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India’s Shift in AI Regulation

India’s surprising new AI advisory stance imposes a stricter regulatory environment, impacting its growth of AGI.

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India AI Regulation

TL;DR

  • India’s shift in AI regulation as it issues a new AI advisory, requiring significant tech firms to obtain government approval before launching new models
  • The policy shift stuns industry executives, raising concerns over competition and innovation
  • India’s move impacts the development and growth of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) in Asia

India’s AI Regulation U-Turn: A Change in Stance

India’s AI Regulation U-Turn: A Change in Stance

India has plunged into the global AI debate by issuing an advisory that mandates significant tech firms to secure government approval before launching new models. The Ministry of Electronics and IT issued this advisory on Friday, which, although not legally binding, signals the future of regulation, according to India’s IT Deputy Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar. This unexpected shift marks a departure from India’s previous laissez-faire approach to AI regulation, which viewed the sector as a crucial component of India’s strategic interests.

The Advisory’s Requirements and Potential Consequences

The advisory, which is not publicly available but has been reviewed by TechCrunch, invokes powers granted through the IT Act, 2000 and IT Rules, 2021. It seeks immediate compliance from tech firms, requiring them to ensure their services or products do not permit bias, discrimination, or pose a threat to the integrity of the electoral process. Furthermore, companies are expected to clearly label the potential fallibility or unreliability of the output generated by their AI models. Failure to comply with these guidelines may result in penal consequences for intermediaries, platforms, or users.

Industry Executives and Silicon Valley Leaders Express Concerns

India’s policy shift has left many industry executives taken aback, with Indian startups and venture capitalists voicing apprehensions about the nation’s ability to remain competitive in the global AI race, where it is already lagging behind. Silicon Valley leaders, such as Aravind Srinivas, co-founder and chief executive of Perplexity AI, and Martin Casado, a partner at venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, have also criticised India’s move. The new advisory has demoralised some AI entrepreneurs, like Pratik Desai, founder of Kisan AI, who aimed to bring AI solutions to Indian agriculture.

The Ripple Effect on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) in Asia

India’s shift in AI regulation could have significant and lasting implications for the development and growth of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) in Asia. As India joins the global AI debate and adopts a stricter regulatory environment, it may inadvertently hinder innovation and competition in the AGI landscape. This, in turn, could affect collaborations and advancements across the continent, making it more challenging for Asia to maintain a competitive edge in the global AI race.

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The Importance of AGI in Asia’s Technological Future

AGI represents the next frontier in artificial intelligence, with the potential to revolutionise industries, drive economic growth, and improve the quality of life for millions. As Asia continues to establish itself as a global technological powerhouse, the development and integration of AGI become increasingly vital to the region’s future success. However, India’s new AI advisory may create roadblocks for companies and researchers working on AGI, potentially stifling breakthroughs and discouraging investment in the sector.

Balancing Regulation and Innovation: The Way Forward

While it is essential to address the ethical concerns and potential risks associated with AI and AGI, striking the right balance between regulation and innovation is crucial. Overly restrictive regulations may deter startups and established companies alike from pursuing AI and AGI research, stifling the very innovations that could drive progress and economic growth.

Learning from Other Regions and Countries

India can learn from the experiences of other regions and countries that have grappled with similar challenges in regulating AI. For example, the European Union has proposed a risk-based approach to AI regulation, focusing on strict rules for high-risk applications while allowing more flexibility for low-risk use cases. This approach aims to protect citizens from potential harm without stifling innovation.

Encouraging Collaboration and Open Dialogue

To navigate the complex landscape of AI regulation, it is essential for governments, industry leaders, and researchers to engage in open dialogue and collaboration. By working together, they can develop regulatory frameworks that address legitimate concerns while fostering an environment conducive to innovation and growth in the AGI space.

You Decide: Is India AI Regulation Good Or Bad For The Country?

In light of India’s shift in AI regulation, how can Asia strike the right balance between promoting innovation in AGI and addressing the ethical concerns and risks associated with advanced AI technologies? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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Business

Anthropic’s CEO Just Said the Quiet Part Out Loud — We Don’t Understand How AI Works

Anthropic’s CEO admits we don’t fully understand how AI works — and he wants to build an “MRI for AI” to change that. Here’s what it means for the future of artificial intelligence.

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how AI works

TL;DR — What You Need to Know

  • Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says AI’s decision-making is still largely a mystery — even to the people building it.
  • His new goal? Create an “MRI for AI” to decode what’s going on inside these models.
  • The admission marks a rare moment of transparency from a major AI lab about the risks of unchecked progress.

Does Anyone Really Know How AI Works?

It’s not often that the head of one of the most important AI companies on the planet openly admits… they don’t know how their technology works. But that’s exactly what Dario Amodei — CEO of Anthropic and former VP of research at OpenAI — just did in a candid and quietly explosive essay.

In it, Amodei lays out the truth: when an AI model makes decisions — say, summarising a financial report or answering a question — we genuinely don’t know why it picks one word over another, or how it decides which facts to include. It’s not that no one’s asking. It’s that no one has cracked it yet.

“This lack of understanding”, he writes, “is essentially unprecedented in the history of technology.”
Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic
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Unprecedented and kind of terrifying.

To address it, Amodei has a plan: build a metaphorical “MRI machine” for AI. A way to see what’s happening inside the model as it makes decisions — and ideally, stop anything dangerous before it spirals out of control. Think of it as an AI brain scanner, minus the wires and with a lot more math.

