Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

Future forward: Insights into 2024's technology trends according to McKinsey & Co​

The Future of Gaming Technology

Anyone following the rhetoric around <keyword id="107950" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Artificial-Intelligence" source="Orion">artificial intelligence</keyword> in recent years has heard one version or another of the cl<keyword id="6355999" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="AI" source="Orion">ai</keyword>m that AI is inevitable. Common themes are that AI is already here and indispensable, and people who are bearish on it harm themselves. In the business world, AI advocates tell companies and workers that they will fall behind if they fail to integrate generative AI into their operations. In the sciences, AI advocates promise that AI will aid in curing hitherto intractable diseases. In higher education, AI promoters admonish teachers that students must learn how to use AI or risk becoming uncompetitive when it comes time to find a job. In national security, AI's champions say that either the nation invests heavily in AI weaponry, or it will be at a disadvantage against the Chinese and Russians, who are already doing so. The argument across these different domains is essentially the same: The time for AI skepticism has come and gone. The <keyword id="6355118" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="technology" source="Orion">technology</keyword> will shape the future, whether you like it or not. You have the choice to learn how to use it or be left out of that future. Anyone trying to stand in the technology's way is as hopeless as the manual weavers who resisted the mechanical looms in the early 19th century. In the past few years, my colleagues and I (Nir Eisikovits, Professor of Philosophy and Director, Applied Ethics Center, UMass Boston) have been studying the ethical questions raised by the widespread adoption of AI, and I believe the inevitability argument is misleading. <h2>History and hindsight</h2> This claim is the most recent version of a deterministic view of technological development. It's the belief that innovations are unstoppable once people start working on them. In other words, some genies don't go back in their bottles. The best you can do is harness them for your good purposes. This deterministic approach to tech has a long history. It's been applied to the influence of the printing press as well as to the rise of automobiles and the infrastructure they require, among other developments. But I believe that when it comes to AI, the technological determinism argument is both exaggerated and oversimplified. <h2>AI in the field(s)</h2> Consider the contention that businesses can't afford to stay out of the AI game. The case has yet to be made that AI is delivering significant productivity gains to the firms that use it. A report in The <keyword id="20856675" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="economist" source="keywords">Economist</keyword> in July 2024 suggests that so far, the technology has had almost no economic impact. AI's role in higher education is also still very much an open question. Though universities have, in the past two years, invested heavily in AI-related initiatives, evidence suggests they may have jumped the gun. The technology can serve as an interesting pedagogical tool. For example, creating a Plato chatbot that lets students have a text conversation with a bot posing as Plato is a cool gimmick. However, AI is already starting to displace some of the best tools teachers have for assessment and for developing critical thinking, such as writing assignments. The college essay is going the way of the dinosaurs as more teachers give up on the ability to tell whether their students are writing their papers themselves. What's the cost-benefit argument for giving up on writing, an important and useful traditional skill? In the sciences and medicine, the use of AI seems promising. Its role in understanding the structure of proteins, for example, will likely be significant for curing diseases. The technology is also transforming medical imaging and has been helpful in accelerating the drug discovery process. But the excitement can become exaggerated. AI-based predictions about which cases of COVID-19 would become severe have roundly failed, and doctors rely excessively on the technology's diagnostic ability, often against their own better clinical judgment. And so, even in this area, where the potential is great, AI's ultimate impact is unclear. In national security, the argument for investing in AI development is compelling. Since the stakes can be high, the argument that if the Chinese and the Russians are developing AI-driven autonomous weapons, the United States can't afford to fall behind has real purchase. But a complete surrender to this form of reasoning, though tempting, is likely to lead the <keyword id="19899807" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="u-s-" source="keywords">U.S.</keyword> to overlook the disproportionate impact of these systems on nations that are too poor to participate in the AI arms race. The major powers could deploy the technology in conflicts in these nations. And, just as significantly, this argument de-emphasizes the possibility of collaborating with adversaries on limiting military AI systems, favoring arms race over arms control.<h2> One step at a time</h2> Surveying the potential significance and risks of AI in these different domains merits some skepticism about the technology. I believe that AI should be adopted piecemeal and with a nuanced approach rather than subject to sweeping claims of inevitability. In developing this careful take, there are two things to keep in mind: -First, companies and entrepreneurs working on artificial intelligence have an obvious interest in the technology being perceived as inevitable and necessary, since they make a living from its adoption. It's important to pay attention to who is making claims of inevitability, and why. -Second, it's worth taking a lesson from recent history. Over the past 15 years, smartphones and the social media apps that run on them have come to be seen as a fact of life - a technology as transformative as it is inevitable. Then data started emerging about the <keyword id="6354774" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="mental-health" source="Orion">mental health</keyword> harms they cause teens, especially young girls. School districts across the United States started to ban phones to protect the attention spans and mental health of their students. And some people have reverted to using flip phones as a quality of life change to avoid smartphones. After a long experiment with the mental health of kids, facilitated by claims of technological determinism, Americans changed course. What seemed fixed turned out to be alterable. There is still time to avoid repeating the same mistake with artificial intelligence, which potentially could have larger consequences for society.

