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Int'l Business Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Int'l Business Times
AI Startup Backed by Microsoft Revealed to Be 700 Indian Employees Pretending to Be Chatbots
A once-hyped AI startup backed by Microsoft has filed for bankruptcy after it was revealed that its so-called artificial intelligence was actually hundreds of human workers in India pretending to be chatbots. a London-based company previously valued at $1.5 billion, marketed its platform as an AI-powered solution that made building apps as simple as ordering pizza. Its virtual assistant, "Natasha," was supposed to generate software using artificial intelligence. In reality, nearly 700 engineers in India were manually coding customer requests behind the scenes, the Times of India reported. The ruse began to collapse in May when lender Viola Credit seized $37 million from the company's accounts, uncovering that had inflated its 2024 revenue projections by 300%. An audit revealed the company generated just $50 million in revenue, far below the $220 million it claimed to investors. A Wall Street Journal report from 2019 had already questioned AI claims, and a former executive sued the company that same year for allegedly misleading investors and overstating its technical capabilities. Despite that, the company raised over $445 million from big names including Microsoft and the Qatar Investment Authority. collapse has triggered a federal investigation in the U.S., with prosecutors in New York requesting financial documents and customer records. Founder Sachin Dev Duggal stepped down earlier this year and was replaced by Manpreet Ratia, who reportedly uncovered the company's internal misrepresentations. The company now owes millions to Amazon and Microsoft in cloud computing costs and has laid off around 1,000 employees. On LinkedIn , the company announced its entry into insolvency proceedings, citing "historic challenges and past decisions" that strained its finances. The fallout is seen as one of the biggest failures of the post-ChatGPT AI investment boom and has renewed scrutiny of "AI washing"—the trend of rebranding manual services as artificial intelligence to secure funding. Originally published on Latin Times
Time of India
19-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Beyond Nvidia, four things to know at Asia's biggest tech show
HighlightsNvidia Corporation's Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang will headline the 2025 Computex electronics conference in Taipei, which will also draw significant attention due to the presence of United States President Donald Trump amidst ongoing discussions about reshaping the global trade order. Amidst the challenges posed by the Trump administration's tariff regime, companies like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company are committing to significant investments in domestic chip manufacturing, indicating a potential shift in the geography of chip production. Intel Corporation's newly appointed Chief Executive Officer Lip-Bu Tan is focusing on rebuilding partnerships and customer relations at Computex, as the company seeks to regain market share and compete effectively against rivals like Nvidia Corporation and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. Nvidia Corp.'s Jensen Huang headlines the 2025 edition of Asia's biggest electronics conference, for years a showcase for his company's cutting-edge AI chips and the companies lining up to buy them. This year, however, the spotlight may well be on another far bigger personality: US President Donald Trump. Computex kicks off Monday in Taipei, and as in years past will draw industry chieftains from Huang and Qualcomm Inc.'s Cristiano Amon to Young Liu of Foxconn, which makes the bulk of the world's iPhones and Nvidia servers. But while last year's event was a celebration of the post-ChatGPT AI boom, executives this time are likely grappling with the uncertainty of the Trump administration's effort to reshape the global trade order — disrupting a decades-old model for tech manufacturing. nullThis year's exhibition will of course feature the hardware required to bring artificial intelligence to life. Apart from Nvidia chips, that includes server racks assembled by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., also known as Foxconn; power components from Delta Electronics Inc.; and datacenter cooling systems from Asia Vital Components Co. But while they tout new products onstage, these companies are also confronting profound questions about the US administration's tariff regime. Here are the key themes to watch out for this week. The shifting geography of chip manufacturing Trump wants manufacturing back home. To that end, the White House has secured major chipmaking commitments, most notably an additional $100 billion investment from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. As TSMC builds out its Arizona operations with more production lines, supply chain players are also joining it in the US — and accelerating those plans because of the new tariffs. Asia's biggest electronics companies may also find new opportunity in the Middle East. In the week before Computex, a US delegation led by the president — and including tech luminaries Huang, Elon Musk and OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman — visited Saudi Arabia's Riyadh with lofty promises of new trade deals. Alongside a relaxation of AI chip export rules, the visit underlines the Middle East's growing importance as a player in the AI field. 