Everything is fine until companies collapse: vendors remain unpaid, customers don’t get deliveries or can’t access services. Users of BlueSmart, an EV cab service, have reported that money they loaded into the app’s wallet is now stuck. They can’t use it outside the app, and they can’t withdraw it. There are now reports that the Reserve Bank of India is looking into “the lack of safeguards…
Toddlers, preschools, leverage and parental agency
You remember that old saying that “if something is available for free, you’re the product”? In the age of AI, even if you’re paying for something, you’re still the product. A few weeks ago, I got a cheerful but worrying email from an AI app on behalf of a great preschool that my child was about to join. The app, it seems, serves as a…
The balance of power between users, platforms and the government needs a reset
A perfect storm is brewing in the world of Internet platforms: in the last 10 days, Pavel Durov, the founder of messaging app Telegram has been arrested in France; in Brazil, a Judge has threatened to block X (formerly Twitter) after it refused to comply with orders, and in the middle of a hotly contested election in the US, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg has disclosed…
A response to Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal’s comments on Ecommerce as a problem in India
I remember clearly the day I told Amitabh Kant about my preference for bright coloured socks: It was late in the evening at Udyog Bhawan on May 15, 2014, a day before Narendra Modi’s BJP came to power. As the then Secretary of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Kant was presiding over a stakeholder discussion on whether multi-brand retail should be allowed…
Statement on the withdrawal of the draft Broadcast Bill in India
The withdrawal of this secretive draft of India’s Broadcast Bill is welcome, but it shouldn’t have existed anyway. We need more transparency and accountability from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, which has held private closed door meetings with the industry over the last few months, and excluded online content creators, digital rights groups, and digital news publishers from these discussions.
Outdated mindset driving India’s Broadcast Bill needs an update
26 year old Jimmy Donaldson, aka Mr. Beast, runs the world’s most subscribed YouTube channel with 307 million subscribers. Known for generosity and stunts, he has spent 24 hours in an ice house, given away 26 Teslas on his 26th birthday, and gave $5 million to help 2,000 amputees walk last year.
On Koo, failures and successes in India’s startup ecosystem
The shuttering of Koo, a microblogging website similar to Twitter (now X), has rekindled discussions about why India doesn’t have its own Google, Facebook, or WhatsApp, and whether a protectionist approach is necessary to build such services. But what would Indian versions of these platforms offer?
About offensive AI outputs
So, #ShameOnMetaAI was trending on Twitter because MetaAI was used to generate jokes on Hindu gods including Lord Ram & Lord Vishnu. Some tweets say it declined to crack jokes on Prophet Mohammed, but others have screenshots with jokes on him.
Research Paper: On Tiktok and India’s Tech Emancipation from China
I wrote this paper for the Friedrich Naumann Foundation on the steps that India has taken for its technology decoupling from China, covering changes in the regulation of investments, telecommunications, ecommerce, handsets, as well as the ban on apps including TikTok. This includes recommendations related to what countries can do to reduce their dependence on China. Executive Summary:
On Perplexity and the challenge it poses for Digital Media
Perplexity is a fascinating AI application that I sometimes use to read the news, but it has me worried for a while now. It takes a Wikipedia-like approach to compilation of news and information: it takes verified news sources and compiles the information in a format that is simple and easy to understand, with all the key facts. It also allows you to ask questions,…