E-commerce giant Amazon is adding a new fee for third-party sellers. This fee will be imposed on sellers who don’t pay for the company’s fulfilment services and ships their own products. Previously, the company didn’t charge sellers any such fee from sellers. Last week, Amazon sent a notice to the merchants (spotted by CNBC). This notice notes that starting October 1, members of Amazon’s Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) program will have to pay the company 2% fee on every product sold. “We’re updating our requirements for Seller Fulfilled Prime to ensure that it provides customers with a great and consistent Prime experience,” the notice mentioned. However, Amazon is yet to respond about the new fee.What is the SFP programIn 2015, Amazon launched the SFP program to allow third-party merchants to sell their products with the Prime badge. These sellers also didn’t need to pay for Amazon’s fulfilment services, known as Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA). In comparison, the SFP program hasn’t attracted as many users as the FBA. However, in SFP, sellers need to meet the company’s Prime delivery standards, which include speedy shipping and weekend service. In June 2019, Amazon suspended enrollment in SFP. The company reopened sign-ups for the invite-only program earlier this year. Apart from this, Amazon also charges sellers a referral fee between 8% and 15% on each sale. Also, sellers may need to pay for other things like warehouse storage, packing and shipping, as well as advertising fees. FTC’s looming lawsuit a concern for AmazonAmazon’s marketplace is reportedly under the scanner of multiple antitrust investigators both in the US and abroad. Multiple regulators suspect that the company uses its dominance to squeeze the merchants that sell on its platform. Regulators are examining whether Amazon pressurises sellers into using its services for getting preferential treatment in the marketplace.US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is also reportedly planning to file a long-awaited lawsuit against Amazon. The agency is investigating the company on multiple fronts which include its treatment of sellers on the marketplace.

Realme has already confirmed that it will launch its new Realme 11 series smartphones in India on August 23. The smartphone maker has now revealed the other devices that will launch along with the smartphones. Realme India has confirmed that along with the Realme 11 5G and Realme 11X 5G it will launch the new Realme Buds Air 5 series. The company has confirmed that it will launch the Realme Buds Air 5 Pro and the Realme Buds Air 5 true wireless earbuds in the country on August 23. “Join us as we unveil not one, but two groundbreaking audio products – the realme Buds Air 5 Pro and the realme Buds Air 5. These next-generation earbuds are poised to set new industry standards with their exceptional features, unmatched sound quality, and cutting-edge technology,” said the company in an invite. Realme Buds Air 5 series true wireless earbuds featuresThe upcoming Realme Buds Air 5 Pro and Buds Air 5 true wireless earbuds feature a pebble-shaped charging case. The company has confirmed that the Realme Buds Air 5 Pro will feature coaxial dual drivers. The earbuds will sport an 11mm bass driver unit and a 6mm micro-planar tweeter. The smartphone maker also claims that the Realme Buds Air 5 Pro true wireless earbuds will offer clear sound quality and promises to deliver an immersive audio experience. On the other hand, the Realme Buds Air 5 will house an upgraded 12.4mm mega titanizing driver. The true wireless earbuds will also come with fast charging support. The company claims that the earbuds can deliver up to 7 hours of music playback with just 10 minutes of charging.

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It was perhaps a problem that was just waiting to emerge. With generative AI making its presence felt and a lot of users relying on it to create content, it was a matter of time when the copyright issue came into play, especially when it is ‘original’ content. According to a report by NPR, The New York Times is exploring the possibility of suing OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, the popular chatbot. The report reveals that the publication and OpenAI have been in talks over a licensing deal. The New York Times wants OpenAI to pay for all the content — news stories, articles — that the AI firm uses for its tools like ChatGPT. However, the negotiations have reportedly gone sour and, as per NPR, the publication is looking at a potential lawsuit. The newspaper is keen to protect all the intellectual property rights that come with the reportage done for news stories. Why the matter may end up in court According to the report, senior executives at the publication believe ChatGPT is emerging as a competitor based on writings that appeared in the paper. ChatGPT can create text and answer questions based on information that may have appeared in the publication. AI tools like ChatGPT can cite sources but also rephrase the original text that was carried out in the publication first. The worry, for NYT, here is that a lot of users may not end up visiting its own website.There are laws against copyright issues when it comes to artificial intelligence tools. The report indicates that if the case does end up in court and OpenAI is found guilty of the violation of copyrights, then the law does suggest all the articles/text needs to be removed. Getty Images has already filed a copyright case against Stability AI for using millions of images without authorisation. If the licensing deal between OpenAI and the publication falls through, it could have massive implications on how AI tools generate content.

