The adoption of AI tools and products is growing at a steady pace. Today, companies are rolling out AI chatbots to serve almost every need of users. There are AI chatbots that can write an essay, role-play as your partner, remind you to brush your teeth, take down notes during meetings, and more. These AI tools are mostly in the form of large language models (LLMs) such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
However, the LLMs that are being developed and deployed everywhere could threaten users’ privacy as they are trained on large amounts of data gathered by indiscriminately scraping the information that is available online. Yet, many users remain unaware of the privacy and data protection risks that come with LLMs as well as other generative AI tools.
Over 70 per cent of users interact with AI tools without fully understanding the dangers of sharing personal information, according to a recent survey. It also found that at least 38 per cent of users unknowingly revealed sensitive details to AI tools, putting themselves at risk of identity theft and fraud.
Feeding in the right prompts could also cause LLMs to “regurgitate” personal user data as they are likely trained on data pulled from every nook and corner of the internet.
Beware of social media trends
Recently, a trend that went viral on social media urged users to ask an AI chatbot to “Describe my personality based on what you know about me”. Users were further encouraged to share sensitive data like their birth date, hobbies, or workplace. However, this information can be pieced together, leading to identity theft or account recovery scams. Risky Prompt: “I was born on December 15th and love cycling—what does that say about me?”
Safer Prompt: “What might a December birthday suggest about someone’s personality?”
Do not share identifiable personal data
According to experts from TRG Datacenters, users should frame their queries or prompts to AI chatbots more broadly to protect their privacy.
Risky Prompt: “I was born on November 15th—what does that say about me?”
Safer Prompt: “What are traits of someone born in late autumn?”
Avoid disclosing sensitive information about your children
Parents can unintentionally share sensitive details such as their child’s name, school, or routine while interacting with an AI chatbot. This information can be exploited to target children.
Risky Prompt: “What can I plan for my 8-year-old at XYZ School this weekend?”
Safer Prompt: “What are fun activities for young children on weekends?”
Never share financial details
Over 32 per cent of identity theft cases stem from online data sharing, including financial information, according to a report by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Risky Prompt: “I save $500 per month. How much should I allocate to a trip?”
Safer Prompt: “What are the best strategies for saving for a vacation?”
Refrain from sharing personal health information
Since health data is frequently exploited in data breaches, avoid sharing personal medical histories or genetic risks with AI chatbots:
Risky Prompt: “My family has a history of [condition]; am I at risk?”
Safer Prompt: “What are common symptoms of [condition]?”
Tag: ChatGPT
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How can you protect your privacy while using AI tools?
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Indian American OpenAI whistleblower, Suchir Balaji, autopsy reveals ‘murder’ not suicide
SAN FRANCISCO (TIP) : The parents of Indian American techie Suchir Balaji, who was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on December 14, 2024, have rejected the official suicide ruling, alleging that their son was murdered. Suchir, a former OpenAI employee, had made headlines for his whistleblowing revelations about the ethical concerns surrounding generative AI.
In an interview with NDTV, his parents claim that the second autopsy report indicates “signs of struggle,” including a head injury and trauma, which contradict the suicide verdict by the medical examiner’s office.
Suchir’s mother, Poornima Ramarao, expressed disbelief at the suicide ruling, citing the absence of a suicide note and the findings of the second autopsy. “We have facts with the second autopsy — head trauma and signs of struggle. This is not suicide; it’s a murder,” she stated.
His father, Balaji Ramamurthi, recounted their last conversation on December 22, when Suchir returned from a trip to Los Angeles in good spirits.
“He seemed happy,” he said.
When asked if Suchir picked up another job, his mother said, “No, he didn’t. They (OpenAI) probably threatened him. They didn’t allow him to work somewhere else. He also consulted a copyright attorney and figured out that he was not doing anything wrong and they were just suppressing him. That made him give the New York Times interview and resulted in his death.” “He was working in the core group of the ChatGPT; he was kind of an architect of the whole thing. He knows a lot of information about ChatGPT. There were some restrictions on him to not work in other AI companies,” the father added.