'The new focus on export rules around China and Huawei means more opportunity for Taiwan,' said Taipei-based industry analyst Dan Nystedt. AI's questionable payoff From Advanced Micro Devices Inc. to Nvidia and Qualcomm, the development of generative artificial intelligence was heralded at Computex last year as comparable to the advent of the internet. Consumers haven't responded with the same enthusiasm. Smartphone shipments grew by only 2.4% and PCs by an even slimmer 1.8% over the holiday quarter, according to industry tracker IDC. The promises from the likes of Samsung Electronics Co. about how transformative AI would be in day-to-day life have not come to pass. Apple Inc. hasn't even rolled out its full AI suite for iPhones yet. So executives at Computex will face questions about when the payoff is supposed to come. They'll also have to address concerns about an AI bubble. Investment from the biggest US internet firms remains elevated. Yet Microsoft Corp. has pulled back on some of its expansion plans, and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s Joe Tsai warned against building vast data centers without knowing their purpose. Intel's mew man in charge Lip-Bu Tan, the newly appointed chief executive officer of Intel Corp., won't be at Computex in a formal capacity as his company won't conduct its traditional keynote address. But he'll likely be doing more meetings than anyone at the show as he continues his survey of partners and customers. He's said recently that he's doing countless meetings each day and having two or three business dinners trying to get insight. Tan is currently weighing options to reform the storied US chipmaker. Intel is still the biggest provider of PC and server processors, though it's losing market share. He'll work to persuade customers of TSMC that Intel's factories are a viable alternative and that the US manufacturer — historically a rival — can be a trusted partner. The financial strain of predecessor Pat Gelsinger's spending on a turnaround plan tanked Intel's shares, particularly because it hasn't deliver tangible benefits yet. Now, Tan is rebooting everything with a focus on better execution. 'Computex is historically such a PC-focused event, and yet Intel seems to be sitting it out quietly,' said IDC analyst Bryan Ma. 'It's understandable given everything else going on in the organization right now, but their absence is notable given all of their talk about AI PCs last year.' Tan, who served as CEO of chip-design software maker Cadence Design Systems Inc. for 12 years, has decades of experience investing and making deals in the semiconductor industry. At and around Computex, he'll work to reassure and recruit partners for the effort to close ground on Nvidia and TSMC. Foxconn's debut Foxconn is making an unusually prominent appearance. Chairman Liu will host a keynote presentation on Tuesday, likely underscoring its growing role as an AI server assembler. In previous iterations of the show, the company has been represented by subsidiaries like Ingrasys Technology Inc. null Foxconn is working to diversify its revenue away from assembling smartphones and other consumer electronics. It's developed an automotive division and hopes to collect bigger orders for electric vehicles. That venture gained a significant customer this month, with Mitsubishi Motors Corp. ordering a made-in-Taiwan EV for Australia and New Zealand. The company is also keen on advancing robotics. 'Of course AI plus robots, AI plus robots,' Liu said about the focus at Computex. What's next from Nvidia 'My first night in Taipei is always dinner with C.C.,' Jensen Huang said on Friday, emerging from a restaurant alongside TSMC CEO and Chairman C.C. Wei. The Nvidia boss remains a larger-than-life personality in Taiwan, with crowds following his every move. Investors will be keen to hear more about the chip designer's strategy to expand its reach. The company has been forthcoming with plans to upgrade its AI chips on a roughly annual basis, and Huang has also talked about the potential of AI in the robotics industry. Microsoft's developer event, Build, is taking place the same week over in Seattle, and speculation has grown in recent times about Nvidia joining Qualcomm in building more AI-capable, Arm-based chips for PCs. 'I'm keeping my eyes and ears open for whatever Nvidia and MediaTek might confirm around their rumored Windows-on-Arm solution,' said IDC's Ma. That might further challenge Intel's traditional stronghold. In the days leading up to Computex, Huang joined a US delegation to the Middle East led by the president, lauding the opening up of trade. The scrapping of Biden-era AI chip rules will help the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia acquire more of Nvidia's industry-leading technology and expand their capabilities in artificial intelligence. 'With proper forecasting, we would be able to build the necessary technologies for everyone,' Huang said to Bloomberg News on Saturday.
