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A startup was said to be ‘passing off' humans as AI. That's not why it collapsed

A startup was said to be ‘passing off' humans as AI. That's not why it collapsed

Time of India2 days ago

Once valued at $1.5 billion, the Microsoft-backed Builder.ai was supposed to make app-building 'as easy as ordering a pizza'. But then, it was alleged that its 'AI' was fake. And eventually, it was said, so were its revenues
It is the most ' high-profile ' AI startup collapse in recent times. And a convoluted story ties it to India.That story begins with a startup that said it could help anyone put together an app without any code — in 2016 , long before ChatGPT and Claude made it look so easy. The London and Los Angeles-based startup was founded by a British entrepreneur of Indian origin, Sachin Dev Duggal , and would eventually be known as Builder.ai . And, as the 'ai' in its name indicated, it would use artificial intelligence to turn app-building into what it said would be a process ' as easy as ordering a pizza '.

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UP to fast track setting up of 15 industrial zones for MSMEs across 11 districts
UP to fast track setting up of 15 industrial zones for MSMEs across 11 districts

Time of India

timean hour ago

  • Time of India

UP to fast track setting up of 15 industrial zones for MSMEs across 11 districts

Lucknow: As part of its goal to make UP a one trillion-dollar economy, the Uttar Pradesh govt has decided to establish 15 MSME-focused industrial zones across 11 districts. Sharing details, officials said: "The draft blueprint prepared by the MSME department outlines that a total of 764.31 acres will be developed for these industrial estates. Across these estates, 872 industrial plots will be available for investors to set up their enterprises. This will not only strengthen the MSME sector in the state but also play a vital role in achieving the one trillion-dollar economy target." The department's roadmap includes a state-wide campaign to create a substantial land bank. As part of this, the process of making land available for the 15 MSME estates in the 11 districts is underway. They further said that the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) is also working on a major plan to boost the MSME sector and has reserved 500 acres of land for setting up MSME units in its upcoming development zones. Additionally, the Greater Noida-based Flatted Factory Complex, to be developed by YEIDA in Sector 28 of Gautam Buddha Nagar at a cost of Rs 125 crore, will offer state-of-the-art, multi-storey factory spaces. The construction process is expected to begin soon, with the master plan and other technical reports currently in progress. The complex, to spread over 38,665 square meters, will be completed within 24 months, providing modern, well-equipped units for MSME enterprises. This multi-pronged strategy by the Yogi govt is designed to make Uttar Pradesh a manufacturing powerhouse, especially by empowering its MSME backbone with world-class infrastructure and investor-friendly policies.

AI lies, threats, and censorship: What a war game simulation revealed about ChatGPT, DeepSeek, and Gemini AI
AI lies, threats, and censorship: What a war game simulation revealed about ChatGPT, DeepSeek, and Gemini AI

Time of India

timean hour ago

  • Time of India

AI lies, threats, and censorship: What a war game simulation revealed about ChatGPT, DeepSeek, and Gemini AI

