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<ul><li>We have always spoken about democracy in the context of politics, but here’s a new way to look at the concept – <keyword id="18872395" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ai-democratisation" source="Orion">AI democratisation</keyword>.</li><li>In the digital setting, democratisation of resources can prove to be beneficial for individuals and organisations.</li><li>We explore the various levels of <keyword id="6355999" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ai" source="Orion">AI</keyword> democratisation and how they can add value for the end user.</li></ul>The concept of ‘democracy’ carries several interpretations. While the most popular one is a government representing all people, it also extends to things/resources that can be democratised and made available to the masses. The notion applies equally in the realm of digital technology. AI democratisation is a framework aimed at making the benefits of <keyword id="107950" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="artificial-intelligence" source="Orion">artificial intelligence</keyword> accessible to all, even to those who do not have any knowledge of it. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="What is AI democratisation? Why democratise?" comment="subhead" text="What is AI democratisation? Why democratise?"><keyword id="18872394" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="what-is-ai-democratisation" source="Orion">What is AI democratisation</keyword>? Why democratise?</cmsannotation> The 20th century witnessed a surge in technological advancements and techies. This century, however, is all about data and intelligence and using them to recognise trends, make decisions, forecast, learn, improve, and above all, make data accessible to everyone in the organisation. But the catch is that <a href="https://www.infosysbpm.com/offerings/functions/sourcing-procurement-outsourcing/insights/documents/generative-ai-in-procurement-who-is-ahead-of-the-curve.pdf">AI development </a>demands a lot - resources, expertise, computing power, and money. In short, it is a technology that is limited in its reach for the rich and/or the tech-savvy population. Others find themselves lagging - a situation that firms up the need for democratising AI. The three main benefits of doing so are: <ul><li>Reduced entry barriers for individuals and organisations: With little investment, they can both enter the world of AI and experiment with building AI models by accessing publicly available datasets.</li><li>Accelerated adoption in the fields of business and academics: The use of NLP (Natural Language Processing) in businesses, ML (Machine Learning) and deep learning to augment human decision-making enables businesses to be more agile and hyper-productive.</li><li>Lower overall cost of building AI solutions: Since data and many algorithms are available for free, developers can start extending them to build more powerful solutions.</li></ul><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Levels of democratisation" comment="subhead" text="Levels of democratisation">Levels of democratisation</cmsannotation> Which aspect(s) of the AI product adds the most value for the end user? This question must be answered by technology vendors before they release their products in the market. The gamut of AI democratisation includes data, algorithms (pre-trained models), data computing and storage, and the marketplace. Data: It is the raw input for ML from which insights are generated, decisions made, and outcomes predicted. This level is easy to democratise, enables basic analysis of datasets and also helps in training AI models quickly. Algorithms: At this level, data gets engaged. Democratising algorithms, though more complex than data democratisation, is still easy. However, it needs a basic understanding of computer science, statistics, and mathematics to make sense of the algorithm. Platforms like GitHub and Hugging Face boast of hundreds of AI code repositories and pre-trained models which provide a jumpstart and overall acceleration to the AI journey. Data Computing and Storage: At this point, democratisation starts to become more complicated. With major AI/ML providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Compute Platform, Microsoft Azure, and IBM Cloud, transitioning to cloud-based platforms, access to essential hardware components like central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs) has been simplified. Additionally, advanced storage solutions like Google Cloud Storage and Amazon S3 facilitate easy and secure data storage and management. Marketplace: The democratisation of the marketplace is still in its early stages, indicating untapped opportunities awaiting exploration. Platforms such as Hugging Face Leaderboard, Kaggle, Algorithmia, and AI Hub are thriving AI communities of ML practitioners. These communities regularly conduct open challenges that promote the creation and enhancement of Large Language Models (LLMs). Much like the printing press democratised information and the internet democratised knowledge – AI and Generative AI, representing the present and future of technology, are on this path now. The full potential of AI is yet to be realised and democratising it is the path forward to unlocking its true capabilities. As Kay Firth-Butterfield, the head of AI and ML of the World Economic Forum aptly noted, “The long-term success in the development of AI will depend on the agility of the collaboration, the diversity and integrity of the data, and the accuracy of the risk assessments.” Disclaimer: This article is authored by Santosh Unni, Head of Digital Transformation for EMEA and APAC and Head of AI CoE, Infosys BPM. The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Business Insider India.

AI for all: The power and potential of democratising artificial intelligence

New Delhi, July 9 (IANS) Empowering remote workforce is the single biggest challenge today for millions of organisations of all sizes in India and Google Cloud is busy democratising and reinventing Cloud for all, especially the homegrown companies in the 'Local ke liye Vocal' times, Karan Bajwa, Managing Director, Google Cloud India, said on Thursday. The Indian government aims to create world-class desi apps and platforms and Google Cloud is right here to help them on their digital journey as they scale their operations to accommodate more users' traffic and humongous amount of data being generated. "We are catering to the companies of all sizes - from startups to SMBs to large enterprises and the governments. Google Cloud offers great scalability, security and agility for home-grown startups, social media platforms and tech firms," Bajwa told IANS in a free-wheeling chat. The homegrown regional language social media platform ShareChat decided to migrate to Google Cloud in April this year. The migration from its incumbent Cloud platform to Google Cloud took place amid the Covid-19 crisis. "We are delighted to help ShareChat implement the world-class scalable and reliable infrastructure that will continue to enable it to deliver innovative and secure cloud-based services to millions of ShareChat users nationwide," said Bajwa. ShareChat currently serves more than 60 million monthly active users in 15 different Indian languages. A large proportion of its active user base hails from tier-2 and tier-3 cities, with the majority of them relying on 2G networks. Bajwa who joined Google Cloud in March has seen some key wins in a short span of time, despite lockdowns and social distancing in place. According to the long-time industry veteran who earlier worked in top roles in IBM and Microsoft, the enterprises that were hesitant earlier to adjust to the new normal have now gravitated towards being the Cloud-driven organisations in India. "There were several nuisances, including cultural, around going for Cloud and not all organisations in India were willing for 100 per cent digital transformation. The Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdowns changed it all," Bajwa emphasized. It forced enterprises in India to shift their operations overnight to immediately accommodate a remote workforce. Earlier, customers had some form of technology to allow remote working for a couple of hours in a day. "Video was the first capability that was fast adopted among the remote workforce. The consumption of Google Meet was quick and seamless in India among the digital natives," Bajwa told IANS. According to independent media reports, Google Meet for Android has surpassed over 10 crore downloads globally on Play Store. The Google Cloud Platform (GCP) has given Cleartrip significant value which it couldn't have achieved running its own data centres. "Migrating on GCP was an architectural innovation for us. With the cloud, it's much easier to ramp up capacity in line with business needs. The relative ease of scalability has helped us recently in the launch of TravelSafe, our latest product offering which provides our customers up to date curated information on questions they may have on safe travel," said Manoj Sharma, CTO, Cleartrip. "We also have a B2B offering serving travel needs of several large organizations and the shift to GCP helps us elevate their experience on our platform as well," Sharma added. Healofy, which is a parenting social network for mothers, was born on the cloud. "We built our tech stack completely on GCP. When we were building the Healofy app for Indian women starting with pregnant women and new moms, security and safety was the key and Google Cloud was a partner of choice as we scale and build for the future," said Gaurav Aggarwal, CEO and Co-founder, Healofy. Leading managed hosting and multi-Cloud hybrid IT solution provider Netmagic Solutions this week partnered Google Cloud to create a Centre of excellence (CoE) that will enable their customers to accelerate their hybrid Cloud journey. To help enterprises begin their journey towards digital transformation via building virtual workplaces, Deloitte and Google Cloud have announced to extend their strategic global alliance to India. "My message to the Indian CEOs and technologists is clear: Use the opportunity to reinvent your ways of working and accelerate your journey to the Cloud," said Bajwa. (Nishant Arora can be reached at nishant.a@ians.in) --IANS na/rs/

