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TCS launches new generative AI practice with AWS

To accelerate its customers’ journeys, TCS has invested in foundation training of over 100,000 employees on generative AI….reports Asian Lite News

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Monday said it has launched new generative AI practice in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to help customers harness the full potential of generative AI and transform their operations.

To accelerate its customers’ journeys, TCS has invested in foundation training of over 100,000 employees on generative AI. It is now focused on deepening their expertise further, including certification of over 25,000 employees on the AWS generative AI services.

“Drawing from all the investments we have made in building deep capabilities in generative AI, our strong partnership with AWS, and contextual knowledge of our customers’ businesses, we help them take a comprehensive approach to realize the true potential of generative AI to drive their growth and transformation,” said Krishna Mohan, Deputy Head, TCS AI.Cloud unit.

TCS’ AWS generative AI practice will help enterprises choose and quickly scale the right solutions for their unique business needs and transform their organisations, using AWS’ services such as Amazon Bedrock.

TCS’ consultants will help clients explore the most impactful use-cases in their business context, experiment collaboratively and co-innovate generative AI-powered solutions, said the company.

“AWS has been focused on making AI accessible to companies of all sizes and across industries, and by deepening the AWS and TCS relationship through the TCS generative AI practice, more customers can easily and quickly leverage and benefit from generative AI,” said Vasi Philomin, Vice President of Generative AI, AWS.

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, the world’s largest hotel franchising company, has extended its strategic partnership with TCS and AWS to manage its digital transformation journey leveraging AWS generative AI services.

ALSO READ: Danish, Norwegian envoys laud celebrations in Varanasi

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Hackers using Telegram bot to pull off large-scale phishing scams

Fraudsters get creative, come up with newer ways to dupe people. (Photo:Unsplash)

Neanderthals, a group of threat actors, have managed to present themselves as a legitimate company, enabling them to function within a structured framework…reports Asian Lite News

Threat actors are using a malicious Telegram bot called “Telekopye” to pull off large-scale phishing scams, a new report has said.

According to security researcher Radek Jizba from ESETResearch, Telekopye is a highly sophisticated tool that allows criminals to create convincing phishing websites, emails, SMS messages, and more.

Neanderthals, a group of threat actors, have managed to present themselves as a legitimate company, enabling them to function within a structured framework.

Aspiring members are recruited through underground forums and are granted access to specific Telegram channels, where they can communicate with other members and monitor ongoing operations.

The Neanderthals’ ultimate goal is to commit one of three types of scams — seller, buyer, or refund.

Seller scams involve duping unsuspecting victims, dubbed Mammoths, into buying nonexistent items. Buyer scams involve Neanderthals impersonating buyers in order to trick merchants (also known as Mammoths) into disclosing financial information.

Refund scams occur when Neanderthals mislead Mammoths into believing they are offering a refund only to deduct the same amount of money again, the report showed.

The Neanderthals use a variety of strategies to carry out these scams successfully. When attempting a seller scam, for example, they prepare additional photos of the non-existent item in case the Mammoths request more information. They also manipulate internet images to make reverse image searches more difficult.

Buyer scams necessitate careful planning and research. The Neanderthals choose their targets based on factors such as gender, age, experience in online marketplaces, ratings, reviews, completed trades, and the type of items they sell, which allows them to tailor their approach and increase the chances of success, the report said.

In order to entice Mammoths, the Neanderthals also engage in real estate fraud, creating fictitious apartment listings.

They remain anonymous by using VPNs, proxies, and TOR, making it difficult for authorities to track them down.

ALSO READ-Hackers steal 2.2 mn patients’ data from healthcare major McLaren

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Google to help India in developing responsible AI

Google is developing AI in a way that maximises the positive benefits to society while addressing the challenges, guided by its AI principles…reports Asian Lite News

Google on Thursday said it is committed to share its expertise and knowledge with the Indian Government and industry stakeholders towards developing responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The company’s statement came after Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw met representatives from large social media platforms and other stakeholders, saying the government will draft new rules to spot and limit the spread of deepfakes.

“We appreciate the opportunity to meet with the government, jointly with industry stakeholders, to discuss the need to develop safeguards around synthetic content and share how we are building tools and guardrails to address associated risks,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement.

