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In today’s newsletter: 

• The godfather of AI has this advice for India
• Zomato, Swiggy to charge more this festive season
• Supreme Court deals big blow to Byju's

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How can India be an artificial intelligence (AI) hub? One of the ‘godfathers of AI’ has an answer.

The country must take a bigger participation in the research community, not just engineering and product development, Meta's chief AI scientist Yann LeCun told us in an interview. 

"We created a research lab in France 10 years ago, in Paris, and it had an enormous effect on the local ecosystem," he said.

LeCun said that the right approach for India at present is to use an open-source foundation AI model, like Meta's Llama, to deploy for a variety of applications across the consumer and business domains. 

In the medium term, he believes that training of foundational models will be distributed among several regions to tackle the ballooning costs of training these models. This will also be necessary as countries increasingly seek sovereignty over their data. 

They should study basic things that have a long shelf life - mathematics, physics, basic computer science, applied mathematics - since it would be necessary to understand and develop the next generation of AI systems, he said. 

"AI is going to help you learn that stuff, help you work with it, but you need to learn the basics for it," he said. 

LeCun also talked about how far are we from advanced machine intelligence, AI regulation, why he is more optimistic about AI as compared to other godfathers of AI, how the nascent technology is becoming a race to the bottom, and how he uses Meta's smart glasses. 

Read the interview (Prefer video? Watch it here)

Zomato and Swiggy know we’re going to binge eat this festive season and they’ve both made smart moves.

Both food delivery platforms have hiked the platform fee to Rs 10 from Rs 7 effective immediately. 

• This is applicable on all orders, irrespective of cart size
  
  
• Even customers enrolled under the loyalty programme of these companies pay a platform fee

The move has caught the attention of India's largest stock exchange, the National Stock Exchange (NSE). 

• Given that Zomato is a listed company, the NSE has written to the food delivery platform seeking clarification on the platform fee hike

Platform fee was first introduced in April 2023 with Swiggy being the first one to levy it. 

• It was as little as Rs 2 at first and has increased steadily since then as companies attempt to make each order more profitable
  
  
• While the amount may seem nominal, Zomato for instance delivers around 20 lakh orders each day
  
  
• That translates to Rs 2 crore in additional income each day 

Before the increase, Zomato had said it collected Rs 83 crore until March just in platform fee. The move will also help Swiggy improve its profitability ahead of its public market debut. 

• Analysts had earlier told us while there is no limit to platform fees, it will likely go higher and termed it as the cost we pay for convenience 

Find out more 

Picture credit: Microsoft Copilot

Just when it seemed like Byju's had scored a last-minute goal in its bankruptcy proceedings, the Supreme Court (SC) has called foul, sending the match into extra time.

The Supreme Court has dealt a significant blow to the edtech giant by overturning a key Rs 158 crore settlement with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), effectively restarting the insolvency process. 

• The SC ruled that the settlement violated the proper procedures outlined in the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) and was unfair to other investors, including US-based lender Glas Trust

The settlement was approved by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) and was seen as a victory for the edtech giant.

With the settlement off the table, Byju's insolvency proceedings are back on track, keeping its legal troubles alive. 

• The Rs 158 crore settlement money will now be deposited into a separate escrow account managed by the Committee of Creditors (CoC)

Last week, Byju Raveendran, the company’s founder, expressed optimism about a comeback, while admitting that the current valuation of his once-thriving company is "worth zero."

Dig deeper

Picture credit: Microsoft Copilot

As demand uncertainty persists in the US and Europe, IT services companies are setting their sights on emerging markets for 2025. 

• According to data from UnearthInsight, revenue share of emerging markets have gone up to 19.6% in FY24 up from 15.5% in FY14; and is expected to touch 22.2% in FY30

Regions like the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, and India are seeing robust growth, fuelled by government-led digital transformation and booming sectors such as e-commerce, fintech, agriculture, and healthtech.

Go deeper

• Anthropic's updated AI models can now autonomously perform computer tasks and save users' keystrokes by telling the AI where to move the mouse, where to click, and what to type.

• Qualcomm is teaming up with Google to offer a combination of chips and software to let automakers develop their own AI voice assistants using technology from the two firms.

Ever dreamt of building a business that could make you your first million? 

• If so, My First Million is your go-to podcast 

Hosted by Sam Parr and Shaan Puri, the show dives deep into the world of entrepreneurship, offering insights and inspiration.

Check it out on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

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