Google Cloud democratising, reinventing Cloud for all in India

Did you always long for an <keyword id="2073152" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="India-focused-Wikipedia">India-focused Wikipedia</keyword> that would provide all relevant information about the country? Well, you are there, almost. A couple of days ago, the <keyword id="44734" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Indian-Government">Indian government</keyword> has launched <a href="http://vikaspedia.gov.in/index">Vikaspedia</a>, a multi-lingual portal that enables access to crucial information across six key areas – <keyword id="6355165" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Agriculture">agriculture</keyword>, <keyword id="6354750" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="health">health</keyword>, <keyword id="6355445" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Education">education</keyword>, <keyword id="6356140" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="social-welfare">social welfare</keyword>, <keyword id="6357014" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="energy">energy</keyword> and <keyword id="6391682" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="e-governance">e-governance</keyword>. The site also features a handful of <keyword id="2073193" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="G2C">G2C</keyword> (<keyword id="2073195" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Government-to-citizen">government to citizen</keyword>) and <keyword id="2073194" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="G2B">G2B</keyword> (<keyword id="2073196" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Government-to-business">government to business</keyword>) services besides discussion forums, impact stories/case studies, <keyword id="2073160" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Learning-resources">learning resources</keyword>, mobile app downloads, and news &amp; events. 
 <keyword id="2065138" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Vikaspedia">Vikaspedia</keyword> is currently available in five languages including Hindi, English, Assamese, Marathi and Telugu. But going forward, there are plan to make it accessible in all 22 Indian languages. 
 The portal is a part of the <keyword id="2073165" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="India-Development-Gateway">India Development Gateway</keyword> (<keyword id="209592" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="IDG">IDG</keyword>) initiative, aimed at offering information and ICT-based knowledge products and services in the <keyword id="2073167" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Social-development-domain">social development domain</keyword>. IDG is being run by the <keyword id="260126" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="department-of-electronics">Department of Electronics</keyword> and <keyword id="6363148" type="TECHNOLOGY" weightage="100" keywordseo="information-Technology">Information Technology</keyword> (<keyword id="382618" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="deity">DeitY</keyword>). Vikaspedia has been developed by the <keyword id="64489" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Centre-for-Development-of-Advanced-Computing">Centre for Development of Advanced Computing</keyword> (C-DAC), Hyderabad. 
 
So how does Vikaspedia bring value to our everyday life? Since it is a government-run information portal and not a crowd-sourced Indian Wiki, don’t expect to find interesting ‘Leaks’ here that will give you an insight into State documents and policy-making. But this one promises to be better than the run-of-the-mill government repositories. 
 For one, authorities say it is part of the initiative to <keyword id="2073175" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Democratise-information">democratise information</keyword>, leveraging the power of the Internet. And that claim is true to some extent. Earlier, fast, hassle-free access to real-time and crucial data was quite unthinkable and people had to pay for it as well. But from now on, most of it will be made available for free. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the paid <keyword id="6356198" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="RTI">RTI</keyword> (<keyword id="55120" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Right-To-Information">Right To Information</keyword>) services will be scrapped any time soon. But with Vikaspedia in place, one can access the essential information for free. 
 Moreover, the portal gives you a fair idea of what’s currently happening in the e-governance space. The section on ‘Mobile Governance’ is especially relevant, given the fact that India has around 110 million mobile Internet users, out of which 25 million are in <keyword id="6355185" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="rural-india">rural India</keyword>. In fact, 70% of rural India’s active Internet population access the Web via mobile phones while 42% of rural India’s users prefer using the Internet in local languages. 
 “As the rural landscape in India is set to take the advantage of the flourishing <keyword id="2073177" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="ICT-initiatives">ICT initiatives</keyword> pioneered by various institutions, more specifically the <keyword id="775561" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Common-Service-Centres">Common Service Centres</keyword> (CSCs), Vikaspedia offers the much required content and services in local languages that makes the difference in the lives of the people,” the site says. That essentially underlines that Vikaspedia can enter the big league as the information portal supports regional languages and focuses on e-governance services/mobile seva available across the country. The site also features a number of utility apps for free download including <keyword id="1559456" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="ask-an-expert">Ask An Expert</keyword>, <keyword id="2073179" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="SHELTOR">SHELTOR</keyword> (<keyword id="2073180" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Student-HostEL-locator">Student HostEL locator</keyword>) and <keyword id="21785" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="mother">MOTHER</keyword> (<keyword id="2073182" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="MObile-based-maTernal-HEalth-awaReness">MObile based maTernal HEalth awaReness</keyword>), an app for monitoring maternal health. 
 
 
 While launching the portal, <keyword id="409418" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="J-Satyanarayana">J Satyanarayana</keyword>, Secretary of DeitY, noted that <keyword id="71187" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Wikipedia">Wikipedia</keyword>, an <keyword id="2073183" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Information-repository">information repository</keyword> built on online crowdsourcing of content, is so popular that it is being used for official and legal purposes. Although Vikaspedia is not in the same space, it will be a single-point reference for the above six fields, featuring content specific to the Indian context. 
 
Those still pining for an Indian Wiki will be pleasantly surprised when you find a few similar features even on Vikaspedia. For instance, you can <a href="http://vikaspedia.in/register">register</a> here as a <keyword id="2073188" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Content-contributor">content contributor</keyword> that will allow you to add a new page of content, edit the existing content and create discussion topics. We are still not sure if the portal is open to <keyword id="2073184" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Content-crowdsourcing">content crowdsourcing</keyword> and editing just like Wikipedia does, but this option looks quite suggestive. Registering as a member is a breeze but last we tried registering as a content contributor, an error message came up persistently. Does it mean the feature is not currently available to the masses? 
 That’s not exactly democratising data but we feel that at the initial stage, only authorised institutions/organisations can deliver and edit content, instead of individual contributors. But even then, an interactive repository of developmental data (after all, members can still participate in discussions and provide <keyword id="154361" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="feedback">feedback</keyword>), along with easy access, could just be the first step towards more <keyword id="2073190" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Transparent-governance">transparent governance</keyword> and <keyword id="1857924" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="People-Empowerment">people empowerment</keyword>. Vikaspedia can bridge the <keyword id="2073191" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Knowledge-divide">knowledge divide</keyword> and therefore, the <keyword id="2073192" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Opportunity-divide">opportunity divide</keyword>, which may gradually ensure the economic and social well-being of India’s 1.3 billion-strong population. 
 