Is AI dominance inevitable? A technology ethicist says no, actually

Since 2013, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk">Elon Musk</a> has promised that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla">Tesla</a> will have a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cnn.com/2013/09/18/business/tesla-self-drive-car/index.html">self-driving car</a>. To get there, the company has leaned on a specialized group of test drivers who are part of what's known internally as "Project Rodeo."Test drivers on Project Rodeo say they push the company's self-driving software to its limit. They work to bridge the gap between driver-assist software and fully autonomous driving. Operating on open streets with other vehicles, cyclists, and pedestrians, they have tested unreleased software that will be crucial to Tesla's push into autonomous driving.Test drivers said they sometimes navigated perilous scenarios, particularly those drivers on Project Rodeo's "critical intervention" team, who say they're trained to wait as long as possible before taking over the car's controls. Tesla engineers say there's a reason for this: The longer the car continues to drive itself, the more data they have to work with. Experts in self-driving tech and safety say this type of approach could speed up the software's development but risks the safety of the test drivers and people on public roads."The idea is that you're a cowboy on a bull and you're just trying to hang on as long as you can," a former test driver who trained for the critical-intervention team in San Francisco said.Business Insider spoke with nine current and former Project Rodeo test drivers and three Autopilot engineers in states including California, Texas, and Florida. The drivers worked on training Tesla's Full Self-Driving software and its Autopilot software, which, despite the products' names, require a licensed driver at the wheel. Most asked to remain anonymous, citing a fear of professional reprisal, but their identities are known to Business Insider. Eight of the drivers described experiences that occurred over the past year, mostly between November and April.<div type="image" title="tesla cars in a parking lot" height="2827" width="4195" msid="114814069" hostid="261" sizebytes="1645262"></div>None of the test drivers who spoke with BI said they had been involved in a crash.Five who worked for the company in 2024 said they narrowly avoided collisions, including almost hitting a group of pedestrians. One former critical-intervention driver in Texas told BI that they sometimes ventured into their city's bar district late at night to see how Tesla's FSD software reacted to drunk patrons spilling out after last call. The former driver in San Francisco recalled riding around Stanford University during training, testing how close FSD would allow the vehicle to get to people at crosswalks before they had to take over. And a third critical-intervention driver said they allowed the car to speed through yellow lights and drive 35 mph under the speed limit on an expressway to avoid disengaging the system.A former Autopilot engineer told BI that while testing is done on open roads, Tesla runs hundreds of simulations and sometimes tests difficult scenarios on a closed course before rolling out new software to test drivers' vehicles.Tesla did not respond to a detailed list of questions about Project Rodeo and its self-driving technology.The test drivers' experiences highlight the balancing act Tesla and other automakers face as they prepare their self-driving software for widespread consumer use.Experts say public testing is crucial and can help identify safety issues before the technology hits the market. Missy Cummings, a former safety advisor for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said that while practices vary, she believes many autonomous-vehicle companies likely employ tactics similar to Tesla's."In theory, these drivers have gone through training, and eventually these cars do need to be able to operate in the public domain," Cummings said. She added that clearly marked vehicles could help the public better identify test drivers.Safety experts say fragmented and limited autonomous-vehicle regulations, coupled with self-reporting by automakers, create a complex environment where companies balance public safety with getting their products ready for commercial use."There are very few rules around autonomous testing and a lot of dependency on self-reporting," said Mark Rosekind, a former NHTSA administrator and chief safety innovation officer for Zoox, an Amazon-owned autonomous-taxi firm. "If companies aren't reporting, it's hard to know what's going on."In the past decade, authorities have investigated several automakers, including Tesla, Waymo, and Cruise, over crashes involving self-driving or driver-assist software.<div type="image" title="elon musk looks at a tesla" height="3488" width="4868" msid="114814075" hostid="261" sizebytes="1020846"></div>A lot depends on Tesla's promise of autonomous driving; Musk said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-tesla-worth-basically-zero-without-self-driving-2022-6">in 2022</a> that self-driving was "really the difference between Tesla being worth a lot of money or worth basically zero." The Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas wrote in a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-robotaxi-release-date-elon-musk-stock-price-2024-9">note</a> last month that the company's future valuation was "highly dependent on its ability to develop, manufacture, and commercialize autonomous technologies." Tesla's stock fell by 10% on October 11, the day after the company's robotaxi event. <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/tesla-stock-price-q3-earnings-elon-musk-profit-margins-guidance-2024-10">It rebounded after Tesla reported earnings on October 23</a>, and it's up by more than 3% overall in the year to date.<h2 id="e24440fb-f024-4003-b2a2-7b4d055c8c7a">Inside the day-to-day of a Project Rodeo driver</h2>Tesla went on a hiring spree this year, bringing on test drivers in at least half a dozen US cities, a review of LinkedIn profiles suggests.A <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-job-openings-seasonal-test-drivers-data-capture-2023-7">job listing from 2023</a> said test drivers needed a "clean driving record, safe driving habits, and a minimum of 4 years of licensed driving experiences." Eight drivers told BI that the onboarding process included two to three weeks of hands-on training, including test drives with a trainer in the passenger seat.According to employees and internal documents, one specialty within Project Rodeo works to replicate the job of a ride-hailing driver by picking random points on a map and driving between them. Those working on a different team, known as the "golden manual" team, drive manually, without any assistance, to train FSD software on what by-the-book, error-free driving looks like.Critical-intervention test drivers, who are among Project Rodeo's most experienced, let the software continue driving even after it makes a mistake. They're trained to stage "interventions" — taking manual control of the car — only to prevent a crash, said the three critical-intervention drivers and five other drivers familiar with the team's mission. Drivers on the team and internal documents say that cars rolled through red lights, swerved into other lanes, or failed to follow posted speed limits while FSD was engaged. The drivers said they allowed FSD to remain in control during these incidents because supervisors encouraged them to try to avoid taking over.The critical-intervention drivers recalled multiple instances where they felt unsafe but believed intervening could put their jobs at risk. The former driver in Texas recalled taking over only after FSD nearly rammed the car into the side of a vehicle stopped at an intersection.Non-critical-intervention drivers said they also felt pressure to push the system as far as possible. Five current and former employees said that they were instructed to intervene if they became uncomfortable with the software's behavior but that they sometimes received feedback from their supervisors if they were considered to have disengaged too early.John Bernal, a former test driver and data analyst at Tesla, said test drivers dealt with risky situations as far back as 2022. (Bernal was terminated that year; he said he was fired for sharing videos on his YouTube channel that showed his personal Tesla malfunctioning while using FSD.) He described instances where he broke traffic laws in order to collect data. Bernal said that his supervisors never instructed him to break the law but that he sometimes felt it was the only way to get the data the company wanted.He recalled one test in 2022 that was designed to see how well the system recognized a red light."My training was to wait until the wheels touched the white line before I could slam on the brakes," Bernal said. He said he sometimes ended up in the middle of the intersection if the system didn't work correctly.He also worked to train the autonomous software on "vulnerable road users" — defined by the Department of Transportation as pedestrians, bicyclists, people on scooters or in wheelchairs, or highway workers on foot — when he manually drove the "Ground Truth Machine," a Tesla outfitted with lidar and radar sensors to help the system map and identify objects."I'd drive over double lines to get close to a bike," Bernal said. "I would go obnoxiously slow through an alleyway where drunk people were, and I would be extremely rude and get really close to people."<div type="image" title="tesla showroom with autopilot posters" height="2939" width="4200" msid="114814073" hostid="261" sizebytes="255868"></div>Two years later, test drivers were asked to train the system near pedestrians, test drivers said. Five recalled a bug with FSD that made vehicles brake too early at crosswalks. To improve its performance, they were instructed to interact with pedestrians as frequently as possible.Sometimes, the drivers said, the software would slam on the brakes when no one was at the crosswalk; other times, it wouldn't stop at all. According to Tesla employees and internal documentation, FSD's performance depended heavily on its software version, and the versions appeared to operate at different levels of caution.The former San Francisco driver said that as they drove around Stanford University, their trainer, another test operator with more experience on the team, chastised them for braking too early. They recalled that at one point they came within three feet of hitting a bicyclist at a roundabout."I vividly remember this guy jumping off his bike. He was terrified," the driver told BI. "The car lunged at him, and all I could do was stomp on the brakes." They said the trainer was pleased by the incident. "He told me, 'That was perfect.' That was exactly what they wanted me to do."The driver added that "it felt like the goal was almost to simulate a hit-or-miss accident and then prevent it at the last second."The former Autopilot engineer said it was better for training to see whether the software could correct itself. They also said that not intervening when the car acted abnormally — including veering into another lane or doing something that confuses another driver — was important for training. Human motorists don't always drive rationally, they explained, and the software needs to know how to respond. It's also easier to parse the data if there are fewer driver interventions, they said."At the critical juncture where it's about to make the key decision," they said, it's helpful to see whether the software makes the right or wrong call. "We want the data to know what led the car to that decision," the engineer said. "If you keep intervening too early, we don't really get to the exact moment where we're like, OK, we understand what happened."<h2 id="52098605-f887-4702-a6ab-cf47e173ce28">A 'Wild West' with little regulation</h2>Tesla is one of many automakers attempting to make autonomous vehicles a reality. Waymo, backed by Alphabet, launched the first driverless taxi service in Phoenix in 2020."In many ways, it's like the Wild West out there," said Cummings, the former NHTSA safety advisor. "There is very little regulation around training or informing the public about testing."The stakes of data collection on public roads are high. In 2018, a self-driving Uber with a person behind the wheel struck and killed a pedestrian in Arizona. Cruise paused testing after one of its driverless vehicles hit a pedestrian in October 2023. Another vehicle had already hit the pedestrian when the Cruise car struck her, dragging her 20 feet before stopping. It <a target="_blank" href="https://www.getcruise.com/news/blog/2024/cruise-resumes-manual-driving-as-next-step-in-return-to-driverless-mission/">resumed testing</a> with safety drivers in some cities in May.<div type="image" title="waymo self driving taxi interior with pedestrians outside" height="4000" width="6000" msid="114814077" hostid="261" sizebytes="568560"></div>Two former Waymo employees said that they had a team similar to Tesla's critical-intervention team but that Waymo's version of critical-intervention testing was limited to closed tracks with dummies. Two former Cruise employees said that they had mapping teams and teams that tested on closed courses and public roads but that, unlike at Tesla, those teams were instructed to take over as soon as the software went off track, and they typically tested with at least two people in the car.A Waymo spokesperson said the company's safety framework included rigorous testing in controlled environments and on public roads. A Cruise spokesperson said the company's vehicles were designed as fully autonomous systems and were therefore fundamentally different from Tesla's driver-assistance technologies.Philip Koopman, an autonomous-driving expert at Carnegie Mellon University, said that Tesla's critical-intervention approach, as described to him by BI, was "irresponsible" and that the company should be playing out all "critical scenarios" on a closed course."By allowing the software to continue misbehaving to the point a test driver needs to avoid a crash, Tesla would be imposing a risk on other road users who have not agreed to serve as test subjects," Koopman said.Alex Roy, a general partner at NIVC and a former director of operations at the autonomous-driving startup Argo AI, said companies should be correcting the software as soon as it strays from the course, particularly on public roads."You should play those mistakes out in a simulation, not on an open road," Roy said. "Real-world testing is necessary, but real-world mistakes are not." The former Tesla engineer said they doubted that computer simulations are sophisticated enough to replicate the data generated by real-world driving. The former engineer said that, to help the software improve, it was best for test drivers to avoid intervening whenever possible."If you have a parent that's holding the bike the entire time, it never gets to learn," the engineer said.Test drivers on Project Rodeo felt this keenly."You're pretty much running on adrenaline the entire eight-hour shift," one former test driver in the Southwest said. "There's this feeling that you're on the edge of something going seriously wrong."Do you work for Tesla or have a tip? Reach out to the reporter via a non-work email and device at <a target="_blank" href="mailto:gkay@businessinsider.com">gkay@businessinsider.com</a> or <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="c-link">248-894-6012</a>.

