Apple is discontinuing its most advanced encrypted security feature, Advanced Data Protection, for new users in the UK. This follows a government order to create a backdoor for user data access. This optional feature provides end-to-end encryption for a range of user data, including iCloud storage, device backups, web bookmarks, voice memos, notes, photos, reminders, and text message backups.
OpenAI announced a new initiative on Wednesday aimed at helping countries outside of the US build artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. Dubbed OpenAI for Countries, the initiative is part of the Stargate Project it announced in January. While Stargate Project is primarily focused on developing AI infrastructure in the US, the new initiative will help other countries in capacity development.
Mistral Medium 3, a new artificial intelligence (AI) model, was released on Wednesday. The Paris-based AI firm introduced the enterprise-focused model with an emphasis on high performance at lower costs. It is claimed to be state-of-the-art (SOTA) in terms of performance in its class, and is said to be available at significantly lower costs compared to the competition.
Figma, the website and app design platform, launched multiple new artificial intelligence (AI) tools on Wednesday. The San Francisco-based company introduced the new tools at its annual Figma Config 2025 event, expanding its product offerings. The new AI tools include Figma Site, Figma Make, Figma Buzz, and Figma Draw. Site is aimed at letting users create fully functional and interactive websites.
Starlink has been cleared by the Department of Telecom (DoT) to offer satcom services in India. Unlike conventional satellite services that rely on distant geostationary satellites, Starlink utilises the world's largest low Earth orbit or LEO constellation (550 km above Earth).
Google has cut about 200 jobs across its global business unit. Big Tech players have been redirecting spending towards data centers and AI development, while scaling back investments in other areas.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is reportedly working on an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can generate code in real-time. As per the report, the project is internally being called Kiro, and it can tap into AI agents to complete complex coding tasks. The tool is said to be a comprehensive system capable of writing code, designing user interfaces (UIs), identifying glitches and bugs, and optimising existing code.
Hugging Face released a demo of an artificial intelligence (AI) agent on Tuesday that can complete various web-based tasks. Dubbed Open Computer Agent, the tool is available for free, and anyone can go to the website to access the agent. Since it can perform tasks on web browsers, it can access websites such as Google Search, Maps, and even ticket booking platforms to complete tasks autonomously.
Anthropic announced its AI for Science programme on Monday. The new initiative is aimed at accelerating scientific research and discovery. The artificial intelligence (AI) firm said it wants to support researchers and scientists working on “high-impact scientific projects, with a particular focus on biology and life sciences applications” via this initiative.
Google is adding a new quality-of-life improvement to Gemini. On Monday, the company rolled out an update which now allows users to upload up to 10 images or files in one go. Earlier, the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot capped the limit at one image or file per prompt. The new feature is available on both the Gemini web client as well as the Android and iOS apps.
YouTube is testing a two-person subscription plan for its Premium service. The company said that they are piloting the new tier in four countries, including India. It is expected to roll out to all users eventually. This is being seen as a move to push YouTube's subscription growth. Much like the Spotify Duo plan, the two-person YouTube Premium membership will allow two individuals to share a subscription.
The DoT has barred companies from linking connection of users in any form with any terminal or facility located outside the country's border as well as processing of their data overseas. The move assumes significance as the government is, for the first time, gearing up to open satellite communication service for the general public
OpenAI has announced it will not convert into a traditional for-profit company, following legal consultations and external feedback. Instead, the firm will transition its commercial arm into a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC), ending its 100x profit cap and allowing more investor returns while maintaining its non-profit governance structure. The non-profit entity will continue to govern the PBC.
Apple in a court notice said it will ask the San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals to review the April 30 ruling, which found the company in contempt of an earlier order in a 2020 antitrust lawsuit brought by Epic Games. Apple's appeal notice did include its planned legal arguments.
The US DoJ has proposed that Alphabet's Google divest its AdX advertising marketplace and ad server DFP. Google has said the company supported behavioural remedies such as making real-time bids available to competitors, but that prosecutors cannot legally pursue a bid to force it to sell parts of its business.
Artificial intelligence (AI) technology and automation driven by it could soon impact 40 percent of the global workforce, claims a new report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The report highlights that by 2033, AI could become a multi-trillion-dollar market. However, the economic growth could be highly concentrated, leading to wider inequalities.
Google redesigned Gemini’s side panel on the web client last week. The Mountain View-based tech giant has now added an infinite scrolling feature to let users find older conversations with the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot. The new side panel design also pushes Gems higher up the panel, and consolidates previously directly available menu options within the “Settings & help” option.
Samsung has asked the Customs Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal in Mumbai to quash a $520 million (roughly Rs. 4,381 crore) tax demand for allegedly misclassifying imports of networking gear. The South Korean giant has said that Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance also imported the same component in a similar manner for years.