Main image: Thinkstock Photos/Getty Images

This Portal Is
Not An Indian Wikipedia, But Claims It Is Democratising Data For People
Empowerment

New Delhi: The <keyword id="19938513" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Department-of-Consumer-Affairs" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Department of Consumer Affairs" meta.hostid="268" meta.entityid="Department of Consumer Affairs">Department of Consumer Affairs</keyword> has constituted a committee of experts to recommend a robust framework for a <keyword id="22964001" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Repairability-Index" source="keywords">Repairability Index</keyword> aimed at empowering consumers and promoting <keyword id="20128078" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="sustainable-practices" source="keywords">sustainable practices</keyword> within the tech industry. The committee, chaired by Department of Consumer Affairs (DoCA) Additional Secretary Bharat Khera, will develop the Repairability Index to provide consumers with greater transparency on repair information for their products and foster a more sustainable technology industry. The National Workshop on the Right to Repair in the <keyword id="20881182" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="mobile-and-electronics" source="keywords">Mobile and Electronics</keyword> Sector, convened on August 29, brought together industry stakeholders to establish a consensus on the framework for evaluating components for the Repairability Index, fostering longevity in product design and democratising access to repair information and spare parts. "The framework on Repairability Index aimed to provide consumers with essential information about product repairability besides seamless access to spare parts will enable informed purchasing decisions," the DoCA said in a statement. The committee, which includes representatives from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) and industry stakeholders, is expected to submit a comprehensive report on the Repairability Index framework by November 15. The key components of the proposed Repair Ecosystem include comprehensive repair information, accessible spare parts, affordable tools, modular product design and ensuring the economic feasibility of repairs for consumers. "By standardising the assessment of repairability, the index will create an ecosystem where consumers can easily compare products and choose options that align with the ethos of mindful consumption and sustainability," the DoCA statement said.

Government set to introduce Repairability Index for mobile, electronics products

AI (artificial intelligence) has been the talk of town ever since <keyword id="19896272" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="generative-AI" source="keywords">generative AI</keyword> tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and CoPilot gained attention. These AI tools have the potential to assist humans with their day-to-day lives. And companies too have started recognising the benefits of AI and are investing heavily in the space. According to a survey conducted by EY in July this year, business leaders said that they had already begun seeing returns on their investments in artificial intelligence (AI). The survey also added that Among the 95 percent of senior executives who confirmed their organisations were currently investing in AI, the number of companies investing £10 million or more was expected to nearly double to 30% in the coming year, up from 16%. <keyword id="19906778" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Infosys" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Infosys" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Infosys">Infosys</keyword> co-founder <keyword id="20294306" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Nandan-Nilekani" source="keywords">Nandan Nilekani</keyword> also supports investments in AI. In fact, he believes that not investing in AI will actually end up costing more for companies. <h2>Nandan <keyword id="20829036" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="nilekani" source="keywords">Nilekani</keyword> on AI investments </h2> Speaking on Nikhil Kamath’s podcast, People by WTF, Nilekani explained how AI is becoming indispensable for businesses and society at large. Responding to concerns about whether current investments in AI might be a bubble, Nilekani was clear: the risk of not investing in AI far outweighs the potential costs of adoption. “They can’t afford not to do it,” he said, referencing global companies that spend as much as $50 billion a year on AI infrastructure. Nilekani added that AI represents a “big platform shift,” and businesses that fail to adapt could find themselves permanently sidelined. The competitive landscape for AI is fierce, especially in the West, where tech giants are racing to dominate this space. Investments in data centres, AI chips, and large-scale research projects are driving AI development forward, bringing down costs and making AI technology more accessible over time. <h2>Power of LLMs in India</h2> During the same podcast, Nilekani also said that he sees massive potential for AI in language processing. <keyword id="19897804" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="large-language-models" source="keywords">Large Language Models</keyword> (LLMs), a type of AI that can understand, generate, and respond to human language, are particularly powerful in India’s multilingual context. Nilekani explained how these models could help bridge communication gaps by providing access to information in local languages. For instance, Nilekani highlighted how a farmer in Uttar Pradesh could ask a question in Hindi, and the AI system could retrieve relevant information, such as farming techniques, in real time. This capability, Nilekani argued, could democratise access to global knowledge and make it available to people in their native tongues. “If you can speak in your language of choice, your mother tongue, then suddenly you can access the entire knowledge in the system,” Nilekani said, underscoring how AI could empower individuals who may not be literate or familiar with English.

Can’t afford not investing in AI, could be out of the game permanently, says Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani

New Delhi: Having marked a 20-year milestone in <keyword id="19895063" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="India" source="keywords">India</keyword>, global tech giant <keyword id="19902762" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Google" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Google" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Google">Google</keyword> is upbeat about its next innings here with Artificial Intelligence (<keyword id="19899640" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="AI" source="keywords">AI</keyword>) playing a big role in it, India MD <keyword id="23412065" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Roma-Datta-Chobey" source="keywords">Roma Datta Chobey</keyword> said on Thursday, adding that the company is aligning its vision and strategy fully to the country's growth and ambitions. In an interview to PTI, Chobey said Google believes that AI should be regulated but in a way that strikes a fine balance between user benefit -- which is "still at a nascent stage" -- and at the same time, fosters innovation. India is a very important market for Google, she said, underlining the company's deep commitment in areas spanning AI, payments, <keyword id="20055897" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Google-Pixel" source="keywords">Google Pixel</keyword> manufacturing and skilling amongst others. To a question on the concerns flagged by some Indian startups on alleged anti-competitive practices, Chobey said Google has been "deeply and closely" partnering and working with the startup ecosystem in the country, and that millions of apps are hosted on <keyword id="22336128" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Google-Playstore" source="keywords">Google Playstore</keyword>. "As Google, we've been deeply partnering with the startup ecosystem, and on Google Play, we host millions of apps...we also invest in training Android developers... "So I think we've been deeply and closely working with the startup ecosystem in India, and we remain committed and will continue to do so through India digitisation fund... We have startup accelerators, we have dedicated AI startup accelerators where startups are able to access our advanced technology, work closely with us, and that work is only increasing," she said. Google has completed 20-year milestone in India, and is looking forward to the next 20 years in which "AI is going to play a big role here", she observed. "When it comes to AI, we are focused on three pillars. The first one is how are we leveraging AI to help every individual in the country. The best way we, as Google, can do it is by using AI to democratise information as well as opportunity. "When we talk about skilling, etc, that talks to the opportunity bit. Secondly, we want to really play a significant role in developing the already-thriving AI ecosystem in India, by investing in infrastructure, by scaling the AI engine. And of course, we will do all of this very, very responsibly, sustainably and inclusively," she said. The third pillar in Google AI strategy is around building for the future, she said. "...to create a really thriving workforce that is primed to be successful in the AI-powered world. That space is evolving and evolving fast, and we want to keep pace with it. I also want to add here that we as part of Google India team feel so proud that there's so much work that's happening in India which is not just solving for India, it's solving (things) globally," Chobey said. Google on Thursday lined up a slew of AI-powered innovations, announced Indian language capabilities for Gemini Live, and unveiled new updates for Google Lens, Google Maps, as well as Google Pay at the tenth edition of 'Google for India' event in New Delhi. The Google top boss asserted that India is and will remain an important market for the company. "From Google's perspective, India has always been a very important market for us. We've always very uniquely solved for India, worked locally with partners, we spoke of 'India digitization fund'... We started Pixel (phone) manufacturing here... I spoke about GPay... So that continues. India for Google is a very important market, both from a user perspective, but also from the kind of research development that is happening," she said. Google, she said, is aligning its goals to India's growth and vision. "Today, we have over 10,000 Googlers, working out of India for India and other markets as well. And we have presence across 5 cities, so multiple offices here, that's really, really important... When it comes to India, I always say this - what is good for India, is good for Google... "So we are very finely integrating our objectives, our vision, to what is really good for India, and will continue to do so," she said, adding that India will remain a very important market for the company. Google is leveraging India to not just solve local challenges, but also global ones, Chobey added. The first Made-in-India Google Pixel 8 devices started rolling off production lines in August in India. "Watch out the space... we will talk about it more. But we're really, really happy and proud about the fact that we have started manufacturing Pixel 8 in India. Of course, we have now also have service centers in India. Google Pixel 9 is available on Flipkart, through Croma tie up...Reliance digital tie ups...and so on so forth. So we are really invested in this space," she said.

