Archives January 2024

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth‘s developers believe that Sephiroth portrayal in the upcoming game is a “much deeper and clearer” depiction than in the original.

Speaking in an interview with PlayStation Blog, producer Yoshinori Kitase and creative director Tetsuya Nomura discussed how the rival of protagonist Cloud Strife has been adapted in the remade version of the original 1997 game, as well as what players can expect from his character in Rebirth.

Jio Platforms, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries that helps operators to evolve to new 5G capabilities, has created an AI platform, Jio Brain, that integrates machine learning (ML) capabilities in a telecom operator’s network, enterprise network, or any industry-specific IT environment without the need for an exhaustive network/IT transformation.
According to a LinkedIn post by Jio’s senior vice president (SVP) Aayush Bhatnagar, who is responsible for software platform development at the company, the platform “has been developed after a research and development effort for two years by hundreds of engineers.”
“At Jio Platforms, we have created an innovative AI platform – which we call ‘Jio Brain’,” he said. The platform comes with a set of over 500 REST Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and data APIs for creating ML-enabled services, he added.
What Jio Brain does
Bhatnagar said that apart from customised enterprise and large-scale LLM capabilities, the platform enables the company to offer advanced AI features for images, videos, text, documents, speech and in-built AI algorithms “as a service”.
Additionally, Jio Brain will help create new 5G services, transform enterprises, optimise networks, as well as set the stage for 6G development – where machine learning is a key capability.
“We are open to collaborate with like-minded AI / ML researchers to create value, and scale the Jio Brain innovation ecosystem,” Bhatnagar added.
Last year, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani said that Jio Platforms will lead the effort in developing India-specific AI models and AI-powered solutions that will help Indian citizens, businesses and government reap the benefits of the technology.
He said that Jio Platforms will create up to 2,000 MW of AI-ready computing capacity across cloud and edge locations.
Last year, the company also announced a collaboration with US chipmaker Nvidia to build cloud-based AI computing infrastructure to accelerate India’s position in the global AI space. As part of the partnership, Nvidia will provide GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip and Nvidia DGX Cloud service to Jio.

Demand for business travel could be set to surge in 2024 – but the requests may come with a twist, new research has claimed.

A study by Uber Business revealed that nine in 10 (89%) respondents consider travel to be a growing business priority, with increased budgets anticipated thanks to return-to-office policies, inflation, and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) requirements.

The rumored Fujifilm X100VI is one of the most exciting cameras of 2024 – and some new leaks suggest we may have to pay a slight premium for the compact camera’s inevitable popularity.

According to the reliable Fuji Rumors, the inbound successor to the Fujifilm X100V – which ran into serious stock issues after becoming an unexpected TikTok star – could cost $1,599 (which would likely equate to around £1,499 / AU$2,649).

Gmail, established by Google in 2004, stands as a prominent email service widely utilised across the globe. Over the years, this free email platform has undergone numerous enhancements and refinements. Similar to various other offerings from Google, Gmail harbours some lesser-known AI capabilities designed to enhance productivity and streamline time management.

Six Smart Gmail Features That Optimise Your Time

1. Help Me Write: The Help Me Write feature serves as a tool capable of generating complete email drafts through straightforward prompts. Presently, it’s accessible as a component of the Workspace Labs initiative, and you can register your interest online to participate in the program. Upon gaining access to the tool, you’ll encounter the “Help me write” icon when accessing the Compose a New Email function in Gmail. Locate the star emblem coupled with a pencil and insert a prompt detailing the subject matter of your email. Listed down are the steps to use it:

“Help me write” leverages advanced generative AI large language models to analyse your prompt and determine the most suitable combination of words to fulfil your request. This innovative technology expands upon previous generative models utilised for Gmail’s Smart Compose and Smart Reply functionalities.
2. Smart Compose: Smart Compose is a functionality that offers wording suggestions as you compose an email draft. It utilises a hybrid language generation model, processing on tensor processing units (TPUs), to present wording suggestions. With a simple tap of the “Tab” button, you can accept the suggestion and seamlessly integrate those words into your email draft without the need to type them out completely. Smart Compose aids users in writing more efficiently and acquiring new phrases. It’s accessible in English, Spanish, French, and Italian.
3. Smart Reply: Smart Reply is a function that generates a maximum of three potential responses to the emails you receive. By making two clicks or taps, you can choose and send your response. Leveraging advanced machine learning technology, such as deep neural networks, Smart Reply identifies a suitable collection of potential replies from a vast array of diverse and nuanced responses.
4. Tabbed Inbox: The tabbed inbox is a functionality designed to facilitate easier navigation of your inbox by automatically sorting emails into distinct tabs depending on their content. Gmail tabs utilise a classification system driven by machine learning to determine the appropriate destination for an email based on various indicators, such as the sender. Subsequently, the messages are directed to one of five separate inbox tabs: primary, promotions, social, updates, and forums.
Gmail uses a combination of neural network-driven machine learning and heuristic algorithms to automatically classify emails. In order to uphold user privacy, Gmail’s algorithms are trained on aggregated and anonymized data to learn how to categorise emails effectively.
5. Summary Cards: Summary cards are a functionality designed to showcase essential details from emails prominently at the message’s outset, facilitating quick comprehension of the content. Leveraging heuristic and machine learning algorithms, summary card technology autonomously scans incoming emails to identify message types and extract key information for display.
Summary cards are typically located at the beginning of emails containing various types of information such as flight ticket reservations, online shopping transactions, hotel bookings, restaurant reservations, ticketed events like concerts, and Google Calendar invitations.
6. Nudging: Nudging is a functionality designed to prompt you to respond to or follow up on significant messages. It employs a machine learning algorithm to identify emails that you haven’t responded to and anticipate those you typically address. After a period of time, it will prioritise the message, moving it to the top of your inbox, accompanied by a notification indicating that you received it three days earlier and inquiring if you wish to reply.
Nudging can also prompt you about outgoing messages for which you haven’t received a response. If you’ve sent an email to someone and it has been more than three days without a reply, Nudging will notify you in your inbox, asking if you’d like to send a follow-up.