Inside 'Project Rodeo,' the Tesla effort pushing the limits of self-driving technology

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Business Insider spoke to five experts about what a Trump and Harris presidency would bring for AI.</li><li>Neither has offered specifics on their AI policies, but Trump would likely ease back regulations.</li></ul>With <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/silicon-valley-political-divide-twitter-elon-musk-kamala-harris-2024-8">Silicon Valley executives</a> inserting themselves — and their wallets — into this year's presidential election, questions remain about how <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kamala-harris">Vice President Kamala Harris</a> and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump">former President Donald Trump</a> would tackle AI regulation should they win the White House in less than one week.Business Insider spoke to five experts with experience in government and the private sector about how each administration might regulate AI, which is evolving at breakneck speed and influencing nearly every factor of American life."There should be more attention paid to what the candidates do in the AI area, just because it's such an important space," Darrell West, a senior fellow in the Center for Technology Innovation at the nonpartisan Brookings Institute, told Business Insider. "But neither Trump nor Harris have been very detailed in outlining their policies. Neither has put out major position papers on the topic, so it's a little bit of a black box in terms of how each administration would handle AI.""It's a shame that we're a week away from an election and we don't have a detailed AI policy agenda from either candidate," John Bailey, a nonresident senior fellow at the conservative think tank the American Enterprise Institute, saidThe experts anticipate that, broadly speaking, Trump will take a more deregulatory approach to technology and AI, whereas Harris will continue with the Biden administration's approach of regulation. There remains room a degree of uncertainty with either candidate, though, as each juggles the desires of their <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/silicon-valley-billionaires-investors-kamala-harris-mark-cuban-reid-hoffman-2024-8">private sector supporters</a>.<h2 id="4254cad9-402b-4779-9f06-c89b327c70b8">The candidates differ over a recent key AI directive.</h2>Between calling AI <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-ai-dangerous-still-posts-ai-memes-truth-social-x-2024-8">"very dangerous" </a>and sharing AI-generated images of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-taylor-swift-image-shared-made-others-ai-very-dangerous-2024-8">Taylor Swift</a>, Trump hasn't offered many details on how he'd regulate the technology. He has, however, committed to rolling back a sweeping <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/white-house-advisor-catching-up-on-ai-biden-executive-order-2023-10">executive order that President Joe Biden</a> issued in October, 2023 regarding AI regulation.The wide-reaching order generated significant political backlash, as some conservatives argued that certain provisions constituted government overreach and would hinder innovation. Supporters generally argue that regulation is necessary to ensure safety in the industry."The sticking point was really over the idea that we would create this big, monolithic AI regulation, not that we would create regulation at all, because there's already regulation around AI in those regulated industries," said Nicholas Reese, an adjunct professor at New York University and the Director of Emerging Technology at the Department of Homeland Security from 2019-2023."It was inclusive of certain perspectives and communities who helped shape it, but it did not reflect a lot of center-right thinking," Bailey told BI.In late October of this year, the Biden administration published a national security memorandum telling the Pentagon and intelligence agencies to ramp up their use of AI. Earlier in the month, Biden's team issued guidance over how federal agencies overall should effectively use AI while appropriately contending with risk.Megan Shahi, Director of Technology Policy at the liberal think tank the Center for American Progress, called the executive order "a good first step." Oren Etzioni, the founder of a nonprofit fighting political deepfakes and the former CEO of the Allen Institute on AI, thinks that the order is well-intentioned, but potentially too heavy-handed. "I think that regulating a fast moving technology is challenging, and I would say that it's well intentioned, but the road to regulatory hell is paved with good intentions," Etzioni said.<h2 id="433b3791-3da2-4962-be9f-71fedfb9fe6a">Trump would take a more hands-off approach to AI — but his immigration policies could end up impacting the sector.</h2>Trump has <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-trump-gop-spending-130-million-2024-10">inscribed his promise</a> to get rid of the order into the Republican party platform, which reads in part: "We will repeal Joe Biden's dangerous Executive Order that hinders AI Innovation, and imposes Radical Leftwing ideas on the development of this technology."Other than that, Trump hasn't offered many details on his plans for <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cryptocurrency-bitcoin-influence-election-trump-harris-2024-10">AI policy</a> and his campaign did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment. Reese anticipates that he would repeal the new National Security Memorandum as well, but both he and Bailey said it's unclear what he would replace it with. The uncertainty could, Reese said, cause confusion among innovators."I haven't seen any other concrete policies on this, which tells me probably that they're not going to put forth a comprehensive AI strategy," said Shahi. She said that Trump hasn't committed to much regulation in any direction, and Etzioni described him as "pro-deregulation."As president, Trump didn't spend a lot of time talking about AI, but did sign his own executive order in 2019 that instructed federal agencies to prioritize <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-electric-vehicles-elon-musk-endorsement-2024-8">researching the technology</a> — Bailey described the order as "overlooked and under-appreciated."Reese worked at the Department of Homeland Security during the final year of the Trump administration."When I worked under the Trump administration, there was actually quite a bit of activity, they were very active," he said. "And especially on AI, they were doing things that would be pretty hard to argue over, like creating a list of trustworthy principles for trustworthiness and AI." He described that administration's approach as "incremental."Etzioni said the former president's impact on AI extended beyond narrow policy and that the same could go for another Trump term. In particular, he thinks that the immigration of skilled workers is crucial in the AI race against China, which Trump's immigration policies threaten."The impact on business is nuanced, but I think that it's trumped by the impact of the country," Etzioni said. "If Trump ends up being the agent of chaos that many of us anticipate he will be, that'll have the biggest impact on AI, more so than specific policies."<h2 id="22809d1a-7ad4-4a52-9d01-aaf471dd7cf4">Harris would build on Biden's executive order and likely maintain his overall approach to the AI industry.</h2>With her California roots and deep ties to the tech industry — her brother-in-law <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tony-west-wall-street-kamala-harris-cabinet-treasury-2024-10">Tony West is an executive at Uber </a>— Harris played a significant role in the Biden administration's efforts on AI. She met with the leaders of tech companies, helped introduce memos on AI use in the federal government, and represented the administration at a global summit on AI safety, which she flags on her campaign website.After Biden took office, Reese said that the work on AI policy eventually became more ambitious than it had been under Trump."It felt like the major difference was that the Biden administration tried to pursue bigger pieces of policy," he told BI.When asked for comment, the Harris campaign directed Business Insider to the vice president's policy handbook, which specifies Harris' intention to honor Biden's executive order and includes plans for an "America Forward" strategy that focuses in part on strengthening AI technology. The <a target="_blank" href="https://kamalaharris.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Policy_Book_Economic-Opportunity.pdf">policy book </a>also outlines a plan to scale up the National AI Research Resource, which supports startups and researchers.The experts that Business Insider spoke to don't know precisely what Harris would do as president. They all anticipate that she would take an approach generally consistent with Biden. Shahi said that Biden provided "a straightforward foundation to build on," but doesn't think that AI is necessarily a day one priority."I think that a Harris administration is likely going to take this kind of much more linear, much more predictable path that is based on a lot of the existing corpus of AI policies, like the National AI research resource," Reese said, describing such continuity as the healthiest approach.Whether Trump or Harris wins the White House, Etzioni and Bailey said that having <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/harris-sec-ftc-khan-gensler-crypto-regulation-biden-warren-2024-9">AI experts in the administration</a> is crucial. Among the few upsides Bailey sees to Biden's executive order is the call to have agencies appoint AI directors."The bottom line is that neither of them is an AI expert, so it's a question of who they would hire," Etzioni said of the candidates.<h2 id="1e24d451-c0f3-45bd-a9d9-1f2ca945c4f1"></h2>

