Suhani Jain

Baidu sues Apple, app developers over fake Ernie bot apps

The Chinese search engine Baidu has filed a lawsuit against Apple & “relevant” app developers allegedly selling counterfeit versions of its newly released Ernie bot application on the App Store. The artificial intelligence-powered chatbot Ernie has been regarded as the most competitive substitute for the US-developed ChatGPT in China.

ChatGPT’s immediate rival is Baidu’s Ernie chatbot. It is a Baidu AI product that has reportedly been in production since 2019. Yet it was only made available a short time after ChatGPT went global.

Also Read: Amazon plans to trim employee stock awards amid tough economy

According to the business, Ernie is fully capable of processing natural language and can converse, answer questions live online, write articles, write codes, etc.

On Friday, Baidu declared that it has registered cases in Haidian People’s Court, Beijing, against Apple and also the app developers who created the knockoff editions of its Ernie bot. There isn’t yet an official Ernie app accessible, according to a comment from Baidu on its main “Baidu AI” WeChat account.

“At present, Ernie does not have any official app,” Baidu said in a statement late on Friday posted on its official “Baidu AI” WeChat account.

“Until our company’s official announcement, any Ernie app you see from App Store or other stores are fake,” it said.
Source: reuters.com

Baidu also uploaded a picture of its court document, emphasizing that until a formal notice is made, any Ernie apps that seem to be accessible through the App Store or any other stores are fake.

Apple has not made any comment on the circumstances yet. According to a search done by Reuters on Saturday, at least four applications with the Mandarin name “Ernie bot” are still available on the App Store, but they are all fake.

As per Baidu, those who have gotten legitimate access codes are the only ones who can access the Ernie bot. In its comment, the business also issued a warning against people who try to sell access codes.

Also Read: Meta releases AI model that can identify items within images

The AI-backed chatbot known as Ernie, meaning “Enhanced Representation through Knowledge Integration,” was introduced by Baidu in March of this year. Because of the popularity of ChatGPT powered by Microsoft, Chinese businesses and tech companies are racing to develop a rival.

Baidu’s cloud platform currently enables businesses to include the bot in their services by submitting a request. Originally, the Ernie bot was only obtainable to a small set of customers with invitation credentials.

Suhani Jain

I am a student pursuing my bachelor’s in information technology. I have a interest in writing so, I am working a freelance content writer because I enjoy writing. I also write poetries. I believe in the quote by anne frank “paper has more patience than person

Amazon plans to trim employee stock awards amid tough economy

As the world’s largest online retailer experiences an unstable economic climate, Amazon.com Inc said it will limit employee stock grants, a component of its compensation scheme.

Employees of Amazon are given shares of Amazon stock as just a component of their complete compensation scheme. These stocks are known as Restricted Stock Units (RSUs). These stocks vest throughout time as opposed to being granted at one time.

The tech behemoth stated in March that it intended to eliminate 9,000 employees, making it the most recent business in that sector to do so in the context of a potential downturn.

Also Read: Meta releases AI model that can identify items within images

Adding to a surge of job losses that have rocked the tech industry as a challenging economy compels corporations to get smaller, this announcement comes weeks since Amazon declared a new round of major layoffs.

“We made the decision to reduce RSU (restricted stock units) awards in the final outlook year by a small amount (other years are not impacted),” an Amazon spokesperson said in an emailed statement, without specifying the period of the final outlook year.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

The announcement comes with Amazon’s announcement of a 2nd round of huge job cuts a few weeks earlier, adding to a surge of job losses that have rocked the technology industry since tough economic times compel firms and various businesses to become smaller.

The proposed adjustment to the firm’s pay scale was initially reported by Business Insider, which also stated that Amazon would re-evaluate 2025 salary during the initial quarter of 2019 to prepare for stock variation

“The company was weighing the possibility of adjusting its compensation model in the future to be more balanced between base cash compensation and equity, after looking at the combination of an uncertain economy and its compensation budget,” the spokesperson said.
Source: livemint.com

Following a nearly 50 percent share decline in 2022, Amazon’s share price has increased this year by more than 20 percent.

Also Read: Google Workers in London stage walkout over job cuts

As a part of massive layoffs, Amazon.com Inc. fired around 100 staff from its video-game businesses, Game Growth, including Prime Gaming, and the firm’s San Diego facility.

Even with its Crown channel which is an entertainment channel on the Twitch streaming video service, Amazon has had difficulty making the most of its gaming tools.

