Intending to greet ‘Atma Nirbar Bharat,’ IIT Madras has developed a mobile operating system called ‘ BharOS.’ Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Ashwini Vaishnaw successfully tested the BharOS operating system on Tuesday.
BharOS is designed by JandK Operations Private Limited that has been incubated at the IIT Madras Pravartak Technology Foundation. The Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, funds the Pravartak Foundation under its National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NMICPS).
Dharmendra Pradhan mentioned that people in India would be the primary beneficiary of a robust, indigenous, dependable, and self-reliant digital infrastructure. He also stated that BharOS is a successful step toward data privacy.
The operating system can be installed on commercial off-the-shelf handsets. BharOS does not consist of any default apps. Therefore, users do not have to use apps that are unfamiliar to them forcefully.
Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director of IIT Madras, stated that BharOS is an operating system built on the foundation of trust to provide users with more freedom, control, and flexibility to select and use the apps that fit their needs. This operating system revolutionizes how users think about mobile devices’ security and privacy.
BharOS supports privacy and security measures along with Native Over the Air (NOTA) updates to enable the automatic installation of security updates and bug fixes without user intervention.
BharOS is developed to promote the use of domestic operation systems and reduce the dependency on foreign operating systems.
Kredent InfoEdge Pvt Ltd has announced the addition of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered Chart Pattern Recognition feature in StockEdge, the highly popular stock market app that it has developed. This feature, a first in India, is expected to make chart pattern recognition very easy for the stock market participants of India.
Founded in 2016, StockEdge has lived by its goal of empowering retail investors in India. Over the years, StockEdge has tried to make the stock market participants self-reliant with its cutting-edge analytics tools enabling them to take well-informed market calls. Trusted by millions of traders and investors in India, StockEdge is well-known for its research and development to make trading the most seamless journey.
In 2023, StockEdge came up with its breakthrough innovation-auto Chart Patterns recognition system. This feature will help a trader to take positions in the market. AI-enabled algorithm processes all stocks and, after further streamlining, prepares a list of stocks where specific patterns have been formed. This helps a trader get total clarity about market trends.
If a user has a watchlist, he can quickly glance at a chart pattern across his selection of stocks. Many patterns have been added to the StockEdge Pro-Triangular pattern, Flag pattern, Head and Shoulders pattern, and Wedge patterns. The all-new StockEdge Pro plan will give users complete access to chart patterns.
Speaking about Chart Patterns, Mr. Vivek Bajaj, Co-founder of StockEdge said, “The science of identifying the right stock is time-consuming. But there are methods to reduce the time taken by over 90%. At StockEdge, we have been burning midnight oils to offer exactly what a trader should have to save precious time. We have done hard work in the last one year to develop this amazing output called Chart Patterns.”
While sharing his thoughts, Mr. Vinay Pagaria, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of StockEdge adds, “We are continuing to invest our energies in AI and quantitative research-based analytics for delivering unique solutions for investors and traders. Chart Patterns Detection Algorithm, built captively by us, using multiple layers of statistical analysis, has gone through multiple iterations before coming out so beautifully. Innovation, Reliability, and Simplicity are our mantras.”
According to Mr. Pagaria, “StockEdge Pro chart patterns are the culmination of thoughtful integration of human and artificial intelligence. It has been made possible by leveraging the deep experience of our research team. It is a one-of-a-kind platform that provides actionable insights based on chart patterns. Chart patterns are extremely powerful as they are a result of repetitive human behavior. Cognitive and emotional biases like cost anchoring, recency bias, etc, lead to similar human behavior over time. This, in turn, makes chart patterns extremely powerful. We are proud to have built this unique, innovative product that can act as a boon to traders and investors.“
A famous robotics expert and professor at the University of Washington (UW), Siddhartha Srinivasa, has left his post as the director of Robotics AI at Amazon to join General Motors’ autonomous-vehicle subsidiary, Cruise.
In his post on LinkedIn, Srinivasa said he had had a “wonderful four years at Amazon scaling and building robotics AI for fulfillment” and that he was “really excited to start a new journey” that is very close to his heart, “inventing algorithms, and partnering with operations to scale autonomous mobility exponentially.”
