India and UAE Sign MoU for IIT Delhi Campus in Abu Dhabi

By

-

August 28, 2023

IT Delhi campus in Abu Dhabi — Image Source: siasat

The Ministry of Education, the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi), with Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge (ADEK) have officially signed a MoU to establish the first IIT Delhi campus in Abu Dhabi.

The signing ceremony took place in the presence of UAE President HE Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. The MoU was signed by Professor Rangan Banerjee, Director of the IIT Delhi, Shri Sunjay Sudhir, Indian Ambassador to the UAE, and HE Mubarak Hamad Al Mheiri, ADEK Under Secretary.

IIT Delhi – Abu Dhabi campus is set to commence its academic programs in 2024, featuring a comprehensive degree in bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. programs. It will also establish research centers dedicated to sustainable development studies, as well as computing and data science. The curriculum will encompass various programs, including Artificial Intelligence, Energy and Sustainability, Mathematics, Computer Science and Engineering, and Computing, along with various other fields of sciences, engineering, and humanities.

IIT Delhi, Abu Dhabi, will enhance the academic, research, and innovation landscape in Abu Dhabi by collaborating with prominent institutions such as the Technology Innovation Institute, Khalifa Institute, Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, Hub71, and New York University Abu Dhabi. This collaboration will aim to provide complementary programs, pioneer cutting-edge research, and increase the growth of the local startup ecosystem.

Graduates of this campus will become part of a prestigious alumni network of graduates from 23 campuses throughout India. IIT Delhi has recently ranked among the world’s top 50 institutions in engineering and technology. It has also achieved a top 30 ranking for global employability in the 2022 QS World University rankings.

Expressing his views on social media, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, the Indian Union Minister of Education, Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, highlighted the significance of this MoU signing. He emphasized that the establishment of the IIT Delhi campus in Abu Dhabi, in the presence of the Prime Minister of India, unfolds a new chapter in the internationalization of India’s education. This campus is a testament to India’s innovation and expertise, symbolizing the strong friendship between India and UAE.

This marks a significant stride in our educational internationalisation and is testament to India’s innovation prowess. Education is the bond that unites us, it's the spark that ignites innovation. Together, we will leverage this power for mutual prosperity and global betterment. https://t.co/TFfmSFWzsQ
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 15, 2023

India’s AI-skilled Workforce Expanded 14 Times in 8 Years, says LinkedIn Report

By

Sahil Pawar

-

August 28, 2023

According to a LinkedIn report, the number of workers in India with artificial intelligence skills surged 14 times between January 2016 and June 2023. India now ranks among the top five nations for the growth of AI talent, with Singapore, Finland, Ireland, and Canada.

The ‘Future of Work Report‘ from professional network platform LinkedIn underlined the growing importance of AI in the workplace.

In India, according to the report’s findings, 43 percent of members reported seeing an increase in the use of AI at work during the previous year. 71 percent of Gen Z professionals in the nation now acknowledge that learning AI skills could improve their employment prospects as a result of the spike.

According to the report, AI and Machine Learning are among the digital skills that every two out of every three workers stated they will learn this year. About 57 percent of CEOs want to increase the usage of AI in their organizations in 2024. This demonstrates that companies are actively retraining their current employees in AI skills to stay flexible.

Additionally, 91 percent of senior executives in India, exceeding the global average of 72 percent, acknowledged the rising importance of AI skills. According to the survey, seven out of ten professionals felt that having soft skills like creativity and problem-solving enabled them to approach their work from a new angle.

According to Ashutosh Gupta, Country Manager of LinkedIn India, as AI defines the future of work, India is realizing the value of human potential and the crucial role that AI and soft skills will play in creating a workforce of the highest caliber possible.

Hugging Face Raises $235 Million in Series D Funding Round

By

Sahil Pawar

-

August 28, 2023

Hugging Face, an open-source repository for AI models, has recently raised $235 million in a Series D investment round involving Google, Amazon, Nvidia, and Salesforce as demand for AI model access rises.

Hugging Face is one of several companies gaining from the interest of investors in generative AI. Its most recent round leaves the company at a $4.5 billion valuation. Hugging Face acts like GitHub for machine learning and other AI models, codes, and datasets.

