executives are optimistic about its impact on workplace, as per a survey. However, opinions vary by seniority and by country, according to the survey by Boston Consulting Group.

Government Approves $11 Billion Revival Plan for BSNL to help deploy 4G, 5G India's cabinet on Wednesday approved an Rs. 89,000 crore ($10.79 billion) revival package for loss-making Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) to help the state-owned telecom operator deploy 4G and 5G services in a market dominated by private players.

Twitter Blue Extends Timeline for Subscribers to Edit Published Tweets to 60 Minutes: Details Starting Wednesday, June 7, Twitter Blue subscribers will have an hour to edit already posted tweets, a window that was restricted to only 30 minutes since the feature’s launch in October 2022. The edit option for tweets was amongst the most requested features from Twitter users even when Jack Dorsey served as the CEO of the social networking company he founded in 2...

Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon Movies Will Receive Additional Explicit Cuts Zack Snyder is planning to release explicit cuts for his upcoming Rebel Moon films. The version is intended strictly for adults and will drop a little after the original family-friendly versions are released on Netflix. The dystopian space opera was confirmed to be released as a two-parter, earlier this year, when Snyder ended up delivering a 172-page script treatment...

Apple Acquires AR Headset Startup Mira: Report Apple has acquired Mira, a Los Angeles-based AR startup that makes headsets for other companies and the US military, the Verge reported on Tuesday, citing a post from Mira CEO's private Instagram account and a person familiar with the matter.

Reddit Lays Off 5 Percent of Its Workforce, Will Reduce Planned Hiring for 2023 Reddit said on Tuesday it is laying off about 5 percent of its workforce, or 90 employees, joining a list of technology companies that have been cutting jobs across corporate America.

India's Internet Economy Expected to Grow Six-Fold, Reach $1 Trillion by 2030: Report India's internet economy is expected to register six-fold growth and touch $1 trillion (roughly Rs. 82,58,950 crore) by 2030, mainly driven by the e-commerce vertical, a joint report by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company released on Tuesday said.

Let’s All Calm Down About AI’s ‘Extinction Risk’ Spotlighting AI’s world-destroying capabilities in vague ways allows us to fill in the blanks with our imagination, ascribing future AI with infinite capabilities and power. It’s a masterful marketing ploy.

Apple Updates Safari With New Privacy Features, Adds Group Password and Passkey Sharing Apple on Monday announced new updates to its Safari browser at WWDC 2023. The browser will soon lock Private Browsing windows, strip tracking code from URLs, let users share passwords and passkeys to groups safely, and block trackers more effectively, according to the company.

Microsoft to Pay $20 Million to Settle US FTC Charges for Violating Children's Privacy Microsoft had been charged with violating the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by collecting personal information from children who signed up to its Xbox gaming system without notifying their parents or obtaining their parents' consent, and by retaining children's personal information, the FTC said in a statement.

China Plans to Initiate AI Regulations, Says Elon Musk After Meeting With Officials The Chinese government will seek to initiate artificial intelligence regulations in its country, billionaire Elon Musk said on Monday after meeting with officials during his recent trip to China. "It's worth noting that on my recent trip to China, I went to senior leadership there. I think we had some very productive discussions on artificial intelligence risks, and t...

About Ducking Time: Apple Says It Will Tweak iPhone Autocorrect Function One of the most notable happenings at Apple's event for developers on Monday is likely the iPhone maker's tweak that will keep its autocorrect feature from annoyingly correcting one of the most common expletives to "ducking."

ChatGPT Needs to Go to College to Get More Accurate: Parmy Olson OpenAI trained ChatGPT on the vast, imperfect glory of the public internet — one reason why ChatGPT makes so many embarrassing mistakes. A lawyer who recently used the chatbot to write his court brief realized he’d blundered when it cited six nonexistent cases. It can get more accurate by having trained on better-quality data.

Bitcoin Coders Deliberate Over Future of $1 Billion Memecoins Such as Pepe The coders who maintain Bitcoin’s blockchain are clashing over whether to stamp out the meme tokens swarming the network. It is creating a logjam and forcing the Binance exchange to temporarily halt Bitcoin withdrawals.

Paytm UPI App Records 35 Percent YoY Merchant Growth to Rs. 2.65 Lakh Crore in April-May 2023 Paytm on Monday announced its business operating performance and that its consumer engagement on the Paytm Super App has seen an average Monthly Transacting Users (MTU) for the two months ended May 2023 at 9.2 crore, registering a growth of 24 percent year-on-year.

ChatGPT-Maker OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to Visit India This Week ChatGPT-maker OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman is set to visit India this week alongside Israel, Jordan, Qatar, the UAE, and South Korea. Given India's strong IT industry and a large set of data, AI-based utilities can leverage huge potential in the country. AI is expected to contribute an additional $957 billion (roughly Rs. 79,00,300 crore) to India's econo...

Apple Likely to Unveil AR/VR Mixed Reality Headset at WWDC 2023: What to Expect Apple on Monday is expected to show off pricy mixed-reality headgear at the WWDC 2023, challenging Facebook-owner Meta whose new virtual reality headgear Quest 3 will be available later this year. The release would be the most significant product launch by the iconic iPhone maker since it unveiled the Apple Watch in 2015.

Twitter Hires Former NBCUniversal Executive Joe Benarroch to Handle Business Operations Former NBCUniversal executive Joe Benarroch will join Twitter on Monday, in a role focusing on business operations. He said that he was looking forward to working with the company's team to "build Twitter 2.0 together."

BGMI Esports Tournament Offers Rs. 25 Lakh Prize Pool Days After Game Relaunches Days after it begins its second life in India, BGMI is now the centrepiece of an esports tournament. Skyesports, an esports and gaming venture, is hosting a BGMI tournament, promising a prize pool of Rs. 25 lakh.

TRAI Directs Telecom Providers to Set Up Digital Platform for Customer Consent to Curb Promotional Calls, Messages In order to curb the menace of pesky calls and sms, telecom regulator Trai has directed service providers to develop a unified digital platform in two months to seek, maintain and revoke customers' consent for promotional calls and messages.

Facebook Acted on Over 27 Million Pieces of Content in India for Guideline Violations in April Social media giant Meta's Facebook took action against 41 percent of complaints it received from users and Instagram acted against over 54 percent of grievances raised by users in April 2023, according to the company's latest India Monthly Report.

Kaspersky Finds Cybersecurity Threat That Targets iPhone Users via Malicious iMessage Attachment Prominent cybersecurity and anti-virus firm Kaspersky has discovered a new cyberattack threat that targets iPhone models running older versions of iOS via iMessage application. The malware, found when the company was monitoring its own Wi-Fi network for mobile devices, infects the phone via a received iMessage, which contains a malicious attachment.

YouTube to Stop Removing Content Spreading Misinformation on Past Elections as Part of New Policy Alphabet's YouTube said on Friday that the platform would stop removing content that might have spread false claims related to US presidential elections in 2020 and before. "In the current environment, we find that while removing this content does curb some misinformation, it could also have the unintended effect of curtailing political speech," YouTube said in a blog...

School of Lies, Black Mirror Season 6, The Idol, and More: June Web Series on Netflix, Hotstar, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, JioCinema Nimrat Kaur-led School of Lies, Black Mirror season 6, Henry Cavill-starrer The Witcher season 3, Jack Ryan season 4, The Weeknd and Sam Levinson’s The Idol, Karishma Tanna’s Scoop, and more — the nine biggest TV shows and web series in June 2023 on Netflix, Hotstar, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, and JioCinema.