“We are committed to continue this collaboration and share our expertise and knowledge towards our collective goal of responsible AI development,” the spokesperson added.

Google is developing AI in a way that maximises the positive benefits to society while addressing the challenges, guided by its AI principles.

“We’re also building tools and guardrails to help prevent the misuse of technology, while enabling people to better evaluate online information,” the company added.

The company is investing in tools like watermarking and synthetic audio detection to help people safely identify content online.

ALSO READ-Google rolls out generative AI-powered Search  

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Amazon’s ‘AI Ready’ initiative to skill 2 mn people in GenAI by 2025

These courses augment more than 80 free and low-cost AI and generative AI courses and resources provided through AWS…reports Asian Lite News

Amazon on Thursday launched the ‘AI Ready’ initiative to provide free generative AI skill training to two million people by 2025.

To support professionals in the workplace, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is announcing eight new, free AI and generative AI courses which are open to anyone and aligned to in-demand jobs.

These courses augment more than 80 free and low-cost AI and generative AI courses and resources provided through AWS.

Amazon also launched AWS Generative AI Scholarship and collaboration with Code.org to help underrepresented and underserved students gain access to next-generation tech education.

Through the AWS Generative AI Scholarship, AWS will provide Udacity scholarships, valued at more than $12 million, to more than 50,000 high school and university students from underserved and underrepresented communities globally.

A new AWS study found strong demand for AI talent and the potential for workers with AI skills to earn up to 47 per cent more in salaries.

“Looking ahead, AI will only become more integral to the way business is done, with 93 per cent of businesses expecting they will be using AI solutions across their organization in the next five years,” the study noted.

Amazon’s new AI Ready commitment is in addition to AWS’s commitment to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to provide free cloud computing skills training to 29 million people by 2025, which has already trained more than 21 million people.

ALSO READ-Amazon Trims Workforce in India

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‘Al Is Only A Means, Not An End’

Nadella said that the pace of innovation that they have driven has been remarkable, especially during a time of so much “continued hardship and uncertainty in the world”….reports Asian Lite News

As Sam Altman returned to OpenAI after the five-day intense drama, Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella has said that technology, including Al, is only a tool.

In an internal memo to employees ahead of Thanksgiving holiday, Nadella said that the pace of innovation that they have driven has been remarkable, especially during a time of so much “continued hardship and uncertainty in the world”.

“But technology, including Al, is only a tool. It’s a means, not an end. And, ultimately, our end is our mission to empower people and organisations all over the planet — one individual, one community, one country at a time,” he told employees.

“At the end of the day, the greatest privilege of my job is working with people who are driven by mission. There is no better example of this than these past 5 days, when I saw people across the company remaining focused on our mission and serving our customers and partners, stepping up to help in every way possible,” Nadella added.

Microsoft Chief Technology Office (CTO) and EVP of AI, Kevin Scott, also addressed employees about the OpenAI turmoil, reports The Verge.

“The events of the past few days have been uncertain for our colleagues at OpenAl, and of intense interest to many others. Throughout, nothing has changed or wavered about our resolve and focus to deliver the world’s best Al technology platforms and products to our customers and partners,” Scott said in a separate memo to employees.

“We will continue to support our colleagues at OpenAl and the phenomenal work they’ve been doing alongside us in service of that mission. As we have for these past 4+ years, we look forward to continuing our work with Sam and his team,” he added.

Scott said that despite the potential of the past few days to distract us, both Microsoft and OpenAl scientists and engineers have been working with undiminished urgency.

On Wednesday, OpenAI announced that Altman and president and co-founder Greg Brockman are returning to the company with a new board in place.

Sam Altman, chief executive officer of OpenAI, during an event in Seoul, South Korea, on Friday, June 9, 2023. OpenAI is focused on building a better, faster and cheaper model of its generative AI ChatGPT product, Altman has said previously. The product made AI a buzzword and kicked off a global race among tech companies to build their own versions of the chatbot technology. Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Altman’s Exit Sparks Intrigue at OpenAI

A secret AI project named ‘Q’ (pronounced Q-Star) at OpenAI that could threaten humanity may have been the reason behind Sam Altman’s ouster as CEO from the ChatGPT-developing company.

According to reports, several staff researchers sent the OpenAI board a letter warning that a powerful AI breakthrough could threaten humanity.