His mother mentioned that Suchir was working on personal research which he wanted to get published, in which he explains that “modulated answer is not exactly as the information pegged to ChatGPT, giving an example of a black and white cat coming out as a colored cat.”
“Additionally, the work of artists and journalists were all stolen, which is unethical. This is what we talked about the last time I met him,” she mentioned.
The parents are demanding an FBI investigation to uncover the truth. “There was a struggle; he did not take his life. Now, who and why need to be explored,” Poornima said, urging the Indian government to support their cause.
They also welcomed Elon Musk’s support but said they had not reached out to him. Describing Suchir as a caring and brilliant individual, his parents said his death is a “loss to humanity and the tech industry.”
Suchir had worked at OpenAI for nearly four years before resigning over ethical concerns.
In an October post on X, he criticized the misuse of copyrighted materials in generative AI, stating, “Fair use seems like a pretty implausible defense for a lot of generative AI products.”
An OpenAI spokesperson expressed condolences, “We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news today. Our hearts go out to Suchir’s loved ones during this difficult time.”
Suchir, a University of California, Berkeley graduate, was a prominent figure in the tech industry, with his whistleblowing revelations sparking global discussions on AI ethics.
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Pichai on OpenAI launching ChatGPT 4o one day prior to Google I/O 2024
OpenAI launched ChatGPT 4o, a new AI model that will power ChatGPT chatbot, just a day before Google developer’s conference. ChatGPT 4o will be available for free, the Sam Altman-led AI start-up said. But was the day for the reveal chosen specifically to taunt Google?
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that “one event happened over a day, does not matter over time.” He explained, “my perspective, this inflexion point we are on with AI, the opportunity that I see, you want to zoom out, the fact that one event happened over a day, does not matter over time.”
He added, “As a company, we have been investing in it over a long time. We are developing state of art models and working to deploy them to billions of people in a way where we can make a difference in their lives. And to me, that’s the North Star, that’s our mission. We stay focused on that.”
Sundar Pichai was also asked about the possibility of OpenAI violating Google’s terms and conditions. He said, “Look, I think it’s a question for them to answer. I don’t have anything to add. We do have clear terms of service. And so, you know, I think normally in these things we engage with companies and make sure they understand our terms of service. And we’ll sort it out.”
This comes after it was reported that OpenAI may be violating terms and conditions to train its AI models. -
ChatGPT is now more direct and less verbose in its responses: OpenAI
Sam Altman-run OpenAI has said it has made its AI chatbot called ChatGPT more direct and less verbose. In a post on X, the company said its new GPT-4 Turbo model is now available to paid ChatGPT users. “We’ve improved capabilities in writing, math, logical reasoning, and coding,” said the company. The new AI model has been trained on publicly available data up to December last year.
“When writing with ChatGPT, responses will be more direct, less verbose and use more conversational language,” OpenAI posted.
The company said it continues to invest in making its AI models better and looks forward to seeing what the users do with those.
“If you haven’t tried it yet, GPT-4 Turbo is available in ChatGPT Plus, Team, Enterprise, and the API,” it added. Meanwhile, the AI company allegedly transcribed more than a million hours of YouTube videos to train GPT-4. The New York Times reported last week that OpenAI knew this was not legal but “believed it to be fair use”.
An OpenAI spokesperson was quoted as saying that the company uses “numerous sources including publicly available data and partnerships for non-public data,” to maintain its global research competitiveness. -
Amazon Web Services lays off hundreds of staff in sales, marketing and tech roles
WASHINGTON (TIP): Amazon Web Services has eliminated several hundred sales, marketing and tech roles, it said on Wednesday, April 3, the latest in a series of job cuts by its parent Amazon.com.
The impacted staff include a few hundred each at AWS’ sales, marketing and global services division and the physical stores’ technology team, the cloud-computing arm of Amazon said. “We’ve identified a few targeted areas of the organization we need to streamline,” an AWS spokesperson said on mail.
Amazon has over the past months laid off hundreds of staff in divisions, including its Prime Video service, healthcare business and Alexa voice assistant unit, as big technology firms extend their massive job cuts over the past two years into 2024.