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The alleged fraudulent app was functional for a period of nine days during which the Chinese national managed to dupe victims ranging from age of 15 to 75 years The accused set up up shell companies to channel the money of users overseas through hawala networks By the time the Gujarat Police filed an FIR against the Chinese national, he fled the country to China The spate of scams related to online gaming continue unabated in the country. The Gujarat Police has now reportedly unearthed a major online gaming scam in which a Chinese national duped 1,200 people of nearly INR 1,400 Cr in a span of mere nine days.  At the heart of the matter is a gaming platform called ‘Dani Data’ app which allegedly lured users with high returns. After the users deposited the money, the app became non-functional after the nine-day period, and the depositors were unable to access their funds.  A senior police official told The Times of India that the app was functional for a period of nine days during which the Chinese national managed to dupe victims ranging from age of 15 to 75 years.  The users, who were expecting a windfall, were left to fend for themselves after the app became non-functional after nine days. It was then that the victims realised that their invested money was syphoned off. As complaints began to trickle, the Gujarat Police formed a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the matter. As per a local official, the issue first came to light in June 2022 when the local police learned that certain persons were targeting people in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh via the Dani Data app.  After Agra police initiated a probe into the matter, the CID (Crime) team of the Gujarat Police began their investigation and found links between the fraudulent app and several other people in north Gujarat. As the investigation progressed, the name of a Chinese national, Woo Uyanbe, reportedly came to light.  “During our investigation, we learned that the Chinese national was in India between 2020 and 2022. He spent time in Patan and Banaskantha, where he met numerous locals and lured them with promises of wealth. He and his accomplices in Gujarat then launched the app in May 2022. It invited bets and promised substantial returns,” a police official was quoted as saying.  As the scam transpired and complaints piled up, the police acted swiftly and apprehended nine individuals connected to the matter. The accused are said to have allegedly helped Uyanbe by setting up shell companies to channel the money of users overseas by hawala networks.  Eventually, the Gujarat Police filed an FIR in Patan against Uyanbe for cheating and flouting the Information Technology Act. By then, the Chinese national, who operated the alleged scam out of Patan and Banskantha, fled the country to China. Eventually, a chargesheet was filed in the case in March this year. As per the report, the police is yet to gather sufficient evidence in the case against Uyanbe, while the government is yet to file an extradition request for the accused. Police sources also told the publication that Uyanbe continues to operate multiple fraudulent apps and currently operates his network out of China (Shenzhen) and regions such as Hong Kong and Singapore. This is the latest in a series of alleged money laundering scams, involving gaming apps, that have surfaced in the past few months. Earlier this week, it was reported that Cyprus-based online gaming platform Parimatch allegedly syphoned off INR 700 Cr outside India through a web of 400 shell companies with dummy directors.  Meanwhile, the government continues to tighten its grip on such offshore and Chinese-linked online gaming and betting platforms. In April this year, the DGGI issued notices to 38 such offshore platforms for allegedly laundering money and evading taxes. The government has also issued advisories to broadcasters, streaming platforms, Google and digital news publishers against airing online betting ads. 