Google, Amazon, AMD, Intel, IBM, Nvidia, and Salesforce were among the investors in this round. All these companies have made large investments in the foundation models for generative AI or the processors that operate these models.

The latest amount of funding will be used, according to Hugging Face CEO Clement Delangue, to grow the team, which is currently at 170, and invest in more open source AI and platform building. The investment, according to him, also highlights how crucial the open-source community is to the growth of the generative AI community.

Delangue said, “It’s a validation not only for Hugging Face, but also for the larger open-source AI ecosystem. Companies want to develop AI internally, and this requires open-source AI.”

Numerous well-known generative AI models are available on Hugging Face, including Stability AI’s Stable Diffusion and Meta’s Llama 2 and its variants. Also, in February this year, Hugging Face chose Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its preferred cloud provider, which explains its participation in the funding.

Alibaba Introduces AI Models Qwen-VL and Qwen-VL-Chat

By

Sahil Pawar

-

August 28, 2023

Alibaba on Friday unveiled new artificial intelligence models that, according to the company, are capable of understanding images and having conversations that are more complicated than those of the company’s prior products. The announcement comes as the competition for technological leadership across the world intensifies.

The Chinese technology behemoth announced that its two new models, Qwen-VL and Qwen-VL-Chat, will be open source, allowing researchers, academia, and businesses around the world to utilize them to develop their own AI apps without having to invest time and money in training their own systems.

Alibaba claimed that Qwen-VL could produce captions for photographs and react to open-ended questions about various images. In contrast, Qwen-VL-Chat, supports more “complex conversation,” such as comparing several image inputs and responding to series of questions. Alibaba claims that Qwen-VL-Chat is capable of composing stories, producing images from user-inputted photos, and solving mathematical problems represented as pictures, among other things.

Alibaba used the input of a Chinese-language hospital sign as an example. By analyzing the sign’s image, the AI can respond to queries regarding the location of specific medical departments.

The two most recent models from Alibaba are based on the Tongyi Qianwen large language model that was released earlier this year. Similar to Qwen-VL-Chat, the most recent version of OpenAI’s large language model GPT-4 can comprehend visuals and answer in text.

This month, the startup with its headquarters in Hangzhou made two more AI models, Qwen-7B and Qwen-7B-Chat, open source. Alibaba will not receive any licensing fees from the open-source distribution, but it will gain additional customers for its AI model at a time when its cloud division is trying to resume growth as it gets ready to go public.

AI Cannot Replace Human Intelligence in Court Rulings, says Delhi HC

By

Sahil Pawar

-

August 28, 2023

The Delhi High Court has ruled that human intelligence or the human component in the adjudicative process cannot be replaced by artificial Intelligence. It declared that ChatGPT cannot serve as the foundation for making legal or factual assessments in a court of law.

An effort to use ChatGPT findings to support a party’s claim of trademark infringement was declined by Justice Prathiba M. Singh. The HC emphasized that there is still uncertainty surrounding the accuracy and dependability of AI-generated data, and that such a tool is only suitable for basic research or analysis.

“The aforementioned tool cannot serve as the foundation for a court of law’s decision on any legal or factual matters,” said Singh.

According to her, the response of a Large Language Model-based chatbot like ChatGPT, which is sought to be relied upon by counsel for the plaintiff, depends on a host of factors, including the nature and structure of the user’s query, the training data, etc. Furthermore, there is a possibility that AI chatbots will produce inaccurate responses, fictitious precedents, and inventive facts, the HC said.

The court made this observation while it processed a case involving a trademark infringement claim brought by a luxury brand against a partnership company that manufactured and sold shoes. The plaintiff’s attorney claimed that a shoe name was its trademark in India and presented comments from ChatGPT regarding its reputation in court.

Meta Introduced Code Llama, an AI-powered Tool for Coding and Debugging

By

Tejaswini Kasture

-

August 28, 2023

Meta launches Code Llama for Coding and Debugging — Image Source: Llama

Meta has unveiled Code Llama, an advanced Large Language Model (LLM) that possesses the ability to develop code as well as natural language descriptions related to code in response to prompts given in either code or natural language.

