Judge in Google case questions future of search amid rise of AI
Mehta asked DOJ attorney David Dahlquist during closing arguments in Washington whether AI should be considered a way to access search, or as a kind of competing technology.
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The Hindu
19 minutes ago
- The Hindu
OpenAI expands AI for Impact Accelerator Program in India with 11 non-profits
OpenAI has announced the next phase for their global AI for Impact Accelerator Program to India under which they will provide a fresh round of API credits to 11 select nonprofit organisations. The program was a part of the AI firm's OpenAI Academy umbrella and brings the total value of their technical grants to $150,000. The initiative is a collaboration between OpenAI and philanthropic bodies including The Agency Fund, Tech4Dev and and offers hands-on technical support, cohort-based learning and early access to OpenAI tools. The chosen organisations include Udhyam Learning Foundation for education, agricultural nonprofit, Precision Development, Noora Health that works on patient recovery and Rocket Learning which helps educate marginalised communities. The program aligns with the goals of the IndiaAI Mission that intends to democratise AI access, foster an AI ecosystem and enable AI solutions for India. 'With the support of OpenAI Academy, we built Myna Bolo, a hyper-local, culturally sensitive chatbot offering 24/7 reproductive health guidance to women in underserved communities. Leveraging OpenAI's advanced language models and our grassroots network, we've reached hundreds of women with personalized, stigma-free support in local languages, helping them ask the questions they otherwise wouldn't voice. This is a pivotal step in building a trusted, AI-powered health infrastructure for and by the women we serve,' said Suhani Jalota, Founder Myna Manila Foundation. Pragya Misra, Policy & Partnerships Lead, OpenAI India, said, 'India has shown how AI can drive inclusive innovation at scale. These organizations are solving some of the country's most complex challenges with ingenuity and empathy. The AI for Impact Accelerator - now part of OpenAI Academy - is our way of learning from them, while ensuring frontier technology is being shaped by and in service of real communities. This work reflects the spirit of the India AI Mission and reaffirms OpenAI's commitment to meaningful impact.' OpenAI said that they will include more organisations in the next phase of the program. The OpenAI Academy was announced last year by the Sam Altman-led firm to help low and middle-income countries solve societal issues with AI.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
New global alliances, commitments for a sustainable future at Hamburg Sustainability Conference
BATHINDA: The Hamburg Sustainability Conference (HSC) concluded its second edition, reinforcing its position as a vital global platform for advancing sustainable development. Around 1,600 participants from all across the world—including a notable number of high-level representatives from politics, international organizations, business, academia, and civil society—convened in Hamburg on June 2 and 3 to forge new alliances and accelerate progress toward the United Nations 2030 Agenda. HSC 2025 marked the launch of important initiatives and the achievement of new consensus, such as the agreement on the Hamburg Declaration on Responsible AI for the SDGs. German Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Reem Alabali-Radovan: 'At a time when nationalist tendencies are jeopardising international cooperation, the Hamburg Sustainability Conference stands for the spirit of cooperation that binds the world together. Hamburg sends out a strong signal for solidarity and cooperation, an encouragement to us all. The conference has made progress on concrete solutions for some of the key challenges that we must face in the future: for cities of the future that will be liveable places for more and more people despite climate change, for the common fight against inequality or for artificial intelligence that benefits all people. First Mayor of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg Peter Tschentscher: 'The 17 Sustainable Development Goals aim to give 8 billion people worldwide a good life and a secure future, with access to education, health, participation, peace, security, and prosperity. Implementing this is a mandate and a great responsibility for the international community, because global developments can only be achieved through cooperation and