The letter and AI algorithm was a catalyst that caused the board to oust Altman, according to a Reuters report, citing sources.

The previously unknown letter was one of the factors “among a longer list of grievances by the board that led to Altman’s firing”.

The researchers who wrote the letter did not comment, neither did OpenAI.

The ChatGPT maker made progress on ‘Q-Star’ project which could be a breakthrough in the search for superintelligence, also known as artificial general intelligence (AGI).

According to reports, OpenAI’s senior executive Mira Murati told employees the letter “precipitated the board’s actions” to fire Altman last week.

However, an OpenAI spokesperson said that “Murati told employees what the media reports were about but she did not comment on the accuracy of the information”.

A person familiar with the matter told The Verge that the board never received a letter about such a breakthrough. Sam Altman on Wednesday said he is returning to the ChatGPT developing company with a new board and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s support.

OpenAI president and co-founder Greg Brockman also shared a picture with his team on X after he and Altman returned to OpenAI.

ALSO READ: Reliance’s $2.4Bn Bengal Plan

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Nokia, Airtel Team Up for Next-Gen Network

Under the agreement, Airtel will utilise Nokia’s ‘1830 PSS-x OTN’ switches in its National Long-Distance Network connecting major cities across India….reports Asian Lite News

Nokia on Tuesday announced it has entered into an agreement with Bharti Airtel to deploy a next-generation optical transport network (OTN) that will provide additional capacity, higher reliability and lower cost, enabling superior services for Airtel’s customers.

Under the agreement, Airtel will utilise Nokia’s ‘1830 PSS-x OTN’ switches in its National Long-Distance Network connecting major cities across India.

“As a world leader in OTN, our technology will help Airtel to increase the capacity and features of Bharti’s optical transport network to meet growing bandwidth demand driven by the enterprise and hyperscaler segments. It will also provide the service level performance to meet the strict SLAs from Airtel customers,” Chandan Kumar, Head of Optical Network Business Centre for Nokia India, said in a statement.

The increased capacity will enable Airtel to potentially deliver faster and more reliable broadband services and be ready for new use cases, Nokia said.

According to the company, its OTN solution enables Bharti Airtel to seamlessly upgrade its legacy transport switching infrastructure across its pan-Indian network footprint to meet new transport network traffic demands while improving both the performance and reliability of its network.

Nokia noted that the launch of 5G networks and the push for broadband connectivity across India is increasing demands for Communications Service Providers (CSPs), including augmentation of backhaul transport for denser 5G mobile networks, wholesale connectivity for new segments like smart grids, data centre interconnect (DCI) and other business services.

To address this exponential growth in traffic demand, transport networks need to be upgraded to increase overall transport capacity and bandwidth efficiency using high-capacity OTN switching and utilising additional spectrum, including the L-band wavelengths of the fibre, it added.

ALSO READ: Nadella Welcomes Altman and Brockman to Microsoft

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Indian Gen Z Leads in AI Learning: Report

According to the global professional networking platform LinkedIn, Gen Z is spending 1.3 times more time than Gen X and 2.4 times more time than Baby Boomers….reports Asian Lite News

Gen Z professionals in India are more interested in acquiring Artificial Intelligence (AI) skills than their older counterparts, spending 73 per cent more time than other generations to learn the skill, a new report said on Tuesday.

According to the global professional networking platform LinkedIn, Gen Z is spending 1.3 times more time than Gen X and 2.4 times more time than Baby Boomers.

“Upskilling is no longer just an option, it’s imperative, with a renewed focus on cultivating vital human skills like leadership and problem-solving to harness AI’s full potential,” said Ashutosh Gupta, Country Manager, LinkedIn India.

The report also revealed that global AI conversations shot up by a solid 70 per cent from December 2022 to September 2023.

In India, preferred skills among learners vary across generations: While Gen Z is learning digital skills like Programming Languages, Cloud Computing, and Data Analysis, Millennials and Gen X are investing in soft skills like Leadership and Management, Personal Effectiveness, and Personal Development.

With AI taking over routine tasks, professionals have the opportunity to focus on other types of meaningful and creative work requiring soft skills that only people have.

The report showed that across APAC, tech professionals who have developed one or more soft skills — in addition to hard skills — get promoted over 13 per cent faster than employees who only have hard skills.