Currently, Code Llama can be used for both research and commercial purposes without any cost. It is built on top of Llama 2 and is offered in three versions: Code Llama – the core code model, Core Llama – Python, designed specifically for Python language, and Code Llama – Instruct, which is fine-tuned to understand natural language instructions.

There are three variants of Code Llama, featuring 7B, 13 B, and 34B parameters, respectively. Each model is trained with a dataset of 500B tokens containing code and code-related information. The Code Llama – Python is fine-tuned using a dataset containing 100B tokens of Python code.

In addition to its code completion features, it can also be used for debugging purposes. It supports popular programming languages, including Java, Python, Typescript (Javascript), Bash, C++, Bash, and PHP.

Beyond its necessity for generating extended programs, having a longer input sequence brings new possibilities for a code language model. For example, users can give the model more information from their existing code or pass the entire code to make its generated code more relevant. These features can be helpful to developers while debugging when trying to fix issues in large codebases.

Developers can request access to Llama from the Meta Webpage, and their training methodologies are also accessible through the GitHub repository.

Overall, Code Llama is designed to cater to the needs of software engineers across diverse sectors. This includes professionals working in research, industry open-source projects, and businesses.

Physics Wallah Introduces the Institute of Innovation, Featuring a Four-Year CS and AI Program

By

Tejaswini Kasture

-

August 25, 2023

Physics Wallah introduces the Institute of Innovation with CS and AI courses — Image Credits: AD

The Bangalore campus of Physic Wallh (PW) Institute of Innovation (IOI) is set to offer a complete four-year residential program specializing in Computer Science (CS) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). The first batch, comprising 200 seats, is scheduled to commence on September 25 with a total program fee of 15 lakhs for the 4-year duration.

This initiative was undertaken to introduce a fresh curriculum, as several institutes in India have been using outdated curricula for years. In this program, participants will get an opportunity to receive guidance from industry leaders, compulsory paid internships, attend networking events, and solve real-world practical assignments.

The four-year curriculum covers a wide range of topics, such as data science, ML frameworks, data mining & warehousing, advanced data structures, NLP, Big Data, statistical inference, and more.

PW IOI aims to prepare students for jobs and doesn’t provide a degree. However, on successful completion of this course, PW also guarantees placements, provided that the student successfully completes all internship and project requirements.

To select genuine students, PW IOI has specified certain standards for admission. Aspiring candidates need to have a score of 60% or higher in both Class 10th and 12th, with Physics, Mathematics, and Chemistry as their subjects. In addition, they must clear the PW IOI entrance exam. Students who are eligible for JEE Advanced 2023 will be granted directly without the need for the entrance exam.

Students also have the opportunity to apply for scholarships, which will be based on their JEE Mains/Advanced ranks and their performance in the entrance exam.

Interested candidates can enroll for this course from the PW IOI official website by submitting a non-refundable fee of Rs. 2500/-. The last date for registration for this course is August 30.

Vishwa Mohan, president of PW IOI, expressed his views on the importance of software development and AI in a digitally expanding world. He also addressed the rising concerns related to the gap between learner demand and supply, along with the gap in employability. He further shared the launch of PW IOI and the aim behind this program.

What makes the New York Times Initiate Legal Proceedings Against OpenAI?

By

Tejaswini Kasture

-

August 25, 2023

New York Times to take legal actions against Open AI — Image Credits: Politico

According to a report by npr.org, OpenAI is potentially facing a lawsuit from the New York Times (NYT), the daily newspaper in New York City, due to an intellectual property dispute concerning copyright infringement. The news outlets further claim that OpenAI, the owner of ChatGPT, is utilizing newspaper content to train its Artificial Intelligence models.

Following months of discussions with OpenAI to establish a licensing agreement, the NYT discovered itself in a scenario where the company was concerned about integrating the newspaper’s stories into AI tools. The nature of these conversations took a turn when the news organization raised concerns that ChatGPT could potentially replace journalists, thus evolving into a direct competitor.