More than 57,000 workers have been laid off across 229 firms so far this year, according to tracking website Layoffs.fyi. Amazon had laid off more than 27,000 in 2022 and 2023, after the tech industry hired too many people during the pandemic.
The cut at AWS’ 60,000-strong sales, marketing and global services division are likely part of a broad reorganization under sales chief Matt Garman, according to news site The Information, which first reported the development.
After suffering a slowdown in growth last year due to an uncertain economy, Amazon’s cloud business has been showing signs of stabilization, helping the company beat quarterly revenue expectations in February.
Still, its position as the world’s biggest cloud provider is being challenged by rival Microsoft, which has taken an early lead in the race to make money from generative artificial intelligence through an investment in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI.
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ChatGPT to get ‘memory’ to remember who you are, what you like
OpenAI is testing “memory” for its AI chatbot ChatGPT, which will allow the bot to remember information about you and your conversations over time.
You can explicitly tell ChatGPT to remember something, ask it what it remembers, and tell it to forget conversationally or through settings.
“You can also turn it off entirely. We are rolling out to a small portion of ChatGPT free and Plus users this week to learn how useful it is. We will share plans for broader roll out soon,” OpenAI said in a statement.
“ChatGPT’s memory will get better the more you use it and you’ll start to notice the improvements over time”.
The users can turn off memory at any time. While memory is off, they won’t create or use memories. “If you want ChatGPT to forget something, just tell it. You can also view and delete specific memories or clear all memories in settings,” the company informed. If you’d like to have a conversation without using memory, use temporary chat.
Source: IANS -
Vondy, the all-in-one AI platform: Things it does better than ChatGPT
There is a chatbot or an AI tool for just about everything now. Ever since ChatGPT was introduced, numerous AI tools have been developed that can perform an assortment of tasks. Among the sea of AI chatbots and tools, a recently introduced AI tool is making waves. Unlike ChatGPT, Bard or Claude 2, this tool offers more than just conversations.
Introducing Vondy AI, an all-in-one AI platform that can create content as well as enhance productivity. The application has been developed by New York-based software engineer Rohit Das and New Jersey-based software engineer David Laub. Those who have used this application claim it to be more powerful than OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Here’s a deep dive into why Vondy AI could be the best AI tool:
It’s free
ChatGPT runs on the most powerful AI model GPT-4. However, to access this, users are required to subscribe to ChatGPT Plus which costs around $20. Meanwhile, Vondy is free and there are no message limits. It comes with a ready-made GPT store similar to the App store. It is to be noted that the tool offers over 100 AI assistants.
Create your own GPT assistant
OpenAI at its first-ever developer conference announced Custom GPTs, which allowed users to create their own AI chatbots. However, this too was limited to premium subscribers. Vondy AI lets you create the GPT of your choice. Users need to go to ‘Create Assistant+’, click on ‘Create your own app’, Upload a photo, name the agent and describe its purpose. Once the agent is ready users can further build it by asking questions, just the way it is done on ChatGPT Plus.
Save more time
Now that you have your own AI assistant, you will be able to save hours worth of work. Be it content creation, data analysis, building market strategy, education, or even graphic designing, an AI assistant created using Vondy AI will come to your rescue.
Premade AI Assistants/GPTs
While one is free to create their custom AI assistants, Vondy AI offers hundreds of pre-built AI assistants. The existing AI assistants on the platform are claimed to enhance productivity by 10 times.
Create viral content
Vondy AI also has an AI assistant that’s a social media influencer. The AI chatbot lets you create content for Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. This is essentially an AI-powered social media manager who can take care of your social media. Source: The Indian Express -
ChatGPT’s answers to software engineering questions were 52% incorrect
OpenAI’s ChatGPT answered about 52% software engineering questions incorrectly, according to a study, raising questions about the popular language models accuracy.
Despite ChatGPT’s popularity, there hasn’t been a thorough investigation into the quality and usability of its responses to software engineering queries, said researchers from the Purdue University in the US.