Looking ahead at our next 20 years in India, AI will play big role here: Google India MD

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (<keyword id="41780" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="iisc" source="Orion">IISc</keyword>) have developed a brain-inspired analog computing platform capable of storing and processing <keyword id="6355729" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="data" source="Orion">data</keyword> in an astonishing 16,500 conductance states within a molecular film. Published on September 11 in the journal Nature, this breakthrough represents a huge step forward over traditional digital computers in which data storage and processing are limited to just two states, the IISc s<keyword id="6355999" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ai" source="Orion">ai</keyword>d. In a press release, the institute said that such a platform could potentially bring complex AI tasks, like training Large Language Models (LLMs), to personal devices like laptops and smartphones, thus taking us closer to democratising the development of AI tools. These developments are currently restricted to resource-heavy data centres, due to a lack of energy-efficient hardware. With silicon electronics nearing saturation, designing brain-inspired accelerators that can work alongside silicon chips to deliver faster, more efficient AI is also becoming crucial. "Neuromorphic computing has had its fair share of unsolved challenges for over a decade," explained <keyword id="23122611" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="sreetosh-goswami" source="keywords">Sreetosh Goswami</keyword>, Assistant Professor at the Centre for Nano Science and Engineering (CeNSE), IISc, who led the research team. "With this discovery, we have almost nailed the perfect system - a rare feat," he said. According to IISc, the fundamental operation underlying most AI algorithms is quite basic - matrix multiplication, a concept taught in high school maths. But in digital computers, these calculations hog a lot of energy. The platform developed by the IISc team drastically cuts down both the time and energy involved, making these calculations a lot faster and easier. The molecular system at the heart of the platform was designed by <keyword id="23122609" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="sreebrata-goswami" source="keywords">Sreebrata Goswami</keyword>, Visiting Professor at CeNSE. As molecules and ions wiggle and move within a material film, they create countless unique memory states, many of which have been inaccessible so far. Most digital devices are only able to access two states (high and low conductance), without being able to tap into the infinite number of intermediate states possible. By using precisely timed voltage pulses, the IISc team found a way to effectively trace a much larger number of molecular movements, and map each of these to a distinct electrical signal, forming an extensive "molecular diary" of different states. "This project brought together the precision of electrical engineering with the creativity of chemistry, letting us control molecular kinetics very precisely inside an electronic circuit powered by nanosecond voltage pulses," explained Goswami. "Tapping into these tiny molecular changes allowed the team to create a highly precise and efficient neuromorphic accelerator, which can store and process data within the same location, similar to the human brain. Such accelerators can be seamlessly integrated with silicon circuits to boost their performance and energy efficiency," the IISc said. IISc researchers said the key challenge that the team faced was characterising the various conductance states, which proved impossible using existing equipment. The team designed a custom circuit board that could measure voltages as tiny as a millionth of a volt, to pinpoint these individual states with unprecedented accuracy. It also turned this scientific discovery into a technological feat. The team was able to recreate NASA's iconic "Pillars of Creation" image from the James Webb Space Telescope data - originally created by a <keyword id="6537818" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="supercomputer" source="Orion">supercomputer</keyword> - using just a tabletop computer. They were also able to do this at a fraction of the time and energy that traditional computers would need. Using their AI accelerator, the team recreated NASA's iconic "Pillars of Creation" image from the James Webb Space Telescope data on a tabletop computer - achieving this in a fraction of the time and energy required by traditional systems, it said. The team includes several students and research fellows at IISc. They also collaborated with Stanley Williams, Professor at Texas A&amp;M University and Damien Thompson, Professor at the University of Limerick, it added. The researchers believe that this breakthrough could be one of India's biggest leaps in AI hardware, putting the country on the map of global technology innovation. Navakanta Bhat, Professor at CeNSE and an expert in silicon electronics led the circuit and system design in this project. "What stands out is how we have transformed complex physics and chemistry understanding into groundbreaking technology for AI hardware," Goswami explained. "In the context of the India Semiconductor Mission, this development could be a game-changer, revolutionising industrial, consumer and strategic applications. The national importance of such research cannot be overstated," he said. With support from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the IISc team is now focused on developing a fully indigenous integrated neuromorphic chip. "This is a completely home-grown effort, from materials to circuits and systems," he emphasised. "We are well on our way to translating this technology into a system-on-a-chip," he added.

IISc scientists develop brain-inspired analog computing platform capable of storing, processing data

New Delhi: Consumer Electronics maker <keyword id="20046687" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="samsung-india" source="keywords">Samsung India</keyword> on Tuesday launched a new range of <keyword id="20097714" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="AI-powered" source="keywords">AI-powered</keyword> <keyword id="20101665" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="washing-machine" source="keywords">washing machine</keyword>s and aims to be the market leader in the <keyword id="20097242" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="premium" source="keywords">premium</keyword> segment in the coming quarters, said a company official on Tuesday. The company, which currently holds around 20 per cent of the washing machine market, has "an objective of becoming a consumer leader" by gaining market share quarter-on-quarter, outpacing the industry growth, said <keyword id="19897758" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Samsung" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Samsung" meta.hostid="153" meta.entityid="Samsung">Samsung</keyword> India Senior Director, Digital Appliances, Saurabh Baishakhia. Samsung expects new launches, the ongoing trend of premiumisation in the appliances segment and the coming festive season this year and tailwind from attractive financing schemes breaking down acquisition costs will help it gain in the segment and claim market leadership, he said. "We have 20 per cent market share and are looking further improving it. We aspire to become a brand that is bought by most consumers," Baishakhia told PTI. At present, South Korean maker LG Electronics is the leader in the Indian Washing Machine segment, with over 35 per cent overall market. In the washing machine vertical, brands like Haier, Bosch, Siemens, IFB, Godrej Appliances, and Whirlpool of India compete with Samsung. Samsung is looking at the new consumer trends, where people are upgrading and replacing, opting for a higher capacity washing machine of over 9 kg, which currently contributes 40 per cent of the front-load model sales. As per its strategy, Samsung is focusing on the front-load washing machine. Within this, models with a load capacity of nine kg and above are having a higher growth of 50 per cent, said Baishakhia. "So, people are already paying a premium in this industry for a large capacity of nine kg. We are doing is democratising it further by giving them even a larger load," he said, adding that the demand for the large sizes is growing because of changes in lifestyle besides growing urbanisation and rise in disposable income. Consumers are paying around a 5 per cent premium on the addition of every one kg load capacity. However, Samsung is a 12 kg capacity washing machine with a 10 per cent premium only against a 20 per cent market trend. "We have got the inflection point to almost half of it, which means that even at a premium of 10 per cent, they will not only get a larger capacity size but also get all these features," Baishakhia said. The Indian washing machine market is estimated to be around 10 million units annually, growing in single digits. Semi-automatic machines are still popular in rural markets, but full automatic front load and top load models are catching up now. When asked if Samsung would have a leadership position in the premium segment of Washing Mahchine over Rs 30,000 plus per unit, Baishakhia said the company would. "For us, our first target is to become a leader in this front-loading segment... So, our current goal would be, as to how, in this category, we can gain the highest market share and lead the market," he said. Samsung has claimed that its new AI-powered line-up of 10 large-sized front-load washing machines of 12 Kg will help to reduce energy consumption by around 70 per cent and be a "game changer". These machines with larger drums will reduce the wash timing to 39 minutes as the AI will detect the fabric and water turbidity and also decide on the perfect amount of detergent and fabric care. "Through this AI energy mode, we will be reducing energy consumption by more than 70 per cent. So, it will also be adapting to the consumer habit, with habit learning to suggest what kind of cycles suit most washing times," he said, adding that users will also have seamless information exchange through Samsung's app.