This has led to concerns that OpenAI could be used as a favored engine for readers, offering content generated from original reporting. As a result, it will divert audiences away from traditional news sources. In response to this possibility, it’s been reported that NYT is contemplating taking legal action.

The NYT has modified its terms of service and expressed concerns over the possibility that users might receive concise AI-generated answers from online searchers, and these answers could be restructured from the content within the Times’ reporting.

In such scenarios, users might find their queries fulfilled without the need to visit the Times’ website. The outcomes of these cases will reduce potential traffic from their website.

With reference to this, Times’ stated if OpenAI is found to have breached any copyrights during the process or unethically trained its AI models with Times’ content, the court could mandate deletion of the ChatGPTs’ datasets.

YouTube introduces AI Music Incubator with Universal Music Group

By

Sahil Pawar

-

August 24, 2023

YouTube introduces AI Music Incubator — Image Credits: YouTube

With the support of musicians from the Universal Music Group, YouTube has established a set of AI music principles and begun a new AI Music Incubator. Artists including Anitta, Max Richter, Rosanne Cash, Ryan Tedder, Björn Ulvaeus, Juanes, Yo Gotti, and the Estate of Frank Sinatra have been enlisted to provide feedback for the AI Music Incubator.

Neal Mohan, CEO of YouTube, revealed the platform’s AI music principles in a blog post. He detailed the company’s objectives to develop an AI framework to help work towards their common goals. The three core AI principles will serve to enhance music’s unique creative expression while also protecting music artists and the integrity of their work.

Sir Lucian Grainge, chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group, in a blog post said that creating a safe, responsible, and profitable ecosystem of music and video is central to their collective vision. In this ecosystem, artists and songwriters will be able to maintain their creative integrity, their freedom of choice, and fair compensation, he added.

The UMG musicians who were chosen will explore, experiment, and provide feedback on the AI-related musical tools and products YouTube is researching, according to Grainge. The hope is that additional artists who want to participate would profit from and enjoy this creative suite once these tools are released.

Generative AI is a useful technology that is able to produce text, images, sounds, and other types of content. However, the cases of its abuse are also on the rise. In order to safeguard users and creators, YouTube said that it will increase its investment in AI-powered technology and upgrade the Content ID tool for managing copyright issues in the future.

AI Played Key Role in Historic Moon Landing of Chandrayaan-3, says ISRO

By

Sahil Pawar

-

August 24, 2023

AI role in moon landing Chandrayaan-3 ISRO — Image Credits: ET

Indians around the nation are celebrating the landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the moon. In addition to making India the first nation to reach the lunar south pole, this accomplishment attracts the interest of numerous space organizations that are curious about the water ice potential. According to ISRO, artificial intelligence significantly aided the moon landing project.

In order to ensure a safe touchdown on the lunar surface, the AI-driven sensors were crucial. By anticipating lunar topography, spotting potential dangers, and expertly navigating its descent, the technology assisted the lander in reducing risks and boosting safety.

A sensor array made up of velocimeters and altimeters was highlighted by ISRO Chairman S. Somnath as a technological achievement. A series of cameras, including a hazard avoidance camera and inertia-based cameras, gather essential views while these instruments offer crucial data on the lander’s speed and altitude. A detailed image identifying the exact location of the lander is created by smoothly integrating these data streams using cutting-edge computer algorithms.

AI will also be useful when the rover is exploring the moon. AI algorithms will offer direction in terms of detecting and mapping fascinating lunar features and determining the rover’s most effective path for exploration. In the analysis phase, AI will take front stage as the spaceship gathers crucial data. AI also will assist in revealing insights that conventional methods were unable to gather.

In a wide range of industries, AI is quickly becoming a vital tool and space exploration is no exception. Speedy data analysis, predictive insights, autonomous navigation, mission operation optimization, anomaly detection, and other benefits are made possible by the AI technology in space exploration.

India has become the fourth country to accomplish this after the US, Russia, and China with the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3. According to ISRO, the mission’s three main objectives are to demonstrate a safe and gentle lunar surface landing, illustrate how a rover can move across the lunar surface, and conduct in-situ scientific investigations.