To address this gap, the team undertook a comprehensive analysis of ChatGPT’s replies to 517 questions from Stack Overflow (SO).
“Our examination revealed that 52 per cent of ChatGPT’s answers contain inaccuracies and 77 per cent are verbose,” the researchers wrote in the paper, not peer-reviewed and published on a pre-print site.
Importantly, the team found that 54 per cent of the time the errors were made due to ChatGPT not understanding the concept of the questions.
Even when it could understand the question, it failed to show an understanding of how to solve the problem, contributing to a high number of conceptual errors, they said. Further, the researchers observed ChatGPT’s limitation to reasoning. “In many cases, we saw ChatGPT give a solution, code, or formula without foresight or thinking about the outcome,” they said. -
Facebook parent Meta makes public its ChatGPT rival LLaMA
Facebook parent company Meta Platforms has built an artificial intelligence system that rivals the likes of ChatGPT and Google’s Bard but it’s taking a different approach: releasing it for free.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Tuesday, July 18, that the company is partnering with Microsoft to introduce the next generation of its AI large language model and making the technology, known as LLaMA 2, free for research and commercial use.
Much like tech peers Google and Microsoft, the social media company has long had a big research team of computer scientists devoted to advancing AI technology. But it’s been overshadowed as the release of ChatGPT sparked a rush to profit off of “generative AI” tools that can create new prose, images and other media.
Meta has also tried to distinguish itself by being more open than some of its Big Tech rivals about offering a peek at the data and code it uses to build AI systems. It has argued that such openness makes it easier for outside researchers to help identify and mitigate the bias and toxicity that AI systems pick up by ingesting how real people write and communicate.
“Open source drives innovation because it enables many more developers to build with new technology,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post Tuesday. “It also improves safety and security because when software is open, more people can scrutinize it to identify and fix potential issues. I believe it would unlock more progress if the ecosystem were more open, which is why we’re open sourcing Llama 2.” Source: AP -
First ChatGPT arrest in China over fake train crash news
Chinese police have detained a man for allegedly generating fake news of a train crash and disseminating it online using artificial intelligence technology, in what was reported to be China’s first arrest for misuse of ChatGPT.
Police in northwestern Gansu province said in a statement on Sunday that a suspect surnamed Hong had been detained for “using artificial intelligence technology to concoct false and untrue information”.
The case first caught the attention of the cyber division of a county police bureau when they spotted a fake news article that claimed nine people had been killed in a local train accident on April 25, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.
The cybersecurity officers in Kongtong county found the article simultaneously posted by more than 20 accounts on Baijiahao, a blog-style platform run by Chinese search engine giant Baidu. The stories had received more than 15,000 clicks by the time it came to authorities’ attention, it said. -
Google begins opening access to its ChatGPT competitor Bard
Alphabet Inc’s Google began the public release of its chatbot Bard, seeking users and feedback to gain ground on Microsoft Corp in a fast-moving race on artificial intelligence technology.
Starting in the US and the UK, consumers can join a waitlist for English-language access to Bard, a programme previously open to approved testers only. Google describes Bard as an experiment allowing collaboration with generative AI, technology that relies on past data to create rather than identify content. The release last year of ChatGPT, a chatbot from the Microsoft-backed startup OpenAI, has caused a sprint in the technology sector to put AI into more users’ hands. The hope is to reshape how people work and win business in the process.
Just last week, Google and Microsoft made a flurry of announcements on AI, two days apart. The companies are putting draft-writing technology into their word processors and other collaboration software, as well as marketing related tools for web developers to build their own AI-based applications. Asked whether competitive dynamics were behind Bard’s rollout, Jack Krawczyk, a senior product director, said Google was focused on users. Internal and external testers have turned to Bard for “boosting their productivity, accelerating their ideas, really fueling their curiosity,” he said. In a demonstration of the site bard.google.com to Reuters, Krawczyk showed how the program produces blocks of text in an instant, different from how ChatGPT types out answers word by word.