Suhani Jain

Google Drive now caps the number of files you can create

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Suhani Jain

As previously disclosed by Ars Technica and CNET, Google has put a restriction on the number of files you can upload and save to Google Drive. Even though you paid for more storage, the firm announced to The Verge that the update enabled users to generate a total of 5 million items in Drive. Google, however, quickly undid the adjustment and promised to come up with an alternative.

“We recently rolled out a system update to Drive item limits to preserve stability and optimize performance,” said Google in a tweet. “While this impacted only a small number of people, we are rolling back this change as we explore alternate approaches to ensure a great experience for all.”
Source: theverge.com

Also Read: UBS to cut up to 30% of the global workforce

There was a 5 million file limit, but it only related to the number of files you could create in Drive, not to the total number of files that could be shared with your Drive. In other words, if the files weren’t all your creation, you might have had more than 5 million of them in the system.

Ross Richendrfer, a Google representative, first claimed that the modification was made to ensure high performance and dependability and that it would assist stop misuse of the company’s systems. Richendrfer stated that if you exceed the limit, you will be notified and can approach Google customer support to resolve the situation.

While it would seem ludicrous for a single person to upload 5 million files, some people have exceeded that figure. A customer with 7 million documents in Drive claims, in a Reddit post seen by Ars Technica and CNET, that Google abruptly stopped allowing them to add new files in February, even though they had not yet reached the 2TB storage limit they had paid for.

Several additional users claim to have experienced the file restriction at approximately the same time and that they originally thought it to be a bug on Google’s problem tracker website.

An individual with 2TB of capacity and an aggregate file size of over 400KB would exceed their file cap before when they went out of storage space, as was noted in the Reddit thread. Secondly, unless they choose to reduce their documents into zip folders, some customers may be spending even more space than they utilize.

Also Read: Netflix Might Be Putting Its Video Games on TVs

User responses suggest that Google may not have informed those who would be affected by the new restriction ahead of its deployment, leaving them scrambling to transfer or reduce files once the policy took effect.

While it does indicate that shared Workspace folders can store a total of 400,000 files, it doesn’t appear that Google changed its Google One or Workspace help sites to notice the limit. Google could have at least provided those who do with a proper warning, even if the bulk of users probably don’t have 5 million data held in Drive.

Suhani Jain

UBS to cut up to 30% of the global workforce

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Suhani Jain

After wrapping up its acquisition of Credit Suisse, UBS will reduce its employees by 20 percent to 30 percent, eliminating up to 36,000 employees globally, according to a senior UBS manager quoted in the SonntagsZeitung.

According to the Swiss publication, up to 11,000 workers in Switzerland would be laid off. By the end of the previous year, the two lenders collectively employed approximately 125,000 people, with about 3 percent of the overall working in Switzerland.

The anticipated layoffs surpass the 9,000 job losses that Credit Suisse disclosed before UBS’s steady for the past month rescue of the company. Given the significant similarities between the two former competitors, a multiple of that amount of job cuts had been anticipated as the ultimate total.

Also Read: Accenture to Cut 19000 Jobs as IT Spending Slows

An inquiry for comment made by phone outside of regular business hours was not immediately answered by UBS.

UBS has publicly stated that it will be as transparent as it can on job cutbacks. Even though it was obvious that there would be large job cuts, the lender considers talent retention to be an important execution risk for the acquisition.

Firms like Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, & JP Morgan Chase are preparing to hire some wealth managers as well as investment bankers who are certain to lose their jobs.

Credit Suisse bankers looking for work have already descended onto headhunters in droves.

The Swiss administration introduced the 3.3 billion USD emergency purchase of Credit Suisse by its own greater Swiss rival on March 19 following five days of negotiations facilitated by officials.

As per Switzerland’s minister of finance, Credit Suisse had enormous asset outflows as a consequence of several scandals, which could have caused it to implode the coming Monday if no measures were taken.

To force the purchase without needing to get necessary approvals from shareholders, the authorities used emergency law. Hence, even if many irate voices are anticipated at the two institutions’ annual general assemblies, which are this week, the impact on shareholders will be Hence, even if many irate voices are anticipated at the two institutions’ annual general assemblies, which are this week, the impact on shareholders will be minimal.

Major shareholder and Norway sovereign wealth fund, has declared it will not support the re-election of numerous Credit Suisse directors which includes chairman Axel Lehmann.

Also Read: Apple launches ‘buy now, pay later’ service in the US

The report states that because of the intricate, protracted process required to merge the banks, it is anticipated to be one of the most profitable contracts for providing financial services advice at times.

Comment requests made outside of business hours were not answered immediately by UBS, BCG, Bain, McKinsey, or Oliver Wyman.

