(This article is part of Today’s Cache, The Hindu’s newsletter on emerging themes at the intersection of technology, innovation and policy. To get it in your inbox, subscribe here.)
Musk’s AI chatbot Grok generates deepfakes
The AI chatbot Grok on Elon Musk-owned social media platform X is being used to generate graphic, explicit, fake, or illegal media soon after its image-generation capabilities were announced, claimed general users and journalists. Just by entering a simple text prompt, The Hindu was able to use the new Grok 2 mini (beta) model to generate highly realistic deepfakes featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as U.S. VP President Kamala Harris wielding rifles.
Other AI text-to-image generators generally use content filters or guardrails to block users from creating fake pictures of real political figures or celebrities, for safety reasons. Other X users shared graphic images they claimed were generated with Grok. These included a prominent American musician in a state of undress, Disney characters going on a killing spree, and even a gun-wielding Musk standing over dead or blood-drenched victims in a school.
Cisco to cut 7% workforce
Cisco Systems announced a restructuring plan saying it would cut 7% of its global workforce, while also lowering its annual revenue target. The California-based company plans to invest in key growth opportunities and drive more efficiencies. It estimates it will recognize pre-tax charges of up to $1 billion in connection with the plan, with $700 million to $800 million of these charges being recognized in the first quarter.
This is the second round of layoffs likely to affect 6, 000 employees. Earlier in February, the company said it would layoff 5% of its workforce amounting to more than 4,000 jobs. Cisco reported revenue of $13.64 billion for the fourth quarter ended July 27, compared with an estimate of $13.54 billion. The company’s sales have fallen for a third consecutive quarter with its core networking business, including switches and routers trending downward as businesses started shifting to the cloud.
Google’s retail expansion
With the new Pixel 9 series launch, Google has finally realised that to gain a loyal user base in India it needs to have a retail presence. And to execute this momentous feat, the U.S. based search giant has partnered with Tata’s Croma and Reliance Digital to offer the Pixel ecosystem of devices to a larger audience in the world’s most populous country. With the new retail expansion, Google said that the Pixel products will now be available in over 150 Croma and Reliance Digital outlets across 15 cities in India. Before this retail expansion, Google used to sell Pixel devices only through Flipkart in India.
Counterpoint Research points that offline retail captures around 60% sales in non-festive quarter and around 40% in festive quarter due to ease of financing, trade in and better bundling offers in premium devices. The Alphabet-owned company, for the first time ever, also announced the opening of three company-owned after-sales services centres in India.