Samsung launches AI-powered washing machines, all you need to know

As the Olympic Games draw to a close, the spotlight not only shines on the athletes competing for glory but also on the transformative role <keyword id="19901571" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="technology" source="keywords">technology</keyword> has played in shaping modern <keyword id="20010841" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="sports" source="keywords">sports</keyword> and <keyword id="22746553" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="training-methodologies" source="keywords">training methodologies</keyword>. Over the past few years, <keyword id="20142309" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="innovations" source="keywords">innovations</keyword> such as <keyword id="20624226" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="wearable-devices" source="keywords">wearable devices</keyword>, <keyword id="22746554" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="performance-analytics" source="keywords">performance analytics</keyword>, and <keyword id="19948295" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="virtual-reality" source="keywords">virtual reality</keyword> have revolutionised how athletes prepare for competition, enhancing their training regimens and optimising performance. The intersection of sports and technology is dramatically altering the landscape. From advanced sensors that track physiological metrics to smart equipment that provide real-time feedback, technology has become an integral part of an athlete's toolkit. "Technology fits like a glove in the macro fabric of the modern-day ecosystem of sports performance analysis. It empowers young athletes and coaches by democratising access to pro-level analysis and tools, which helps nurture grassroots talent and instill a sense of competitiveness by providing insights that were traditionally available only to top-tier athletes," said Sudeep Kulkarni, founder and CEO, Game Theory. The sports industry is increasingly leveraging the power of <keyword id="19904566" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="artificial-intelligence" source="keywords">artificial intelligence</keyword> (<keyword id="19899640" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="AI" source="keywords">AI</keyword>) to transform the way performance is analysed and outcomes are predicted, he said. Athletes can practice against virtual opponents and mimic game circumstances using augmented reality (AR), which aids in developing rapid decision-making under pressure. Stupa Sports Analytics, a sports technology firm based out of Gurugram, recently provided analytics support to the Indian table tennis team at a preparatory camp for the Paris Olympics, which included performance analytics, rally analysis, and AI insights for both players and coaches. "The data helped in articulating strategies to play against the world's best players. Prominent players like Sharath Kamal, Harmeet Desai, Manav Thakker, Manika Batra, Archana Kamath, and Sreeja Akula benefited from these insights, enhancing their preparation and performance," said Megha Gambhir, CEO and co-founder, Stupa Sports Analytics. Augmented Reality (AR) is also enhancing the spectator experience. AR solutions allow fans to access additional information about players and stats during live events. A report from the Capgemini Research Institute revealed that nearly 70 per cent of respondents surveyed (10,000) said that emerging technologies have enhanced their overall viewing experience, both inside and outside the stadium. Emerging technologies are undeniably the future of sports, and at the forefront of this golden era are tech startups. The integration of technology in sports through startups is reshaping how athletes train, compete, and engage with fans. These startups are driving innovation and setting new standards in the sports industry. Founder and general partner at Centre Court Capital, a gaming and sports tech VC, Mustafa Ghouse said sports tech startups are increasingly becoming target sectors for venture capital due to the vast potential for innovation and growth in the sector. "In India, the interest is becoming more pronounced, particularly in niche areas of sports technology. In the last three years, India saw investments of USD 1.2 billion in sports tech. India is also the 3rd largest funded country in sports tech after the US between 2018 through 2022 followed by China," he said. Indian sports tech startups are starting to attract attention from global investors alongside domestic investors, Ghouse added. "The increasing allocation of media rights and the surge in digital consumption of sports content are driving demand for advanced tech requirements. This, coupled with the proliferation of smart devices and internet connectivity, sets a fertile ground for sports tech startups to flourish and draw substantial investment," he said.

Tech innovations, AI changing the game for modern sports, training methodologies

<ul><li>After <keyword id="10387" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="microsoft" source="Orion">Microsoft</keyword> ChatGPT and Google's Bard, <keyword id="399907" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="meta" source="Orion">Meta</keyword> is joining the <keyword id="6171891" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ai-chatbot" source="Orion">AI chatbot</keyword> race.</li><li>Meta has trained LLaMA 65 billion and LLaMA 33 billion on 1.4 trillion tokens.</li><li>Like other large language models, LLaMA works by taking a sequence of words as an input and predicts a next word to recursively generate text.</li></ul>New Delhi, After Microsoft ChatGPT and Google's Bard, Meta is joining the AI <keyword id="6355546" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="chatbot" source="Orion">chatbot</keyword> race with its own state-of-the-art foundational large language model designed to help researchers advance their work in the field of artificial intelligence. However, Meta's Large Language Model Meta AI (LLaMA) isn't like ChatGPT-driven Bing at the moment as it can't yet talk to humans but will help researchers. "Smaller, more performant models such as LLaMA enable others in the research community who don't have access to large amounts of infrastructure to study these models, further democratising access in this important, fast-changing field," Meta said in a statement. Meta is making LLaMA available at several sizes (7 billion, 13 billion, 33 billion, and 65 billion parameters). Large language models -- natural language processing (NLP) systems with billions of parameters -- have shown new capabilities to generate creative text, solve mathematical theorems, predict protein structures, answer reading comprehension questions, and more. "They are one of the clearest cases of the substantial potential benefits AI can offer at scale to billions of people," said Meta. Smaller models trained on more tokens -- which are pieces of words -- are easier to retrain and fine-tune for specific potential product use cases. Meta has trained LLaMA 65 billion and LLaMA 33 billion on 1.4 trillion tokens. "Our smallest model, LLaMA 7B, is trained on one trillion tokens," said the company. Like other large language models, LLaMA works by taking a sequence of words as an input and predicts a next word to recursively generate text. "To train our model, we chose text from the 20 languages with the most speakers, focusing on those with Latin and Cyrillic alphabets," Meta informed. To maintain integrity and prevent misuse, the company said it is releasing the model under a noncommercial license focused on research use cases at the moment. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/scammers-are-cashing-in-with-fake-chatgpt-apps-heres-what-you-can-do-stay-safe/articleshow/98199424.cms">Scammers are cashing in with fake ChatGPT apps: Here’s what you can do stay safe</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/noninvasive-blood-glucose-testing-is-among-the-[%E2%80%A6]y-reaches-proof-of-concept-stage/articleshow/98198709.cms">Noninvasive blood glucose testing is among the new Apple Watch tech that reportedly reaches 'Proof-of Concept' stage</a>