Time of India
19-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Beyond Nvidia, four things to know at Asia's biggest tech show
Nvidia Corp.'s Jensen Huang headlines the 2025 edition of Asia's biggest electronics conference, for years a showcase for his company's cutting-edge AI chips and the companies lining up to buy them. This year, however, the spotlight may well be on another far bigger personality: US President Donald Trump. Computex kicks off Monday in Taipei, and as in years past will draw industry chieftains from Huang and Qualcomm Inc.'s Cristiano Amon to Young Liu of Foxconn, which makes the bulk of the world's iPhones and Nvidia servers. But while last year's event was a celebration of the post-ChatGPT AI boom, executives this time are likely grappling with the uncertainty of the Trump administration's effort to reshape the global trade order — disrupting a decades-old model for tech manufacturing. This year's exhibition will of course feature the hardware required to bring artificial intelligence to life. Apart from Nvidia chips, that includes server racks assembled by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., also known as Foxconn; power components from Delta Electronics Inc.; and datacenter cooling systems from Asia Vital Components Co. But while they tout new products onstage, these companies are also confronting profound questions about the US administration's tariff regime. Here are the key themes to watch out for this week. The shifting geography of chip manufacturing Trump wants manufacturing back home. To that end, the White House has secured major chipmaking commitments, most notably an additional $100 billion investment from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. As TSMC builds out its Arizona operations with more production lines, supply chain players are also joining it in the US — and accelerating those plans because of the new tariffs. Asia's biggest electronics companies may also find new opportunity in the Middle East. In the week before Computex, a US delegation led by the president — and including tech luminaries Huang, Elon Musk and OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman — visited Saudi Arabia's Riyadh with lofty promises of new trade deals. Alongside a relaxation of AI chip export rules, the visit underlines the Middle East's growing importance as a player in the AI field. 'The new focus on export rules around China and Huawei means more opportunity for Taiwan,' said Taipei-based industry analyst Dan Nystedt. AI's questionable payoff From Advanced Micro Devices Inc. to Nvidia and Qualcomm, the development of generative artificial intelligence was heralded at Computex last year as comparable to the advent of the internet. Consumers haven't responded with the same enthusiasm. Smartphone shipments grew by only 2.4% and PCs by an even slimmer 1.8% over the holiday quarter, according to industry tracker IDC. The promises from the likes of Samsung Electronics Co. about how transformative AI would be in day-to-day life have not come to pass. Apple Inc. hasn't even rolled out its full AI suite for iPhones yet. So executives at Computex will face questions about when the payoff is supposed to come. They'll also have to address concerns about an AI bubble. Investment from the biggest US internet firms remains elevated. Yet Microsoft Corp. has pulled back on some of its expansion plans, and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s Joe Tsai warned against building vast data centers without knowing their purpose. Intel's mew man in charge Lip-Bu Tan, the newly appointed chief executive officer of Intel Corp., won't be at Computex in a formal capacity as his company won't conduct its traditional keynote address. But he'll likely be doing more meetings than anyone at the show as he continues his survey of partners and customers. He's said recently that he's doing countless meetings each day and having two or three business dinners trying to get insight. Tan is currently weighing options to reform the storied US chipmaker. Intel is still the biggest provider of PC and server processors, though it's losing market share. He'll work to persuade customers of TSMC that Intel's factories are a viable alternative and that the US manufacturer — historically a rival — can be a trusted partner. The financial strain of predecessor Pat Gelsinger's spending on a turnaround plan tanked Intel's shares, particularly because it hasn't deliver tangible benefits yet. Now, Tan is rebooting everything with a focus on better execution. 'Computex is historically such a PC-focused event, and yet Intel seems to be sitting it out quietly,' said IDC analyst Bryan Ma. 'It's understandable given everything else going on in the organization right now, but their absence is notable given all of their talk about AI PCs last year.' Tan, who served as CEO of chip-design software maker Cadence Design Systems Inc. for 12 years, has decades of experience investing and making deals in the semiconductor industry. At and around Computex, he'll work to reassure and recruit partners for the effort to close ground on Nvidia and TSMC. Foxconn's debut Foxconn is making an unusually prominent appearance. Chairman Liu will host a keynote presentation on Tuesday, likely underscoring its growing role as an AI server assembler. In previous iterations of the show, the company has been represented by subsidiaries like Ingrasys Technology Inc. Foxconn is working to diversify its revenue away from assembling smartphones and other consumer electronics. It's developed an automotive division and hopes to collect bigger orders for electric vehicles. That venture gained a significant customer this month, with Mitsubishi Motors Corp. ordering a made-in-Taiwan EV for Australia and New Zealand. The company is also keen on advancing robotics. 