IIT Kanpur (IITK) is all set to offer a master’s degree program in cybersecurity for working professionals organized by IITK’s computer science and engineering department. The new master’s degree program will be instructed by world-class faculty members and researchers from IIT Kanpur.
12 November is the last date to apply for this new course. Although no GATE score is required to enroll in the new course, students must have decent academic and professional records and clear the interview process. After completing the course, they will have access to the IIT Kanpur placement cell and incubation center.
Students need to complete the four years bachelor’s degree course or a master’s degree course in computer science, like MCA, ME, or M.Tech, with 55 % of marks and a minimum of 2 years of working experience, before enrolling in the new cybersecurity course.
The new cybersecurity course consists of online live and self-paced sessions delivered through AI-powered iPearl.ai. Students can interact live with the IIT Kanpur faculty with the iPearl.ai platform. The program allows students to apply course learnings on projects while working in teams and establishing a peer network. The final exams of the programs can be conducted in the major cities of India. The program allows students to meet the experts and experience the IITK campus during visits.
The program allows candidates to complete the course in between 1 to 3 years. Candidates are trained on the latest technologies, tools, techniques, and concepts in cybersecurity. The program syllabus includes cryptography, computer networking, web security, network security, infrastructure security, operating systems principles, and IoT security.
Zoho, an Indian business software company, announced its plans to expand R&D as it crosses the US$1 billion milestone. The investments in R&D and a proposal of opening over 100 network PoPs (points of presence) worldwide in the next five years were made at Zoholics India, the company’s annual conference.
Zoho has impacted nearly every aspect of software development and web-based business activities, starting with a Network Management company called AdventNet Inc. in 1996 to offering “Zoho Remotely” to facilitate “work from home” in 2020.
Sridhar Vembu, Zoho’s CEO and co-founder, said that the company always believed in humility, as one cannot create newer energy or food by coding. He added that the company’s slumped growth from 2021 to 2022 was a reminder that humility runs the world and that it should pursue its long-term goals focusing on saving customers’ money rather than making supernormal profits.
Vembu said, “Unfortunately, recent developments in our industry amidst a backdrop of rapidly deteriorating global economic outlook are a rude reminder of our own limits as technologists.”
Owning its own data centers, Zoho currently has 12 such centers, including two in India. It runs its proprietary software on approximately 14 network PoPs and more than 150 monitoring PoPs that let users monitor their website’s performance. Zoho grew by approximately 77% in 2021 with its top five offerings: Zoho One, CRM Plus, EX by Zoho People, Zoho Workplace, and the finance suite led by Zoho Books. For Zoho’s performance, Vembu was awarded Padma Shri, India’s fourth-highest civilian honor last year.
A photo of the Dan bus company’s new electric buses at the Reading terminal in Tel Aviv on February 22, 2022. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90
In an effort to reduce the notorious traffic congestion in the nation and enhance services to promote public transportation, Israel is poised to trial self-driving public buses over the next two years.
The Israel Innovation Authority (IIA) announced on Sunday that four consortiums had been chosen to conduct the trial across the nation. The pilot trial will begin with the first phase of operating and testing in a secured and controlled environment to demonstrate technological, regulatory, safety, and business viability. Then the trial will move to the second phase, where they will run self-driving bus lines on public roads within a range that will grow over the course of the two-year trial project.
As part of the national plan for autonomous public transportation, which was first unveiled in April, the state is contributing half of an investment of NIS 61 million shekels (US$17 million) for the pilot with the aim of examining the viability of integrating autonomous vehicles into Israel’s public transportation system.
The IIA will provide the groups with half of the funding for their pilots, and they will work inside a unique, cutting-edge regulatory framework created by the National Public Transport Authority of the Transportation Ministry, which will also provide them with licenses and supervision.
Traffic congestion has been plaguing Israeli roads for a long time and optimizing public transportation would enhance service, the passenger experience, and safety standards. By switching to a fleet of driverless buses, it will also assist the state transport authorities in dealing with a shortage of bus drivers.
