One important thing: In yet another case of an edtech startup facing a slowdown in demand and a lack of funding, Noon Academy laid off staff across roles in India after discontinuing classes, leaving students stranded, and delaying teachers' salaries for more than eight months.

• The Saudi Arabian startup had earlier said it would clear the dues by February 2023. 

Noon has now requested an extension until May, claiming that it is waiting to close a funding round that was supposed to happen in January.

In today’s newsletter: 

• Foreign law firms can set up shop in India
• What’s special about OpenAI’s new GPT-4
• Nazara Tech dodges SVB bullet

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After years of waiting, foreign law firms and lawyers have finally been allowed to set up shop in India.

The new rule, however, specifies the principle of reciprocity which means that only lawyers from countries that allow Indian advocates to practice in their country will be granted permission.

• Foreign lawyers are not permitted to argue cases before any Indian courts or statutory bodies

• They can only advise on foreign laws and participate in international arbitration matters in the country

Lawyers say that this is the first opening for global law firms to operate in India, paving the way for a gradual softening of rules to allow them greater participation.

• The move, according to TechLegis partner Salman Waris, will reduce the commissions earned by large Indian firms when they hire foreign counsels for domestic clients.

• It is also expected to promote India as an arbitration hub and compete with jurisdictions like Singapore, Dubai and Zurich for arbitration matters

The biggest immediate impact will be a price war for legal talent in India as foreign firms who set up shop here will raise wages, Waris said.

ChatGPT is probably the first consumer tech app which has caught people’s imagination in the past few years and has been key in making AI common in everyday conversation. And things are just getting better.

OpenAI unveiled a new version of the underlying AI technology that powers its viral chatbot and the new avatar of Microsoft's Bing.

The launch of the GPT-4, or Generative Pretrained Transformer 4, is expected to up the ante in the AI arms race among tech companies such as Microsoft, Google, and Meta, which are rushing to include AI-powered features across their products.

OpenAI said that GPT-4 surpasses its predecessor, GPT-3.5, in accuracy, creativity, and collaboration. 

• The new model can also respond to images as well as text
  
  
• GPT-4 is 40% more likely to provide factual responses
  
  

In a simulated bar exam, GPT-4 achieved a score in the top 10% of test takers, as per the company. In contrast, GPT-3.5 scored in the bottom 10%.

Also read: 5 things to know about GPT-4, OpenAI’s latest language model offering

GPT-4, like its predecessor, isn't very good at reasoning about current events given that it was trained on data from before 2021.

• The company said the latest version “still has many known limitations, such as social biases, hallucinations, and adversarial prompts.”

When it comes to discussing AI, it's impossible to ignore Google (especially after Bard). The tech giant has announced a range of AI-powered features for its Workspace productivity suite.

• These features include integrating generative AI features into key products such as Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides and Meet. (P.S. This means you can soon create entire emails or presentation decks with just a few bullet points)

The company has also announced a raft of new AI-powered features for customers of its cloud-computing business.

Also read: YouTube to offer generative AI tools to creators in coming months: Neal Mohan

The sudden collapse of "startup-friendly" Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) caused significant collateral damage in India's tech and startup ecosystem. However, it appears that things are gradually improving.

Nazara Technologies' subsidiaries - Kiddopia and Mediawrkz - were able to access funds that were parked at the crisis-hit bank and successfully transferred most of it to other banks, the company said today.

• About $7.25 million (Rs 60 crore) out of a total of $7.75 million cash reserves have been transferred to external bank accounts, while the balance $0.5 million remains in SVB for "unrestricted operational use"

Earlier this week, Nazara Technologies founder Nitish Mittersain told us that both subsidiaries are profitable and generate positive cash flows, due to which there was no pressure from a business continuity perspective. 

"Even Nazara does not need to step in to fund these companies," he said. 

Nazara currently has cash reserves of about Rs 600 crore - 700 crore.

The country's first publicly listed gaming firm is now exploring various avenues to strengthen its risk management strategy, which includes considering buying insurance on the company's bank deposits, Mittersain told us earlier.

• The company also plans to further diversify its cash reserves to avoid significant exposure to any particular bank.

More from our SVB coverage:

• Indian SaaS companies are pulling out from Silicon Valley Bank amid stock crash

• Y Combinator-backed Indian startups are collateral damage in Silicon Valley Bank collapse

• IT firms may see delay in tech spending due to Silicon Valley Bank collapse

Sick of sitting in traffic in Bengaluru? The state government is devising a plan to entice startups to set up shop in smaller cities across Karnataka, potentially providing relief to the traffic congestion in the capital.

• The state government is planning to increase the number of startups outside Bengaluru from 2,955 now to 10,000 by 2032

The proposed tech clusters outside Bengaluru are set to be located in Mysuru, Mangaluru, Tumakuru, Hubballi, Dharwad, Shivamogga, Belagavi, Mandya, Chamrajnagar, Udupi, Manipal, and Kalaburagi.

Go deeper

On March 15, 1985, the first internet domain symbolics.com was registered by Symbolics, a Massachusetts computer company.

Fun fact: Today, if you visit the website, you'll be treated to an online museum that highlights the innovation, technology, and science that have shaped our present.

• National Australia Bank says it has completed the first cross-border stablecoin transfer on a layer 1 public blockchain by a major financial institution. AUDN, the bank's fully backed stablecoin, was used for the intrabank transfer.
  
  
• Coinbase's chief legal officer Paul Grewal has expressed his concern about the US Securities and Exchange Commission's hard stance on digital asset regulation. He believes that the current process of regulation is "a pretty broken process."

As organisations around the world grapple with concerns over the use of ChatGPT, one startup in Tokyo is taking a different approach. LayerX, a company that specialises in digitising business transactions, has made proficiency in the technology a requirement for all new recruits.

In a unique twist on the traditional recruitment process, LayerX assesses candidates' skills by asking them to give prompts to ChatGPT and Notion AI during entry assessments. 

Candidates are also required to conduct extensive research on the limitations of the tech. Find out more

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