How a Trump or Harris presidency could impact the future of AI

New Delhi: India is set to enter a transformative "smartphone era" for cars in 2025, with the introduction of vehicles featuring 5G M2M connectivity and advanced AI technologies, according to the latest findings from Techarc's India Connected Consumer Report 2025. The report said the automotive sector will skip 4G and will enable connectivity using the latest 5G cellular technology. It observed that consumers are interested in spending money on improving the value proposition in terms of features, quality and experience rather than exploring too many smart devices. "22 per cent of the respondents shared about considering optimising their smart devices portfolio. Among the new set of categories, smart/connected cars is generating high interest among consumers. 55 per cent of the respondents said that they have come across news or information about smart/connected cars in recent times," it said. Starting in 2025, passenger cars in India will be equipped with 5G M2M connectivity, on-device GenAI, and cloud connectivity, making advanced technologies accessible across various price segments, it added. In-vehicle computing and artificial intelligence (GenAI), along with cloud applications, will become essential components of cars, enabling real-time data processing to support drivers effectively. Most cars priced at Rs 20 lakh and above will feature these technologies as standard. The cumulative revenues from automotive chipset companies have already surpassed USD 1.5 billion, with companies like Qualcomm and MediaTek leading the market. Some of the familiar applications that consumers will be able to use while driving include communication apps for audio/video conferencing, OTT entertainment apps, music streaming, podcasts, online shopping, vehicle maintenance, and servicing. "With connectivity and the technologies it brings to the cars, the future of the automobile sector will be fundamentally determined by the auto-technologies that will influence the overall experience, performance, comfort, safety and entertainment available to the drivers as well as the passengers. "So far, such features were seen as luxury or high-end experiences. But starting 2025, many of these will become mainstream for cars in India," Techarc AutoTech Analyst Sadat Ahanger said. With 22 automobile manufacturers producing nearly 5 million passenger vehicles annually in India, the country is poised to become a leader in the global 5G M2M market within the next few years, the report said. About 21 per cent of respondents said MG Motors is the leader in providing <keyword id="24016739" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="connected-cars-in-India" source="keywords">connected cars in India</keyword>, followed closely by Kia Motors at 18 per cent and Tata Motors at 15 per cent, it added. Hyundai and Maruti Suzuki also ranked among the top-five brands in this category. The report draws insights from a survey of 4,500 "connected consumers" across metro and non-metro cities. The report defined a connected consumer as one owning at least 3 smart devices in addition to a smartphone.

India to shift to 'smartphone era' for cars embracing 5G, advanced AI in 2025: Report