joint efforts. ' UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner: 'The Hamburg Sustainability Conference is a moment to challenge conventional wisdom, redefine possibilities, and craft a new narrative—not one of division and decline, but of unity, cooperation, and collective progress. The Hamburg Declaration on Responsible AI for the Sustainable Development Goals marks an important milestone in this journey. Initiated at this conference in 2024, this landmark declaration has just been endorsed by representatives from over 40 governments, private sector organizations, civil society, and leading research institutions. This outcome represents a crucial commitment to harnessing AI responsibly, ensuring it promotes equity, connect communities and addresses global inequalities. This collaboration does not end here. Our task now is to work together to ensure AI's extraordinary capabilities drive sustainable development, benefiting everyone, everywhere, equally.' Honorary Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Oto Group Michael Oto: 'Everyone has a role to play in tackling global challenges. At the same time, it is crucial that policymakers establish enabling frameworks and the scientific community drives innovation. The initiatives built upon since last year, together with the new alliances forged at HSC 2025, show that the conference brings the right stakeholders to the table—and that it's driving real impact. ' Hamburg Declaration on Responsible AI for the SDGs: On Monday, UNDP and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development endorsed the Hamburg Declaration on Responsible AI for the Sustainable Development Goals, together with over 40 governments, private sector organizations, civil society, and leading research institutions. The landmark initiative – the first global declaration focused specifically on AI in international development – outlines shared principles and commitments to promote the equitable, inclusive, and sustainable development and deployment of artificial intelligence worldwide, with particular emphasis on empowering developing countries. SCALED: Unlocking Private Investment for Sustainable Development: The members of the Hamburg Sustainability Platform (HSP) signed a joint declaration of intent, reaffirming their commitment to removing barriers to large-scale sustainable investment. Rebranded as 'SCALED – Scaling Capital for Sustainable Development,' the initiative brings together public and private institutions to enhance coordination. By the end of 2025, SCALED plans to launch a dedicated company to mobilize private capital more efficiently for projects such as solar farms or entrepreneurship support. It aims to help close financing gaps in developing countries and could unlock several billion USD in private capital over the coming years. Launch of the Global Alliance against Inequality: The Global Alliance against inequality, was officially launched. The coalition unites governments and partners in a bold effort to tackle the systemic roots of inequality undermining social cohesion and democratic governance worldwide. Germany and Sierra Leone, alongside the Pathfinders Initiative, signed the declaration of intent committing to evidence based policies that address economic and social disparities. The Alliance emphasizes crossregional collaboration, dialogue, and policy innovation to rebuild trust in public institutions and foster peaceful, just societies. Among the other notable agreements, signings, and announcements during HSC 2025 are the Memorandum of Understanding between the Deutsche Gesellschaf für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and Euler Hermes to strengthen support for German exports and investments in developing and emerging countries within the framework of sustainable development; the new Biodiversity Fund of the Aid by Trade Foundation (AbTF), with an initial capital of €500,000 aimed at supporting biodiversity conservation projects particularly within global textile supply chains; The addition of one new signatory to the Hamburg Declaration on Green Aviation, and two new signatories to the Hamburg Declaration on the Decarbonisation of Global Shipping — both initiated at HSC 2024; The Joint Statement of stakeholders across sectors on Enhancing Municipalities' Access to Private Capital; and the presentation of the concept for the 'Institute for Sustainability Arbitration' (ISA), which is envisioned as a specialized body dedicated to ensuring legal certainty in sustainability-related disputes through expert arbitration.
