Breaking: Karnataka High Court quashes Rs 21,000 crore GST notice against Gameskraft, in a big win for the skill-gaming industry.

One important thing: Flooded with spam calls on WhatsApp lately? The Indian government has now taken note of it. 

In today’s newsletter:

• SoftBank's Vision Fund suffers record $32B loss
• Trouble mounts for Ashneer Grover and family
• Google's big generative AI push

Was this newsletter forwarded to you? You can sign up for Tech3 here

SoftBank's Vision Fund may need a pair of glasses, as it appears to have lost its vision over the past year.

Despite a glimmer of hope in the fourth quarter, where the technology sector experienced a rebound, SoftBank's Vision Fund unit suffered a staggering loss of $32 billion on investments made between April 2022 and March 2023.

SoftBank has reported a net loss for the second consecutive year, primarily attributed to a significant loss incurred at the Vision Fund unit.

• The Japanese conglomerate reported a net loss of $7.2 billion for April-March 2022-23
  
  
• In the fourth quarter, the Vision Fund reported a much smaller loss of $2 billion, thanks to an uptick in the shares of technology companies across the globe

During the earnings presentation, SoftBank's CFO Yoshimitsu Goto highlighted the company's adoption of a 'total defence' approach in the previous fiscal year due to macroeconomic headwinds.

• SoftBank invested just $3.2 billion in April-March 2022-23 versus $44.3 billion in the year-ago period

In his earnings presentation, Goto struck a more confident tone compared to his previous remarks and stated that the company would gradually transition from 'total defence' to 'offence' mode.

SoftBank has pinned its hopes on artificial intelligence (AI), and especially generative AI going forward

“Last year, unless, unusual happened, we would rather pass an opportunity…but this year we would take opportunities,” Goto said.

While the company hasn't charted any specific plans for investing more aggressively, Goto's optimistic demeanour would bring some cheer to the global startup ecosystem.

SoftBank offloaded 2 percent stake in Paytm worth $120 million, in a monetisation effort after reporting huge losses.

If you thought your day at work was bad, imagine waking up and receiving a call from the Economic Offences Wing, informing you that your entire family is facing charges for multiple criminal offences.

That's precisely what happened today to Ashneer Grover, the embattled co-founder of BharatPe.

The Economic Offences Wing has filed a First Information Report (FIR) against Grover, his wife Madhuri Grover, and two other family members on the basis of a complaint by fintech unicorn BharatPe.

• The FIR has been registered on 8 counts of serious cognizable criminal offences

• BharatPe alleges that the Grover family created fake bills, enlisted fictitious vendors to provide services to the company, and overcharged it for recruitment

Grover has questioned the timing of the FIR, stating that this move comes just a couple of hours after a judge reserved his order on another case.

He has gone further and taken a dig at BharatPe, stating that the fintech unicorn is a $3 billion write-off and that its value has been destroyed by the present Chairman, Rajnish Kumar.

"I have gone to the Economic Offences Wing office many times...I have always given them all the information they have asked for. I am an honest person and so I am not scared," Grover said.

If convicted, Grover, Madhuri, and others can face a sentence ranging from 10 years to life imprisonment.

• The company has also sought up to Rs 88 crore in damages from the Grovers and other family members through a civil lawsuit

For the past few months, Google has been under severe pressure due to the sudden success of ChatGPT, which even threatens the tech giant's core search business. Yesterday, Google, however, went on the offensive, flexing its AI muscle as the company looks to retain dominance in the space.

Google is reimagining what a search engine can do in the generative AI era. While the company is building an AI chatbot, it doesn't seem to be all-in on this phenomenon. 

• Instead, Google is infusing AI capabilities to its search interface and also bringing conversational AI elements to the whole experience

It's not only search, Google is also integrating generative AI capabilities across its suite of products including Gmail, Google Photos, Android, and Google Workspace. You name it and Google has a plan for it. 

• However, ‘bold but responsible’ is the operating phrase.

The sheer scale of these products will help Google deliver AI experiences to billions of users, a feat that not many can boast about.  

“We have 15 products that each serve more than half a billion people and businesses, and six of those products serve over two billion users each. This gives us so many opportunities to deliver on our mission,” said Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai.

• Google has extended its ChatGPT rival, Bard, to 180 countries, including India. One noteworthy feature is the capability to export Bard responses to Gmail or Docs

• Google unveiled three new products in its Pixel lineup: A foldable smartphone Pixel Fold, a Pixel tablet and a budget-friendly smartphone Pixel 7a (Read our first impressions)

• A next-generation large language model PaLM 2 was unveiled, offering improved multilingual, reasoning, and coding capabilities. PaLM 2 is already powering over 25 new products and features that were announced yesterday

• Gmail’s new “Help Me Write” feature can soon write emails for you 

• Android gets new generative AI-based customisation features 

• Google Photos is getting a Magic editor, enabling users to make complex edits without professional-level editing skills

• Google Workspace is integrating AI capabilities into Google Docs, Sheets and Slides through Duet AI for Workspace. Meanwhile, Duet AI for Google Cloud is an always-on AI collaborator to assist customers of all skill levels

• Google has opened up access to its text-to-music generative AI tool MusicLM

After stepping back from day-to-day operations at WazirX in 2022 amid the intense global crypto crisis, co-founder Nischal Shetty has been occupied with his new L1 blockchain venture called Shardeum, which is slated for release in the July-September quarter.

This comes at a time when the market for L1 blockchain, especially in India, is rapidly becoming crowded with global peers like Algorand entering in recent months.

In an exclusive interview with us, Shetty, one of the most influential voices in the crypto sector, shared his thoughts on India's decision to pursue a common global crypto framework and explained why it might take longer to reach a consensus

"What India is doing is really amazing. I think we are on the right track and this has come after so many deliberations around regulations, like looking at how to shape global regulations rather than regulating it in isolation," Shetty said. 

During the interview, he also discussed what makes Shardeum stand out, the products being explored on the network, and the fundraising plans for 2023.

Read the full interview

On May 11, 1997, an IBM computer called Deep Blue achieved a historic victory over world chess champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game match. The final outcome of the match was two wins for IBM, one for the champion, and three draws.

Fun fact: Following his loss in the sixth and final game, Kasparov voiced allegations against IBM, claiming that they had developed a machine specifically designed to defeat him. (Picture credit: Wikipedia)

• The Internal Revenue Service of the United States has filed claims totalling almost $44 billion against the estate of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX and its associated entities.
  
  
• The authorities in South Korea have frozen around $176 million worth of assets linked to Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon, as part of ongoing criminal proceedings.

Do you want to learn from the world's most successful business leaders? 

Tune in to Masters of Scale, the podcast hosted by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. From Mark Zuckerberg to Peter Thiel, this podcast features interviews with some of the brightest minds in business, providing insights and advice to help build a high-growth company.

Check it out on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

Note: By subscribing to Tech3 you have already made the right choice. Top it up with a premium offering, the Moneycontrol Pro Panorama, a newsletter that gives you a sharp take on macros, markets, business and finance. Sign up for Pro from this link to get this newsletter in your inbox and also a host of content enjoyed by 500,000+ subscribers.