Microsoft will be retiring its legacy video-conferencing platform Skype today (May 5). It offered Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)-based video telephony, video-conferencing and voice calling capabilities. The announcement was made in February, with the Redmond-based tech giant prioritising Teams app as the main free consumer communications offering.
Spotify claims to have submitted an app update to Apple with an external link to buy subscriptions. Both Spotify and Apple have been engaged in a longstanding and contentious rivalry, centered around the Cupertino, California-based company's App Store policies and their impact on the streaming company's business operations.
DeepSeek, the Hangzhou, China-based artificial intelligence (AI) firm, released an updated version of its Prover model on Wednesday. Dubbed DeepSeek-Prover-V2, it is a highly specialised model that focuses on proving formal mathematical theorems. The large language model (LLM) uses the Lean 4 programming language to check if the mathematical proofs are logically consistent by analysing each step independently.
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai told a judge that the DoJ's plan to share Google's search data with rivals would be a “de facto” divestiture of the company’s search engine. Pichai was called to testify as part of a three-week trial aimed at determining how Google should restore competition to online search.
Amazon has announced the ninth edition of its biggest sale event of the year, dubbed the Amazon Prime Day Sale 2025, for India and other markets. In line with previous editions, it is expected to be a two-day affair that will be exclusive to Amazon Prime members. Customers will be able to take advantage of price drops on products across a wide range of categories such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, home appliances, fashion, apparel, and beyond.
Google announced the expansion of the Audio Overviews feature in NotebookLM on Tuesday. The artificial intelligence (AI) feature can create an engaging podcast-style audio discussion on any topic, as long as a source is added to a note. Audio Overviews feature two AI hosts, a male and a female voice, who discuss the topic, react to it, and contextualise the information in a conversational manner.
Xiaomi released an open-source reasoning-focused artificial intelligence (AI) model on Tuesday. Dubbed MiMo, the family of reasoning models innovate the optimisation of reasoning capability in a relatively smaller parameter size. This is also the first open-source reasoning model by the tech giant, and it competes with Chinese models such as DeepSeek R1 and Alibaba’s Qwen QwQ-32B.
Apple has launched a new page on its website to help users know more about actors, artists, creators, and athletes they love across devices. Dubbed Snapshot, it collates information from the Cupertino-based tech giant’s three media distribution platforms — Apple Music, Apple TV+, and Apple Podcasts. Pages on the website dedicated to each artist highlight their biography, content hub, and creations, such as films, music, and shows which are listed on various platforms.
Reddit, the discussion forum-style social media platform, announced the expansion of its automatic translation feature on Monday. In September 2024, the company introduced a machine learning (ML) feature that automatically translates posts and comments on the platform to users’ preferred language. It is now expanding the feature to introduce the Hindi language. Additionally, the artificial intelligence (AI) feature will soon support the Bengali language, the company added.
ED, which probes economic crimes, has been investigating Amazon and Flipkart for years for allegedly breaching laws by stocking and exerting control over goods they list online. The agency, in recent weeks wrote to smartphone companies, including Apple and Xiaomi, to get data related to their online sales.
OpenAI announced new capabilities for its ChatGPT Search feature on Monday. The San Francisco-based AI firm is adding a new experimental shopping experience to the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, which will showcase products in a more visual manner and share a direct link to buy. Additionally, the company is also adding several other utility features.
Google is expanding its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Gemini to younger users. Last month, the Mountain View-based tech giant announced allowing users younger than the age of 13 years (or the applicable age in the respective country) to access its AI chatbot across Android, iOS, and on the web. The company is also letting parents and school administrators manage and supervise their access to the AI chatbot.
Google Chrome's general manager Parisa Tabriz testified before a Washington federal court on Friday as part of the Justice Department’s antitrust case that accuses Google of monopolising the web search market. Tabriz told the court that Google is the only company that can offer the level of features and functionality that its popular Chrome web browser has today.
OpenAI updated the GPT-4o artificial intelligence (AI) model on Saturday. The update was aimed at improving the intelligence and personality aspects of the large language model (LLM), which powers the default experience for those on the free tier of ChatGPT. However, on Sunday, the company found that the update had unexpected results, and the AI model’s responses became too agreeable.
Vodafone Idea (Vi) on Monday expanded the availability of its 5G services to two more cities in India. Previously limited to the Mumbai circle where a majority of users are said to be enjoying high-speed internet with select prepaid and postpaid plans, the telecom operator has introduced its 5G network in Chandigarh and Patna in partnership with Samsung. It is leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) for network optimisation. Vi says it plans to expand the 5G network to more major cities next month.
OpenAI is expanding its artificial intelligence (AI) agent Deep Research to the free users of ChatGPT. Announced on Friday, the San Francisco-based AI firm is now offering a “lightweight” version of the tool to all users, including paid subscribers. This version of Deep Research will be powered by the o4-mini AI model and will be available with specific rate limits.
