Education on technology

LinkedIn , the social media network owned by Microsoft that focuses on business professionals, said on Monday it would cut 716 jobs as demand wavers, while also shutting down its China-focused job application. LinkedIn, which has 20,000 employees, has grown revenue each quarter during the last year, but it joins other major technology companies including its parent in laying off workers amid a weakening global economic outlook. In the past six months, more than 270,000 tech jobs globally have been cut, according to Layoffs.fyi , which has been tracking the fallout. LinkedIn makes money through ad sales and also by charging for subscriptions to recruiting and sales professionals who use the network to find prospects. In a letter to employees, LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky said the move to cut roles in its sales, operations and support teams was aimed at streamlining the company's operations and would remove layers to help make quicker decisions. "With the market and custom...

Truecaller will soon start making its caller identification service available over WhatsApp and other messaging apps to help users spot potential spam calls over the Internet, the company told Reuters on Monday. The feature, currently in beta phase, will be rolled out globally later in May, Truecaller Chief Executive Alan Mamedi said. Telemarketing and scamming calls have been on the rise in countries like India, where users get about 17 spam calls per month on average, according to a 2021 report by Truecaller. India's telecom regulator in February directed carriers like Jio and Airtel to start blocking telemarketing calls over their networks using artificial intelligence filters. Truecaller has said it is in discussions with telecom operators to implement such a solution. "Over the last two weeks, we have seen a spike in user reports from India about spam calls over WhatsApp," Mamedi said, noting that telemarketers switching to Internet calling was fairly new to...

Lava Agni 2 5G will reportedly be released in India soon. The phone is expected to succeed the Lava Agni 5G which was launched in November 2021. The smartphone has also been recently teased by the company to feature a curved display and a large circular rear camera module. Lava Agni 2 5G has already been confirmed to be powered by the recently unveiled MediaTek Dimensity 7050 chipset. A new report has also hinted at the handset's price and its key specifications and features. Design renders of the handset also back up live images of the Agni 2 5G leaked last week. A  report  by India Today citing unnamed sources suggests that the Lava Agni 2 5G will launch soon in India and is expected to be priced at around Rs. 20,000. In an official teaser , the phone is shown in a shiny blue-green shade. Previously leaked live images teased the phone in a similar colour option. According to the report, the phone is expected to be available in additional colour options. The report adds t...

Travel portal MakeMyTrip on Monday said it has collaborated with Microsoft to use Generative AI to make travel planning accessible by introducing voice-assisted booking in Indian languages. The new, in-platform tech stack powered by Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and Azure Cognitive Services, will converse with the user to offer personalised travel recommendations based on their preferences, curate holiday packages based on variable inputs like occasion, budget, activity preferences, time of travel, among others, and even help book these holiday packages, MakeMyTrip said in a statement. "We have pioneered offerings at the intersection of e-commerce, travel and technology, and are proud to introduce a feature that breaks down the barriers of language, literacy, inability to navigate complex app environments, physical impairments, etc. "This Generative AI integration through our collaboration with Microsoft involves simple visual cues and voice commands in native Indian l...

The Hollywood writers' strike broke out this week over pay, but the refusal of studios like Netflix and Disney to rule out artificial intelligence replacing human scribes in the future has only fueled anger and fear on the picket lines. With their rapidly advancing ability to eerily mimic human conversation, AI programs like ChatGPT have spooked many industries recently. The White House this week summoned Big Tech to discuss the potential risks. As part of the weeks-long talks with studios and streamers that collapsed Monday, the Writers Guild of America asked for binding agreements to regulate the use of AI. Under the proposals, nothing written by AI can be considered “literary” or "source" material — industry terms that decide who gets royalties — and scripts written by WGA members cannot "be used to train AI." But according to the WGA, studios "rejected our proposal," and countered with an offer merely to meet once a year to "discuss adva...