In India, the most demanded soft skills by AI and AI-related job postings include communication, analytical skills, and sales.

As developments in generative AI offer a massive opportunity to break down barriers across cultures, geographies and industries, it’s widening the scope for hybrid work settings.

Organisations are already responding to the demand for flexibility, with hybrid job posts in India up from 13.2 per cent in August 2022 to 20.1 per cent in August 2023, the report noted.

ALSO READ: OpenAI Staff Threaten Mass Exodus

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Tech Titans Under Fire In US

Hundreds of American families are suing four of the biggest tech companies — Meta (parent company of Facebook and Instagram), TikTok, Google and Snap Inc (parent of Snapchat)…reports Asian Lite News

Hundreds of families are suing social media giants like TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube and Meta (parent company of Instagram and Facebook) in the US and they feel the tech companies as “big, bad monsters”.

According to the BBC, the plaintiffs include ordinary families and school districts from across the US.

“I literally was trapped by addiction at age 12. And I did not get my life back for all of my teenage years,” Taylor Little, now 21, was quoted as saying in the report that came out on Monday.

Taylor’s social media addiction led to suicide attempts and years of depression.

“If I had my phone taken away, it felt like having withdrawals. It was unbearable. Literally, when I say it was addictive, I don’t mean it was habit-forming. I mean, my body and mind craved that,” she was quoted as saying.

Taylor also struggled with content around body image and eating disorders.

Taylor and hundreds of other American families are suing four of the biggest tech companies — Meta (parent company of Facebook and Instagram), TikTok, Google and Snap Inc (parent of Snapchat).

“Lawyers for the families believe the case of 14-year-old British schoolgirl Molly Russell is an important example of the potential harms faced by teenagers,” the BBC report noted.

Russell, a seemingly happy teenager from northwest London, was found dead in her bedroom in November 2017.

It later emerged she had viewed masses of content related to suicide, depression and anxiety online.

Russell’s name is mentioned a dozen times in the master complaint submitted to the court in California.

In a breather for these families, a federal court in the US last week rejected social media giants’ motion to dismiss dozens of lawsuits, accusing them of running platforms “addictive” to kids and allegedly spreading child sex abuse materials.

US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers rejected their motion, saying that Meta, ByteDance, Alphabet (Google’s parent company), and Snap (Snapchat’s parent company) must proceed with a lawsuit alleging their social platforms have adverse mental health effects on children.

“Because children still developing impulse control are uniquely susceptible to harms arising out of compulsive use of social media platforms, defendants have ‘created a youth mental health crisis’ through the defective design of their platforms,” according to the ruling.

“Further, these platforms facilitate and contribute to the sexual exploitation and sextortion of children, as well as the ongoing production and spread of child sex abuse materials (CSAM) online. To that end, defendants know that children use their products, both from public and internal data,” the ruling read.

Lawyers for the families called it a “significant victory”.

In a statement, Meta said that their thoughts are with the families represented in these complaints.

“We want to reassure every parent that we have their interests at heart in the work we are doing to provide teens with safe, supportive experiences online,” the social media giant said.

Google said that the allegations in these complaints are “simply not true”.

“Protecting kids across our platforms has always been core to our work,” the company said.

Snapchat said its platform “was designed to remove the pressure to be perfect. We vet all content before it can reach a large audience to prevent the spread of anything that could be harmful.”

ALSO READ: Nadella Welcomes Altman and Brockman to Microsoft

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OpenAI Staff Threaten Mass Exodus

OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, who reportedly led efforts to remove Altman, said on X that he deeply regrets his participation in the board’s actions….reports Asian Lite News

After Microsoft hired former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to run its advanced AI research vertical called ‘Sam’, more than 500 employees at ChatGPT develop on Monday reportedly threatened to resign and join Microsoft.

OpenAI has nearly 770 employees.

In a letter to OpenAI’s board, accessed by the ‘Wired’, more than 500 current OpenAI staffers say that “Microsoft has assured us that there are positions for all OpenAI employees at this new subsidiary should we choose to join”.

OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, who reportedly led efforts to remove Altman, said on X that he deeply regrets his participation in the board’s actions.

“I never intended to harm OpenAI. I love everything we’ve built together and I will do everything I can to reunite the company,” he noted.