Suhani Jain

Apple wins U.S. appeal over patents in $502 mln VirnetX verdict

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Suhani Jain

In the long-haul dispute between the two corporations regarding privacy-software technology, Apple Inc. convinced a U.S. appeals court to retain a patent tribunal’s decision that would jeopardise a 502 million USD award for patent licencing company VirnetX Corporation on Thursday.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s judgement to invalidate the two rights that VirnetX claimed Apple had violated was upheld by the U.S. Appeals court for the Federal Circuit.

The ruling was disappointing, according to VirnetX Chief Executive officer, Kendall Larsen, and the corporation is thinking about asking for a rehearing or trying to appeal to the US Supreme Court.

Also Read: Apple launches ‘buy now, pay later’ service in the US

After that decision was made, VirnetX stock dropped more than 14 per cent by Thursday afternoon. Immediately following the company’s announcement that it will distribute a special cash dividend to its stockholders and expected a possible future payment from the Apple lawsuit, the stock had increased by 55 per cent before the decision had been made public.

A call for comment from an Apple spokesperson elicited no immediate response.

The 13-year legal conflict between the two firms has involved numerous trials & challenges. After finding that Apple violated the VPN (virtual private network ) rights question in Thursday’s verdict, an East Texas court fined VirnetX 502 million USD in 2020.

Apple has filed a separate appeal of the judgement on its own behalf, although the Federal Circuit has not yet made a decision. Both sides argued that maintaining the decree cancelling the patents would probably also invalidate the jury verdict when the court heard mixed statements in the two cases in September.

“If the court upholds the (USPTO’s) decision, we have a big problem,” VirnetX attorney Jeff Lamken of MoloLamken said at the September hearing. “I don’t think we have an enforceable judgment.”
Source: finance.yahoo.com

Also Read: Apple announces new classical music app

On Thursday, the Federal Circuit upheld findings made by the USPTO’s Patent Trial & Appeal Board that the rights were ineligible due to prior works that had similarly described discoveries.

In a different case, VirnetX triumphed against Apple in 2016 with a 302 million dollar judgement that was subsequently enhanced to 440 million dollars in an East Texas court. The case involved claims that the technology giant had incorporated its internet-security technology into functionalities like FaceTime video conversations.

Suhani Jain

Lyft Co-Founders to Resign; David Risher Is Named CEO

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Suhani Jain

As the Transportation Network Service company battles to compete with larger opponent Uber, Lyft Inc. announced on Monday that its founding members Logan Green & John Zimmer would resign as CEO & president, respectively. Instead, council member David Risher will assume those positions.

Prior to joining the board of Lyft in 2021, Risher, a former executive at both Microsoft and Amazon, oversaw the non-profit Worldreader for more than ten years.

A dismal quarterly prediction increased worries that price reductions made to compete with larger rival Uber, which has a stronger price advantage, a global footprint, and a delivery service for food, will compress earnings. This led to a change of leadership at Lyft.

Also Read: Twitch CEO Emmett Shear to step down

David Risher stated service for riders as well as drivers would be their main focus and also, the cost of rides.

“One of the first things we’re very focused on is making sure we are matching Uber on price,” Risher said in an interview.

Expanding the business to food and grocery delivery was not an open option because of what it could do to the rider or the driver experience, he added.
Source: finance.yahoo.com

Over three-quarters of Lyft’s worth was wiped out in 2022, and stocks are dropped approximately 13 percent this year. Uber is now up 24 percent.

During Monday’s after-market trade, Lyft stock increased by nearly 3 percent.

Even with its operations ceasing during the epidemic, the firm, which was created in 2012 and became public in 2019, is still waiting to record an annual profit but it has reduced liabilities over the years.

“Lyft needed to do something … to begin rebuilding investor trust,” Gordon Haskett analyst Robert Mollins said. “We believe today’s announcement means a sale is unlikely – at least in the near-term – as David will likely be given a fair amount of time to improve (or at least attempt to) the company’s competitive and financial position.”
Source: finance.yahoo.com

Also Read: YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki steps down after nine years

As the leader of the nonprofit Worldreader, Risher worked to promote children’s reading habits by facilitating the delivery of around 75 million ebooks to 21 million kids.

On April 17, Risher will take over as CEO of Lyft. According to the business, he will receive a $3.25 million transfer fee in addition to a $725,000 yearly wage.

Green, who arrived in the Bay Area at the age of 23 and took a job on Lyft in a 125-square-foot cubicle, will assist as the company’s chairman and Zimmer will be the vice chairman.

Suhani Jain

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