Bard also included a feature showing three different versions or “drafts” of any given answer among which users could toggle, and it displayed a button stating “Google it,” should a user desire web results for a query.
Accuracy, however, is still a concern. “Bard will not always get it right,” a Google pop-up notice warned during the demo. Last month, a promotional video for Bard showed the program answering a question incorrectly, helping shave $100 billion off Alphabet’s market value.
Google highlighted a couple mistakes during this week’s demo to Reuters, for instance saying Bard wrongly claimed ferns required bright, indirect light in response to one query.
Bard also produced nine paragraphs of text when asked for four in another question. After that answer, Krawczyk clicked a thumbs-down feedback button in response.Source: Reuters
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Google building a 1000 language AI model to beat ChatGPT
Google has shared more information about the Universal Speech Model (USM), a system that the company describes as a “critical first step” in realising its goals, which is now moving closer toward its goal of building an AI language model that supports 1,000 different languages to beat ChatGPT.
In November last year, the company announced its plans to create a language model supporting 1,000 of the world’s most-spoken languages while also revealing its USM model.
The tech giant describes USM as a family of state-of-the-art speech models with 2 billion parameters trained on 12 million hours of speech and 28 billion sentences of text, spanning 300+ languages.
“USM, which is for use in YouTube (e.g., for closed captions), can perform automatic speech recognition (ASR) not only on widely spoken languages like English and Mandarin, but also on under-resourced languages like Amharic, Cebuano, Assamese, and Azerbaijani to name a few,” Google said in a blogpost.
Google currently claims that USM supports over 100 languages and will serve as the “foundation” for a much larger system.
Meanwhile, Google is expected to introduce a host of AI features for its products in the near future, and among them, Gboard for Android is working to integrate the Imagen text-to-image generator.
Users may soon see how much memory each tab using on Chrome
Tech giant Google is reportedly working on a new feature for Chrome which will show users how much memory each tab is using. The information was shared by Chrome expert Leopeva64 on Twitter, reports Android Police.
The new feature will let users know specific memory usage for every open tab when they place the cursor on it.
This feature will be helpful for users when they have opened multiple tabs, as it will help them decide which tabs to close.
Last month, the tech giant had rolled out the Memory and Energy Saver modes for Chrome on Mac, Windows, Linux, as well as Chromebooks.
Chrome’s Memory Saver automatically “frees up memory from inactive tabs” to give other pages and apps on users’ computers more resources. And, with Energy Saver, “Chrome conserves battery power by limiting background activity and visual effects”.
Source: IANS -
Companies begin replacing human employees with ChatGPT
Microsoft-owned ChatGPT has started replacing humans at workplaces as some companies have implemented the AI chatbot to perform the work being done earlier by employees, saving thousands of dollars.
Companies that use ChatGPT said they saved money using the AI tool, with 48 per cent saved over $50,000 and 11 per cent saved over $100,000, according to a report in Fortune.
Job advice platform Resumebuilder.com surveyed 1,000 business leaders who either use or plan to use ChatGPT.
It found that about half of their companies have implemented chatbots. And nearly half of this group say that “ChatGPT has already converted employees at their companies”.
“As this new technology is growing in the workplace right now, workers definitely need to think about how it may affect their current job responsibilities,” Stacey Haller, chief career advisor at Resume Builder was quoted as saying in the report.
Companies are using ChatGPT to write codes, copywriting and content creation, customer support and preparing meeting summaries.
About 77 per cent of firms using ChatGPT said they use it to help write job descriptions and 66 per cent said the AI chatbot is drafting interview solicitations.
In a survey, Resume Builder found that job seekers are also utilising AI chatbot ChatGPT for resumes and cover letters.
Almost 1 in 2 current and recent job seekers have used ChatGPT to write their resumes and/or cover letters.
Of the 1,000 respondents who admitted to using ChatGPT for their application materials, 72 per cent said they used the tool to write cover letters, and 51 per cent say they used it to write resumes.
Most respondents were satisfied with the results from ChatGPT, as 76 per cent of respondents said the quality of application materials written by ChatGPT is ‘high’ or ‘very high’. Additionally, 28 per cent said they only had to do ‘a little bit’ or ‘no’ editing to resumes and/or cover letters written by ChatGPT.