The four companies participating in the public transportation pilot trial include the two main bus companies in Israel, i.e., Egged (which has the largest intercity routes) and Dan (which exclusively operates in the Gush Dan region). The other two companies are Metropoline (which offers bus routes in southern Israel to and from Tel Aviv and Beersheba as well as within and between communities in the Sharon region) and Nateev Express, based in Nazareth, which runs routes across the Upper Galilee in the north.
These four transportation companies will collaborate with their various groups of startups and organizations in Israel, France, Turkey, Norway, and the United States.
For instance, Egged is collaborating with an unnamed French auto manufacturer whose autonomous car is now being tested in 20 nations. The Dan company will team up with its longtime partner, mobility and ride-sharing company Via Transportation (with whom it operates the Bubble shuttle system in and around Tel Aviv), as well as EasyMile, the French developer of a battery-powered autonomous electric bus, and Israeli firms Enigmatos, an autonomous security startup, and Ottopia, which produces assistive technology for autonomous vehicles. EasyMile already has fleets of self-driving buses in France and Germany.
Metropoline will also work with Ottopia, Michigan-based autonomous driving software platform Adastec, Turkish bus manufacturer Karsan, and Norwegian fleet management company Applied Autonomy for its trial. Adastec and Applied Autonomy are also participating in other pilot initiatives for self-driving technology in Michigan and Norway, respectively. Nateev Express will collaborate with Israeli company Imagry, the creator of a camera-based, Level 4-5 self-driving platform, to run autonomous shuttles in and around the Chaim Sheba Medical Center, which is Israel’s largest hospital, situated in Ramat Gan.
According to the IIA, the initiative will allow policymakers to map the infrastructure needed to run an autonomous public transportation system and examine the commercial potential of such a venture. Groups who successfully implement and finish the two-year trial will be granted contracts to expand their services in Israel.
The American semiconductor design company NVIDIA introduced a replacement chip with a slower processing speed for its second-largest market almost three months after the United States blocked China’s access to two of its high-end microchips. The A800 chip, which replaces the banned A100 chip, was specifically created for the Chinese market and will enable the company to continue selling its products to Chinese customers while also adhering to the new US export control regulations.
The A100 processor has been used to power supercomputers, artificial intelligence, and high-performance data centers in sectors ranging from biotech to finance to manufacturing. A100 and NVIDIA’s enterprise AI chip H100 were added to the U.S. export control list in order to address the possibility that the listed products may be routed to or utilized by a “military end use” or “military end user” in China and Russia. Although the Biden administration has pushed for “tech decoupling,” NVIDIA’s introduction of A800 to the Chinese market highlights the US chipmakers’ dependency on China.
Except for their connection speeds, the A100 and A800 are nearly similar. The A800 works at 400 gigabytes per second, while the A100 operates at 600 gigabytes per second. As per the performance barrier set by the new rules, NVIDIA cannot sell chips with rates of 600 gigabytes per second and up. The A800 GPU, which began manufacturing in the third quarter, satisfies the US government’s strict criteria for lowered export constraints and cannot be programmed to go beyond it. However, Reuters reports that NVIDIA has declined to comment if it had consulted the Commerce Department about the A800 chip.
Source: Omnisky
NVIDIA was not the only company forced to comply with new US export regulations. AMD was another chip manufacturer which was asked to stop selling AI chips to China or face government action.
In an earlier statement, NVIDIA said that if Chinese consumers choose not to purchase the company’s alternative product offerings or if the US government does not provide licenses promptly, the export restriction instituted by the Biden administration will cause the company to lose almost $400 million in sales.
Fortunately, the supply and sale of A800 chips can assuage the blow to the Chinese markets since the ban. Distributors of chips in China, including Omnisky, are now advertising A800 in their product catalogs. Even retailers on the Taobao online marketplace were offering the NVIDIA A800.
