Apple is secretly building a ChatGPT rival to reinvent search ahead of iPhone 17 launch
Bloomberg's report also mentioned that Apple is testing its upcoming iPhone 17 Pro in real-world conditions. The device was spotted in San Francisco, camouflaged in a case designed to disguise its design. This suggests Apple is on track with its hardware development and gearing up for a major product cycle.At the same time, Apple is reportedly facing some challenges on the AI talent front. The company has lost its fourth AI researcher in a month to Meta, raising questions about internal morale and retention within its foundation models team – the group responsible for Apple's large language models and generative AI systems.The sudden push to develop a home-grown ChatGPT alternative and the formation of the AKI team signal Apple's renewed focus on artificial intelligence. If successful, this could not only fix some of the current gaps in Apple Intelligence, but also help the company redefine how search works on iPhones going forward.- EndsMust Watch
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Rupee skids close to record low as Trump threatens more tariffs
The Indian Rupee slid on Monday, towards its record low as US President Donald Trump ramped up pressure on India regarding their oil imports from Russia. The domestic currency opened 16 paise lower at 87.82 against the dollar on Tuesday, according to Bloomberg. The rupee has declined 2.6 per cent so far in the calendar year and recorded its worst monthly fall in July since September 2023. The rupee's record low stands at 87.95, touched in February this year. Trump, in the social media platform Truth Social, threatened to 'substantially' raise tariffs on Indian goods, accusing the country of profiting from the resale of Russian oil and ignoring the human toll in Ukraine. India, however, dismissed Trump's remarks, calling them 'unjustified and unreasonable.' The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) stressed that India's energy ties with Russia are driven by national "necessity" and are far smaller in scale compared to trade between Russia and the West. The domestic currency remained under pressure and is likely to stay weak this week after Trump signalled the possibility of higher tariffs on India for continuing to purchase Russian oil, according to Anil Kumar Bhansali, head of treasury and executive Director at Finrex Treasury Advisors LLP. "The currency has also faced sustained pressure from foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) following Trump's earlier announcement of 25 per cent tariffs on all Indian exports, despite ongoing trade talks." FPIs remained net sellers for teh 11th straight session on Monday, selling equities worth ₹2,403 crore in the previous session. In this calendar year so far, global funds have sold stocks worth ₹1.03 trillion, as per NSDL data. The rupee closed at 87.6550 on Monday and is expected to open at a fresh low of 88 on Tuesday, following Trump's latest remarks specifically targeting India, Bhansali said. Exporters may continue to sell at current lows, while importers are likely to adopt a wait-and-watch approach, he said. "Market participants will closely monitor the Reserve Bank of India's stance on the rupee's new levels in today's session." Meanwhile, the focus will be on RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra as the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) begins its meeting yesterday, August 4, to decide on key interest rates. The RBI is likely to remain status quo as per a Business Standard poll, with all analysts expecting a further reduction in the 2025-26 (FY26) inflation forecast. The dollar index, the measure of the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was up 0.07 per cent at 98.84. In commodities, crude oil prices extended their three-day fall amid looming trade tensions between India and the US. Brent crude price was down 0.29 per cent at 68.56 per barrel, while WTI crude prices were lower by 0.33 per cent at 66.07, as of 9:15 AM IST.
