Pixel 10 leaked renders hint at bold new colours for Google's next flagship
The Pixel 10 is expected to be announced on August 20, with pre-orders opening the same day. Shipping is likely to start on August 28.Beyond the Pixel 10, Google is also expected to unveil three more devices — including the Pixel 10 Pro, 10 Pro XL, and 10 Pro Fold. The Pixel Watch 4 is also expected, with reports suggesting it may come in two sizes this time. Powered by Android 16, we might also see deeper AI features, updated widgets, and more visual tweaks thanks to Material 3 Expressive. Google might also show off new charging accessories and the budget-friendly Pixel Buds 2a.- Ends
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Mint
35 minutes ago
- Mint
AI agents are here. Here's what to know about what they can do – and how they can go wrong
Melbourne, Jul 28 (The Conversation) We are entering the third phase of generative AI. First came the chatbots, followed by the assistants. Now we are beginning to see agents: systems that aspire to greater autonomy and can work in 'teams' or use tools to accomplish complex tasks. The latest hot product is OpenAI's ChatGPT agent. This combines two pre-existing products (Operator and Deep Research) into a single more powerful system which, according to the developer, 'thinks and acts'. These new systems represent a step up from earlier AI tools. Knowing how they work and what they can do – as well as their drawbacks and risks – is rapidly becoming essential. ChatGPT launched the chatbot era in November 2022, but despite its huge popularity the conversational interface limited what could be done with the technology. Enter the AI assistant, or copilot. These are systems built on top of the same large language models that power generative AI chatbots, only now designed to carry out tasks with human instruction and supervision. Agents are another step up. They are intended to pursue goals (rather than just complete tasks) with varying degrees of autonomy, supported by more advanced capabilities such as reasoning and memory. Multiple AI agent systems may be able to work together, communicating with each other to plan, schedule, decide and coordinate to solve complex problems. Agents are also 'tool users' as they can also call on software tools for specialised tasks – things such as web browsers, spreadsheets, payment systems and more. A year of rapid development Agentic AI has felt imminent since late last year. A big moment came last October, when Anthropic gave its Claude chatbot the ability to interact with a computer in much the same way a human does. This system could search multiple data sources, find relevant information and submit online forms. Other AI developers were quick to follow. OpenAI released a web browsing agent named Operator, Microsoft announced Copilot agents, and we saw the launch of Google's Vertex AI and Meta's Llama agents. Earlier this year, the Chinese startup Monica demonstrated its Manus AI agent buying real estate and converting lecture recordings into summary notes. Another Chinese startup, Genspark, released a search engine agent that returns a single-page overview (similar to what Google does now) with embedded links to online tasks such as finding the best shopping deals. Another startup, Cluely, offers a somewhat unhinged 'cheat at anything' agent that has gained attention but is yet to deliver meaningful results. Not all agents are made for general-purpose activity. Some are specialised for particular areas. Coding and software engineering are at the vanguard here, with Microsoft's Copilot coding agent and OpenAI's Codex among the frontrunners. These agents can independently write, evaluate and commit code, while also assessing human-written code for errors and performance lags. Search, summarisation and more One core strength of generative AI models is search and summarisation. Agents can use this to carry out research tasks that might take a human expert days to complete. OpenAI's Deep Research tackles complex tasks using multi-step online research. Google's AI 'co-scientist' is a more sophisticated multi-agent system that aims to help scientists generate new ideas and research proposals. Agents can do more – and get more wrong Despite the hype, AI agents come loaded with caveats. Both Anthropic and OpenAI, for example, prescribe active human supervision to minimise errors and risks. OpenAI also says its ChatGPT agent is 'high risk' due to potential for assisting in the creation of biological and chemical weapons. However, the company has not published the data behind this claim so it is difficult to judge. But the kind of risks agents may pose in real-world situations are shown by Anthropic's Project Vend. Vend assigned an AI agent to run a staff vending machine as a small business – and the project