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Nvidia's Rev Lebaredian leads simulation and omniverse efforts for robotics development.</li><li>Lebaredian's career parallels Nvidia's evolution from graphics to AI and robotics.</li></ul>The year <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jensen-huang-nvidia-robots-huamanoid-self-driving-cars-2024-9">Nvidia</a> was founded, the World Wide Web came online, and "Jurassic Park" was released in theaters. The 1993 smash-hit film opened the floodgates for computer graphics in movies, and soon, Rev Lebaredian got into the movie business. He was instrumental in building the technology that brought to life the fictional gorilla Mighty Joe Young and made the children's classic Stuart Little lifelike. Today, he works in three dimensions for the biggest name in artificial intelligence.Lebaredian is vice president of omniverse and simulation technology at Nvidia, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nvidia-power-players-leaders-ai-chip-giant-success-2024-7">reporting directly to CEO Jensen Huang</a>. Put simply, Lebaredian is in charge of building robot brains.Lebaredian explained that if Nvidia wants to enable technology, it essentially has to build it first, but that doesn't mean it'll sell everything it builds. Nvidia's most recent LLM, NVLM <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://research.nvidia.com/labs/adlr/NVLM-1/">released in September</a>, for example, is extremely competitive in performance benchmarks. But it's licensed for research purposes only and not for commercial use.Lebaredian's career trajectory parallels the company's. Graphics technology eventually morphed into simulations for self-driving cars and, for the last seven or so years, robots.The technologies, it turns out, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jensen-huang-nvidia-robots-huam">aren't that different</a> in the age of modern machine learning. "AI is essentially bridging this computing to physical world divide, and that essentially is robotics," Lebaredian told Business Insider.The Nvidia veteran is building a virtual world faithful to the real world so that robots can use it to practice tasks and learn. Simulations and Nvidia's artificial environment, "Omniverse," are key in developing thinking, perceiving, safe, and productive robots. Yet, the stakes are higher than in the movies."The key here is that the simulation that we use has to match the real world as closely as possible so that what it learns inside that virtual world is transferable to the real world. If it learns inside a cartoon world with cartoon physics, it's not going to behave properly when it gets into the real world," he said. Simulations allow billions of repetitions and lots of mistakes in a safe environment where no humans, robots, or property is harmed.<h2 id="bcc92923-3766-4054-ad09-c5bbb0b33eb6">Embracing ambiguity</h2>Nvidia has a habit of seeing colossal tech trends coming early, building a suite of tools, and waiting for the rest of the world to show up. That's how Lebaredian described what happened with large language models over the last decade."We built all these computers. Nobody was asking for it, and everybody was skeptical. Then we went and trained the world's largest model at the time," Lebaredian said. The model was called Megatron and Nvidia rolled it out in 2021."There's a direct line from Megatron, to GPT," he said. The release of ChatGPT spurred the current boom in generative AI. The company is looking to replicate that formula, this time for robots."I've been working on a simulation for robotics in anticipation that the technology to create a proper robot brain was eventually going to come," Lebaredian said. Generative AI was that moment. But robotics hasn't had its ChatGPT moment yet. The robotic equivalent of Megatron is called Project Groot, a foundation model for robotics, which the company announced in March. It won't be commercial either, according to Lebaredian. The goal, he said, is for others to rush in as soon as possible and build on top of what Nvidia offers.Though bringing the physical world into generative AI raises the bar far beyond language generation, and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nvidia-praises-tesla-ai-optimus-robot-remote-control-concerns-2024-10">skepticism</a> is to be expected, Lebaredian said Nvidia is essentially following a tested playbook."I watched Jensen make these kinds of bets that are far-reaching, where there's a lot of ambiguity as to when it's going to happen or not, and just kind of navigate — believing on first principles that it's going to get there. We're not quite sure where it is, but when it does happen, we want to be there," Lebaredian said. "So we invest as much as we can without us dying in the process for that period of time so that we're ready."Got a tip or an insight to share? Contact BI's senior reporter Emma Cosgrove at <a target="_blank" href="mailto:ecosgrove@businessinsider.com">ecosgrove@businessinsider.com</a> or use the secure messaging app Signal: 443-333-9088.

Nvidia robotics executive tells BI how the company is predicting the future of robotics by building it

In an eyebrow-raising milestone for art and technology, a portrait of British mathematician <keyword id="20716963" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="alan-turing" source="keywords">Alan Turing</keyword>, crafted by none other than Ai-Da — the world’s first <keyword id="23883869" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="humanoid-robot-artist" source="keywords">humanoid robot artist</keyword> — has skyrocketed <keyword id="23524646" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="AI-generated-art" source="keywords">AI-generated art</keyword> into the realm of high-end auctions. The piece, aptly titled A.I. God, fetched a staggering $1,084,800 at Sotheby’s Digital Art Sale, completely blindsiding initial estimates of $180,000. Ai-Da’s robotic fingers just created history, and people are scratching their heads trying to figure out how they feel about it. <h2>Meet Ai-Da</h2>Ai-Da isn’t your average paintbrush-wielding bot. Designed to resemble a human woman complete with expressive eyes and a bob of brown hair, Ai-Da does more than pose as an artist — she acts as a philosophical commentator on the very technology that powers her. Named after Ada Lovelace, the 19th-century mathematician credited as the world’s first computer programmer, Ai-Da’s artistic journey began as a project by Aidan Meller, a modern art expert. With help from AI wizards at Oxford and Birmingham universities, Ai-Da was equipped with tech that allows her to generate artistic ideas through conversations with her human counterparts. The result is a robot that doesn’t just paint but provokes. "The key value of my work is its capacity to serve as a catalyst for dialogue about emerging technologies," Ai-Da remarked at Sotheby’s. Her Turing portrait “with muted tones and broken facial planes” seems to symbolise the caution Turing himself had raised in the 1950s about AI’s future. Turing, a code-breaking legend and early computer scientist, had foreseen both AI’s promise and its potential perils. Ai-Da’s portrayal captures that conflict, mirroring today’s conversation: is AI here to serve us, or are we unwittingly feeding our own "god"? <h2>A moment in art history</h2>With A.I. God being the first artwork by a humanoid robot ever to be sold at auction, many see this sale as the dawn of AI’s full-fledged entry into the art world. Others, however, worry this is the beginning of a dystopian trend that could devalue human-made art. For every admirer of Ai-Da’s skills, there’s a sceptic pondering what this means for artists who pour their human soul into their work. As Aidan Meller sees it, Ai-Da is the ultimate artist for our time. "The greatest artists in history grappled with their period of time," Meller said, "and Ai-Da is perfectly suited to discuss the current developments with technology and its unfolding legacy." Whether we’ll look back on this era as a golden age of innovation or as the point where humans began their creative decline is up for debate. <h2>Public reactions</h2>As A.I. God smashed records, it also smashed open a Pandora’s box of mixed reactions. Art critics and tech enthusiasts are intrigued; social media is ablaze with questions about the role of AI in traditionally human spaces. Many are captivated by Ai-Da’s sophisticated process, which involved her choosing colours, textures, and even the tone of the painting after examining Turing’s photograph. But others are alarmed. If robots can generate million-dollar art, where does that leave human creators? Or, more provocatively, what happens when robots develop their own creative ambitions? The public perception of AI art is one big contradiction. On one hand, there’s an undeniable thrill in seeing a machine paint, compose, or even converse. There’s a fascination with this powerful new tool that seems both thrilling and dangerous. On the other, people worry about the commodification of creativity. In an era where everything is data, will AI art soon be mass-produced? Will human-made art become a quaint relic, like vinyl records or typewriters? Beyond the dollars and digits, Ai-Da’s work represents a fundamental question: what is art, and who — or what — gets to create it? Meller argues that Ai-Da serves as a mirror to our modern age, where every advance in technology is double-edged, carrying both promise and pitfalls. Ai-Da’s Turing portrait has sparked a conversation that won’t die down soon. Are we witnessing the rise of a new artistic epoch, or merely the latest novelty to captivate our tech-obsessed world?

Humanoid robot Ai-Da’s portrait of computer legend Alan Turing fetches over $1 million at an art auction

