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Good morning!
World leaders are expected to make unequivocal statements. That is what they must do. To say. Sound definitive. Equally, it is rare too for us to talk about politics and personalities amidst these very, the hallowed pages of Wired Wisdom. But what the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spoke about, inaugurating this year’s edition of the London Tech Week, does two things – first, sets the ball rolling on a very contentious topic and secondly, gives the UK the definite place at the head of the table for all things AI and regulation. On a nice and bright, and somewhat warm summer’s day in London, PM Sunak’s announcement raised the stakes too.
That is, before the boffins over at the EU could stitch together a document (they’re quite good too, when they get down to it – GDPR being an illustrious example). And much before the US could get beyond regularly rolling out the tech bigshots in front of a Senate subcommittee for a grilling. That is a good start, whichever way you look at it.
AI needs to be regulated. AI isn’t new, but the pace at which its tentacles of relevance are spreading, the need is urgent. Chatbots spewing all sorts of information to all sorts of questions. Text to image generative AI tools creating images that look very real, but don’t have a link with reality. There is a need to put safeguards in place, a baseline that’ll ensure some level of quality for present and upcoming tools.
The second thing UK intends to do, is ensure safeguards and research tools in place. AI cannot run the show, with its own mind. The good thing is, industry’s response to UK’s call has been very positive. Frontier Labs, Google DeepMind, OpenAI and Anthropic have all confirmed priority access to models for research and safety purposes, for evaluations and to better understand the risks of these systems. The more eyes outside the tech space taking a look at these algorithms (in this case, the expectation is the academia will), the more chances of catching possible red flags and deploying corrective measures.
Which in the case of any AI implementation, the earlier the better. There is a lot more lined up at the London Tech Week, which I am sure we will have a conversation about next week too.
ARCHITECTS
There is a beautiful hotel in the town of Bath, UK. It is called The Architect. The historical significance is, one Mr. Adolf Hitler tried to bomb this hotel during the war, because the British admiralty was based here. His bombers missed, taking out a part of the main street instead. We all know how the war, and the history since, has panned out. Nevertheless, architects are still very important to humanity. In particular, the ones who work software and solutions, melded with artificial intelligence, modified for enterprises and business as they need an interface with their consumers.
It isn’t every day that one gets dedicated time to have a candid conversation with Nitin Rakesh, who is CEO and MD and Anurag Bhatia, who is head of Europe for Indian tech company Mphasis. Before we get on with the chat, important to point out a parallel with buildings here too – the backdrop for the company’s London office is the building called The Gherkin. I’ve digressed enough.
Rakesh and Bhatia point out a very important trend. Every organisation and business they create solutions for, are primarily looking to be direct with the consumer and keep the engagement going to tick off the loyalty aspect. Such are the times with the business landscape. The progression of artificial intelligence tools, with generative AI leading the conversation, is something they had anticipated a few years ago. Five or so, to be precise.
It is all about taking the best possible tools available and working that out in the best possible way for the enterprise they’re building the solution for. As Rakesh and Bhatia say, they don’t have to go out and build another conversational AI system as an alternate to ChatGPT. They must use ChatGPT in the best possible way in custom solutiuons that’s one example.
As the interactions keep rolling in during the London Tech Week, this is a theme that’s become clear – solutions for businesses and enterprises are becoming increasingly customised. Banking, fintech, shopping, automotive and digital payments are some examples. And with a generous layering of AI now.
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On the other side of the room, it isn’t an easy transition. Companies and businesses (think of how your bank has evolved over time) are facing varying difficulty levels in adopting the new tools at their disposal. Put yourself in the shoes of a bank, that has managed bank accounts, credit cards and insurance policies for more than 20 years, in the same way. Suddenly, consumers demand more convenience, options, flexibility, value and ease of access.
Rakesh perhaps has it spot on. “Consumer driving disruption, not tech,” he says. You and I are the reason why our bank just made their mobile payments app better, with the latest update.
Also Read: Some of our extensive AI coverage
COMPOSITION
Winds of change? Staying ahead of the curve? Ecosystem pressures? Listening to the customer? One or more of these elements would have weighed in on why we saw what we saw this summer, at the annual developer conferences for Google, Microsoft and Apple. While it was never totally off the agenda, such intricate consumer focused announcements (and in such volume), remained rare. To an extent, the less inclined towards us, found these a bit drab to follow. Developer tools. Software updates. New apps. Developer beta. Public beta. That used to form the theme.
The focus on AI, was expected. But this much, perhaps not.
Yet, the surprising element was the focus on new products and new product lines. Google’s early summer additions included the Pixel Fold foldable phone and the Pixel Tablet (two portfolios that are somewhat new to Google). Microsoft didn’t do much new in the Surface computing device portfolio, but the AI focus (the upcoming Copilot) will impact millions of Windows PCs globally in the coming months – a new tool for consumers, once its ready to roll out with a Windows update.
Apple did follow through extensively on the launches front. The new Mac Studio and Mac Pro desktops signal the end of Intel’s chapter for Macs, at least for now. The 15-inch MacBook Air is expected to kickstart a new category of ultraportable but large-screen laptops. It is the?Apple Vision Pro AR headset , which the company describes as a “first spatial computer”, that is undoubtedly the highlight of the summer.
We’d spoken about it in detail?last week , our regular readers would remember. There is still some way to go before this $3,499 (that is around ?2,88,700) headset goes on sale, but in many ways, the experience and utility benchmark has been set. Can others, such as Meta or Microsoft, respond? That’s a million-dollar (or million-pound, that’s the currency I’ve acclimatised to over the past few days!) question. At the same time, one must wonder – do they need to? This is a massive step forward for AR, one that crowns a summer where developer conferences changed contours and scope significantly.
Will this stay next year? Too early to judge at this point. More than 11 months to go, that is a lifetime away.
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Written and edited by Vishal Shanker Mathur. Produced by Md Shad Hasnain.
Attended Swami Vivekand College of Sanskrit board class matric and awareness high guru gyan with quality justice. .
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