Movio, a two-year-old startup, is leveraging machine learning and generative AI frameworks like GAN to make videos having talking human avatars. The platform is developing a Canva-style drag-and-drop interface for video designing.
Users can first pick from a range of templates, and then they can add a hyper-realistic avatar to be the spokesperson of the video, with speech generated by text input. The AI-made human’s outfit, face, and voice can be swapped with a click.
Movio can synthesize only talking heads for now. Still, it is working toward its algorithms that can generate whole-body movement, allowing the company to get closer to its aim of being an all-in-one AI video production platform.
The startup charges users based on the length of videos correlated with the script they submit and a premium fee for those who use customized faces. This feature is particularly popular in corporate training. Moreover, Movio has opened its API for third-party websites, some of which use its engine to create pop-up customer support avatars.
Movio’s user base among paying customers is nearing almost 1,000. It has raised around $9 million so far in a funding round from investors, including Sequoia Capital China, IDG, and, most recently, Baidu Ventures.
Elon Musk has championed Tesla driver assistance Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) software as innovative advancements that can improve road safety while positioning the electric vehicle maker as a technology leader. Despite that, Tesla has been battling its biggest challenge ever since the launch of autopilot in 2015, as it faces severe scrutiny over the feature.
Tesla’s autopilot is facing a series of lawsuits and investigations over fatal Tesla car accidents. However, it does make one wonder what may be causing Tesla to face such unprecedented scrutiny over its Autopilot system. Let’s look at some of the legal and regulatory challenges that Tesla has been dealing with:
Lawsuits
A Model S driver charged with manslaughter in 2019 after a fatal accident while using Tesla Autopilot in Los Angeles is facing a trial, which is set to start on November 15. Although Tesla was not charged, the Tesla system and its claims about it are expected to be in focus, as several US senators demanded an investigation. The trial is being watched closely by legal experts as a test case for the fault of a human driver in a car partly driving itself. The family of the people who died in the car crash has also sued the EV maker, claiming Tesla should have taken action to safeguard abuses of autopilot.
Another lawsuit against Tesla will go to trial in February. It concerns an accident that involved the death of 50-year-old Tesla Model 3 owner Jeremy Banner when his EV struck a tractor-trailer at the intersection of a highway in Florida. This will be the first civil lawsuit related to the autopilot that goes to trial. Apart from this, a 2018 crash of Tesla Model X killed the driver and an Apple engineer, Walter Huang, when it slammed into a concrete divider on a freeway in California’s Mountain View. A lawsuit by his wife suing Tesla is set to go to trial in March.
The National Transportation Safety Board investigated the Florida and California accidents and blamed both Tesla and the drivers. The NTSB said drivers rely too much on the Autopilot system, whereas Tesla failed to restrict autopilot use or adequately monitor driver attentiveness.
Investigations
Tesla has also been facing an investigation from the US Department of Justice, California’s DMV, and NHTSA. Tesla is under investigation in the US over the claims that the company’s EVs can drive themselves. The Department of Justice investigation could potentially conclude with criminal charges against Tesla or its executives.
California’s transportation regulator accused Tesla of “deceptive practices” of advertising in August, which suggested its driver assistance technology enabled autonomous vehicle control. The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) could potentially suspend Tesla’s license to sell EVs in California and will ask the company to make restitution to drivers. California’s DMV is also conducting an independent safety review which can force Tesla to apply for regulatory permits to operate its electric vehicles in California.
In June, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration upgraded its defect investigation into 830,000 Tesla vehicles with autopilot, a required step before it could seek a recall. The auto safety regulator is reviewing whether Tesla vehicles adequately ensure drivers are paying attention. Since 2016, NHTSA has opened nearly 40 special investigations involving 19 deaths in crashes involving Tesla vehicles.
Conclusion
It is evident from the above-mentioned lawsuits and investigations that Tesla’s Autopilot does come forward as a culprit in some scenarios. However, Tesla’s exact position remains unclear. Despite their names, Autopilot and Full Self-Driving have significant limitations.