Srinivasa is the Boeing Endowed Professor at Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science at the University of Washington. He will serve at Cruise as a distinguished engineer, where he will act as a key technical advisor to Cruise leadership on the large-scale engineering projects.
In his own LinkedIn post, executive VP of engineering at Cruise, Mohamed Elshenawy, said Srinivasa’s deep experience in the field of AI and robotics would be critical to Cruise as they scale their business.
Srinivasa arrived at the University of Washington in 2017 after moving his whole team of over a dozen researchers from the Carnegie Mellon University, where he spent almost 18 years.
In the United States, companies have laid off more than 60,000 in massive layoffs starting in 2023. In the last year, more than 107,000 jobs were slacked approximately from the US private and public sector companies due to rising inflation rates and the uncertain stock market. Tech companies like Goldman Sachs, Amazon, Ola, and more have been slashing jobs this year due to the current economic conditions. This article lists some big tech companies laying off thousands of employees recently due to uncontrolled market conditions.
List of big tech companies that have laid off their employees
Below is the list of companies that have recently laid off many employees in the name of economic conditions.
Amazon
The very popular e-commerce giant, Amazon, is set to fire around 1800 employees across the globe. Under the current layoffs, the company plans to slack about 1000 employees in India. Students placed in Amazon from NITs and IITs with less than one year of experience were laid off in its previous layoff rounds. Students from NITs and IITs took LinkedIn to share their layoff experience.
Employees at Amazon were informed about their layoffs via emails. After the layoff announcements, people have been crying in the office after they were laid off. Many Indian employees have shared their layoff experience on social media sites.
Besides Amazon, many tech companies, banking organizations, and other businesses are laying off their employees. Thousands of people are being impacted by the job cuts. While many organizations still need to cite a proper reason for layoffs. However, some have blamed the economic conditions and structural change for it.
2. Microsoft
Like Google, Microsoft announced to lay off 10,000 of its employees last week until March 2023. The company’s CEO, Satya Nadella, mentioned that Microsoft will emerge from the layoff and can become more competitive. but it requires action in three priorities. According to Satya Nadella, Microsoft will align the cost structure with its revenue and look for customer demands. Secondly, the company will continue to invest in strategic ideas for the future. Lastly, Microsoft will treat its employees with dignity and respect and act transparently with them.
As per the company, the employees affected in the US will receive above-market severance pay, continuing healthcare coverage for six months, career transition services, and 60 days notice period.
Google’s parent Alphabet has recently announced to lay off 12000 of its employees worldwide. The company’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, informed his employees about the layoff via email. He also ensures to take full responsibility for the layoff decision.
Google has already begun the layoffs in the US and will continue in other countries soon. In the US, the employees will get the complete notification period with a severance package beginning at 16 weeks’ salary and two weeks for every extra year at Google. The employees will also receive 2022 bonuses, remaining vacation time, six months of healthcare and job placement services, and other benefits.
The company’s recent layoff can affect different teams, like corporate functions, products, engineering teams, and recruiting. Alphabet has already mailed some employees, and the process will take longer in other nations due to some local employment laws and practices.
4. Verily
Verily is an Alphabet company focused on applying AI and data science to empower evidence generation and enable more precise interventions. It has recently announced plans to cut down 200 job roles at the organization, which covers around 15% of overall positions in the company. In its official blog, Verily CEO Stephen stated to enable greater focus on the company’s updated portfolio, the company is discontinuing its development of Verily Value Suite and some early-stage products.
Thousands of employees working for Wall Street banking major Goldman Sachs were fired on Wednesday and Thursday last week as the organization started laying off more than 3200 employees across the globe. Before the layoffs, Goldman Sachs had close to 9,000 employees in India working in cities like Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Mumbai, which restructured almost 9 percent of its employees there.
While announcing the layoff, Goldman Sachs mentioned that it’s a difficult time for people to leave the firm. They are grateful for the employee’s contribution and provide support to ease their transitions. Goldman Sachs’s focus is to size the firm for opportunities in a challenging macroeconomic environment.