Domestic brand Boult expanded its product portfolio in India with the launch of two new smartwatches and TWS earbuds. The latest wearables are — the Crown R, Drift 2 smartwatch and the W40 TWS earbuds. Both Crown R and the Drift 2 smartwatches have bezel-less HD displays. Meanwhile, the Boult W40TWS earbuds promise 48 hours of playtime and a quad-mic setup.The latest Boult smartwatches will be available on the company’s official website andFlipkart. On the other hand, the W40 TWS earbuds will be available on the e-commerce platform Amazon and Boult’s official website. Boult Crown R: Price, availability and specsThe Boult Crown R smartwatch is priced at Rs 2,499 and features a zinc alloy metallic frame. The company also offers dual-coloured metal straps, including Bullet Silver and Coal Black for this watch. This watch sports a 1.52-inch round bezel-less screen that supports HD resolution and 600 nits peak brightness. The Crown R supports 100 sports modes and health features like — SpO2 Blood Oxygen monitoring and Heart Rate tracking. Customers can also choose from 50 cloud-based watch faces on the Crown R which has a IP67 water-resistant rating.Boult Drift 2: Price, availability and specsThis smartwatch succeeds the Drift smartwatch which was launched in 2022. Priced at Rs 1,499, the latest Drift 2 watch boasts a 1.85-inch HD screen and supports over 100 sports modes. This watch also includes health features like SpO2 Blood Oxygen monitoring and Heart Rate tracking. The watch also supports SMS and notifications. Users can also long-press the crown to access Siri and Google Assistant. The Drift 2 has a zinc alloy frame and offers multiple strap colour options including — Pink, Blue and Black.Boult W40 TWS earbuds: Price, availability and specsBoult promises 48 hours of playtime and an ultra-low latency of 45ms for the latest W40 TWS earbuds. These earbuds also have a rubber grip and quad-mic setup that improves the calling experience. The Boult W40 is priced at Rs 899 and is available in four different colour variants — Berry Red, Ivory White, Denim Blue and Khaki Green.

The MoU between India and Trinidad and Tobago aims to leverage India Stack for joint digital progress, knowledge exchange and scaling local startup ecosystems India Stack comprises open APIs and digital public goods designed to facilitate identity, data, and payment services India has also inked similar MoUs with countries such as Armenia, Sierra Leone, Suriname, and Antigua & Barbuda India has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Trinidad and Tobago to share the India Stack with the Caribbean nation for mutual digital advancement. The two countries will work together to cooperate in the areas of ‘digital transformation’ by leveraging the capabilities of India Stack.  “Both sides agreed to cooperate in the areas of digital transformation by means of capacity building, training programmes, exchange of best practices, exchange of public officials and experts, development of pilot or demo solutions…,” the Ministry of Electronic and Information Technology (MeitY) said in a statement on Thursday (August 17).  As per Minister of State (MoS) for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the partnership will create a robust and innovative ecosystem of startups, developers and system integrators. “With the help of India Stack, these countries can climb up the digitalisation ladder rapidly and transform their economies and governance… It shall create a robust ecosystem of startups, developers & system integrators working around it on next-gen innovation,” Chandrasekhar said. The signing ceremony was attended by officials from MeitY and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).  The collaboration comes close on the heels of a meeting between Chandrasekhar and Trinidad and Tobago’s Minister of Digital Transformation Hassel Bacchus in which they discussed mutual cooperation in the fields of IT, emerging technologies, and the India Stack. India Stack comprises open application programming interfaces (APIs) and digital public goods designed to facilitate identity, data, and payment services. It promotes interoperability by seamlessly integrating components like government identification, payment networks, and data-driven services. The partnership will allow the two countries to collaboratively build innovative public goods infrastructure and enable efficient systems for government services. Besides, the MoU will also pave the way for rapid digitalisation, allowing both countries to climb the technological ladder and unlock new opportunities for economic growth. With the MoU, Trinidad and Tobago has joined a growing list of countries that are looking to adopt the homegrown state-backed initiative. India recently inked similar MoUs with countries such as Armenia, Sierra Leone, Suriname, and Antigua & Barbuda, indicating the growing global interest in India Stack.  Mauritius and Saudi Arabia are also on track to deploy the India Stack, while countries such as France, the UAE, Singapore, and Sri Lanka have begun accepting the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), a key element of the India Stack.  The latest development comes a day after the Union Cabinet approved the expansion of the Digital India initiative with an additional outlay of INR 14,903 Cr. With India Stack, the government aims to leverage the growing scope of the Indian economy and scale the offering globally to increase India Stack’s acceptability and spur usage. 