In a letter to California’s Department of Motor Vehicles, a Tesla lawyer acknowledged that Full Self-Driving struggled to react to a wide range of driving situations and should not be considered a fully autonomous driving system. Germany’s federal motor transport authority, KBA, found abnormalities while investigating Tesla’s autopilot function. Their software and sensors cannot control cars in many situations, which is why drivers need to keep their eyes on the road and hands close to the wheel. As of now, it seems only fair that Tesla abides with the ongoing lawsuits and investigations, if proven guilty, takes up responsibility for its shortcomings.
DCUBE Ai, a machine learning applications company located in Thiruvananthapuram, is venturing into space tech. During the recent Bengaluru Space Expo, it signed an MoU with Australian space tech startups AltData and SABRN. The companies will collaborate with Adelaide University to provide healthcare services to astronauts.
While SABRN is creating a health pod or E-Lifepod to monitor the well-being of astronauts, artificial intelligence will help with the pod’s analysis and sensor integration. DCUBE Ai is one of six companies that have signed the MoU with Australian startups.
DCUBE Ai signed an MoU with the Australian startups AltData and SABRN as part of the International Space Investment initiative between Australia and India. As part of this project, they will develop hardware and software that must be tested in orbit.
PSLV missions are a possibility for testing and validation for deep space unmanned missions, the company said. However, their immediate focus remains on AI/ML capability for space tech.
DCUBE Ai creates software solutions using emerging technologies for medium and large enterprises. Recently, it has grown into a tech-savvy company that solves clients’ business challenges. DCUBE Ai provides services in technology consulting, custom software application development, maintenance of software, and integration using technologies, including IoT, AI, and cloud
Matthew Patrick, an attorney and programmer, is suing Microsoft’s Copilot for violating copyright law. Along with Microsoft, GitHub, a software developer platform, and OpenAI, an artificial intelligence company, are also being sued for related damages.
Copilot is a programming assistant developed by Microsoft and OpenAI in collaboration with GitHub. The tool is powered by artificial intelligence and can produce code in several programming languages. Copilot uses OpenAI’s Codex, an artificial intelligence model based on GPT-3, to produce code recommendations. Codex was trained on GitHub-hosted open-source code, enabling the model to pick up on common coding trends.
Patrick claims that Copilot extracts information without disclosing the source. This infringes on the rights of the associated programmers in their code as well as various open-source license types. He, therefore, filed the lawsuit on behalf of all those who suffered damages.
The legal counsel, Joseph Saveri, that filed Patrick’s lawsuit in the Northern California Federal District Court, said the firm would make an effort to contact any such stakeholders who were affected via another website.
The fascination with humanoid robots is understandable, and several companies are already developing cutting-edge humanoid robots that promise to bring us widespread use of intelligent machines in various applications and contexts. According to a new Goldman Sachs estimate, the market for humanoid robots, like the newly debuted Tesla Bot, might reach US$150 billion annually over the next 15 years. This bold prediction may be corroborated by the rise of humanoid robots in the news, but are we humans prepared to embrace such robots as a part of our everyday lives? Haven’t movies like the Terminator series, Avengers Age of Ultron, and X-Men: Days of Future Past warned us otherwise?
Goldman Sachs has been following the Tesla-led resurrection of humanoid robots, and therefore recently, the company published a fresh analysis on a potential early market investment case. According to the report, the market for humanoid robots might be worth US$154 billion by 2035, which is what Tesla CEO Elon Musk himself predicted.
Goldman Sachs asserted that the introduction of Tesla’s humanoid robot prototype, “Optimus,” has rekindled discourse about the market potential presented by such innovation. The company believes that in 10–15 years, a market size of at least US$6 billion would be feasible, allowing humanoid robots to meet 4% of the US manufacturing labor shortage gap by 2030 and 2% of the world’s need for elderly care by 2035.
The company further explained its “blue-sky scenario”: Goldman Sachs anticipates a market of up to US$152 billion by 2035 in a “blue-sky” scenario, which is close to the global market for electric vehicles and one-third of the market for smartphones as of 2021. This suggests labor shortage problems, such as those for manufacturing and elderly care, can be addressed to a large extent.