6. Coinbase
Coinbase, a Crypto firm, said last week that it would lay off over 20 percent of its employees. Its new move is to cut costs as crypto markets are declining and tech companies are lowering their expectations for growth.
Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase, mentioned that in 2022 the crypto market trended downwards with the broader macroeconomy. Coinbase also saw the fallout from unethical actors in the industry, and there can still be further contagion.
A couple of weeks ago, Coinbase planned to bring in new employees. But then the company froze the hiring because of the market conditions. The company also rescinded job offers from employees who had already accepted them but had yet to start the job.
Ola has recently laid off about 200 employees from its tech and product team as a part of the restructuring exercise. The company mentioned that it had been regularly conducting restructuring exercises to improve efficiencies, and there were redundant roles in the company. Ola will continue making new hires in engineering and design, including senior talent in its key priority areas.
In September 2022, Ola rescinded the reduction of 200 engineers. The current layoffs at Ola are the same ones that were supposed to happen in September 2022. Mostly freshers recently hired from the colleges are fired in the recent layoff at Ola.
The layoff comprises 10% of its 2000-strong engineer workforce as part of the restructuring exercise toward its electric dream. The company has around 2000 engineers currently and aims to increase its engineering talent pool to 5000 in the next 18 months.
8. ShareChat
ShareChat’s parent company, Mohalla Tech Private Limited, has laid off 600 employees in just six months after raising $255 million in funding. In the last week, it has laid off over 600 employees of its 2100 employees in senior management and mid-to-junior management.
The company informed employees about the layoff through official mail and announced it on Slack. According to the employees, the layoffs are the result of massive hiring after a series of funding rounds. The company will arrange a meeting at 12 pm on 16th January to discuss the layoffs.
ShareChat’s CEO, Ankush Sachdeva, mentioned that the layoff was a move to ensure the financial health and longevity of the company. He also noted that the company overestimated the market growth in 2021 and underestimated the duration and intensity of the global liquidity squeeze.
Vodafone Idea (VI), a renowned telecom company, has reportedly been planning to slash hundreds of jobs in its London-based headquarters to cut costs in the global economic slowdown.
VI’s upcoming layoff will be the biggest in five years. The company has employed over 104000 people across the globe, of which 9400 are based in the United Kingdom.
The company had a challenging year as it came under pressure from several investors to simplify its sprawling business, improve poorly performing units and decentralize global operations.
In November 2022, the company announced cutting $1.8 billion in costs by 2026. VI’s CEO, Nick Read, resigned at the end of 2022 and was replaced by Margherita Della Valle for an interim period.
Just a week after Microsoft declared the general availability of OpenAI on Azure, the company has announced it has entered the “third phase” of its partnership with OpenAI.
The multibillion-dollar partnership began in the year 2019 and has gradually expanded since then as part of Microsoft’s AI supercomputing collaboration.
Under the new agreement, Microsoft is planning to create new AI-powered model experiences, build out AI infrastructure and supercomputing at scale, and become OpenAI’s exclusive cloud provider.
Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO of Microsoft, said, “We formed our partnership with OpenAI around a shared ambition to responsibly advance cutting-edge AI research and democratize AI as a new technology platform. In this next phase of our partnership, developers and organizations across industries will have access to the best AI infrastructure, models, and toolchain with Azure to build and run their applications.”
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, added, “The past three years of our partnership have been great. Microsoft shares our values, and we are excited to continue our independent research and work toward creating advanced AI that benefits everyone.”
Yann LeCun, Meta’s chief AI scientist, said, “In terms of underlying techniques, ChatGPT is not particularly innovative.” According to sources, he was speaking at a small gathering of press and executives on Zoom last week.
“It’s nothing revolutionary, although that’s the way it’s perceived in public,” said LeCun. “It’s just that, you know, it’s well put together, it’s nicely done.”
LeCun said that such data-driven AI systems had been built by many research labs and companies in the past. He said the idea of OpenAI being the only one in its type of work is not correct.
LeCun said, “OpenAI is not particularly an advance as compared to the other labs, at all.” LeCun noted the several ways in which ChatGPT, and the program upon which it has been built, OpenAI’s GPT-3, is composed of many pieces of technology that have been developed over many years by different parties.
