Byju Layoffs 💔, PhonePe Expansion 📱, 'Humans of Bombay' 🤷‍♂️

Catch up on the latest in tech, business and startups - all in 5 minutes. [Newsletter Banner] Daily News Roundup Welcome to today's edition of the NextBigWhat Daily News! Today's top stories include Byju's planned layoffs, PhonePe's appstore expansion, and copyright controversy for 'Humans of Bombay'. 🤔 Help us reach your your friends and colleagues! Share the NextBigWhat newsletter. [Tweet it]( [Whatsapp]( Byju’s plans to lay off 5,000 employees amidst restructuring and financial disputes - Byju’s plans to eliminate around 5,000 jobs due to restructuring following delayed IPO and lender pressure. - The restructuring includes consolidation of four businesses into two and is being overseen by new India CEO, Arjun Mohan. - Existing issues include disputes over a $1.25 billion loan, sudden resignations of board members, and unhappiness from investors over insufficient evolution of governance structures. Google Celebrates 25th Anniversary With a Nostalgic Doodle - Google marks its 25th year with a commemorative doodle, reflecting on its journey from a Stanford University project to a globally recognized search engine. - While still focusing on its core mission of making information universally accessible, Google has grown to offer fifteen products serving over half a billion people each. - Though initially celebrated on September 4, Google now marks its birthday on September 27 to align with its record-setting indexing announcement. PhonePe’s App Store: 3+1 questions [NBW Newsletter Ad]( nextbigwhat brings you curated news, product and tech trends across a range of industries. PhonePe has announced the launch of its upcoming app store (Indus), which is the result of its earlier acquisition of IndusOS. The PR so far has been about anti-Google stand. [Read]( Google Messages sees installation surge, surpassing 5 billion - Google Messages, renamed from ‘Android Messages’, has hit 5 billion installations. - Samsung’s adoption of the app and Google’s ‘#GetTheMessage’ campaign are possibly key contributors to this growth. - Google continues to promote RCS messaging, a more advanced feature, lobbying for its integration in iOS devices. iPhone 15 Pro’s overheating issues traced back to design, not chipset, suggests Kuo - Overheating of iPhone 15 Pro is attributed to design compromises, not the 3nm A17 Pro chip, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reports. - Issues allegedly stem from alterations for a lighter frame, like reduced heat dissipation area and use of a titanium frame. - Kuo anticipates Apple will address these problems via software updates, however, significant improvements might require compromising chip performance. Get NBW News: The short news app for busy professionals. [App Store]( [Google Play]( LinkedIn Integrates Microsoft’s Immersive Reader for Enhanced Accessibility - In honor of Dyslexia Awareness and National Disability Employment Awareness months, LinkedIn is improving accessibility with Microsoft’s Immersive Reader. - The tool includes a text-to-speech function, supports over 60 languages, and provides real-time translation for more than 100 languages. - Immersive Reader’s additional features include Content Isolation and Syllable Splitting to facilitate reading and comprehension. OpenAI plans for significant value increase, considering share sale - OpenAI may sell shares, elevating company’s valuation from $29 billion to between $80 billion and $90 billion. - The potential transaction will allow employees to sell their existing shares. - The AI firm’s successful ChatGPT tool and previous funding may contribute to the valuation increase. CIA developing AI chatbot for efficient data sifting - US intelligence agencies will soon be equipped with an AI chatbot that uses public data, providing sources for the validation of its responses. - The chatbot, to be used exclusively within the 18-agency US intelligence community, will facilitate information lookup and data summarization. - Despite these chatbots following US privacy laws, concerns around government safeguards against data leaks and potential interference with privacy remain. Amazon Utilizes User Conversations with Alexa for AI Training - Amazon is enhancing Alexa’s AI capabilities using user conversations. - Although Amazon admits this method, it emphasizes only an ‘extremely small fraction’ of user’s voice recordings are used. - A feature enabling users to opt-out of voice recording training is available in Alexa’s privacy settings. Iranian Officials Encourage Clerics to Use AI to Expedite Fatwa Issuance - Iranian authorities are promoting AI to help issue Islamic law rulings or fatwas more quickly. - Initiative backed by Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other high-ranking officials, aims for a progressive image and promotion of Islamic civilization. - Qom’s AI research center, the Noor Computer Centre, has access to ancient religious texts that can be integrated into algorithms. Phonepe’s Indus Appstore to be Pre-installed on Nokia and Lava Smartphones - Phonepe’s Indus Appstore, an alternative to Google Play, will be pre-installed on Nokia and Lava smartphones. - The company is in advanced stages of negotiating pre-installation deals with several other smartphone manufacturers. - Preinstallation of alternative app stores is crucial to compete with Google’s dominance as users seldom download a different app store if Google Play is already available. ‘Humans of New York’ Founder Criticizes ‘Humans of Bombay’ Amid Copyright Controversy - Brandon Stanton, founder of Humans of New York, expressed his discontent over the profit-oriented approach of Humans of Bombay (HoB), amidst their lawsuit against rival ‘People of India’ for copyright infringement. - Stanton emphasized that his platform has run without earning money from stories, whereas HoB has accused the rival site of copying its content and logo. - The dispute led to backlash on social media against HoB, despite them claiming to protect their intellectual property. Zerodha’s Profit Rises 38.5% to Rs 2,907 Cr in FY23 Amid Dwindled Customer Activity - Zerodha sees 38.5% growth in operating revenue in FY23, a slower pace than the 82% increase in FY22. - Account deactivations due to compliance issues resulted in a dip in customer ratings and active client numbers. - Zerodha currently manages around Rs 3 lakh crore customer assets, with an estimated 30-40% drop in revenue for FY24. © 2023 Zakti Techmedia Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved. | [Unsubscribe](