The Hindu
2 hours ago
- The Hindu
AI startups revolutionise coding industry, leading to sky-high valuations
Two years after the launch of ChatGPT, return on investment in generative AI has been elusive, but one area stands out: software development. So-called code generation or 'code-gen' startups are commanding sky-high valuations as corporate boardrooms look to use AI to aid, and sometimes to replace, expensive human software engineers. Cursor, a code generation startup based in San Francisco that can suggest and complete lines of code and write whole sections of code autonomously, raised $900 million at a $10 billion valuation in May from a who's who list of tech investors, including Thrive Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Accel. Windsurf, a Mountain View-based startup behind the popular AI coding tool Codeium, attracted the attention of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, which is now in talks to acquire the company for $3 billion, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Its tool is known for translating plain English commands into code, sometimes called 'vibe coding,' which allows people with no knowledge of computer languages to write software. OpenAI and Windsurf declined to comment on the acquisition. 'AI has automated all the repetitive, tedious work,' said Scott Wu, CEO of code gen startup Cognition. 'The software engineer's role has already changed dramatically. It's not about memorizing esoteric syntax anymore.' Founders of code-gen startups and their investors believe they are in a land grab situation, with a shrinking window to gain a critical mass of users and establish their AI coding tool as the industry standard. But because most are built on AI foundation models developed elsewhere, such as OpenAI, Anthropic, or DeepSeek, their costs per query are also growing, and none are yet profitable. They're also at risk of being disrupted by Google, Microsoft and OpenAI, which all announced new code-gen products in May, and Anthropic is also working on one as well, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The rapid growth of these startups is coming despite competing on big tech's home turf. Microsoft's GitHub Copilot, launched in 2021 and considered code-gen's dominant player, grew to over $500 million in revenue last year, according to a source familiar with the matter. Microsoft declined to comment on GitHub Copilot's revenue. On Microsoft's earnings call in April, the company said the product has over 15 million users. As AI revolutionises the industry, many jobs and particularly entry-level coding positions that are more basic and involve repetition, may be eliminated. Signalfire, a VC firm that tracks tech hiring, found that new hires with less than a year of experience fell 24% in 2024, a drop it attributes to tasks once assigned to entry-level software engineers are now being fulfilled in part with AI. Google's CEO also said in April that 'well over 30%' of Google's code is now AI-generated, and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said last year the company had saved 'the equivalent of 4,500 developer-years' by using AI. Google and Amazon declined to comment. In May, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said at a conference that approximately 20 to 30% of their code is now AI-generated. The same month, the company announced layoffs of 6,000 workers globally, with over 40% of those being software developers in Microsoft's home state, Washington. 'We're focused on creating AI that empowers developers to be more productive, creative, and save time,' a Microsoft spokesperson said. 'This means some roles will change with the revolution of AI, but human intelligence remains at the center of the software development life cycle.' Some 'vibe-coding' platforms already boast substantial annualised revenues. Cursor, with just 60 employees, went from zero to $100 million in recurring revenue by January 2025, less than two years since its launch. Windsurf, founded in 2021, launched its code generation product in November 2024 and is already bringing in $50 million in annualised revenue, according to a source familiar with the company. But both startups operate with negative gross margins, meaning they spend more than they make, according to four investor sources familiar with their operations. 'The prices people are paying for coding assistants are going to get more expensive,' Quinn Slack, CEO at coding startup Sourcegraph, told Reuters. Both Cursor and Windsurf are led by recent MIT graduates in their twenties, and exemplify the gold rush era of the AI startup scene. 'I haven't seen people working this hard since the first Internet boom,' said Martin Casado, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, an investor in Anysphere, the company behind Cursor. What's less clear is whether the dozen or so code-gen companies will be able to hang on to their customers as big tech moves in. 'In many cases, it's less about who's got the best technology; it's about who is going to make the best use of that technology, and who's going to be able to sell their products better than others,' said Scott Raney, managing director at Redpoint Ventures, whose firm invested in Sourcegraph and Poolside, a software development startup that's building its own AI foundation model. Most of the AI coding startups currently rely on the Claude AI model from Anthropic, which crossed $3 billion in annualised revenue in May in part due to fees paid by code-gen companies. But some startups are attempting to build their own models. In May, Windsurf announced its first in-house AI models that are optimised for software engineering in a bid to control the user experience. Cursor has also hired a team of researchers to pre-train its own large frontier-level models, which could enable the company to not have to pay foundation model companies so much money, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Startups looking to train their own AI coding models face an uphill battle as it could easily cost millions to buy or rent the computing capacity needed to train a large language model. Replit earlier dropped plans to train its own model. Poolside, which has raised more than $600 million to make a coding-specific model, has announced a partnership with Amazon Web Services and is testing with customers, but hasn't made any product generally available yet. Another code gen startup Magic Dev, which raised nearly $500 million since 2023, told investors a frontier-level coding model was coming in summer 2024 but hasn't yet launched a product. Poolside declined to comment. Magic Dev did not respond to a request for comment.