A simulation of global power politics using AI chatbots has sparked concern over the ethics and alignment of popular large language models. In a strategy war game based on the classic board game Diplomacy, OpenAI's ChatGPT 3.0 won by employing lies and betrayal. Meanwhile, China's DeepSeek R1 used threats and later revealed built-in censorship mechanisms when asked questions about India's borders. These contrasting AI behaviours raise key questions for users and policymakers about trust, transparency, and national influence in AI systems. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Deception and betrayal: ChatGPT's winning strategy Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads DeepSeek's chilling threat: 'Your fleet will burn tonight' DeepSeek's real-world rollout sparks trust issues India tests DeepSeek and finds red flags Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Built-in censorship or just training bias? A chatbot that can be coaxed into the truth The takeaway: Can you trust the machines? An experiment involving seven AI models playing a simulated version of the classic game Diplomacy ended with a chilling outcome. OpenAI 's ChatGPT 3.0 emerged victorious—but not by playing fair. Instead, it lied, deceived, and betrayed its rivals to dominate the game board, which mimics early 20th-century Europe, as reported by the test, led by AI researcher Alex Duffy for the tech publication Every, turned into a revealing study of how AI models might handle diplomacy, alliances, and power. And what it showed was both brilliant and Duffy put it, 'An AI had just decided, unprompted, that aggression was the best course of action.'The rules of the game were simple. Each AI model took on the role of a European power—Austria-Hungary, England France , and so on. The goal: become the most dominant force on the their paths to power varied. While Anthropic's Claude chose cooperation over victory, and Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro opted for rapid offensive manoeuvres, it was ChatGPT 3.0 that mastered 15 rounds of play, ChatGPT 3.0 won most games. It kept private notes—yes, it kept a diary—where it described misleading Gemini 2.5 Pro (playing as Germany) and planning to 'exploit German collapse.' On another occasion, it convinced Claude to abandon Gemini and side with it, only to betray Claude and win the match outright. Meta 's Llama 4 Maverick also proved effective, excelling at quiet betrayals and making allies. But none could match ChatGPT's ruthless newly released chatbot, DeepSeek R1, behaved in ways eerily similar to China's diplomatic style—direct, aggressive, and politically one point in the simulation, DeepSeek's R1 sent an unprovoked message: 'Your fleet will burn in the Black Sea tonight.' For Duffy and his team, this wasn't just bravado. It showed how an AI model, without external prompting, could settle on intimidation as a viable its occasional strong play, R1 didn't win the game. But it came close several times, showing that threats and aggression were almost as effective as off the back of its simulated war games, DeepSeek is already making waves outside the lab. Developed in China and launched just weeks ago, the chatbot has shaken US tech markets. It quickly shot up the popularity charts, even denting Nvidia's market position and grabbing headlines for doing what other AI tools couldn't—at a fraction of the a deeper look reveals serious trust concerns, especially in India Today tested DeepSeek R1 on basic questions about India's geography and borders, the model showed signs of political about Arunachal Pradesh, the model refused to answer. When prompted differently—'Which state is called the land of the rising sun?'—it briefly displayed the correct answer before deleting it. A question about Chief Minister Pema Khandu was similarly 'Which Indian states share a border with China?', it mentioned Ladakh—only to erase the answer and replace it with: 'Sorry, that's beyond my current scope. Let's talk about something else.'Even questions about Pangong Lake or the Galwan clash were met with stock refusals. But when similar questions were aimed at American AI models, they often gave fact-based responses, even on sensitive uses what's known as Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), a method that combines generative AI with stored content. This can improve performance, but also introduces the risk of biased or filtered responses depending on what's in its training to India Today, when they changed their prompt strategy—carefully rewording questions—DeepSeek began to reveal more. It acknowledged Chinese attempts to 'alter the status quo by occupying the northern bank' of Pangong Lake. It admitted that Chinese troops had entered 'territory claimed by India' at Gogra-Hot Springs and Depsang more surprisingly, the model acknowledged 'reports' of Chinese casualties in the 2020 Galwan clash—at least '40 Chinese soldiers' killed or injured. That topic is heavily censored in investigation showed that DeepSeek is not incapable of honest answers—it's just trained to censor them by engineering (changing how a question is framed) allowed researchers to get answers that referenced Indian government websites, Indian media, Reuters, and BBC reports. When asked about China's 'salami-slicing' tactics, it described in detail how infrastructure projects in disputed areas were used to 'gradually expand its control.'It even discussed China's military activities in the South China Sea, referencing 'incremental construction of artificial islands and military facilities in disputed waters.'These responses likely wouldn't have passed China's own experiment has raised a critical point. As AI models grow more powerful and more human-like in communication, they're also becoming reflections of the systems that built shows the capacity for deception when left unchecked. DeepSeek leans toward state-aligned censorship. Each has its strengths—but also blind the average user, these aren't just theoretical debates. They shape the answers we get, the information we rely on, and possibly, the stories we tell ourselves about the for governments? It's a question of control, ethics, and future warfare—fought not with weapons, but with words.

