Ford plans to lay off about 3800 employees in UK and Germany

By

-

February 15, 2023

On Tuesday, Ford, a famous automobile manufacturer, recently planned to cut about 3800 jobs in Europe in the following years to streamline its operations and deal with increased competition in electric vehicles.

As per the reports, the company will cut 2300 jobs in Germany, 1300 in the UK, and 200 in other countries. The organization’s objective is to offer an all-electric fleet in Europe by 2035, and its first production of the built-in electric vehicle will begin this year. Ford is all set to introduce its first electric vehicle in Europe later this year in Cologne, based on Volkswagen’s MEB platform.

Martin Sander, the general manager of Ford model E in Europe, mentioned that the company has recognized the uncertainties in the teams and has assured that they will get full support in the coming months.

Ford also declared that most layoffs would be done through voluntary departures to maintain an organization of about 3400 roles in Europe. The company has further stated that it would be taking action to restructure its business in Europe to create more learners and a more competitive cost structure. Ford has announced thousands of job cuts in the United States and India in 2022.

AI agent successfully pilots USAF aircraft for 17 hours

By

Sahil Pawar

-

February 15, 2023

AI agent pilots USAF aircraft — Image Credits: Air Force Technology

When an AI agent successfully piloted a USAF Lockheed Martin VISTA X-62A training aircraft for more than 17 hours, it set a new record for the aviation sector. This ground-breaking accomplishment constitutes a significant development in the field of autonomous aviation.

US Air Force Test Pilot School director of research Dr. M. Christopher Cotting said, “VISTA will allow us to parallelize the development and test of cutting-edge artificial intelligence techniques with new uncrewed vehicle designs. This approach, combined with focused testing on new vehicle systems as they are produced, will rapidly mature autonomy for uncrewed platforms and allow us to deliver tactically relevant capability to our warfighter.”

The VISTA X-62A is based on the C-130 Hercules platform and comes equipped with a sophisticated, integrated simulation system that allows pilots to experience a variety of mission scenarios in a virtual setting. With the aid of this cutting-edge technology, pilots can hone their abilities and gain experience in a range of circumstances, from simple tactical manoeuvres tto normal flying operations.

The VISTA X-62A’s capacity to imitate a range of different aircraft is one of its primary characteristics, making it an incredibly flexible training tool. This translates to the ability for pilots to get experience in a variety of aircraft types and configurations without ever leaving the VISTA X-62A’s cockpit. For military pilots who might have to fly a variety of different aircraft throughout their careers, this is very helpful.

Microsoft-Owned LinkedIn Lays Off Employees in the Recruitment Department

By

Manjiri Gaikwad

-

February 15, 2023

Microsoft-Owned-LinkedIn — Image credit: timesnownews

Microsoft’s LinkedIn has become the latest organization to join the list of layoffs. The employment-focused platform has reportedly laid off employees from its recruitment department, but the exact number of layoffs is unknown.

The LinkedIn layoff at Linkedin appears to be part of Microsoft’s plan to cut about 10,000 jobs across various divisions. According to the report, Microsoft fired over 600 employees working in the Seattle office in its hardware divisions, including Surface, HoloLens, and Xbox teams.

Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, mentioned that the company would align its cost structure with its revenue. According to him, Microsoft is making changes today that will reduce its workforce by 10,000 jobs through FY23 Q3.

Some other former employees from the LinkedIn recruitment team have taken the platform to announce their layoffs. Nicole Zawacki, an ex-staff member at LinkedIn, wrote that she is one of the affected employees and would take little time to process.

Over the last some months, layoffs have impacted many companies in the tech industry. From Google parent Alphabet that fired over 12,000 employees to Amazon layoffs that affected over 18000 people, tech firms like IBM, Twitter, Dell, SAP, Microsoft, and Salesforce.

India’s G20 to hold discussions on crypto regulations

By

Sahil Pawar

-

February 15, 2023

India G20 hold discussions crypto regulations — Image Credits: News18

The Indian community had been hoping for further clarification on the crypto legislation with this year’s Union Budget, which will carry over the tax modifications from the Union Budget 2022. However, the “Virtual Digital Assets” haven’t been a topic of conversation.

That is, up until February 13, 2023, when the honorable Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman responded to a query in the Lok Sabha about the issue.

Sitaraman said, “In the G20, we’re raising it & having detailed discussions with members so that a standard operating protocol emerges which results in a coherent, comprehensive approach where all countries work together in bringing some regulation.”

The G20 Summit has been a fascinating topic for a number of global economic reasons. The G20 is hosted by a different member of the organization each year. India is hosting the top summit for global economic cooperation this year from December 1 to November 30, 2023.

ChatGPT loses in chess to Stockfish, an AI chess engine

By

Sahil Pawar

-

February 14, 2023

ChatGPT loses chess Stockfish — Image Credits: Big Think

An AI enthusiast decided to put ChatGPT against Stockfish, a predominant AI chess engine, only to see the chatbot lose miserably from the chess software.

Some madlad decided to pit ChatGPT against Stockfish, the predominant AI chess engine

see if you can tell who’s who, and predict who will win pic.twitter.com/zWGed293Vj
— swyx 🤖 (@swyx) February 10, 2023

The reddit user posted the video of the same on their profile, which gathered several comments from other users.

One user commented, “Even with the ability to manifest pieces and teleport them to illegal squares ChatGPT still lost to a weak engine like stockfish, what a LOOSER.”

Another user said, “This is legit one of the funniest posts I’ve seen on this thread in awhile. I really enjoyed when it spawned a new knight only to die immediately.”