'Of course AI plus robots, AI plus robots,' Liu said about the focus at Computex. What's next from Nvidia 'My first night in Taipei is always dinner with C.C.,' Jensen Huang said on Friday, emerging from a restaurant alongside TSMC CEO and Chairman C.C. Wei. The Nvidia boss remains a larger-than-life personality in Taiwan, with crowds following his every move. Investors will be keen to hear more about the chip designer's strategy to expand its reach. The company has been forthcoming with plans to upgrade its AI chips on a roughly annual basis, and Huang has also talked about the potential of AI in the robotics industry. Microsoft's developer event, Build, is taking place the same week over in Seattle, and speculation has grown in recent times about Nvidia joining Qualcomm in building more AI-capable, Arm-based chips for PCs. 'I'm keeping my eyes and ears open for whatever Nvidia and MediaTek might confirm around their rumored Windows-on-Arm solution,' said IDC's Ma. That might further challenge Intel's traditional stronghold. In the days leading up to Computex, Huang joined a US delegation to the Middle East led by the president, lauding the opening up of trade. The scrapping of Biden-era AI chip rules will help the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia acquire more of Nvidia's industry-leading technology and expand their capabilities in artificial intelligence. 'With proper forecasting, we would be able to build the necessary technologies for everyone,' Huang said to Bloomberg News on Saturday.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
AI is storming workplaces — and barely making a difference, study says
Surely, the billions of dollars invested in AI chatbots will increase productivity and put economic performance into hyperdrive, right? Hold the phone, say researchers at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a think tank in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 'Despite substantial investments [in chatbots], economic impacts remain minimal,' they write in a new report. Economists Anders Humlum and Emilie Vestergaard estimate in the report, called 'Large Language Models, Small Labor Market Effects,' that productivity gains from AI chatbots amounted to a mere 3% in time savings. 'AI chatbots have had no significant impact on earnings or recorded hours in any occupation, with confidence intervals ruling out effects larger than 1%,' they write. Considering the corporate hype promising revolutionary change in a post-ChatGPT world — both Shopify and Duolingo announced recently that managers would need to justify hiring humans instead of using AI — the NBER report lets a lot of air out of the balloon. The researchers collected the majority of their data in Denmark, a country with high AI adoption and detailed record-keeping. They found that AI adoption had yet to lead to massive layoffs, but neither did it deliver considerable financial advantages to either employers or employees. Instead, most of the hype is based on corporate FOMO and a desire to keep up with rivals. The report says that earlier studies focused mostly on areas where the time-saving advantages of AI chatbots were most obvious, like with customer support specialists, who are being replaced en masse. Humlum and Vestergaard looked beyond the obvious and studied 7,000 workplaces that included fields such as law, journalism, bookkeeping, financial advice, and teaching. 'Software, writing code, writing marketing tasks, writing job posts for HR professionals — these are the tasks the AI can speed up,' Humlum told Fortune, saying that earlier studies weren't wrong, just incomplete. 'In a broader occupational survey, where AI can still be helpful, we see much smaller savings.' Employee time freed up by AI was used for other work tasks — including fixing mistakes created by AI in transcription, or making it difficult for students to use AI to cheat. Earlier this year, 2024 Nobel prize winner Daron Acemoglu predicted that AI adoption will increase the U.S. GDP by only as much as 1.6 percent in the next decade, while productivity would only increase 0.05 percent. 'We're still going to have journalists, we're still going to have financial analysts, we're still going to have HR employees,' he told MIT Technology Review. 'It's going to impact a bunch of office jobs that are about data summary, visual matching, pattern recognition, etc. And those are essentially about 5% of the economy.' Acemoglu went on to suggest that 'hype is making us invest badly in terms of the technology.' 'We're using it too much for automation and not enough for providing expertise and information to workers,' he said. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Time of India
18-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Beyond Nvidia, four things to know at Asia's biggest tech show
Nvidia Corp.'s Jensen Huang headlines the 2025 edition of Asia's biggest electronics conference, for years a showcase for his company's cutting-edge AI chips and the companies lining up to buy them. This year, however, the spotlight may well be on another far bigger personality: US President Donald Trump. Computex kicks off Monday in Taipei, and as in years past will draw industry chieftains from Huang and Qualcomm Inc.'s Cristiano Amon to Young Liu of Foxconn, which makes the bulk of the world's iPhones and Nvidia servers. But while last year's event was a celebration of the post-ChatGPT AI boom, executives this time are likely grappling with the uncertainty of the Trump administration's effort to reshape the global trade order — disrupting a decades-old model for tech manufacturing. This year's exhibition will of course feature the hardware required to bring artificial intelligence to life. Apart from Nvidia chips, that includes server racks assembled by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., also known as Foxconn; power components from Delta Electronics Inc.; and datacenter cooling systems from Asia Vital Components Co. But while they tout new products onstage, these companies are also confronting profound questions about the US