1947 Tech — Week 4
A few good articles that I came across this week..
Week 4, 2018
1. How Google engineers helped India deal with ‘Good Morning’ WhatsApp messages
India may be the fastest growing smartphone market in the world, but one in three smartphone users in India run out of space daily, according to a survey by data-storage firm Western Digital Corp. In comparison, only one in 10 smartphones run out of space daily in the US.
WhatsApp users in India sent out a record 20 billion messages to exchange greetings on New Year’s Eve, more than any other country, and a record, while they ushered in 2018.
Vacation pictures don’t go on Facebook or Instagram, videos don’t go on YouTube, and jokes and wisecracks don’t go on Twitter. For older Indians, WhatsApp is the ultimate social network.
Combine the above behaviour with low and mid-end smartphones with limited storage space and it leads to a higher percentage of smartphones across India freezing up. Sensing this pain point, Google unveiled an app, Files Go, in December in New Delhi to help solve this.
2. This is what China and India can teach the developing world
Indonesia shares similar characteristics with China and India as Asian countries that have more people between the ages of 15 and 64 than young children and the elderly.
The young populations of these countries are entering a shifting jobs landscape propelled by innovation in digital technology. China and India are moving to prepare their populations to take advantage of the digital era.
India made a serious move to combat digital illiteracy by establishing the National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM) in August 2014. With the objective of “making one person in every family digitally literate by 2020”
3. India moves to address AI talent supply gap, gets a leg-up from Google, Microsoft, Intel
As nations bet on artificial intelligence as the next competitive edge, India lags behind sorely on talent. Key actors in the ecosystem step in to plug the gap.
Google, Microsoft, Intel take the lead in putting together initiatives to train Indian engineers in AI and machine learning techniques.
The Indian government is drafting a skilling programme in AI — much like AICTE-driven cyber security courses that have trained 100,000 students to date
4. Drop in mathematical skills pushes India further down in the AI race
Though India is making rapid progress in terms of technology, companies and researchers are yet to utilise the full potential of AI.
The math is not adding up for India, as far as the global artificial intelligence (AI) race is concerned. According to a report released by LinkedIn, the US has a clear lead in numbers with 850,000 AI engineers, followed by India and China with 150,000 and 50,000 engineers. With China and the US going head to head on AI, India has been relegated to playing catch up.
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Have a great week.