Mint
2 minutes ago
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SoftBank Builds Nvidia, TSMC Stakes Under Son's Focus on AI Gear
(Bloomberg) -- SoftBank Group Corp. is building up stakes in Nvidia Corp. and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the latest reflection of Masayoshi Son's focus on the tools and hardware underpinning artificial intelligence. The Japanese technology investor raised its stake in Nvidia to about $3 billion by the end of March, up from $1 billion in the prior quarter, according to regulatory filings. It bought around $330 million worth of TSMC shares and $170 million in Oracle Corp., they show. That's while SoftBank's signature Vision Fund has monetized almost $2 billion of public and private assets in the first half of 2025, according to a person familiar with the fund's activities. The Vision Fund prioritizes its returns on investment and there is no particular pressure from SoftBank to monetize its assets, said the person, who asked not to be named discussing private information. A representative of SoftBank declined to comment. At the heart of SoftBank's AI ambitions is chip designer Arm Holdings Plc. Son is gradually building a portfolio around the Cambridge, UK-based company with key industry players, seeking to catch up after largely missing a historic rally that's made Nvidia into a $4 trillion behemoth and boosted its contract chipmaker TSMC near a $1 trillion value. 'Nvidia is the picks and shovels for the gold rush of AI,' said Ben Narasin, founder and general partner of Tenacity Venture Capital, referring to a concerted effort by the world's largest technology companies to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to get ahead. SoftBank's purchase of the US company's stock may buy more influence and access to Nvidia's most sought-after chips, he said. 'Maybe he gets to skip the line.' SoftBank, which reports quarterly earnings Thursday, should've benefited from that bet on Nvidia — at least on paper. Nvidia has gained around 90% in market value since hitting a year's low around early April, while TSMC has climbed over 40%. That's helping to make up for missing out on much of Nvidia's post-ChatGPT rally — one of the biggest of all time. SoftBank, which was early to start betting on betting on AI long before OpenAI's seminal chatbot, parted with a 4.9% stake in Nvidia in early 2019 that would be worth more than $200 billion today. Crippling losses at the Vision Fund also hampered SoftBank's ability to be an early investor in generative AI. The company's attempts to buy back some Nvidia shares, alongside those of proxy TSMC, would help Son regain access to some of the most lucrative parts of the semiconductor supply chain. The 67-year-old SoftBank founder now seeks to play a more central role in the spread of AI through sweeping partnerships. These include SoftBank's $500 billion Stargate data center foray with OpenAI, Oracle and Abu Dhabi-backed investment fund MGX. Son is also courting TSMC and others about taking part in a $1 trillion AI manufacturing hub in Arizona. As Arm's intellectual property is used to power the majority of mobile chips and is increasingly used in server chips, SoftBank could carve out a unique position without being a manufacturer itself, according to Richard Kaye, co-head of Japan equity strategy at Comgest Asset Management and a long-time SoftBank investor. 'I think he sees himself as the natural provider of AI semiconductor technology,' he said. 'What Son really wants to do is capture the upstream and the downstream of everything.' Investors have cheered Son's audacious plans, while analysts say they expect SoftBank to report a swing back to a net income in the June quarter. SoftBank shares marked a record high last month. SoftBank's planned $6.5 billion deal to acquire US chip firm Ampere Computing LLC and another $30 billion investment in OpenAI are further encouraging investors who see the stock as a way to ride the US startup's momentum. Son, however, remains dissatisfied, according to people close to the billionaire. Son sees the big projects in the US as having the potential to help SoftBank leapfrog the current leaders in AI to become a trillion-dollar or bigger company, they said. The stock continues to trade at a roughly estimated 40% discount to SoftBank's total assets — which includes a roughly 90% stake in the $148 billion-valued Arm. SoftBank's market capitalization stands at around $119 billion, a fraction of Nvidia's $4.4 trillion valuation and that of other tech companies most closely associated with AI progress. Son, who in the past has seen Washington hamper or derail merger plans like the union of Arm and Nvidia, seeks to leverage his relationship with Donald Trump and is arranging frequent meetings with White House officials. Those efforts are now critical as AI and semiconductors become geopolitical flash points. SoftBank's plan to buy Ampere is facing a probe by the Federal Trade Commission. Attention at its June quarter earnings will be on what other assets SoftBank might sell down to help it secure the liquidity it needs to double down on hardware investments. The Japanese company has so far raised around $4.8 billion through a sale of some of its T-Mobile share holding in June. Its Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto has cited the company's end-March net asset value of ¥25.7 trillion ($175 billion), saying the company has ample capital to cover its funding needs. In the business year ended March, the Vision Fund's exits included DoorDash Inc. and View Inc., as well as cloud security company Wiz Inc. and enterprise software startup Peak, even as SoftBank bought up the stakes in Nvidia, TSMC and Oracle. 'We're after AI using an array of startups and group companies,' Son told shareholders in June. 'We want to become the organizer of the No. 1 platformer in the artificial super intelligence era.' --With assistance from Edwin Chan. More stories like this are available on