LeCun was invited to speak for an hour-and-a-half talk that was hosted by the Collective Forecast. This online, interactive discussion series is organized by Collective, which calls itself an AI platform designed to optimize the B2B sales.
In 2017, Microsoft had stepped in to acquire the platform after AltspaceVR decided to shut itself down. Now, the company says it will shut down the same service on March 10, 2023.
The tech giant will shift its attention to support immersive experiences that are powered by Microsoft Mesh, which is a platform that enables presence and shared experiences from anywhere, on any device, through mixed reality applications.
“With Mesh, we aspire to create a platform that offers the widest opportunity to all those involved, including partners, creators, and customers,” Microsoft said.
Moreover, in the coming term, the company will focus its VR efforts on workplace experiences, learning alongside and from its early partners and customers, and ensuring that it delivers a foundation that enables security, trust, and compliance.
Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robot is now capable of running, jumping, picking up and throwing heavy objects, and performing complex moves that may one day help humanity in factories or construction sites.
In a newly released video called “Atlas Gets a Grip,” the humanoid robot grabs and throws a bag of tools to a worker waiting at the top of a multi-story scaffold.
To some, the new skills may not seem as jaw-dropping since, in the previous videos, the robot dances to the song ‘Do you love me?’ and performs a backflip. However, Boston Dynamics says the technology used in the new control capabilities is more difficult to master than extreme acrobatics.
In the new video, Atlas can be seen picking up not only the tool bag but also a large wooden plank, running up stairs, jumping between levels, and pushing a big wooden box off the platform without losing balance, which according to the company is a “deceptively complex task.”
Boston Dynamics mentioned that for a robot, performing these manipulation tasks needs a more nuanced understanding of its environment, as compared to dancing, where the robot is blind to its surroundings.
Atlas, which is about 1.52 m tall and weighs 86 kg, has a total of 28 hydraulic joints, three onboard computers, and battery-powered electric motors for movement.
Mercedes-Benz has received permission to launch its autonomous driving system DRIVE PILOT in Nevada, reported Reuters. This makes the company the first automaker with a Level 3 system approved for regular use anywhere in the US.
“Mercedes has certified that their technology meets the Nevada ‘minimal risk condition’ requirement that needs a Level 3 or higher ‘fully autonomous’ vehicles that can stop if there is a certain malfunction in the system,” the Nevada DMV said.
A driver is still needed behind the wheel when DRIVE PILOT is engaged. Although under specific conditions, that driver doesn’t have to keep their eyes on the road. For instance, during highway driving, where traffic density is more, and the vehicle is traveling at speeds below 37 mph.
“This gives customers back time to focus on certain secondary tasks, such as communicating with colleagues via In-Car Office, browsing the internet, or relaxing while watching a movie,” writes Mercedes-Benz.
Drive Pilot needs the installation of certain hardware and cannot be retrofitted to the existing cars. Therefore, anyone interested in using the service in Nevada must be prepared to buy a new vehicle and hop up for the option.
An internal slideshow from Google suggests the company could announce as many as 20 new products this year alongside the new AI variant of Google Search, according to a report in New York Times.
The company is also looking to employ a fast-track review process, the ‘Green Lane’ initiative, to make sure the AI features are ready according to schedule. Google may even allow the AI teams to review their own work to ‘recalibrate’ the risk involved.
For the anticipated AI demo, Google is apparently looking to minimize misinformation, improve accuracy, and ensure safety by blocking specific words. As per the report, Google CEO Sundar Pichai invited the founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, for a special meeting where the trio reportedly discussed the AI chatbot’s rise.
There have been arguments about the threat that OpenAI’s ChatGPT poses to Google’s search engine, if not now, then in the future. The report by The New York Times suggests that Google had declared ‘Code Red’ and assigned additional people for its AI strategy.
With the co-founders getting involved, Google seems to be taking things very seriously indeed. After stepping away from their roles at the company back in 2019, Page and Brin had only checked in on the company occasionally, without interfering in its plans.