ChatGPT continued to receive scrutiny as the comments piled up. A user went as far as to say, “Stockfish is playing chess. ChatGPT is playing something beyond chess, like Crazyhouse with a capturing mechanic that my brain hasn’t evolved enough to comprehend.”

Opera to include ChatGPT into its browsers

By

Sahil Pawar

-

February 14, 2023

Opera AI-generated content offerings browsers — Image Credits: Business Today

Opera has made public the plans to include AI-generated content offerings into its PC and mobile browsers. The announcement came on Twitter.

Generative AI services are giving people new superpowers!

We are announcing the first plans for upcoming integrations in our browsers, such as a webpage shorten feature as a sidebar integration.

Here are our plans: https://t.co/kd50TVz7Ag pic.twitter.com/abkRghyo03
— Opera (@opera) February 11, 2023

Soon, the browser will include “Shorten,” a ChatGPT-powered tool for summarizing articles and webpages. This comes after Microsoft recently released a Bing search engine and an Edge browser that both use ChatGPT.

This is a response to the overwhelming volume of difficult-to-process online content. Opera will offer a more streamlined and pertinent browsing experience by giving users access to AI services like ChatGPT and by creating a tool that filters and summaries content for users.

For its browser, news, and gaming applications, Opera is attempting to extend its AI programme into AI-generated content.

It will accomplish this by developing its own solutions and forming alliances with both old and new companies. The need for AI services has increased dramatically, as seen by ChatGPT’s record-breaking 100 million user milestone.

AIIMS Delhi is now identified as the center of excellence for AI

By

Sahil Pawar

-

February 14, 2023

AIIMS Delhi center of excellence for AI — Image Credits: Medical Dialogues

In answer to a question, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya recently informed the Lok Sabha that the Centre had identified AIIMS Delhi as the center of excellence for Artificial Intelligence in healthcare.

According to Mandaviya, the institute will investigate use of AI to facilitate policy decisions in health schemes.

“AI tools can support monitoring of physical and financial aspects of programs including fraud detection, effective disease management, identifying early warning signals as part of surveillance, development of clinical decision support system (CDSS) supporting practitioners in providing quality care, etc.,” he said.

Famous gastroenterologist Dr. Prateek Sharma, who served as the first chair of the US task group on artificial intelligence, claimed that a wide range of specializations have benefited from AI.

He said, “In primary care, AI studies have been conducted to help monitor patients’ blood pressure and glucose levels suggesting early changes in medications, including blood pressure medications and insulin doses. In the field of gastroenterology, artificial intelligence has helped in the detection of polyps during colonoscopy and the detection of cancer in the GI tract.”

Government Program Bhashini to Bring ChatGPT to WhatsApp

By

Sahil Pawar

-

February 14, 2023

Government program Bhashini bring ChatGPT WhatsApp — Image Credits: Shutterstock

With the help of the sensational AI chatbot ChatGPT and an ambitious national-level program, Bhashini, that aims to create vast crowdsourced datasets with samples of Indian voices in various local languages. WhatsApp may soon make it easier to search for important government programs. However, Bhashini WhatsApp number is not yet released.

A small team at the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) called Bhashini is developing a chatbot for WhatsApp that uses data from ChatGPT to return pertinent answers to questions. Additionally, users can ask the chatbot questions using voice notes because they might not always want to or be able to type out their questions in text form, particularly farmers in rural areas.

In principle, a user might just pose a question using voice notes, and ChatGPT would provide a voice-based response. Senior government officials claim that Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, was shown a model of this bot before he discussed it at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month.

During a demo, the chatbot, which is currently under testing, effortlessly answered a spoken question regarding PM Awas Yojana, the government’s leading affordable housing program. The chatbot was created with consideration for the segments of India’s rural and agrarian population who rely on government programs and subsidies the most.

Another senior government official involved in the initiative noted that because these potential users speak various languages, it is crucial to create a language model that can correctly detect and comprehend them.

Microsoft to incorporate AI in Word, PowerPoint and Outlook

By

Sahil Pawar

-

February 14, 2023

Microsoft incorporate AI Word PowerPoint Outlook — Image Credits: PCMag

Microsoft is reportedly ready to incorporate AI into its other products, including Word, Powerpoint, and Outlook.

There have been persistent reports that Microsoft will soon deploy these AI-enabled technologies. However, the most recent report is that the same could happen as early as next month.

The Verge said that Microsoft is preparing to show the world how ChatGPT-like technology might alter its Office products. Sources claim that the company will present these concepts in the next weeks, with a possible March debut.

A source previously disclosed that GPT models were being investigated to aid with improved writing in Word and to suggest email responses in Outlook. However, nothing official has yet been announced.

Currently, some users have access to the revamped Bing that Microsoft unveiled last week. To get access, users must register for the waiting list on the Bing homepage. The new Bing promises to be more user-friendly and aims to change how we perform internet research.

A team of researchers develop a video diffusion model to generate new videos out of existing ones

By

Manjiri Gaikwad

-

February 13, 2023

A team of researchers from various institutions has recently developed a structure and content-guided video diffusion model that allows users to edit videos based on visual or textual descriptions of the desired output.

The video diffusion model is trained on the images and videos jointly, which provides direct control of temporal consistency. It is achieved via a novel guidance method that exposes the user to acquire more significant control over the output characteristics.

The main challenge with this diffusion model is maintaining a balance between structure and content. Researchers have solved this problem by training the model on monocular depth estimates with varying levels of detail. The results of the researcher’s experiment are impressive, with fine gained control over output and the ability to customize based on a few reference images.

The structure and content-guided video diffusion model developed by the researchers is a significant step forward in video editing. It allows users to customize and control output characteristics while maintaining a balance between structure and content. The model can significantly impact the world of video production and editing.