Meta joins AI chatbot race with own large language model for researchers

<ul><li>The <keyword id="69007" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="world-economic-forum" source="Orion">World Economic Forum</keyword> has picked ten breakthrough technologies that show promise for the future. </li><li>Flexible batteries, <keyword id="15777223" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="generative-ai" source="Orion">generative AI</keyword>, <keyword id="7931350" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="sustainable-aviation-fuel" source="Orion">sustainable aviation fuel</keyword>, wearable sensors for plants and <keyword id="432748" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="green-computing" source="Orion">green computing</keyword> are some of them. </li><li>Many other biological breakthroughs like designer phages, metaverse for mental health, brain-machine interfaces and more have made it to the list. </li></ul>The world is changing fast with new dangers and permacrisis afoot. However, the good news is that a number of breakthrough new technologies are working to make it a better place. The World Economic Forum has picked ten such for 2023 — right from deep biology that can look into the cells to flexible batteries that can be twisted, bent and stretched. To make it to this coveted list, the technologies must offer promising major benefits to societies and economies, be disruptive, attractive to investors and researchers; and expected to have achieved considerable scale within five years. “New technologies have the power to disrupt industries, grow economies, improve lives and safeguard the planet – if designed, scaled and deployed responsibly,” said Jeremy Jurgens, Managing Director, World Economic Forum and Head of the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. In the past, the WEF has picked many such winners — like the genetic-engineering tool CRISPR-Cas9 which was featured in 2015, went on to win the Nobel Prize five years later. “It is now being used to create insect and drought-resistant crops in harsh growing conditions around the world,” said Jurgens. Messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccines, earned their place in the 2017 report, became the technology underpinning the majority of Covid-19 vaccines protecting lives worldwide. AI-led molecular design made it onto the 2018 list. Since then, Deepmind’s AlphaFold predicted the structure of 200 million proteins, and the first AI-discovered drugs have entered clinical trials. Let’s look what technologies made it to this year’s list: Flexible batteries: Bend, twist &amp; stretch The world is going flex – with rollable computer screens to smart clothing. And the systems that power them should be so too. Flexible batteries, made of lightweight materials that can be easily twisted, bent or stretched, will soon hit the market and make standard rigid batteries a thing of the past. “The rapidly escalating development of wearable devices, flexible electronics and bendable displays demand power sources that match the agility of these systems,” the report says. One study forecasts that the global flexible battery market will grow by $240.47 million from 2022-2027, accelerating at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.79%, says WEF. Several companies like LG Chem, Samsung SDI, Apple, Nokia are are actively developing and commercialising flexible battery technology. Generative AI: Sparring partner to conventional thinking Imagine an algorithm that can draw the image that a human holds in his mind? That’s one example of the boundless potential of generative AI which can design drugs, aid in architecture and engineering — in addition to what ChatGPT does. NASA engineers are working to use this technology to build lightweight spaceflight instruments. But this technology needs to build something more, trust. “To build public trust in generative AI, applications should meet agreed-upon professional and ethical standards. Care should be taken to mitigate AI bias based on training data, with a focus on including “outlier” data and novel societal conventions,” WEF says. It should also address copyright attribution and more. With correct controls, generative AI can demonstrate the boundaries of knowledge, and act as a sparring partner to challenge conventional thinking. Sustainable aviation fuel: Moving up, with challenges ahead The road-bound cousins of aeroplanes – cars, bikes and more are going green at a rapid pace. However, the cost of making the aviation sector, which contributes to 2-3% of CO2 emissions annually, is enormous. Enter sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) that’s produced from biomass, and non-biological resources. Now it makes up for 1% of the global jet fuel demand, but must rise to 13-15% by 2040, WEF says. “Such an increase will require the creation of 300-400 new SAF plants; and airlines, manufacturers and fuel companies are working around the clock to enable this level of scale,” the report says, adding that availability and collection of raw materials, along with the need for sustainably produced green hydrogen, remain major challenges. Designer Phages: Virus that carry ‘genetic scissors’ Viruses, as scary as they are, can be engineered to benefit humans. Key to this engineering are phages – viruses that selectively infect specific types of bacteria. Upon infection, a phage injects its genetic information into the bacterium. With ‘genetic scissors’, these phages can execute a set of instructions – they can change a bacterium’s functions. It can be made into a therapeutic molecule or to become sensitive to a certain drug and more. “Phages are also being designed as feed supplements to enhance the growth of livestock, treat certain plant diseases and eliminate dangerous bacteria in food supply chains,” WEF says. Locus Biosciences and Eligo Biosciences are using this approach to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Metaverse for mental health: Augmenting connections The Covid-19 pandemic has pushed the mental health crisis to such an extent that the world is falling short of health providers. The conditions are ripe for metaverse-enabled mental health treatment, WEF says. “Maturing interface technologies could further augment social and emotional connections between distant participants,” the report says. Many players are already working on it with gamification and other ways which can also reduce the stigma attached with mental health. Noninvasive neurotechnologies can provide feedback attuned to a user’s emotional state. For example, Neurable headsets use electrodes to measure emotion and can adjust music accordingly. Eventually, the metaverse will also connect to therapeutic neurotechnologies, such as direct brain stimulation to treat intractable depression,” WEF adds. Wearable plant sensors: The new frontier Traditionally, crops have been monitored via soil testing and visual inspections, both of which are expensive and time-consuming. Recent tech advancements have been monitoring crop health via low-resolution satellite data, which has gone on to sensor equipped drones and tractors which provide information. The next frontier is monitoring individual plants – with wearables. “These sensors are small, non-invasive devices that can be attached to crop plants for continuous monitoring of temperature, humidity, moisture and nutrient levels,” the report says. Growvera and Phytech have developed micro-sized needle sensors that insert into a plant’s leaves or stems to measure changes in electrical resistance, but challenges remain in terms of expense and the reading of the data might need specialised expertise. It needs data analytics tools that can help farmers ‘read it’ and make informed decisions. Spatial omics: Unravelling evolutionary secrets Humans are made of millions of cells —- but what happens inside them? Spatial omics might actually help us ‘see’ the biological processes, how they work in detail that was unprecedented before. A spatial omics study of samples from people who died from Covid-19 revealed that SARS-CoV-2 causes widespread disruption of cellular pathways across all tissues. Scientists have also identified a set of neurons that help paralysed mice walk, sooner. But this technology needs to be democratised, WEF believes. It had a total market value of $232.6 million in 2021 and an estimated revenue of $587.2 million in 2030. While academic and translational research centres made up 89% of the market in 2020, the market is dramatically expanding to include pharmaceutical and biotech industries. Flexible neural electronics: Biocompatible now Brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) allow electrical signals the brain produces to be captured by sensor hardware – and are already being used for patients with epilepsy, and create prosthetic limbs connected to the nervous system. But the current implants are made of hard material like chips, which can scar humans and cause substantial discomfort. They cannot bend or adapt to brain movements so, over time, they “drift” in position, decreasing the accuracy. But now researchers developed these circuits on biocompatible materials that are soft and flexible. It can deepen understanding of conditions like dementia and autism; and can also be used to develop cardiac pacemakers and more. But eventually, it holds the potential to true human-AI interfacing – but since the data from the brain is sensitive, privacy and ethical use guidelines must be established. Sustainable computing: Optimism ahead Every time we search on Google, send email or use any form of AI, we are connecting to data centres — which consume an estimated 1% of the electricity produced globally. And, this will only grow. There is no single “green data” magic bullet, but the coming decade will see strides toward net-zero-energy data centres. The first is to use cooling systems to dissipate the heat. Stockholm is using heat from data centres to heat homes. Then, AI itself can come with a solution for the heat it is generating, but analysing and optimising energy use in real-time. DeepMind has successfully demonstrated the potential of AI-powered energy management, achieving up to a 40% reduction in energy consumption at Google’s data centres. Crusoe Energy instals its modular data centres at sites where methane flaring occurs to enable cloud computing infrastructure to be powered by methane gas that would otherwise have been released directly into the atmosphere. “Given the wave of innovation and investment in this area, there is reason to be optimistic about the years ahead,” WEF says. AI-facilitated healthcare: Easing access Ever since the pandemic governments and academic teams alike have been using AI and ML models to improve access to patient care – to cut down the long delays many patients experience. This can aid developing nations in particular. India, for example, has a widely dispersed population of over 1.4 billion and has embraced an AI-based approach to enhance medical outreach. “The Indian government has enabled physicians to engage remote communities through assistive technologies, with requisite privacy safeguards in place,” the report says. However, hurdles to this system remain like patient compliance and national security concerns. “Moreover, any system that curates personal data on the health and welfare of a vast population must function within the bounds of a carefully crafted legal and ethical framework,” WEF says.