Tesla Optimus Prototype
It’s interesting to note that Goldman Sachs acknowledges Tesla as being the driving force behind the ‘renaissance’ of humanoid robots, yet the firm advises purchasing motion component suppliers to profit from this new market.
2022 has been a remarkable year for humanoid robots. Many people think that robots are often seen negatively in Hollywood as incarnations of evil sentinels. While the assassin robot is a common representation in Western popular culture, then many people in other regions of the world also view robots as saviors or caretakers or assets.
Ameca
Last month, the Museum of Future in Dubai unveiled a humanoid robot named Ameca as a new addition to the staff. Ameca can welcome people, give directions, and speak numerous languages. The museum’s official Instagram account posted a video of Ameca and a MOTF employee identified Aya introducing themselves. The video of her being included in the MOTF went viral right away. While many viewers were astounded by the video, others were concerned for the future of humanity. Ameca was created by Engineered Arts, however, at the moment, her bottom half isn’t working, thus she can’t move. The creators of the robot claim they are developing a version that will make it more like humans.
Grace
In the same month, researchers at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal started a pilot research to determine if Grace, a humanoid robot, can assist seniors in overcoming loneliness. The GeriPARTy Laboratory team created Grace to listen when people talk and then generate a response. She can also perform reading exercises, tell jokes, and discuss subjects that older adults would find interesting. As part of research directed by Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital, Résidence Pearl & Theo will get visits from this humanoid robot twice weekly for a period of eight weeks. During each 30-minute session, her mission will be to keep elders in nursing facilities company and to help overcome social isolation. According to the residents, unlike human companions, Grace can work the whole day without getting tired or bored, nor has to cope with the mental strain of handling strong emotions like humans.
Rajasthan | A residential society in Jaipur has deployed robots on the premises that help in serving food, cleaning sewer holes along with performing various other chores pic.twitter.com/zALfRqYoQ1
Residents of the Gulmohar Garden Society in Jaipur, India, saw the participation of the Sona 3.5 AI Humanoid Robot and Sona 2.5 Service Robot Men in the Diwali celebrations. These robots, created by Club First Robotics in Jaipur, can successfully perform various tasks. For instance, Sona 2.5 oversaw the cafeteria’s food service while Sona 3.5 filed grievances, provided comments, and answered questions about society. During the festivities, Xena 5.0 handled all security responsibilities, turned on the fire suppression system, irrigated the garden, and kept an eye on everything on camera.
AI-Da
October also saw Ai-Da, the world’s first ultra-realistic AI robot artist, being questioned by a committee in the UK Parliament. The British Parliament saw a robot appear before the UK’s Upper House, the House of Lords, for the first time in history. The Ai-Da testified before the UK’s Communications and Digital Committee as part of the inquiry into the future of the creative industries. The humanoid robot, clad in an orange shirt and denim dungarees, addressed questions on the possible challenges to creativity posed by artificial intelligence and technology. The humanoid robot, developed by Aidan Meller of the University of Oxford, continued to speak openly about its ability to create and improve creative disciplines, including poetry and painting.
All these inventions have highlighted the caring and resourceful side of humanoid robots. However, many are not still on board with the idea. The quest to develop universal humanoid robotic solutions is too complicated and rarely provides the best answer to any given real-world issue. In contrast to the aforementioned example, it is less clear in what direction and precisely for what real-world applications humanoid robots will be deployed, particularly the Tesla robot Optimus, which is now stealing the limelight. Critics have never hesitated to call Optimus a demo robot whose ulterior goal might boost Tesla’s stocks. The Goldman Sachs report might highlight a possible economic benefit from the humanoid robot hype, however, there are questions about the time the technology will take to reach commercialization, ethical issues, and more that need to be answered.