The letter read that the process through which the board terminated Sam Altman and removed Greg Brockman from the board has “undermined our mission and company”.

“Your conduct has made it clear you did not have the competence to oversee OpenAl. When we all unexpectedly learned of your decision, the leadership team of OpenAl acted swiftly to stabilise the company,” said the letter.

“Your actions have made it obvious that you are incapable of overseeing OpenAl. We are unable to work for or with people that lack competence, judgement and care for our mission and employees. We, the undersigned, may choose to resign from OpenAl and join the newly announced Microsoft subsidiary run by Sam Altman and Greg Brockman,” the disgruntled employees said.

Microsoft has assured them that there are positions for all OpenAl employees at the new subsidiary “should we choose to join”.

“We will take this step imminently, unless all current board members resign, and the board appoints two new lead independent directors, such as Bret Taylor and Will Hurd, and reinstates Sam Altman and Greg Brockman,” the letter said.

Earlier on Monday, Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella announced to hire Altman and OpenAI co-founder Brockman to help the company pursue its advanced AI dreams with a new vertical, also called ‘Sam’.

ALSO READ: Nadella Welcomes Altman and Brockman to Microsoft

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Unmasking Cyber Threats: AI Voice Deepfakes Then and Now

Fraud using artificial intelligence is uncommon, but examples of “successful” cases are already known….reports Asian Lite News

The Beatles have once again delighted millions of fans around the world by releasing a new song, all possible thanks to artificial intelligence (AI), combining parts of an old recording while also improved its audio quality. While there is joy at the band’s masterpiece, there is also a darker side of using AI to create deepfake voices and images.

Thankfully, such deepfakes – and the tools used to make them – are for now, not well developed or widespread, nevertheless, their potential for use in fraud schemes is extremely high, and the technology is not standing still.

What are voice deepfakes capable of?

Open AI recently demonstrated an Audio API model that can generate human speech and voice input text. So far, only this Open AI software is the closest to real human speech.

In the future, such models can also become a new tool in the hands of attackers. The Audio API can reproduce the specified text by voice, while users can choose which of the suggested voice options the text will be pronounced with. The Open AI model, in its existing form, cannot be used to create deepfake voices, but is indicative of the rapid development of voice generation technologies.

artificial intelligence.(photo:Pixabay.com)

Today, practically no devices exist that is capable of producing a high-quality deepfake voice, indistinguishable from real human speech. However, in the last few months, more tools are being released to generate a human voice. Previously, users needed basic programming skills, but now it is becoming easier to work with them. In the near future, we can expect to see models that will combine both simplicity of use and quality of results.

Fraud using artificial intelligence is uncommon, but examples of “successful” cases are already known. In mid-October 2023, American venture capitalist Tim Draper warned his Twitter followers that scammers can use his voice in fraud schemes. Tim shared that the requests for money being made by his voice are the result of artificial intelligence, which is obviously getting smarter.

How to protect yourself?

So far, society may not perceive voice deepfakes as a possible cyber threat. There are very few cases where they are used with malicious intentions, so protection technologies are slow to appear.

For now, the best way to protect yourself is to listen carefully to what your caller says to you on the telephone. If the recording is of poor quality, has noises, and the voice sounds robotic, this is enough not to trust the information you hear.

Another good way to test your companion’s “humanity” is to ask out-of-the-box questions. For example, if the caller turns out to be a voice model, a question about its favorite color will leave its stumped, as it is not what a victim of fraud usually asks. Even if the attacker manually dials and plays back the answer at this point, the time delay in the response will make it clear that you are being tricked.

One more safe option is also to install a reliable and comprehensive security solution. While they cannot 100 percent detect deepfake voices, they can help users avoid suspicious websites, payments, and malware downloads, by protecting browsers and checking all files on the computer.

“The main advice at the moment is not to exaggerate the threat or try to recognize voice deepfakes where they don’t exist. For now, the available technology is unlikely to be powerful enough to create a voice human would not be able to recognize as artificial. Nevertheless, you need to be aware of possible threats and be prepared for advanced deepfake fraud becoming a new reality in the near future,” comments Dmitry Anikin, Senior Data Scientist at Kaspersky.

ALSO READ: Cyber Incidents in India nearly double global average

ALSO READ: Talks between Altman, OpenAI in final stage for his return