administration's tariff regime. Here are the key themes to watch out for this week. The shifting geography of chip manufacturing Trump wants manufacturing back home. To that end, the White House has secured major chipmaking commitments, most notably an additional $100 billion investment from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. As TSMC builds out its Arizona operations with more production lines, supply chain players are also joining it in the US — and accelerating those plans because of the new tariffs. Asia's biggest electronics companies may also find new opportunity in the Middle East. In the week before Computex, a US delegation led by the president — and including tech luminaries Huang, Elon Musk and OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman — visited Saudi Arabia's Riyadh with lofty promises of new trade deals. Alongside a relaxation of AI chip export rules, the visit underlines the Middle East's growing importance as a player in the AI field. 'The new focus on export rules around China and Huawei means more opportunity for Taiwan,' said Taipei-based industry analyst Dan Nystedt. AI's questionable payoff From Advanced Micro Devices Inc. to Nvidia and Qualcomm, the development of generative artificial intelligence was heralded at Computex last year as comparable to the advent of the internet. Consumers haven't responded with the same enthusiasm. Smartphone shipments grew by only 2.4% and PCs by an even slimmer 1.8% over the holiday quarter, according to industry tracker IDC. The promises from the likes of Samsung Electronics Co. about how transformative AI would be in day-to-day life have not come to pass. Apple Inc. hasn't even rolled out its full AI suite for iPhones yet. So executives at Computex will face questions about when the payoff is supposed to come. They'll also have to address concerns about an AI bubble. Investment from the biggest US internet firms remains elevated. Yet Microsoft Corp. has pulled back on some of its expansion plans, and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s Joe Tsai warned against building vast data centers without knowing their purpose. Intel's mew man in charge Lip-Bu Tan, the newly appointed chief executive officer of Intel Corp., won't be at Computex in a formal capacity as his company won't conduct its traditional keynote address. But he'll likely be doing more meetings than anyone at the show as he continues his survey of partners and customers. He's said recently that he's doing countless meetings each day and having two or three business dinners trying to get insight. Tan is currently weighing options to reform the storied US chipmaker. Intel is still the biggest provider of PC and server processors, though it's losing market share. He'll work to persuade customers of TSMC that Intel's factories are a viable alternative and that the US manufacturer — historically a rival — can be a trusted partner. The financial strain of predecessor Pat Gelsinger's spending on a turnaround plan tanked Intel's shares, particularly because it hasn't deliver tangible benefits yet. Now, Tan is rebooting everything with a focus on better execution. 'Computex is historically such a PC-focused event, and yet Intel seems to be sitting it out quietly,' said IDC analyst Bryan Ma. 'It's understandable given everything else going on in the organization right now, but their absence is notable given all of their talk about AI PCs last year.' Tan, who served as CEO of chip-design software maker Cadence Design Systems Inc. for 12 years, has decades of experience investing and making deals in the semiconductor industry. At and around Computex, he'll work to reassure and recruit partners for the effort to close ground on Nvidia and TSMC. Foxconn's debut Foxconn is making an unusually prominent appearance. Chairman Liu will host a keynote presentation on Tuesday, likely underscoring its growing role as an AI server assembler. In previous iterations of the show, the company has been represented by subsidiaries like Ingrasys Technology Inc. Foxconn is working to diversify its revenue away from assembling smartphones and other consumer electronics. It's developed an automotive division and hopes to collect bigger orders for electric vehicles. That venture gained a significant customer this month, with Mitsubishi Motors Corp. ordering a made-in-Taiwan EV for Australia and New Zealand. The company is also keen on advancing robotics. 'Of course AI plus robots, AI plus robots,' Liu said about the focus at Computex. What's next from Nvidia 'My first night in Taipei is always dinner with C.C.,' Jensen Huang said on Friday, emerging from a restaurant alongside TSMC CEO and Chairman C.C. Wei. The Nvidia boss remains a larger-than-life personality in Taiwan, with crowds following his every move. Investors will be keen to hear more about the chip designer's strategy to expand its reach. The company has been forthcoming with plans to upgrade its AI chips on a roughly annual basis, and Huang has also talked about the potential of AI in the robotics industry. Microsoft's developer event, Build, is taking place the same week over in Seattle, and speculation has grown in recent times about Nvidia joining Qualcomm in building more AI-capable, Arm-based chips for PCs. 'I'm keeping my eyes and ears open for whatever Nvidia and MediaTek might confirm around their rumored Windows-on-Arm solution,' said IDC's Ma. That might further challenge Intel's traditional stronghold. In the days leading up to Computex, Huang joined a US delegation to the Middle East led by the president, lauding the opening up of trade. The scrapping of Biden-era AI chip rules will help the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia acquire more of Nvidia's industry-leading technology and expand their capabilities in artificial intelligence. 'With proper forecasting, we would be able to build the necessary technologies for everyone,' Huang said to Bloomberg News on Saturday.