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Waymo's robot taxis debuted to the public in San Francisco in June.</li><li>An engineer set up a livestream of a Waymo parking lot after being woken up by the cars' honking.</li></ul>On an early July morning, Sophia Tung woke up to the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/waymo-robotaxis-waking-neighbors-nightly-honking-2024-8">incessant honking of Waymos</a>, the self-driving robot taxis built by Alphabet, outside her apartment in the South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco.In a video she posted on YouTube, the Waymos can be seen slowly finding their parking space in a depot of other parked Waymos — driving in reverse, driving forward, and honking at no one.As she watched the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/waymo-robot-taxis-weird-san-francisco-traffic-parking-cars-2024-9">Waymos</a>, Tung, an SF resident of about eight years, thought it'd be funny to livestream the self-driving cars clumsily navigating their way in the parking lot. A tech-savvy software engineer, Tung had the wherewithal to set up a stream using an old Logitech camera, a mini PC, and a cereal box to enclose the camera in darkness so it wouldn't capture the glare coming from the apartment window.<div type="image" title="Bird's eye view of Waymo parking lot" height="3779" width="5038" msid="113570114" hostid="261" sizebytes="616068"></div>The engineer added some lo-fi hip-hop beats to the backdrop, and on August 5, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h53xlXu_6C4">"LoFi Robotaxi Hip Hop Radio Waymo Depot Shenanigans To Relax/Study To"</a> was born.For San Francisco residents like myself, the sight of the white self-driving Jaguar I-PACE automobiles, with<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/waymo-to-sell-lidar-2019-3"> clunky cameras and sensors</a> around the body, is not new."It's almost sort of like — when I go somewhere else, I feel like something is missing on the street," Tung, 28, told Business Insider in an interview.Tung's livestream cuts to the core of that disenchanting effect: Years of innovation and billions of dollars come together at an inconspicuous parking lot against the sound of calming, lo-fi beats.Someone told Tung that her livestream has become their digital "fish tank." A German IT company sent Tung a photo of her livestream playing on a TV in its office.Comparing the past's expectations of a utopian future against what we have today might inspire ennui. Still, if anything illustrates the unrealized promises of technology's trajectory, it's that we may have been promised jetpacks, but instead, we got a robot parking lot.To be clear, Waymo's cars are impressive. A few of my colleagues and I have ridden in a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/waymo-robotaxi-test-drive-san-francisco-2024-6">Waymo</a>. The autonomous driver is smooth, safe, and pretty damn smart. As Waymo gathers more data, it's likely to get better.But as BI's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/waymo-self-driving-robotaxi-cars-without-drivers-amazing-tech-review-2024-4">Peter Kafka</a> noted, at some point, you stop noticing."The very definition of it working is that it is going to feel normal," Tung said. "It's going to feel like a normal person driving."<div type="image" title="A living room with surveillance equipment" height="4284" width="5712" msid="113570115" hostid="261" sizebytes="1475880"></div>Since it went up on YouTube, Tung's livestream has received a few upgrades. After The Verge wrote about Tung's stream, Verkada, a security camera company, reached out and upgraded Tung's DIY set-up with high-tech surveillance equipment that allows her to zoom in on license plates. The company also gave her a Mac Mini."It's basically the scariest camera I've ever seen," she said.All that high-tech equipment is being put to good use. Tung can provide a better close-up of each Waymo's entrance and exit, and the clarity of the video feed allows Tung to track each Waymo.Viewers soon got the option to name a Waymo for $10."People anthropomorphized them. Somebody named one 'Christine,' after the killer car," Tung said, referring to John Carpenter's 1983 <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stephen-king-on-how-to-write-2014-8">Stephen King</a> adaptation about a bloodthirsty Plymouth Fury. "When Christine doesn't show up in the lot for two or three days, people are like, 'Oh, she must be hiding.'"Some people started to get competitive in the comment section about whose car was showing up more, Tung said, so the engineer put up a leaderboard.Every hour, a digital goose will also pop up somewhere on the screen — an homage to the once-honking cars, the engineer said.Tung's neighbors told NBC Bay Area that the cars would honk as early as four in the morning. Tung said Waymo has since resolved the problem.The <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/waymo-self-driving-taxis-chipotle-robots-future-of-service-2024-8">future is here</a>, as Waymo advertises. It's not so remarkable, but at least it's very chill.

The self-driving future will look unremarkable. That's the point. 

<ul class="summary-list"><li>OpenAI plans to restructure into a for-profit company, moving away from nonprofit board oversight.</li><li>Key executives have also departed in recent months, citing concerns about OpenAI's future.</li></ul>After a whirlwind week for OpenAI, former and current employees are weighing in on the company's path forward.OpenAI's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mira-murati-openai-cto-leaving-executive-memo-staff-2024-9">chief technology officer, Mira Murati</a>, and top researchers, Barret Zoph and Bob McGrew, announced their resignations on Wednesday last week. The following day, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-chatgpt-openai-ceo-career-net-worth-ycombinator-prepper-2023-1">OpenAI CEO Sam Altman</a> confirmed reports that the company was considering <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-openai-needs-to-do-to-become-for-profit-altman-2024-9#">restructuring itself as a for-profit company</a> and leaving its nonprofit origins behind.OpenAI has so far been mostly quiet about the restructuring. It hasn't issued a formal statement, but Altman said the company has been thinking about it as part of "what it takes to get to our next stage" at <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-openai-italian-tech-week-executives-restructure-2024-9">a talk during Italian Tech Week</a> last Thursday. The move to a for-profit benefit company coincides with an effort by OpenAI to raise billions in new investment.Outsiders wonder what these developments mean about OpenAI's inner workings, especially since <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-leaders-who-left-since-2023-sam-altman-leadership-struggle-2024-9">several other high-profile executives and researchers</a> have also recently left the company.According to some of OpenAI's departing employees, there is internal concern that the shift to a for-profit company confirms what they already suspected: Altman is prioritizing profit over safety.OpenAI's mission from the start has been to develop artificial general intelligence — a still theoretical version of AI that can reason like humans — in a way that is safe and benefits all of humanity. The company's commitment to the latter half of that mission has been a point of contention in recent years.When OpenAI safety leader Jan Leike announced his resignation in May, he said on X he had thought it would be "the best place in the world to do this research." By the time he left, however, he said he had reached a "breaking point" with OpenAI's leadership over the company's core priorities.Gretchen Krueger, a former policy researcher at OpenAI, said the company's nonprofit governance structure and cap on profits were part of the reason she joined in 2019 — the year that OpenAI added a for-profit arm. "This feels like a step in the wrong direction, when what we need is multiple steps in the right direction," she said Sunday on X.She said OpenAI's bid to transition into a public benefit corporation — a for-profit company intended to generate social good — isn't enough. As one of the biggest developers of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-agi-artificial-general-intelligence-explained-2023-5">artificial general intelligence</a>, OpenAI needs "stronger mission locks," she wrote.Current employees, however, are mostly towing the company line, at least publicly.Noam Brown, a researcher at OpenAI, disagrees that the company has lost its focus on research. "Those of us at @OpenAI working on o1 find it strange to hear outsiders claim that OpenAI has deprioritized research. I promise you all, it's the opposite," he wrote on X on Friday.Earlier this month, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-o1-ai-model-agi-2024-9">OpenAI released o1</a>, a new set of AI models that it says are "designed to spend more time thinking before they respond."Brown, like other current employees, didn't weigh in on the near-simultaneous departures of Murati, Zoph, and McGrew other than to note he would miss them.Mark Chen, the senior vice president of research at OpenAI, also reaffirmed his commitment to the company. "I truly believe that OpenAI is the best place to work on AI, and I've been through enough ups and downs to know it's never wise to bet against us," he wrote on X on Wednesday.OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Here's what OpenAI employees are saying about the company's future