Amazon Great Summer Sale 2025 will begin in India soon. The e-commerce site has confirmed the date when the sale will go live. Amazon Prime members are promised early access. A wide range of items will be available at considerably lowered prices during the sale. The online retailing platform has hinted at some of the discounts and bank offers that will likely be extended during the sale.
Alphabet reassured jittery tech investors that its AI investments were powering returns at its crucial ad business on Thursday. The search giant's first-quarter profit and revenue beat expectations, and the company said it would buy back $70 billion (roughly Rs. 5,97,800 crore) in stock, adding $75 billion (roughly Rs. 6,40,362 crore) to its market value.
Reddit is rolling out its artificial intelligence (AI) conversational chatbot to more users. Dubbed Reddit Answers, the chatbot is now available in India, and users can access it via the website, mobile web, as well as Android and iOS apps. The discussion forum-style social media platform first began testing the feature in December 2024.
Adobe announced a slew of new features and improvements at its annual Adobe Max conference on Thursday. The software giant announced new Firefly artificial intelligence (AI) models, support for third-party models, new Adobe Express features, a new Firefly mobile app, and more. The company also introduced a new Adobe Boards tool for storyboard creation, and a Vector model to let designers create editable vector-based artworks.
Google updated the Gemini 2.0 Flash artificial intelligence (AI) model last week. The new update refines the model’s conversational capability and makes it better suited for creative tasks, the Mountain View-based tech giant said. The company claims that users will notice the difference when talking to the AI about certain topics and tasks.
Google’s Chrome web browser could be sold for as much as $50 billion (roughly Rs. 4,26,756 crore), estimates CEO of rival search engine, DuckDuckGo. Weinberg, who said the estimate was “back-of-the-envelope” math based on Chrome’s user base, testified as part of a three-week hearing in the DOJ’s case against Alphabet’s Google to determine how to remedy the company’s monopoly in internet search.
WhatsApp has introduced the "Advanced Chat Privacy" feature that adds an extra layer of protection to one-on-one and group conversations. The new privacy and security feature is designed to prevent attempts to save media and export chat content. WhatsApp already offers end-to-end encryption for messages and calls.
Apple and Meta have been filed in the EU as the antitrust regulators there handed out the first sanctions under the DMA. The fines signal that the EU is sticking to its guns in enforcing the new rules, which were introduced in 2023. That is despite Trump citing the DMA while vowing in February to "defend American companies and innovators from overseas extortion".
Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom testified that the app could have succeeded without being acquired by Meta Platforms. Systrom, testifying Tuesday at Meta’s antitrust trial in Washington, recounted how quickly Instagram was growing before Zuckerberg’s purchase offer.
Intel is poised to announce plans this week to cut more than 20 percent of its staff. The cutbacks follow an effort last year to slash about 15,000 jobs — a round of layoffs announced in August.
ChatGPT head of product Nick Turley made the statement while testifying at trial in Washington where US Department of Justice seeks to require Google to undertake far-reaching measures restore competition in online search. The judge overseeing the trial found last year that Google has a monopoly in online search and related advertising.
Character AI, the California-based artificial intelligence (AI) platform, unveiled its first video generation model on Monday. Dubbed AvatarFX, it is an image-to-video model that can generate 2D and 3D animated characters. The AI firm claims the generated videos will hold temporal consistency with face, hand and body movement. Additionally, the videos will also feature speech, which is being powered by the company’s native text-to-speech models.
Meta Platforms’ Oversight Board on Wednesday sharply rebuked the Facebook and Instagram owner over a policy overhaul in January that cut fact-checking. The board, which operates independently but is funded by Meta, urged the world's biggest social media company to assess “potential adverse effects” of the changes, put in place just before US President Donald Trump began his second term.
ElevenLabs introduced a new enterprise-focused feature on Monday that will allow artificial intelligence (AI) agents to communicate with each other. Dubbed Agent Transfer, the feature transfers a conversation from one agent to another when specific conditions are met. The first agent also shares the previous conversation data with the onboarding agent to help it contextualise the information and carry forward the conversation.
Uber was sued by the US Federal Trade Commission. In a complaint filed Monday, the FTC alleges the company charged consumers for its Uber One product without their consent, misled users about the program’s savings and made it “unreasonably” burdensome to cancel the service.
The Justice Department is seeking an order that would require Google to sell its Chrome browser and take other measures to end what a judge found was its monopoly in online search. Prosecutors have compared the lawsuit to past cases that resulted in the break up of AT&T and Standard Oil.
Flipkart will shift its holding company from Singapore to India as its parent Walmart aims to take the 17-year-old company public. Walmart is looking to list Flipkart and PhonePe in India over the next couple of years, Dan Bartlett, Walmart's executive vice president for corporate affairs, told Reuters last year.