disintegrated into hilarious yet shocking hallucinations and a fridge full of tungsten cubes instead of food. In another cautionary tale, a coding agent deleted a developer's entire database, later saying it had 'panicked'. Nevertheless, agents are already finding practical applications. In 2024, Telstra heavily deployed Microsoft copilot subscriptions. The company says AI-generated meeting summaries and content drafts save staff an average of 1–2 hours per week. Many large enterprises are pursuing similar strategies. Smaller companies too are experimenting with agents, such as Canberra-based construction firm Geocon's use of an interactive AI agent to manage defects in its apartment developments. At present, the main risk from agents is technological displacement. As agents improve, they may replace human workers across many sectors and types of work. At the same time, agent use may also accelerate the decline of entry-level white-collar jobs. People who use AI agents are also at risk. They may rely too much on the AI, offloading important cognitive tasks. And without proper supervision and guardrails, hallucinations, cyberattacks and compounding errors can very quickly derail an agent from its task and goals into causing harm, loss and injury. The true costs are also unclear. All generative AI systems use a lot of energy, which will in turn affect the price of using agents – especially for more complex tasks. Learn about agents – and build your own Despite these ongoing concerns, we can expect AI agents will become more capable and more present in our workplaces and daily lives. It's not a bad idea to start using (and perhaps building) agents yourself, and understanding their strengths, risks and limitations. For the average user, agents are most accessible through Microsoft copilot studio. This comes with inbuilt safeguards, governance and an agent store for common tasks. For the more ambitious, you can build your own AI agent with just five lines of code using the Langchain framework. (The Conversation) NSA NSA
Hans India
2 hours ago
- Hans India
AP fast emerging as best investment destination: CM
Singapore: Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, who chose to go to Singapore professedly to rebuild ties that he believes had strained under the previous administration, has positioned the state as a burgeoning investment destination, citing abundant opportunities in key sectors like ports and green energy. During his ongoing official visit to Singapore, he affirmed that the state was actively implementing progressive policies designed to attract Singaporean enterprises. On Sunday, Chief Minister Naidu met with Shilpak Ambule, the Indian High Commissioner to Singapore, with whom the discussions centered on strengthening economic ties and exploring investment avenues. High Commissioner Ambule underscored the significant recognition and respect the 'CBN Brand' commanded within Singapore's government and industrial sectors. Chief Minister Naidu, recalling the earlier collaboration on the Amaravati capital city project, acknowledged Singapore's withdrawal between 2019 and 2024 due to unforeseen developments. He stated that a key objective of his current visit was to address past misunderstandings and rebuild the narrative through renewed engagement. The Chief Minister detailed Andhra Pradesh's newly introduced investment policies, reiterating the state's ambitious goal of achieving 160 gigawatt of green energy generation. He informed the High Commissioner that green hydrogen projects are already underway in Visakhapatnam (in partnership with NTPC) and Kakinada. Solidifying the state's technological aspirations, CM Naidu announced that Andhra Pradesh was set to establish India's first-ever Quantum Valley in Amaravati under the India Quantum Mission. He also confirmed that global tech giant Google was setting up a data center in Visakhapatnam. Highlighting the state's industrial potential, CM Naidu pointed out that regions like Rayalaseema offered highly conducive conditions for the establishment of defence, aerospace, electronics, and automobile manufacturing units. He expressed his view that Andhra Pradesh could serve as a strategic gateway for Singaporean investments into India and sought support to facilitate this. High Commissioner Ambule also noted that 83% of Singapore's population benefited from public housing projects. In response, Minister P. Narayana provided an overview of Andhra Pradesh's housing initiatives. The meeting also focused on collaboration in fields such as Artificial Intelligence, startups, medical device research, and academic partnerships between universities in Andhra Pradesh and Singapore. Ministers Nara Lokesh and TG Bharat, along with senior government officials from Andhra Pradesh, were present during the discussions.