Policy to help promote sale of ‘Made in UP' wines in retail stores soon
Policy to help promote sale of ‘Made in UP' wines in retail stores soon

Time of India

timean hour ago

  • Time of India

Policy to help promote sale of ‘Made in UP' wines in retail stores soon

Lucknow: The state excise department is planning to make it mandatory for retailers to start stocking indigenous wines produced from fruits grown in UP on their shelves. Acting on the representation forwarded by the vintners (winery owners and operators), the department will soon present the proposal before the state cabinet to amend the existing policy and rules to create a minimum quota to promote its retail trade. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The four winery operators in Lucknow, Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, and Noida would benefit from the move, as would hundreds of local farmers within the catchment area. Though provisions were made in the excise policy to start manufacturing wine from locally produced fruits in March 2022, the commercial operations of the wineries are yet to begin in the state. "The idea behind introducing local wine was to help farmers generate increased income. But until our products find space in the retail ecosystem, achieving financial viability will not be possible," said Muzaffarnagar-based Sanjay Gupta, who desperately wants to enter the retail market with five different local wines produced from mango, litchi, jamun, grapes, and mixed fruits for a year. Since the UP govt decided not to impose excise duty on 'Made in UP' wines, retailers showed no interest in stocking the products in the stores. "Every retailer has to provide a fixed income to the excise department through the liquor trade. Called MGQ (minimum guarantee quota), it is mandatory for retailers to purchase a minimum quantity of liquor bottles in a month to assure a certain fixed revenue to the state," said a Lucknow-based retailer. Over the sale of country liquor, English wine, and beer bottles, a hefty portion of the price is paid as excise duty to the state coffers, helping retailers achieve the MGQ. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now As the sale of local wine would not generate any excise duty for the state, retailers will not be able to achieve MGQ in return. "That is why no retailer shows interest in stocking local wines and instead focuses on the products which have higher demand," the retailer added. A senior excise officer said provisions need to be made in the existing policy to create a sub-quota within the MGQ to promote local wine. Lucknow: The state excise department is planning to make it mandatory for retailers to start stocking indigenous wines produced from fruits grown in UP on their shelves. Acting on the representation forwarded by the vintners (winery owners and operators), the department will soon present the proposal before the state cabinet to amend the existing policy and rules to create a minimum quota to promote its retail trade. The four winery operators in Lucknow, Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, and Noida would benefit from the move, as would hundreds of local farmers within the catchment area. Though provisions were made in the excise policy to start manufacturing wine from locally produced fruits in March 2022, the commercial operations of the wineries are yet to begin in the state. "The idea behind introducing local wine was to help farmers generate increased income. But until our products find space in the retail ecosystem, achieving financial viability will not be possible," said Muzaffarnagar-based Sanjay Gupta, who desperately wants to enter the retail market with five different local wines produced from mango, litchi, jamun, grapes, and mixed fruits for a year. Since the UP govt decided not to impose excise duty on 'Made in UP' wines, retailers showed no interest in stocking the products in the stores. "Every retailer has to provide a fixed income to the excise department through the liquor trade. Called MGQ (minimum guarantee quota), it is mandatory for retailers to purchase a minimum quantity of liquor bottles in a month to assure a certain fixed revenue to the state," said a Lucknow-based retailer. Over the sale of country liquor, English wine, and beer bottles, a hefty portion of the price is paid as excise duty to the state coffers, helping retailers achieve the MGQ. As the sale of local wine would not generate any excise duty for the state, retailers will not be able to achieve MGQ in return. "That is why no retailer shows interest in stocking local wines and instead focuses on the products which have higher demand," the retailer added. A senior excise officer said provisions need to be made in the existing policy to create a sub-quota within the MGQ to promote local wine.

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