Bharti Airtel, one of the country’s leading telecommunications service providers, has said that it has successfully completed the minimum roll-out obligation of 5G in accordance with the norms set by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). The telecom giant has introduced 5G services on 26GHz spectrum in all 22 telecom services of India. “With broader 5G opportunities enabled by 26GHz, the company is poised to continuously drive innovation to create the ultimate Airtel 5G Plus experiences for its customers,” the company said.Airtel added that the 5G performance on the ground demonstrated “remarkable potential and the growing momentum of 5G adoption.” Airtel 5G availabilityAirtel’s 5G service is now available in over 3500 cities and towns across the country. The company says that it has surpassed the 10 million unique customer mark on its 5G network nationally and is well poised to cover every town and key rural area with its 5G service by September 2023.The company also launched unlimited 5G data for its customers with an aim to encourage them to experience next-generation networks. “Customers will now be able to experience ultrafast, reliable and secure 5G Plus services without having to worry about data exhaustion as Airtel removes the capping on data usage across all existing plans,” it said.Jio 5G rolloutAirtel’s announcement comes a few days after country’s biggest telecom giant Jio announced that it completed minimum roll-out obligations in each of the 22 Licensed Service Areas (LSA) by August 11.“Since receiving the 5G spectrum in August last year, our team has been working round the clock to ensure we keep up the pace of the 5G roll-out that we had promised to enable pan-India 5G coverage by the end of this year. This is one of the fastest 5G roll-outs of this scale globally and gives India a prominent position on the global 5G map,” said Akash Ambani, chairman, Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited.

This March, nearly 35,000 AI researchers, technologists, entrepreneurs, and concerned citizens signed an open letter from the nonprofit Future of Life Institute that called for a “pause” on AI development, due to the risks to humanity revealed in the capabilities of programs such as ChatGPT. “Contemporary AI systems are now becoming human-competitive at general tasks, and we must ask ourselves … Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us?” I could still be proven wrong, but almost six months later and with AI development faster than ever, civilization hasn’t crumbled. Heck, Bing Chat, Microsoft’s “revolutionary,” ChatGPT-infused search oracle, hasn’t even displaced Google as the leader in search. So what should we make of the letter and similar sci-fi warnings backed by worthy names about the risks posed by AI? Two enterprising students at MIT, Isabella Struckman and Sofie Kupiec, reached out to the first hundred signatories of the letter calling for a pause on AI development to learn more about their motivations and concerns. The duo’s write-up of their findings reveals a broad array of perspectives among those who put their name to the document. Despite the letter’s public reception, relatively few were actually worried about AI posing a looming threat to humanity itself. Many of the people Struckman and Kupiec spoke to did not believe a six-month pause would happen or would have much effect. Most of those who signed did not envision the “apocalyptic scenario” that one anonymous respondent acknowledged some parts of the letter evoked. A significant number of those who signed were, it seems, primarily concerned with the pace of competition between Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, and others, as hype around the potential of AI tools like ChatGPT reached giddy heights. Google was the original developer of several algorithms key to the chatbot’s creation, but it moved relatively slowly until ChatGPT-mania took hold. To these people, the prospect of companies rushing to release experimental algorithms without exploring the risks was a cause for concern—not because they might wipe out humanity but because they might spread disinformation, produce harmful or biased advice, or increase the influence and wealth of already very powerful tech companies. Some signatories also worried about the more distant possibility of AI displacing workers at hitherto unseen speed. And a number also felt that the statement would help draw the public’s attention to significant and surprising leaps in the performance of AI models, perhaps pushing regulators into taking some sort of action to address the near-term risks posed by advances in AI. Back in May, I spoke to a few of those who signed the letter, and it was clear that they did not all agree entirely with everything it said. They signed out of a feeling that the momentum building behind the letter would draw attention to the various risks that worried them, and was therefore worth backing.