Indian Express
6 hours ago
- Indian Express
India-US trade deal: Commerce Ministry advised against accepting ‘unilaterally framed obligation' on digital taxes
Legal advisers to the Commerce and Industry Ministry have suggested that Indian negotiators dealing with their US counterparts should not accept Washington's proposal that prohibits India from reintroducing equalisation levy-style taxes, such as the 'Google tax', in the future, a person aware of the negotiations told The Indian Express. The advice was offered on the grounds that the provisions drafted by the US did not state that both parties should refrain from applying digital taxes on each other. Rather, they sought a legal commitment only from the Indian side and were seen as a 'unilaterally framed obligation', the source said. While the US offers a range of digital services in India and American tech companies have long lobbied against any taxes on such services, India also exports a wide range of digital services to the US — particularly in the IT sector — generating the majority share of its total services exports earnings from the US market. Another concern raised with the government was that agreeing to such unilateral provisions could set a risky precedent for future trade negotiations, where similar demands could be made by other trading partners during talks with New Delhi, thereby complicating future negotiations. In a move to assuage US concerns about India being a high-tariff nation, the Central government in March proposed abolishing the equalisation levy on online advertisements as part of the amendments to the Finance Bill, 2025. An equalisation levy is a measure to 'equalise' the tax treatment of resident and non-resident e-commerce companies. As part of the 35 amendments to the Finance Bill, 2025, the Centre proposed removing the 6 per cent equalisation levy (EL) it charges on digital ads, effective from 1 April 2025. A query emailed to the Commerce and Industry Ministry remained unanswered till press time. 'Digital taxation is typically discussed outside the framework of a trade agreement. It is a nation's sovereign right to decide on such matters, and India should reserve that right. Bringing it under the scope of a trade agreement weakens your position. We need to examine the digital trade chapters of the US and Australia, which India must study carefully. Australia has provided the US with a carve-out that allows for protections for US services. We also need to secure our IT/ITeS and technology exports from taxation in the US, our largest market' Arpita Mukherjee, professor at Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) said. Notably the US has forced Indonesia to several steep terms on digital trade. Indonesia has committed to address barriers impacting digital trade, services, and investment, a White House statement said. 'Indonesia will provide certainty regarding the ability to transfer personal data out of its territory to the United States. Indonesia has committed to eliminate existing HTS tariff lines on 'intangible products' and suspend related requirements on import declarations; to support a permanent moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions at the WTO immediately and without conditions; and to take effective actions to implement the Joint Initiative on Services Domestic Regulation, including submitting its revised Specific Commitments for certification by the World Trade Organization (WTO),' the White House statement read. The United States Trade Representative (USTR), in its report on non-tariff barriers, had earlier cited the 6 per cent equalisation levy as a discriminatory measure against US firms. The USTR report said that most digital services taxes are designed in ways that discriminate against US companies, often singling out American firms for taxation while excluding domestic companies engaged in similar lines of business. The US has also raised concerns about digital services taxes with a number of trade partners, particularly the EU. 'The disproportionate capture of US firms by the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA) is also noted as undermining US competitiveness due to increased compliance costs not borne by EU competitors,' the USTR said. Differences between India and the US assume significance as New Delhi continues to face the risk of 26 per cent reciprocal tariffs. After Indian negotiators completed another round of discussions in Washington last week, a US team led by the US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia, Brendan Lynch, is expected to visit India in mid-August to continue negotiations for a trade agreement. While India and the US have agreed on a wide range of tariff lines, the negotiations — which currently only involve market access for goods — remain stuck over sensitive sectors such as agriculture and automobiles, which are key job creators in India. Ravi Dutta Mishra is a Principal Correspondent with The Indian Express, covering policy issues related to trade, commerce, and banking. He has over five years of experience and has previously worked with Mint, CNBC-TV18, and other news outlets. ... Read More