Wearables for plants, bacteria eating viruses, and 8 technologies in 2023 that can change the future

<ul><li>65% of <keyword id="11964015" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="Gen-Zs" source="Orion">Gen Zs</keyword> agree that content that’s personally relevant to them is more important than the content that lots of other people talk about, states YouTube. </li><li>Fandom also emerged as a popular trend in 2022, with fans actively communicating and interacting online. </li><li>The year 2022 saw multiple digital creators transition from social media to the silver screen – Prajakta Koli (Jugjugg Jeeyo) and comedian Viraj Ghelani (Govinda Naam Mera) </li><li>As per talent management company Clout Talent and YouTube, harnessing the power of communities will be integral to a creator’s growth in 2023.</li></ul>From financial advice to sex education, content on every imaginable topic is available at one’s fingertips on different digital media. But amidst this wide variety of content, personal connection and the power of community were what mattered the most in 2022. These two themes defined content in 2022 and creators who churned out material along these themes won big. Here’s a look at the trends that dominated the creator economy in 2022, and how this space will shape up in 2023. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Personal relevance &amp; connect" comment="subhead2" text="Personal relevance &amp; connect">Personal relevance &amp; connect</cmsannotation> Opting out of the ‘watercooler discourse’, 65% of Gen Zs agree that content that’s personally relevant to them is more important than the content that lots of other people talk about, states video sharing platform YouTube in its C<a href="https://kstatic.googleusercontent.com/files/5d1153725e437152c5ae6b10651c5e9f4bbb117287b8904db3fe91389277698c21a861fa4dcb6ba04780745ea97ebefed4208d9048fbd2b97af79c7e51b28b2b">ulture and Trends Report 2022.</a> Venture capital firm Kalaari Capital echoed this sentiment in <a href="https://www.kalaari.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Creator-Economy-Kalaari-Capital.pdf">its Creator Economy report</a>, stating that “consumption patterns of Indians have also evolved. They want to follow people they identify with, and consume products that showcase their individuality.” As Vinay Pillai, head of talent management company Clout Talent shared with Business Insider India, “People have shifted from vlogging, DIY (do-it-yourself) content to thought-through sketch-based, informative and easily-relatable content – anything that offers connection, whether it is light-hearted comedy content, informative content, well-being content, or content that is pleasing to the eye.” <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Fan communities no longer on the sidelines of entertainment" comment="subhead2" text="Fan communities no longer on the sidelines of entertainment">Fan communities no longer on the sidelines of entertainment</cmsannotation> According to YouTube, online content consumption in 2022 was dominated by communities, and soothing or comfort content. Fandom also emerged as a popular trend in 2022, with fans actively communicating and interacting online - be it the BTS ‘army’ or ‘SRKians’. Pillai also added that there’s been a sharp rise in community-led content. “Whether it's the “orange juice gang” or Viraj Ghelani’s connection with the Gujju community, we saw people loving them as a group and as one of their own,” shared Pillai. According to YouTube, fan communities are no longer a side effect of entertainment. Rather, they’re central to the entertainment experience, with 61% of Gen Zs agreeing to describe themselves as a “really big or super fan of someone or something.” Pillai also added that the fan culture has reached new heights, with a creator’s success–on any platform–being defined by the level of their engagement with the audience. “Fandom takes a creator out of their box of just creating content, to something bigger. They can enable social change, launch businesses key to their audience and aim to succeed in their new ventures,” shared Pillai. A great example of using fandom to launch new ventures is digital creator Vishnu Kaushal’s clothing and merchandise brand, <a href="https://www.peachbyvishnu.com/">Peach by Vishnu</a>, which started in 2021 and sold out four of its collections in days. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Short-form content &amp; democratisation" comment="subhead2" text="Short-form content &amp; democratisation">Short-form content &amp; democratisation</cmsannotation> As far as content format is concerned, there has been a rise in short-form content. As per YouTube, 59% of Gen Zs use short-form video apps to discover things. “With Meta’s launch of Instagram reels and YouTube’s launch of shorts, people started consuming more audio-visual short-form content. We also saw a sharp rise in ‘bored at home people’ becoming content creators. With in-app built-in features, it was easier to make content, post, and engage,” added Pillai. Former RJ and digital creator Antil Yadav echoes this sentiment, sharing with Business Insider India that since the time he started creating content (in 2015) the two big shifts have been the democratisation of content, and the affinity towards short-form content. “The democratisation of content brought in by various short-format apps changed the notion that only big publishing houses can create content. Anyone with a good story to tell can find an audience these days,” said Yadav, who goes by the <a href="https://www.instagram.com/rjkhurki/?hl=en">Instagram handle rjkhurki</a>. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="RJ Karishma, Viraj Ghelani &amp; Ankur Warikoo among creators who won 2022" comment="subhead2" text="RJ Karishma, Viraj Ghelani &amp; Ankur Warikoo among creators who won 2022">RJ Karishma, Viraj Ghelani &amp; Ankur Warikoo among creators who won 2022</cmsannotation> Despite intense competition and users’ diminishing attention span, certain creators have built a loyal content base, with their reach and followers growing by leaps and bounds. Clout Talent named digital creators Karishma (also an RJ at Red FM), Viraj Ghelani, Sakshi Shivdasani, and Macwin among their top creators for 2022. “This year we’ve witnessed the fastest-growing female comedy creator, RJ Karishma; She has grown by 333% in the last year, and her every 5th reel has more than 10M views and has an average of 5M views overall,” stated Clout Talent. <div type="javascript" title="Instagram" contenttype="Image"><cdata><![CDATA[ ]]></cdata></div> The year 2022 also saw multiple digital creators transition from social media to the silver screen. One of India’s first successful YouTubers, Prajakta Koli starred in Dharma Productions’ Jugjugg Jeeyo in 2022. Comedian Viraj Ghelani also played a supporting role in Dharma Productions’ Govinda Naam Mera, sharing screen space with actors like Vicky Kaushal and Bhumi Pednekar. Then there is digital creator, entrepreneur, author, and YouTuber <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/personalities/news/i-am-glad-i-fd-up-so-much-in-life-that-it-is-content-now-says-ankur-warikoo/articleshow/96282722.cms">Ankur Warikoo</a>, who has achieved the unthinkable (at least in 2022) - convincing people to read again – with his novels, Do Epic Shit and Get Epic Shit Done. Most young professionals and students look up to Warikoo as a self-help guru, because he follows the golden mantra of creating successful online content - being authentic and relatable. “I had made so many mistakes with money, my career, my biases, my relationships and as a manager that I started sharing all of that in the form of content. When I spoke about the mistakes I made in my 20s, I realised that it resonated with people between the ages of 18-24. These people wanted someone to speak to them who had gone through similar experiences. One of the reasons my content blew up was because I am old and not putting out random stuff. This was actually my life,” shared Warikoo in an exclusive interview with Business Insider India. <div type="image" title="Ankur Warikoo" msid="97086417" hostid="261"></div> As Pillai puts it, “we’ve seen people from different genres like food, finance and gaming branch out and create content about the things they know best, empowering more people to learn, just by the click of a button!” <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="The future is hybrid" comment="subhead2" text="The future is hybrid">The future is hybrid</cmsannotation> According to YouTube, the future of online content is in <keyword id="16107510" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="hybrid-creators" source="Orion">hybrid creators</keyword> or multi-platform creativity, and actively developing communities. Clout Talent’s Pillai believes the most important thing needed to make it as a content creator in the current market is a creator’s ability “to not just create content consistently around what they love the most/their passion/their skills, etc but also the ability to engage and connect with their audiences. A consistent effort to build a loyal community helps a creator sustain in this industry.” Simply put, while different songs, activities, and even creators may go viral at one point or the other, the audience, at large, is looking for personal engagement. And creators are well aware of this. Yadav also shared that “for any community to grow, two-way communication is important. Engaging with your community shows that you care about their thoughts, opinions, suggestions, or compliments.” Apart from it, YouTube believes that trends not restricted to any one digital video format or medium will define the future of content, and hybrid creators and continuously remixed trends can be expected to become the new norm. “As both watching and creating videos become part of everyday life, trending concepts are spreading fluidly across different formats and content types. As a result, how two people experience a trend may now be entirely different. Producing and consuming remixable content — often as memes — is a major way that Gen Zs and millennials participate in pop culture,” stated YouTube. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/samsung-says-new-galaxy-ultra-will-come-with-significant-camera-upgrades-ahead-of-the-galaxy-unpacked-event/articleshow/97081164.cms">Samsung says New Galaxy Ultra will come with significant camera upgrades ahead of the Galaxy Unpacked event</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/apple-launches-macbook-pro-and-mac-mini-with-new-m2-chipsets-in-india-price-specs-and-features/articleshow/97080949.cms">Apple launches MacBook Pro and Mac mini with new M2 chipsets in India – price, specs and features</a>

