Catch up on the latest in tech, business and startups - all in 5 minutes. [Newsletter Banner] Daily News Roundup Preview: Today's headlines reveal Uber India's growing revenue with losses, Air India's AI-powered travel assistant, and Samsung's world-first transparent MicroLED display. 🚕📲📺 Help us reach your your friends and colleagues! Share the NextBigWhat newsletter. [Tweet it]( [Whatsapp]( Uber India’s FY23 revenue grows but losses also increase - Uber India’s revenue rose by 54.46% to over Rs 2,600 Cr in FY23, but losses also increased by 57%.
- The company’s restructuring, merging Uber India Systems Private Limited with UIRDPL and XLI, boosted revenue to Rs 2,666 Cr, with ride-hailing accounting for 25%.
- Despite the parent company’s profitability in Q2 2023, Uber India continues to struggle with increasing costs and dissatisfaction among its driver partners. Adani Ports reenters bond market after two years, receives strong demand - Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, India’s largest private port operator, has reentered the bond market after over two years, receiving strong demand.
- The company accepted bids totaling 5 billion rupees ($60.2 million) for two listed bonds, and received bids totaling 10 billion rupees, mainly from banks and insurance companies.
- This move follows a Supreme Court decision that the group doesn’t need to undergo further investigations beyond the current market regulator’s scrutiny. Transform your 2024 : Build winning habits ! [NBW Newsletter Ad]( 50% Launch Discount ! Win your 2024 🚀 "We are what we repeatedly do." Reset and Build Better Habits for 2024​! 21-days email based course, No app to download 😎 [Enroll 👊]( Amazon employs AI to improve online clothing shopping experience - Amazon is using AI to help customers find well-fitting clothes online, addressing the high return rate of 24.4% for online clothing purchases.
- The AI-powered features include personalized size recommendations, a ‘Fit Insights’ tool for sellers, AI-powered highlights from fit reviews, and reimagined size charts.
- These AI advancements are part of Amazon’s broader effort to enhance the shopping experience on its site, which also includes AI tools to help sellers write product descriptions and enhance product images. Air India introduces AI-powered virtual travel assistant on WhatsApp - Air India has launched AI.g, a generative AI-powered assistant, on WhatsApp to provide instant, 24/7 customer service.
- The chatbot, fluent in Hindi, English, French, and German, offers real-time flight updates, baggage details, and more, eliminating the need for contacting customer service.
- AI.g uses generative AI technology to continuously learn and improve its efficiency in responding to traveler queries. Be the smartest thinker in the room with BigIdeas app (delivers bite-sized ideas from world's best podcasts, books.) [App Store]( [Google Play]( Microsoft’s Copilot app fails to impact ChatGPT’s installs and revenue despite offering free GPT-4 access - Microsoft’s AI chatbot, Copilot, built with OpenAI technologies, has not affected the installs or revenue of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, despite offering free access to the newer GPT-4 technology.
- Appfigures, an app store intelligence provider, suggests that the lack of promotion could be a reason for Copilot’s unnoticed launch and its inability to siphon users from ChatGPT.
- As of January 5, 2024, Copilot has seen 2.1 million downloads across iOS and Android, while ChatGPT continues to rise in revenue, netting nearly $30 million as of its first anniversary in November. BluSmart Mobility launches new pricing structure with ‘rush hour’ rates - BluSmart Mobility, an EV-focused company, has introduced a new two-tier pricing structure, with ‘rush hours’ being more expensive than ‘relaxed hours’.
- The new pricing policy, effective from January 8, 2024, is part of BluSmart’s commitment to fare transparency and aims to maintain fairness and consistency.
- The company, which operates in Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru, is looking to expand its presence in the country and recently raised $24 million in a new equity round. Generative AI poses potential threat to KYC security measures - Generative AI tools could potentially be used to manipulate ID images and pass KYC (Know Your Customer) tests, raising security concerns for financial institutions and fintech startups.
- While there’s no evidence of GenAI tools being used to fool real KYC systems yet, the ease of creating deepfaked ID images is alarming.
- Despite additional security measures like ‘liveness’ checks, experts warn that KYC could become effectively useless as a security measure due to the advancement of deepfake tools. Intact iPhone survives 16,000-foot fall from Alaska Airlines flight - During a search for a missing door plug from Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, a resident found an intact iPhone that belonged to a passenger.
- The iPhone, which could be an iPhone 14 Pro/Max or from the iPhone 15 lineup, appeared undamaged despite the significant fall.
- The National Transportation Safety Board confirmed the iPhone’s origin, noting it was the second phone found from the incident. YouTube tightens policies against AI-simulated content of deceased or crime victims - YouTube is updating its policies to ban content that uses AI to ‘realistically simulate’ deceased minors or victims of violent events.
- The policy change comes in response to true crime content creators using AI to recreate the likeness and ‘voice’ of deceased or missing children in high-profile cases.
- Violations of the new policies will result in content removal and potential channel suspension or removal. Unity Software to cut 25% of its workforce - Unity Software is planning to lay off 25% of its workforce following a major customer dispute.
- Approximately 1,800 employees will be let go, as per a securities filing.
- This follows the company’s previous layoffs of over 1,100 employees due to economic conditions. Apple instructs developers to label visionOS apps as ‘spatial computing’ not AR or VR - Apple has released an Xcode update allowing developers to submit visionOS apps to the App Store, with guidelines instructing them to avoid terms like ‘AR’ and ‘VR’.
- Despite previously marketing Vision Pro as an AR platform, Apple now wants to distinguish it as a ‘spatial computing’ platform, separate from other AR/VR headsets.
- The Apple Vision Pro, starting at $3,499, will launch in the US on February 2, with pre-orders starting January 19. Samsung unveils world’s first transparent MicroLED display at CES 2024 - Samsung introduced the first transparent MicroLED screen at CES 2024, showcasing three different designs.
- The displays, which appear to float in mid-air, offer high pixel density for sharp images and are less impacted by ambient light due to their high brightness.
- Given the high cost of Samsung’s current non-transparent MicroLED TVs, it may be some time before these new displays become affordable. © 2023 Zakti Techmedia Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved. | [Unsubscribe](