Microsoft recently introduced AI-powered Bing search engine, Edge web browser, and integrated Chat.
The company is testing it with a select set of people in over 169 countries to get real-world feedback to learn and improve.
Source: IANS
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Twitter users can soon earn money from micro-blogging platform, says Musk
Twitter CEO Elon Musk said that the micro-blogging platform is “spinning up subscriptions” so that users can “charge” their followers for specific content.
When one user posted a long tweet with the new Blue feature that allows subscribers to create tweets of up to 4,000 characters. Musk replied, “Good use of long tweet! Next update will allow much longer tweets with basic formatting, so you can post any content on Twitter.” “We’re also spinning up subscriptions, so you can charge people for some content and they can easily pay with one click.” Many users expressed their thoughts on Musk’s post. While one user asked, “Charging to read a tweet? Or paywall?”, another commented, “Great idea. Now an author can publish his entire book on Twitter perhaps one chapter at a time. Leave the first few tweets as free and rest paid.” The upcoming feature will be a great opportunity for the users to earn money from their followers on the micro-blogging platform. Meanwhile, last week, the micro-blogging platform announced that it will no longer allow non-Twitter Blue users to use text messages as a two-factor authentication (2FA) method, after March 20.
Earlier this month, Twitter had confirmed that it will charge Rs 650 per month for its Blue service with verification on the web and Rs 900 on Android and iOS mobile devices in India.
Moreover, Blue subscribers in the US can create long tweets of up to 4,000 characters.
Blue users will also see 50 per cent fewer ads in their home timeline.
From social media to ChatGPT, cyber
criminals quick to adopt new tech
Forget Jamtara that has kept on inspiring cyber thugs to steal your data or money via traditional, OTP-based methods to date. Brace yourself for a new age of hacking via artificial intelligence (AI)-based tools.
A new crop of con artists is now thriving that is utilising newer means — from social media platforms to UPI-based frauds and from operating fake gambling websites to now working on AI chatbot ChatGPT — to rob you of your hard-earned money. A woman was duped of Rs 27 lakh last week by a woman fraudster who promised her handsome returns on investment in digital marketing on WhatsApp.
“The task was to like and subscribe to YouTube accounts,” the victim said in the FIR.
The Delhi Police’s Crime Branch last week busted a racket involved in forging documents including Aadhaar cards, PAN card, and driving license for obtaining SIM cards, opening bank accounts and taking loans. On interrogation, police found that the con group used ordinary persons who don’t have any ID documents for preparing these documents and further misusing them. Cyber-security researcher Rajshekhar Rajaharia has unearthed a new type of fraud online. Every day from 5 p.m., several satta (gambling) websites start trending on Google, which offer quick money upon playing the satta that starts from as little as Rs 100 and goes into thousands.
“These websites start appearing in the evening and every website guarantees profits. These gambling websites are being run with tier 1 and 2 city names like Delhi Satta King, Disawar gali Satta, Shri Ganesh Chart, Satta King Delhi Bazar and more,” Rajaharia told IANS.
Those who place satta, using various UPI payment platforms, get nothing in return as the winning prize always goes to people these websites had already selected.
Source: IANS
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Google introduces AI service ‘Bard’ to compete with ChatGPT
Google has unveiled its new artificial intelligence (AI) service ‘Bard’ to compete against OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which is now opened up to “trusted testers” before the company makes it “more widely available to the public in the coming weeks”. Bard is an “experimental conversational AI service” which is powered by Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA), Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in a blogpost on.
The tool aims to combine the depth of the “world’s knowledge with the power, intelligence and creativity of our large language models”. It uses data from the web to provide fresh, high-quality responses.
“Bard can be an outlet for creativity, and a launchpad for curiosity, helping you to explain new discoveries from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to a 9-year-old, or learn more about the best strikers in football right now, and then get drills to build your skills,” Pichai explained.