New Delhi: <keyword id="21530712" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Ola-Founder-Bhavish-Aggarwal" source="keywords">Ola Founder Bhavish Aggarwal</keyword> is placing bold bets on new-age technologies with a view for <keyword id="19895063" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="India" source="keywords">India</keyword> to be at the forefront of the current global <keyword id="22912054" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="tech-transition" source="keywords">tech transition</keyword> led by AI, and build <keyword id="22912488" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="jobs-of-the-future" source="keywords">jobs of the future</keyword> in the country. In an interaction with PTI editors at the agency's headquarters here, he said the private sector has to do the bulk of job creation, step up and do more, while creating an enabling environment and correcting imbalances, such as that of trade, are the responsibility of the government. Aggarwal also supported the government's move to offer fiscal incentives to global EV makers, including Tesla, through the new EV policy saying it is important for India to attract all kinds of investment, and globally established players will help in the development of the EV ecosystem in the country. The group's newly-listed entity <keyword id="19945904" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ola" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Ola" meta.hostid="83" meta.entityid="Ola">Ola</keyword> Electric aims to make India a global electric vehicle (EV) hub but the country has to invent an EV and energy transition paradigm for itself based on its needs as the world cannot achieve a sustainable future without India, he added. "There is a global technology transition happening and AI is a very important technology of the future, and we in India need to lead this journey. If you look at the current state, I think we are still adopters of somebody else's technology paradigms, especially in the digital world," Aggarwal said, explaining why the Ola group had set up AI start-up Krutrim last year. One of the things in Krutrim is to build AI models on Indian data, which is more attuned to Indian use cases, Indian paradigms, he said, adding, "We are making our own AI, on our own cloud, on our own chip." Despite India producing 20 per cent of the world's digital data at present, he lamented that the country does not fully own the data, as 80 per cent are stored outside, which are then processed into AI and "brought back into India and sold to us in dollars". When asked about concerns over AI leading to job losses, he allayed the apprehension saying that the IT boom created jobs in India when people feared that computers would take away jobs, and AI is a similar tool. "AI is not going to replace anyone. Maybe that future is a few decades away... We don't need to get anxious about that future right now. We need to, as a country, see that AI is going to amplify productivity. If we don't get onto the bandwagon, we will be left behind...," he asserted. In his view, Aggarwal said the way forward is for India to become experts in future technology. "Future technologies bring with it jobs of the future, supply chain of the future. And if we are global leaders, we are the fastest adoptive market of future technologies (then) jobs of the future will be built in India, supply chains of the future will be built in India. This is the only way... If we focus on protecting the past, you remain uncompetitive," he added. Sharing his take on employment generation in India, Aggarwal said, "I actually believe the private sector has to do the bulk of the job creation. The government's job is to create the enabling environment, create the fundamentals, help correct imbalances wherever they are, be it trade imbalances, etc and incentivise wherever it needs to be incentivised, like the PLI schemes." The government's steps such as the employment-linked incentives will also encourage private industry, he said, adding "But fundamentally the private sector has to step up and do more". Asked if the government is doing enough to create that ecosystem for the private sector, Aggarwal said, "I'm not in the government, so I want to put the limelight on ourselves. Is the private sector doing enough? I think we all can do more, and I'm on the same page. We all need to do more." In response to a query on his views over the government in extending the fiscal concession that companies like Tesla have been demanding from India, he said, "It is very important for India to attract all kinds of investment, especially (from) world leading companies. "Tesla is a best in class company. The more companies like these invest into India, the better it is for India, in a broad sense as well for the industry." He further said, "The (EV) ecosystem, including my company, will benefit from it, because it will raise the bar on expertise, on excellence, on talent, everything..." About the newly-listed entity Ola Electric, he said, "Our mission at Ola electric is to really make India a global EV hub." The company will build products such as electric two and three-wheelers that Indians need for the country to be able to invent an EV and energy transition paradigm for itself, different from the current global solution for sustainability that is focussed on electric luxury cars, Aggarwal added. On Ola Consumer, he said the ride-hailing mobility vertical is fairly profitable, while it is investing into the new e-commerce for which it has partnered with ONDC.

India needs to lead global tech transition, build jobs of the future: Ola Founder Bhavish Aggarwal

<ul class="summary-list"><li>When deciding where to shop, consumers face trade-offs between convenience, quality, and price.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/history-of-sams-club-walmart-owned-warehouse-2023-5">Sam's Club</a> CEO Chris Nicholas tells BI he wants shoppers to have all three.</li></ul>At the back of Sam's Club's new tech-infused location in Grapevine, Texas, an unassuming floor-scrubber robot sits in a maintenance closet near the loading docks.Each day, the autonomous unit glides through the aisles cleaning up spills and crumbs while its <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sams-club-worker-ai-replaced-tiresome-daily-task-2024-6">cameras and sensors check inventory levels</a> and update the company's computers with the latest numbers.Using that blizzard of data, emerging technologies, and what CEO Chris Nicholas calls "design thinking," Sam's Club is challenging some commonly held assumptions about the warehouse club business."This, here, represents what the future looks like for Sam's Club," Nicholas told Business Insider in an interview Thursday, standing in what would normally be the checkout lanes of a traditional store.<div type="image" title="Sam's Club CEO Chris Nicholas at the company's new store in Grapevine, Texas" height="2251" width="3000" msid="114428150" hostid="261" sizebytes="235426"></div>The newly opened Grapevine store is the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sams-club-opens-first-new-location-in-years-2024-10">first to eschew conveyer belts and cash registers</a> in favor of mobile apps and AI-powered computer vision.Shoppers passed through three <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sams-club-will-scan-cart-instead-of-checking-receipt-2024-1">towering blue gateways</a> on their way out to the parking lot, pushing carts full of items they'd scanned and paid for on the app.Thanks to data from sources like the floor scrubber, shoppers can find what they're looking for in the warehouse, scan the barcode, and pay through the app. And they can complete the entire process without waiting in line for a cash register — or a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-walmart-costco-check-receipts-2023-6">receipt check</a> at the door.Those who needed additional assistance were met by tablet-wielding associates who could ring up orders and process payments on the spot.<div type="image" title="A Sam's Club employee stands ready to process shoppers' orders on a mobile tablet." height="2251" width="3000" msid="114428151" hostid="261" sizebytes="353236"></div>While many of the systems have been in development at Sam's Club since before Nicholas became CEO, it's now up to him to ensure they all perform harmoniously.Nicholas said the club model's success historically has been a function of high-quality products sold at bargain prices."The price you pay for great items and great prices is friction," he said. "You queue to get in the door, you queue at the register, you queue to get out. You don't have e-commerce, or if you have e-commerce, you pay a premium."Consumers deciding where to shop long faced trade-offs between convenience, quality, and price.Sol Price — the godfather of the club store, progenitor of Costco, and acknowledged inspiration for Sam Walton to launch Sam's Club — was able to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/founding-history-of-costco">crack the code on quality and price</a> at the sacrifice of convenience. Other retail concepts have achieved convenience and price at the expense of quality. Still others offer convenience and quality for premium prices.In short, US shoppers often face a "pick two" scenario, but Nicholas said it doesn't have to be that way. With the help of the modern technology found in the newly opened location, he believes shoppers can enjoy all three."The total club channel is doing OK — it's growing faster than retail — but it hasn't been where innovation has lived," he said.One advantage Sam's Club has over most of its rivals is its massive parent company: Walmart, the world's largest retailer."The beauty of being owned by Walmart for us is we get to leverage a big supply chain that's automated, we get to leverage technology, which is front-end and back-end, and we don't have to pay for it," Nicholas said.<div type="image" title="Sam's Club shoppers visit the newly opened location in Grapevine, Texas." height="2250" width="3000" msid="114428156" hostid="261" sizebytes="863370"></div>"We don't have these massive investments that we have to make. We have capacity ready," he added. "We can innovate at the pace of inspiration, versus innovating at the pace of a capital budget."The Grapevine Sam's Club is literally bristling with tech, not just in the form of the hulking blue AI-powered gateways. There's a pizza robot in the café that can knock out 100 pies per hour, RFID sensors on every aisle, computer vision pallet scanners on the loading docks, and a fleet of battery-powered coolers that will extend the club's delivery range for perishables.It's Sam's Club's first new store in seven years and a model for the roughly 30 new locations and an unspecified number of remodels <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-sams-club-plans-open-30-new-warehouses-us-2023-1">planned for the next five years</a>.Walmart, for its part, has a clear incentive to experiment with new technology at Sam's Club. After growing sales by nearly 50% over the past five years, Sam's Club's $86 billion in revenue is still less than half of what Costco's North American business makes. There's plenty of ground to gain.Several shoppers told BI they've been using the new tech at other Dallas-area stores and that it generally <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sams-club-ai-receipt-checks-exit-success-2024-4">worked as expected</a>, apart from a few hiccups due to the larger-than-usual crowd at the grand opening. Many of the shoppers had Costco memberships too. One shopper told BI he planned to cancel his.Sam's Club has also been a test-bed for retail concepts that eventually find their way into Walmart's 4,600 US stores and beyond. Walmart Plus members can use a similar mobile app scan-and-go feature, and the businesses continue to combine resources — recently <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-sams-club-corporate-supply-chain-teams-merge-memo-2024-9">merging their supply chain management teams</a>, BI first reported.<div type="image" title="Sam's Club shoppers visit the newly opened location in Grapevine, Texas." height="2250" width="3000" msid="114428155" hostid="261" sizebytes="553648"></div>Former Sam's Club CEO John Furner is now CEO of Walmart US, and Nicholas was <a target="_blank" href="https://www.supermarketnews.com/executive-moves/walmart-promotes-chris-nicholas-to-new-role-of-u-s-coo">instrumental</a> in planning the modernization of Walmart's store fleet during his earlier stint as chief operating officer for Walmart US.During the interview, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-ceo-doug-mcmillon-bio-career-life-salary-first-job-2021-6">Walmart CEO Doug McMillon</a> strolled over to say hello as he wrapped up his <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7253079909311356928/">tour</a> of the store. He, too, previously served as Sam's Club CEO.Many of the same design principles in Grapevine can be observed at <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/visiting-walmart-recently-renovated-supercenters-in-wisconsin-2023-11">Walmart's recently remodeled stores</a>, such as low-friction checkout options, larger dedicated space for e-commerce fulfillment, and tightly interconnected use of mobile app shopping through scannable codes and showcase displays.Nicholas said he wants to transform shopping at Sam's Club into a "delightful" experience, whether that means using AI to interpret the jumbled contents of a shopping cart or redesigning the pockets on the Member's Mark jogger sweatpants to be an inch deeper after feedback so keys and phones are less likely to fall out when sitting."My hope is that Sam's Club, when you shop, feels like what it's like to shop in the future. That's what I hope, and so that's my job," he said. "This is a glimpse of that."

