Tech & Society

The Tech Company Brief by Hackernoon: Indian PM woos tech CEOs during U.S. state visit

It was a big week for India as Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a state visit to the U.S., meeting his counterpart Joe Biden to discuss a wide range of issues and sign bilateral agreements on defense and technology; to contain China’s growing influence on the world stage.

During his time in the U.S., the head of the world’s largest democracy also met or interacted with nearly every tech CEO worth their salt. We’re talking Microsoft‘s Satya Nadella, Google‘s Sundar Pichai, Apple‘s Tim Cook, Amazon‘s Andy Jassy. Heck, even OpenAI’s Sam Altman was there, and Modi even got to spend some time with Elon Musk.

The meeting was part of the Indian PM’s plan to get more and more American companies investing in India. Most recently, Apple opened its first-ever store in the nation of 1.4 billion people, while Musk is planning to introduce Tesla and Starlink in the country.

Modi is making a strong push for investments, particularly with a focus on making products within India. Following his interaction, Amazon said it would invest an additional $15 billion in India while Google announced plans to open its global fintech operation centre in Gujarat, India. Meanwhile, Microsoft said it would continue to seek new areas to further introduce AI to the masses in the nation.

Google ranked #5 on HackerNoon’s Tech Company Rankings this week. Tesla was #6; Microsoft was #15; Apple was #66; and Amazon was #88.

Google’s Love Affair With AI: Down, But Not Out ?

Google may have failed to make a splash when it launched an AI chatbot to rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT, but the execs at the company are not giving up hope yet.

A new report from TechCrunch details attempts by Google’s senior leadership to keep its skin in the game. The key? AlphaGo, the AI system that made waves after defeating world champions at the board game Go.

The AI system was developed by an acquired research lab of Google called DeepMind which now plans on using its expertise in creating a chatbot that can truly rival or eclipse OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

There’s a lot riding on here. Google’s botched attempt to counter ChatGPT with its own chatbot cost the company $100 billion in market cap at the time of its release, and while the company may have recovered, the failure has been haunting CEO Sundar Pichai ever since.

Whether Google will win this contest, only time will tell..

In Other News.. ?

Spywares are bad. Here’s why: the Polish developer of a phone tracking app called LetMeSpy said a hacker gained unauthorized access to its data, making it the latest in a long list of companies that have been hacked, breached, or exposed victim’s data.
Unicorn social app IRL is shutting down after admitting 95% of its users were fake, TechCrunch reports.
Google’s YouTube wants to try its hand in cloud gaming.
Parents will now have more control over what teens see and do over Instagram and Messenger.
Apple says proposed UK law ‘poses a serious threat’ to end-to-end encryption, The Verge reported.
IBM will acquire technology spend-management platform Apptio from Vista Equity Partners for $4.6 billion in cash, in the latest deal to bolster its capabilities in cloud and automation, Reuters reported.