One quick thing: A local BJP leader has written a letter to the deputy labour commissioner of Gurugram, on behalf of 2,500 delivery workers employed by Blinkit. These workers have been on strike for the past few days in protest of fee reductions implemented by the Zomato-owned quick commerce company.

In today’s newsletter:

• Geopolitics fuels ransomware attacks in India
• Infosys CEO touts generative AI
• Why Bengaluru metro is moving in slow motion

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The year 2022 saw a 53% increase in ransomware attacks as compared to the preceding year, according to the country’s nodal cybersecurity agency, CERT-IN. 

However, the motivations behind these ransomware attacks, as pointed out by CERT-IN, are worth noting: It's not only money, but also geopolitical conflicts.

"This trend may continue further when ransomware broadens its spectrum beyond financial aspects and becomes an arsenal for cyber warfare," CERT-IN said.

The attacks had the most significant impact on the IT/ITeS, Finance, and Manufacturing sectors, as per the agency's India Ransomware Report.

Which ransomware? Major ransomware such as Lockbit, Makop, and DJVU/Stop ransomware continued to target critical infrastructure organisations and disrupt critical services in order to pressurise and extract ransom payments.

The report is also timely because Hacktivist Indonesia has issued a "red notice" targeting 12,000 Indian government websites.

The Hacktivist Indonesia group has done this in the past too. 

We took a look at the Telegram group where the group brags about its previous exploits. They have previously targeted the United States, Sweden, and Israel for incidents that have hurt religious sentiments or targeted a particular community.

The Telegram posts also make references to hacktivist groups such as Anonymous Sudan and Dragon Force Malaysia, which have previously targeted institutions in India. 

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Infosys was ahead of the curve when it donated to ChatGPT-maker OpenAI in 2015, but now that Generative AI is all the rage, the company is leveraging these platforms for itself and its clients.

How?

“We have active projects with clients working with generative AI platforms to address specific areas within their business. We have trained open-source generative AI platforms on our internal software development libraries,” Infosys CEO Salil Parekh said. 

The IT major is working with open source as well as proprietary platforms. 

• It is also working on large model projects within client organisations for various areas, with a focus on how generative AI can create something more efficient for the client

Find out more about what is happening at Infosys with regard to generative AI here.

The company reported a disappointing set of numbers yesterday due to the macroeconomic climate in the last quarter. However, during that turbulent six-month period, it also saw two top-level exits — two presidents who left to become CEOs of other companies.

 Infy, however, has found a way to fill the vacuum. 

Following Ravi Kumar S' departure from Infy to become the CEO of Cognizant, the company has created a new structure for the delivery role. Sathish HC and Dinesh Rao now share the responsibilities of this position.

The second departure was Mohit Joshi, the incoming CEO of Tech Mahindra, who resigned in March. His responsibilities included banking and financial services, and Infosys will soon roll out a new structure for the financial services team.

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Bengaluru, ranked as one of the most congested cities in the world, is expanding its Metro network at a slow pace. The tech capital of India has added only 6 kilometres per year since the Metro commenced operations in 2011. This rate of expansion is less compared to Delhi Metro's record of 17 kilometres per year and Hyderabad’s 11 kilometres per year.

Currently, only a 68.6 km metro network is operational in Bengaluru, and the Karnataka government plans to establish a 317 km metro rail network in the city by 2031. However, considering the current pace of work, it seems unlikely that this target will be achieved.

• Tech hubs such as Outer Ring Road, Sarjapur Road, Domlur, and Koramangala are still not connected by the metro
  
  
• Work is being delayed due to poor coordination between multiple agencies and issues related to land acquisition
  
  
• The Chief Minister's dashboard for tracking the Metro's progress has not been made public as of yet
  
  
• The metro agency has not uploaded its monthly newsletter regarding the project status since February

As Karnataka gears up for polls on May 10, citizens are hoping for better mobility options to tackle the city's notorious traffic. The upcoming Metro project is seen as a beacon of hope in this regard.

In the fourth part of our special series 'Karnataka Polls: Eye on Bengaluru', we delve into the reasons behind the slow pace of the city's Metro expansion.

The tech world is abuzz with rumours surrounding the mysterious plans of Elon Musk for Twitter. Although he has been trying to keep it under wraps, it seems that Twitter is working on a generative AI project. Musk, known for his opinions on AI, has approved the purchase of a whopping 10,000 graphics processing units for use at one of Twitter's data centers. 

This is an interesting turn of events, especially given that Musk initially missed the bus by severing ties with OpenAI in 2018, a move that partly contributed to the AI research firm's capped-profit pivot. Fast forward a few years, and the ChatGPT creator is now the poster boy for generative AI, which is likely to sting the erratic billionaire.

• Musk has been critical of generative AI in the recent past and has even called for a six-month halt on the development of AI technology more powerful than OpenAI's GPT-4.

Meanwhile, Amazon has also joined the generative AI race by releasing Amazon Bedrock, an AI platform for businesses that competes with enterprise offerings from OpenAI and others. 

• Bedrock is a suite of generative AI tools that can help Amazon Web Service customers build chatbots, generate and summarize text, and make and classify images based on prompts.

In China, Alibaba is also making strides in this area by unveiling its own large language model, Tongyi Qianwen, which is similar to OpenAI's GPT. It will soon be integrated into all of the company's business applications, starting with DingTalk.

• There may, however, be some obstacles to overcome as China plans to require a security review of generative AI services before they can operate.

In other news, legal issues continue to plague ChatGPT, with Italy becoming the first Western country to ban the generative AI platform. This week, the Center for AI and Digital Policy (CAIDP) filed a complaint with the US Federal Trade Commission to halt the development of new GPT models. Countries such as Germany, Canada, and France are also taking action against ChatGPT due to data privacy concerns. (Picture credit: DALL-E)

More from the world of AI:

• ChatGPT: Who's using the AI tool and why?
• Do AI’s backers care about data law breaches?
• These 5 AI tools will make you more productive

• The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's chairman Rostin Behnam criticised Binance for not following US regulations after a lawsuit was filed against the exchange and its CEO for multiple violations. 
  
  
• The Securities and Exchange Commission has summoned Tron Foundation's founder Justin Sun, rapper Soulja Boy, and YouTuber Austin Mahone, following a civil complaint last month regarding tokens issued by Tron and BitTorrent.

Hindi movie buffs, you won't want to miss this one! 

Jubilee, directed by Vikramaditya Motwane, takes you back to the golden age of Indian cinema in the 1940s. 

With an incredible ensemble cast featuring Prosenjit Chatterjee, Aditi Rao Hydari, Aparshakti Khurrana, and Ram Kapoor, this series delves into themes of partition, riots, friendship, ambition, and more.

Stream it on Amazon Prime Video

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