News18
25 minutes ago
- News18
AI Agents Are Truly Here And We Need To Learn To Live With Them
AI agents are taking over our systems, and soon they will even enhance our jobs with more tech-enabled services. AI chatbots like ChatGPT started all the buzz in the market more than 2 years back, and now we are seeing the market move to the next best thing, Agentic AI or AI agents. You have used AI apps of all kinds, and even your regular apps now have some level AI-ness built into them. But AI agents are a completely new kettle of fish that is making its mark in positive and to some degree, worrying ways. Companies like OpenAI and Google are already making the big moves to get things right which is easier said than done when you have AI involved. Now that we have done a fair job of introducing AI agents, we'll let the experts do the talking and even telling you the nitty gritties in the world of these new agents. 'AI agents represent a new way of working — systems that understand intent, act across workflows, and adapt with context. se agents are built on advanced models, operate within clear boundaries, and are tailored for tasks from cybersecurity to human resources," explains Sandeep Alur, CTO, Microsoft Innovation Hub, India It is intriguing to hear Alur talk about tasks being handled by some of the regular verticals where a hands-on approach has been demanded for years. And it seems that more AI companies see these jobs becoming more handled by the tech than humans. 'Imagine now in large organizations there are 100 of people doing a certain task when the lead comes in, their job is to update the CRM etc. This can be now completely automated with Agentic AI," as highlighted by Dikshant Dave, CEO, Zigment, one of the companies to have deployed WhatsApp agents handling these tasks for its clients. In fact, a report by ServiceNow says agentic AI will catapult and reform the job market to generate over 10 million jobs in the next five years in India. AI Agents Everywhere These agents are programmed to operate tasks, and let humans manage the more complex part of their work or even regular stuff. For instance, you can ask the AI agents built into browsers to scan through a series of tabs and find you the best restaurant for dinner. 'It will be defined because it has a certain intellect, basis the conversation or whatever actions are happening. It takes a decision," Dave adds, giving more emphasis on its use and application across sectors. This definitely feels like the next phase of AI in our lives and the industry is gradually making it a core part of their structure. But does that come at the cost of human jobs? The boundaries are being already set, and the path is getting defined, which tells people where the AI threat to jobs will be less and where it will have a big impact. 'We can actually switch a mid-level manager or executive, a lot of the tasks that they were doing with an AI Agent. A lot of these underlying activities that were done, like the operation by the juniors are getting transferred to these agents," Dave opines. And the recent job cut trends align with his views, especially as you see the likes of Google and even Microsoft raise the pink slips for a variety of roles to embed AI further into their systems. Having said that, AI agents will only get some degree of control on the tasks, as businesses feel the pinch of adopting fully autonomous AI agents to handle their client work that earns them millions or even billions, as pointed out by Capgemini in its Rise of Agentic AI report. 'This is not about replacing people — it's about removing repetitive work and giving individuals more space to focus on creativity, problem-solving, and human connection," Alur shares his own insights. Even then, it clearly feels like companies are still getting the hang of the technology and would rather prefer a mix of humans and AI rather than fully let the tech do the bulk of the work. However, the trends will change quickly and by 2028 we might see more businesses get comfortable using AI agents and fully trust them to handle A to Z of their tasks. When it comes to business there is a very high degree of concern amongst customers about the data and the hallucinations that bring further trust factor issues in AI. 'We also kind of build a guardrails layer to ensure that there are zero hallucinations and the whole activity is that the LLM will be helm," Dave cites the best way to prevent such lapses. He also mentions that companies have to build another later on the top of the LLMs to ensure the accuracy of information. The risks clearly outweigh its benefits but he feels that with time we will have better checks in place to guard against such problems. 'Those concerns are happening and I would say that a lot of new ways and better ways will come up over the next few years where we will have a very stable system," he concludes our chat giving a positive outlook to the future even though AI will inflict some level of course correction in the larger scheme of things. tags : AI model view comments Location : Delhi, India, India First Published: August 05, 2025, 09:36 IST News tech AI Agents Are Truly Here And We Need To Learn To Live With Them Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