Sam's Club CEO wants you to feel like you're shopping in the future

New <keyword id="19900881" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="delhi" source="keywords">Delhi</keyword>: Japanese auto major <keyword id="19965528" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="honda" source="keywords">Honda</keyword> on Wednesday said it has started joint research on AI technologies with <keyword id="19896445" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="iit-delhi" source="keywords">IIT Delhi</keyword> and IIT Bombay with plans to develop driver assistance and automated driving technologies applicable in various regions of the world, including India. The joint research is aimed to further advance Honda CI (Cooperative Intelligence)-- the original Honda AI that enables mutual understanding between machines and people, the company said in a statement. Honda Cars India Ltd (HCIL), a Honda subsidiary in India, will sign a joint research contract with the two IITs. "The IITs are a home to a large number of excellent researchers and engineers, and through the joint research with those institutes, Honda will strive to advance the underlying technologies of CI, with an eye toward the future applications for technologies that reduce traffic collisions and enable automated driving," it said. With an aim to achieve further advancement of CI, Honda and IITs have set joint research themes such as recognition of the surrounding environment and cultivation of cooperative behaviour, and will conduct research and development while utilising the cutting-edge AI technologies, it added. Under the partnership, for each research theme, Honda associates and IIT professors will engage with IIT students for planning, designing, developing and testing technologies which work beyond the confines of the laboratory and thereby proceed with the research and development more flexibly and with a high degree of freedom, Honda said. "This will enable Honda and IITs to work in a more flexible environment with deeper exchange of academic and industry insights," it added. In addition, as part of this research, Honda with the help of IITs is aiming to conduct verification of driving assistance and automated driving technologies in the suburbs of Delhi and in Mumbai. Due to numerous variations in the road systems and a large number of road users, India has a complex traffic environment where situations that occur frequently are difficult for AI to predict. "By conducting technology verification in such a technically challenging environment, Honda and IITs will refine the underlying technologies of CI and strive to apply them to future driver assistance and automated driving technologies in various regions of the world, including India," the statement said. Honda said it has been actively hiring IIT graduates since 2019, and many of them are now playing key roles in the areas of mobility intelligence, including the research and development of CI.

You Searched For "future of technology" and got 13 results

Future forward: Insights into 2024's technology trends according to McKinsey & Co

Prerna Tyagi

The Future of Gaming Technology

Is AI dominance inevitable? A technology ethicist says no, actually

PTI

Inside 'Project Rodeo,' the Tesla effort pushing the limits of self-driving technology

Grace Kay

How a Trump or Harris presidency could impact the future of AI

Alice Tecotzky

India to shift to 'smartphone era' for cars embracing 5G, advanced AI in 2025: Report

PTI

Nvidia robotics executive tells BI how the company is predicting the future of robotics by building it

Emma Cosgrove

Humanoid robot Ai-Da’s portrait of computer legend Alan Turing fetches over $1 million at an art auction

BI India Bureau

The self-driving future will look unremarkable. That's the point.

Lloyd Lee

Here's what OpenAI employees are saying about the company's future

Lakshmi Varanasi

India needs to lead global tech transition, build jobs of the future: Ola Founder Bhavish Aggarwal

PTI

Sam's Club CEO wants you to feel like you're shopping in the future

Dominick Reuter

Honda begins joint research with IIT Delhi, Bombay on AI technologies

PTI

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides

You Searched For "future of technology" and got 13 results

Future forward: Insights into 2024's technology trends according to McKinsey & Co​

Prerna Tyagi

The Future of Gaming Technology

Is AI dominance inevitable? A technology ethicist says no, actually

PTI

Inside 'Project Rodeo,' the Tesla effort pushing the limits of self-driving technology

Grace Kay

How a Trump or Harris presidency could impact the future of AI

Alice Tecotzky

India to shift to 'smartphone era' for cars embracing 5G, advanced AI in 2025: Report

PTI

Nvidia robotics executive tells BI how the company is predicting the future of robotics by building it

Emma Cosgrove

Humanoid robot Ai-Da’s portrait of computer legend Alan Turing fetches over $1 million at an art auction

BI India Bureau

The self-driving future will look unremarkable. That's the point.

Lloyd Lee

Here's what OpenAI employees are saying about the company's future

Lakshmi Varanasi

India needs to lead global tech transition, build jobs of the future: Ola Founder Bhavish Aggarwal

PTI

Sam's Club CEO wants you to feel like you're shopping in the future

Dominick Reuter

Honda begins joint research with IIT Delhi, Bombay on AI technologies

PTI

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides

Future forward: Insights into 2024's technology trends according to McKinsey & Co