The tech giant is initially releasing it using LaMDA’s lightweight model version. This much smaller model requires significantly less computing power, allowing the company to scale to more users, resulting in more feedback.
Google will combine the external feedback with its own internal testing to make sure that Bard’s responses “meet a high bar for quality, safety and groundedness in real-world information”, Pichai mentioned.
Source: IANS
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Microsoft Rolls Out ChatGPT-Powered Teams Premium
Microsoft on Wednesday, February 1, rolled out a premium Teams messaging offering powered by ChatGPT to simplify meetings using the AI chatbot that has taken Silicon Valley by a storm.The premium service will cost $7 (roughly Rs. 600) per month in June before increasing to $10 (roughly Rs. 800) in July, Microsoft said.
OpenAI-owned ChatGPT will generate automatic meeting notes, recommend tasks and help create meeting templates for Teams users.
Microsoft, which announced a multi-billion dollar investment in OpenAI earlier this month, has said it aims to add ChatGPT’s technology into all its products, setting the stage for more competition with rival Alphabet’s Google. The chatbot, which can produce prose or poetry on command, is at the forefront of generative AI, a space where more and more big tech companies are funneling their resources in. ChatGPT on Wednesday announced a $20 (roughly Rs. 1,600) per-month subscription plan, which will let subscribers receive access to faster responses and priority access to new features and improvements. ChatGPT owner OpenAI launched a pilot subscription plan for its popular AI-powered chatbot, called ChatGPT Plus, for $20 (roughly Rs. 1,600) per month. Subscribers will receive access to ChatGPT during peak times, faster responses and priority access to new features and improvements.
In a blog post published by OpenAI on Wednesday, the company introduced ChatGPT Plus, which will be initially rolling out only for the customers in the United States. The company will soon extend the access availability through inviting people from its waitlist, probably over the coming weeks. OpenAI will also be rolling out ChatGPT to more regions in the near future.
Source: Reuters
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Microsoft attempts to cut costs; to lay off 10,000 workers
The job cuts, which amount to less than 5 percent of the company’s work force, are its largest in roughly eight years
REDMOND, WA (TIP): Microsoft plans to lay off 10,000 workers, the company said Wednesday, as it looks to trim costs amid economic uncertainty and to refocus on strategic priorities, such as artificial intelligence, a Jan 18 New York Times report says.
The company employed about 221,000 workers as of the end of June, and the cuts amount to less than 5 percent of its global work force. “These are the kinds the staffrd choices we have made throughout our 47-year history to remain a consequential company in this industry that is unforgiving to anyone who doesn’t adapt to platform shifts,” Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s chief executive, said in a message to staff. The layoffs, which will begin on Wednesday, are the company’s largest in roughly eight years. Mr. Nadella cut about 25,000 jobs over the course of 2014 and 2015 as Microsoft abandoned its ill-fated acquisition of the mobile phone maker Nokia.
Like other tech companies, Microsoft expanded rapidly during the pandemic. It has hired more than 75,000 people since 2019, seizing on the surge in online services and the expansion of cloud computing.
Microsoft’s annual revenue grew 58 percent over three years but rising interest rates and the prospect of a recession have tempered the company’s outlook. In the quarter that ended in October, it reported its slowest growth in five years and warned that more tepid results could follow. The changes, including severance and other restructuring expenses, will cost $1.2 billion, Mr. Nadella said. Microsoft is scheduled to report its quarterly earnings on Tuesday.
The company has been pursuing several expensive bets, including potentially putting another $10 billion into its investment in OpenAI, which makes the explosively popular ChatGPT artificial intelligence system, and a $69 billion acquisition of the video game maker Activision that is facing challenges globally by antitrust regulators.
Other tech giants have also been reducing costs after several years of breakneck expansion. Amazon is expected to begin a huge round of layoffs on Wednesday as part of its plans to reduce its corporate work force by about 18,000 jobs.
The business software company Salesforce said this month that it planned to lay off 10 percent of its work force, or about 8,000 employees; and Meta, the parent company of Facebook, announced at the end of last year that it was cutting more than 11,000 jobs.
(Source: NY Times)