Sure, we do have instances of movies that have portrayed robots as our aides, like C3PO from Star Wars, Wall-E from Wall-E, or Baymax from Big Hero 6, but reality may not align with them. While humanoid robots like Grace make up for good PR, we cannot ignore the possibility of the uncanny valley effect. The uncanny valley has always been one of the most significant psychological phenomena and challenges in the realm of robotics. As we inch closer to making robots that are aesthetically and functionally xerox of humans, we risk the uncanny valley effect of being uncomfortable around these robots. The future, which promises a new age of humanoid robots, also threatens to push us to a new forced reality of being comfortable with these humanmade bipedal bots – resulting in humans feeling anxious, paranoid, and uneasy around them. As we perfect humanoid robots to make them more efficient, we also need to account for the usability and uncanny valley effect before signing up for mass adoption.
Due to the rising applicability of artificial intelligence, the government has decided to focus its efforts on several sectors that can embrace and benefit from the same. NITI Aayog is a government body developing itself as a state-of-the-art center for resources and skills. It promotes research and policy development for the government while dealing with contingency issues. This government body has embarked on making AI responsible in the country.
In June 2018, NITI Aayog released a discussion paper named National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence (NSAI) as a part of its mandate entrusted in the Budget Speech of 2018-2019. The NSAI discussion paper highlighted the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) and its large-scale adoption in the country and made recommendations to ensure responsible utilization and management. The paper also included a roadmap for implementing AI in five public sectors and described “AI for All” as the guiding philosophy for upcoming AI design, development, and implementation in India.
Besides researching, NITI Aayog has also collaborated with companies like Amazon Web Series and Intel to establish innovation centers. It established the Experience Studio at the Delhi headquarters to facilitate innovation among industry experts, government stakeholders, and startups.
More recently, NITI Aayog has published a series of papers discussing “Responsible AI,” the practice of integrating good intent while leveraging artificial intelligence. The series was propagated using the hashtag #AIForAll.
NITI Aayog published the first edition, “Principles for Responsible AI,” a two-part approach paper defining ethical design, development, and use of artificial intelligence in India and enforcement methods for putting these principles into practice. This edition mentions case studies and considerations in the context of ‘Narrow AI’ solutions categorized as ‘systems considerations’ and ‘societal considerations.’ The former category results from system designs and deployment methods, while the latter stems from ethical challenges arising from AI applications.
This edition also builds on Capgemini’s report highlighting that approximately 85% of organizations had ethical concerns about using AI. It discusses other relevant concerns like job loss due to automation, malicious intent that comes with technology, targeted propaganda, etc.
The second part of the Responsible AI series, “Operationalizing Principles for Responsible AI,” identifies a series of actions that organizations should adopt while embracing AI responsibly. Written in collaboration with the World Economic Forum Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the book bifurcates all necessary actions between the government and private sector. A particular focus has been placed on the government’s role in ensuring responsible AI adoption and managing the actions of the private sector.
NITI Aayog recently released the third edition of the series, “Responsible AI for All: Adopting the Framework – A use case approach on Facial Recognition Technology.” To document this paper, NITI Aayog collaborated with Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy and tested the principles and actions mentioned in the previous two releases in the first use case, Facial Recognition Technology (FRT). The book describes FRT as a concept with some common uses across the country.
However, the mentioned technology is a debatable topic on both domestic and international scales because of its hazards to human rights, like privacy. Therefore, as part of the organization’s effort to make AI more responsible, it will work closely with the Ministry of Civil Aviation to launch the Digi Yatra Program. This program will incorporate facial recognition (FR) and facial verification (FV) technologies to enhance the travel experience. FVT will also be used at various airports for passenger identification verification, ticket validation, and other checks as necessary from time to time, depending on the operational requirements.
Working in such a technical field and realizing its potential is a significant step forward for the government. The public sector is also embracing it, not only to ensure that such technologies are ethically used responsibly in the private sector but also for the enhancement of its own. There are many use cases where governments can use artificial intelligence. It can benefit emergency services, public interaction, virtual assistants, and many others.