Soothing & personal content top draws for online audience in 2022 – Hybrid creators & communities to rule in 2023

<ul><li>Frost &amp; Sullivan says that over the next 8 years, the earth will have a complex network of 200 billion devices, averaging over 20 connected devices per human. </li><li>As the <keyword id="1967280" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="iot" source="Orion">IoT</keyword> connected devices become more sophisticated in their capabilities, their vulnerability to breaches will rise too. </li><li>Leadership and stakeholders need to understand the imperative of budgeting for higher spending on cyber security – mere software solutions will not be enough. </li></ul>Cyber security has been the bane of chief information security officers (CISOs), indeed of companies, since the advent of IT. But never has it been more critical for survival than during the last two years - as the pandemic forced teams into remote working. IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2021 reports a 6-fold increase in the number of cyber crimes during the pandemic. Over the two years of the pandemic, the cost of a data breach increased from $3.89 million to $4.96 million. With at least half the employees working remotely, it took an additional 58 days to identify and contain a cyber-security breach. The costs of keeping a company secure are increasing dramatically as well – $433 billion is the projected collective global cybersecurity spending by 2030. Interestingly, there seems to be no real water-tight solution for ensuring zero cyber-security risk, but security leaders keep developing smarter and sharper tools to minimise the attacks and risk. The risk is the biggest issue – in terms of data loss, as well as privacy breaches – both for customers and the company. Risks moving forward Ironically, it is the greater adoption of technology that will be causing an increase in cyber attacks. And interestingly, these new technologies are expected to find the roadmap for higher security as well. The next decade – with ubiquitous connectivity, artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing and next-generation approaches to security management, could continue to pose challenges for security. <ul><li>AI is the case in point here since it allows the complete democratisation of cybercrime. On the other hand, it also helps to detect and do predictive identification of cyber attacks as well. Similarly, Internet of Things (IoT) environments provide very susceptible spaces for sabotage and extortion attacks on the supply chain, logistics, transportation, manufacturing and healthcare sectors, to name just a few. Frost &amp; Sullivan reports that over the next 8 years, the earth will have a complex network of 200 billion devices, averaging over 20 connected devices per human. As the IoT connected devices become more sophisticated in their capabilities, their vulnerability to breaches will rise too. </li><li>On the networking front, as 5G becomes commonplace and 6G starts to take root, data privacy will become a huge concern, since an increased amount of data transfer would certainly lay bare the nodes to greater and more expensive attacks. This ubiquitous connectivity is creating a shared infrastructure of services, cloud, ISPs, software, databases and supply chain. In a bid to increase accessibility, resilience and agility, organisations are inadvertently putting a much larger portion of their infrastructure at risk from cyber attacks, which in turn would lead to much higher costs and much more severe impacts. </li><li>As digital identity becomes commonplace, it raises the risk of exposure to all sorts of data. This is a calculated risk that enterprises need to take. </li><li>As software-as-a-service (SaaS) and everything-as-a-service become more commonplace, cloud providers risk becoming sitting ducks for cyber attacks and this will only become more vicious over the next few years or so. </li><li>Increasing hostilities and power play between developed nations is also driving huge <keyword id="6390833" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="dark" source="Orion">Dark</keyword> web activities – data attacks, stolen data and sold at ransom figures going into billions are being regularly sponsored by states. </li><li>The <keyword id="11121339" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="metaverse" source="Orion">Metaverse</keyword> is now poised to be our second world, blurring the lines between reality and virtuality. The users and interface need to feed much more information on the platform, attracting greater interest from attackers than ever. Security there will need to be very astute – it will have to keep data secure without compromising on its functionality or convenience. </li></ul>Bridging the gaps Traditional ways of cyber security do not stand a chance against the new age cyber attacks. Mitigation and response need to transform, but the enterprise environment has not yet realised this. Quelling future problems with solutions of the past has never worked, but organisational inertia could steep companies in these challenges for some time to come. So what’s the way forward? Skills are running in short supply, so the first step would be to equip security professionals with modern tools to fight modern threats. Leadership and stakeholders need to understand the imperative of budgeting for higher spending on cyber security – mere software solutions will not be enough. Investments will need to be made in research and knowledge support, and there is a need for stronger government policy and regulation. Threat actors will continue with their game of sniffing out opportunities and vulnerabilities over the next few years as well. As newer tools are adopted, newer vulnerabilities will be identified, newer attacks will happen. Dell Technologies recently teamed up with the Institute for the Future (IFTF) and 20 experts from around the world to work on REALIZING 2030 - a project to understand the future and forecast how today’s newer technologies will impact human life in the next ten years. It finds interesting points we need to be careful about. Using technology pragmatically will be one important point. Enterprises will also need to dramatically increase their adoption of cyber-security culture to minimise insider threats and zero-day attacks. Cyber security will need to be built into products and services, passwords will need to go since they pose a big threat of access loss. Biometric identification could be the best way forward. AI will play a huge role in identifying as well as mitigating risks. Hopefully, over the next few years, enterprises will be able to leverage computer security algorithms to help create security fighter bots that will pre-empt, predict and identify vulnerabilities. With the increasing number of devices, data security is only going to be at greater risk and the growing digital identity culture will certainly create more active ID threats. The balance between technological advancement and risks has to be carefully weighed in the coming years. Otherwise, the enterprise will have entered a digital ecosystem that will be an emerging behemoth with an even greater risk landscape. It will be up to security leadership to identify new roadmaps and ensure cyber risks do not grow in tandem with technological advancements. SEE ALSO : <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/health/news/monkeypox-cases-in-world-check-out-most-affected-countries-with-highest-number-of-cases/slidelist/93338582.cms#slideid=93338675">Top 10 countries with the highest number of Monkeypox cases</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/news/nothing-phone-1-carl-pei-has-denied-reports-that-the-company-is-working-on-a-lite-version/articleshow/93337922.cms">Carl Pei says reports about Nothing Phone (1) Lite are “fake news”</a>

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