Activision has revealed an inside look on how its Call of Duty multiplayer matchmaking works, revealing that skill is one of the least important factors.

In a recent blog post, the company kept its promise from last year to be more transparent in how it discusses matchmaking in its games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone, and offered a deep dive into how the system dubbed ‘skill-based matchmaking’ in the community.

Korean electronics major Samsung, which has started shipping made-in-India premium smartphone Galaxy S24, decided to manufacture laptops at its Noida factory in the country this year, a senior company official said on Monday.

Terming India as its important manufacturing base, Samsung Electronics President and Head of Mobile eXperience (MX) Business T M Roh told reporters here that the preparation for the laptop manufacturing is in progress in India.

“We will start manufacturing laptops this year at the Noida factory. Preparations are already underway,” said the official who is on an India visit.

Roh said India is an important manufacturing base for the company, and it has received support at various levels from the state and central governments.

The company will continue to cooperate with the government to strengthen manufacturing in India, he added.

The company has recently launched its flagship Galaxy S24 series smartphone with a key focus on artificial intelligence capability in the device.

More than 2.5 lakh customers in India have ordered a Galaxy S24 smartphone since pre-bookings opened in the country on January 18.

Samsung has started shipping made-in-India Galaxy S24 to the customers who pre-booked the device. The company will also export the Galaxy S24 device from India.

In response to a question on reduction of Samsung share in export of mobile phones from India, Roh said that as per market experts the global smartphone market has declined by about 5 per cent and the production across Samsung plants have been optimised in line with global demand.

“Noida is a very important production base for Samsung. It is the second-largest base for Samsung. There may be some changes at the plant to optimise it as per the global demand, but what remains unchanged is the fact that it is an important base for us,” Roh said.

He further said that the Noida plant started with manufacturing of feature phones, smartphones, wearable, and tablets, and now the company will start manufacturing laptops this year.

When asked about the impact of AI server shortage in India on the experience of Galaxy S24 AI features, Roh said that the smartphone supports both cloud-based AI and on-device AI.

“Some of the cloud-based AI capabilities that are provided on the device are also customised for the mobile environment, meaning that they have been made lighter and made more specialised for the AI mobile environment. This means that whether in the US, or China as you mentioned, or in India, and in fact anywhere in the world, you will be able to enjoy the cloud-based AI capabilities without much difference,” Roh said.

The Ministry of Electronics and IT is working on a proposal for developing the AI ecosystem in the country with an outlay of over ₹10,000 crore. Under the proposal, the ministry plans to set up the AI compute infrastructure in a public-private-partnership mode to boost the AI ecosystem.

Roh said that the company is also extending AI capabilities to 100 million Galaxy devices this year similar to the features it has launched in Galaxy S24 series.

“The AI Phone is important today and will be even more important down the road because it is the device that people use wherever or whenever it is the easiest to use and to do whatever you and whenever you want. In other words, I believe that the mobile device will be the core of the AI and the AI capabilities,” Roh said.

Also read other top stories today:

AI on Apple devices? Apple is working on making AI models that can work on devices alone by making them smaller. But we may have to wait a few years for these to work to circumnavigate the “memory wall”. Know where things stand here.

AI leaders on the rise! Businesses are scrambling to appoint AI leaders with the recent boom in technology, leaving metaverse leaders in the lurch. Instead, AI is taking their place. Find out more about this shift here.

Saviour against AI! Taylor Swift’s deepfake photos went viral on X during the weekend but they’ve since been taken down. Can the Time’s Person of the Year save humanity from the dark side of AI? Know all the details here.

One more thing! We are now on WhatsApp Channels! Follow us there so you never miss any updates from the world of technology. ‎To follow the HT Tech channel on WhatsApp, click here to join now!

Apple‘s tablets are some of the most popular on the market, whether you need a solid entry-level device or a high-performance creative workstation. They are, however, very pricey. But you can now find an excellent saving on the iPad Air, which has been reduced to a new record-low price.

• See all iPad deals at Best Buy

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel.