Latest news with #AnkushTiwari
Indian Express
22-07-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
Pune Inc: How 3 Pune entrepreneurs are fighting deepfakes with their own AI
In January 2024, a major scam shook the world. It involved an online meeting of a Hong Kong-based company in which a finance department employee was authorised to make 15 cash transfers totaling $25.5 million for an urgent acquisition. Soon, the company realised that the employee had been the only real person at the meeting. All others, including the Chief Financial Officer, had been deepfakes created by Artificial Intelligence (AI). To fight such crimes, a Pune-based company, pi-labs, was founded by Ankush Tiwari, Abhijeet Zilpelwar, and Dr Raghu Sesha Iyengar in 2023. The founders and their team members have worked together for more than 20 years in different environments. The company has its office in Aundh, fittingly located above a closely guarded jewellery showroom. Every week, pi-labs starts with a scrutiny of products, opportunities, roadmaps, and threats – the team members are security guards in their own right; their opponents are the gangs that deploy Artificial Intelligence-based technology to perpetrate digital deception. Tiwari, who is also the CEO, rattles off the threats that India alone confronts. 'India is very digitally savvy and has one of the best financial stacks in the world. A key feature is the video KYC. Now, deepfake (technology that can digitally alter a person's appearance) can bypass video KYCs to mimic somebody who has a good credit profile. Initiatives, such as the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, could be compromised. Deepfakes can make a lot of dead people alive, at least for the first six months, when the paperwork is taking place, and start siphoning off money. The losses would be crazy,' he says. The HR wing in major companies conducts recruitment interviews online, and who would know if an incompetent candidate gets an expert to answer the questions in a deepfake? 'Even if two per cent of incompetent candidates clear interviews in deepfake, it would result in direct monetary losses to the company, customer frustration, customer trust issues, and embarrassment,' says Tiwari. Then, there is law enforcement, where Artificial Intelligence is regularly being used to create new scams, from voice cloning to digital arrest. 'In the defence sector, too, how do we make sure that the country is protected from misinformation campaigns, and figure out the noise from the reality?' asks Tiwari. Belonging to an Army background, Tiwari got involved in the venture with the conviction that deepfake crimes, though they will rise exponentially, can be prevented. A bootstrapped and now customer-funded venture, pi-labs has created a deepfake detection platform called Authentify, which is AI++-based and can detect and verify the authenticity of digital media, such as video, audio, images, and voice cloning. 'Authentify can be deployed either on-premise or in the cloud, giving organisations the flexibility to choose the setup that best suits their needs while ensuring the highest level of data confidentiality. It is designed to address the evolving threats of deepfakes and tampered content, and aims to protect the digital assets of enterprises,' says Tiwari. The company primarily works with law enforcement agencies at the state and central levels, and the Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI) sector. 'We launched our project in an interesting time, when India and several other democracies were going to have elections. Most of these countries were impacted by one deepfake or another. We could detect when a video of Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Bollywood actors that came in was not right. There have been cases of women impersonation and child pornography that we have helped with. Being on the defensive side, we help law enforcement agencies,' Tiwari mentions. With enterprises, on the other hand, pi-labs plays a protective role by keeping away deepfake videos and KYCs. Pilot projects are underway with five banks. 'We are a grounded company, but we proudly claim that we have a potent deepfake deduction product. We believe things of national security have to be built by native entrepreneurs, and we at pi-labs are doing innovations for a safer tomorrow. Slowly, but surely, we are finding our space. We will always be a bottom-line-looking company, which is not in a hurry, so we take no shortcuts. We are ready to build the hard way, but the essential belief in the team is that we are on to something big. We are building for national defence and India's security,' says Tiwari. Dipanita Nath is interested in the climate crisis and sustainability. She has written extensively on social trends, heritage, theatre and startups. She has worked with major news organizations such as Hindustan Times, The Times of India and Mint. ... Read More
Time of India
03-07-2025
- Time of India
Four die in separate road accidents in 24 hours
Nagpur: Four people died in separate accidents in the last 24 hours in different parts of the city on Thursday. The first incident occurred on Amravati Road near Wadi police station, a speeding crane mowed down 70-year-old pedestrian Damodar Ramchandra Rangari, a resident of Dhammakirti Nagar on Wednesday night. The accused driver, Ankush Tiwari (29), from Rewa district in Madhya Pradesh, was hiding in nearby bushes and was arrested. Wadi PSI Avinash Nikalje said the accused, who operates the crane on a freelance basis, abandoned the vehicle and attempted to flee. In the second incident, a tipper truck hit Roshan Chivane (42), a moped rider and shop owner from Lokhande Nagar, killing him on spot near Vaibhav Nagar on Hingna Road. MIDC police took the tipper driver, Devanand Bhandare (45) of Isasani, Hingna, into custody. Narrow roads and a lack of speed control, due to ongoing Metro work, have contributed to rising accidents on this stretch, sources said. Mankapur police registered a similar case after a truck killed Gopal Deshkar (84) near Maqbul Masjid. The accused truck driver, while reversing his vehicle dangerously, hit the victim and fled the scene after the accident. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Giao dịch vàng CFDs với mức chênh lệch giá thấp nhất IC Markets Đăng ký Undo Based on the complaint filed by Deshkar's grandson, a case was registered under BNS Sections 281 and 106(1). The fourth incident occurred in Hudkeshwar area, where a speeding car driven by Amitesh Bhagat hit Pramod Khonde (78) on Besa-Manewada Road. Khonde, a resident of Ekmat Nagar, was out on his routine walk when the accident took place. He succumbed to injuries during treatment at a private hospital on Thursday morning.