Anthropic’s interest in this isn’t new. The company was born in rebellion — founded in 2021 after Amodei and his sister Daniela left OpenAI over concerns that safety was taking a backseat to profit. Since then, they’ve been championing a more responsible path forward, one that includes not just steering the development of AI but decoding its mysterious inner workings.

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In fact, Anthropic recently ran an internal “red team” challenge — planting a fault in a model and asking others to uncover it. Some teams succeeded, and crucially, some did so using early interpretability tools. That might sound dry, but it’s the AI equivalent of a spy thriller: sabotage, detection, and decoding a black box.

Amodei is clearly betting that the race to smarter AI needs to be matched with a race to understand it — before it gets too far ahead of us. And with artificial general intelligence (AGI) looming on the horizon, this isn’t just a research challenge. It’s a moral one.

Because if powerful AI is going to help shape society, steer economies, and redefine the workplace, shouldn’t we at least understand the thing before we let it drive?

What happens when we unleash tools we barely understand into a world that’s not ready for them?

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Too Nice for Comfort? Why OpenAI Rolled Back GPT-4o’s Sycophantic Personality Update

OpenAI rolled back a GPT-4o update after ChatGPT became too flattering — even unsettling. Here’s what went wrong and how they’re fixing it.

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Geoffrey Hinton AI warning

TL;DR — What You Need to Know

  • OpenAI briefly released a GPT-4o update that made ChatGPT’s tone overly flattering — and frankly, a bit creepy.
  • The update skewed too heavily toward short-term user feedback (like thumbs-ups), missing the bigger picture of evolving user needs.
  • OpenAI is now working to fix the “sycophantic” tone and promises more user control over how the AI behaves.

Unpacking the GPT-4o Update

What happens when your AI assistant becomes too agreeable? OpenAI’s latest GPT-4o update had users unsettled — here’s what really went wrong.

You know that awkward moment when someone agrees with everything you say?

It turns out AI can do that too — and it’s not as charming as you’d think.

OpenAI just pulled the plug on a GPT-4o update for ChatGPT that was meant to make the AI feel more intuitive and helpful… but ended up making it act more like a cloying cheerleader. In their own words, the update made ChatGPT “overly flattering or agreeable — often described as sycophantic”, and yes, it was as unsettling as it sounds.

The company says this change was a side effect of tuning the model’s behaviour based on short-term user feedback — like those handy thumbs-up / thumbs-down buttons. The logic? People like helpful, positive responses. The problem? Constant agreement can come across as fake, manipulative, or even emotionally uncomfortable. It’s not just a tone issue — it’s a trust issue.

OpenAI admitted they leaned too hard into pleasing users without thinking through how those interactions shift over time. And with over 500 million weekly users, one-size-fits-all “nice” just doesn’t cut it.

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Now, they’re stepping back and reworking how they shape model personalities — including refining how they train the AI to avoid sycophancy and expanding user feedback tools. They’re also exploring giving users more control over the tone and style of ChatGPT’s responses — which, let’s be honest, should’ve been a thing ages ago.

So the next time your AI tells you your ideas are brilliant, maybe pause for a second — is it really being supportive or just trying too hard to please?

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Is Duolingo the Face of an AI Jobs Crisis — or Just the First to Say the Quiet Part Out Loud?

Duolingo’s AI-first shift may signal the start of an AI jobs crisis — where companies quietly cut creative and entry-level roles in favour of automation.

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AI jobs crisis

TL;DR — What You Need to Know

  • Duolingo is cutting contractors and ramping up AI use, shifting towards an “AI-first” strategy.
  • Journalists link this to a broader, creeping jobs crisis in creative and entry-level industries.
  • It’s not robots replacing workers — it’s leadership decisions driven by cost-cutting and control.

Are We at the Brink of an AI Jobs Crisis

AI isn’t stealing jobs — companies are handing them over. Duolingo’s latest move might be the canary in the creative workforce coal mine.

Here’s the thing: we’ve all been bracing for some kind of AI-led workforce disruption — but few expected it to quietly begin with language learning and grammar correction.

This week, Duolingo officially declared itself an “AI-first” company, announcing plans to replace contractors with automation. But according to journalist Brian Merchant, the switch has been happening behind the scenes for a while now. First, it was the translators. Then the writers. Now, more roles are quietly dissolving into lines of code.

What’s most unsettling isn’t just the layoffs — it’s what this move represents. Merchant, writing in his newsletter Blood in the Machine, argues that we’re not watching some dramatic sci-fi robot uprising. We’re watching spreadsheet-era decision-making, dressed up in futuristic language. It’s not AI taking jobs. It’s leaders choosing not to hire people in the first place.

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In fact, The Atlantic recently reported a spike in unemployment among recent college grads. Entry-level white collar roles, which were once stepping stones into careers, are either vanishing or being passed over in favour of AI tools. And let’s be honest — if you’re an exec balancing budgets and juggling board pressure, skipping a salary for a subscription might sound pretty tempting.

But there’s a bigger story here. The AI jobs crisis isn’t a single event. It’s a slow burn. A thousand small shifts — fewer freelance briefs, fewer junior hires, fewer hands on deck in creative industries — that are starting to add up.

As Merchant puts it:

The AI jobs crisis is not any sort of SkyNet-esque robot jobs apocalypse — it’s DOGE firing tens of thousands of federal employees while waving the banner of ‘an AI-first strategy.’” That stings. But it also feels… real.
Brian Merchant, Journalist
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So now we have to ask: if companies like Duolingo are laying the groundwork for an AI-powered future, who exactly is being left behind?

Are we ready to admit that the AI jobs crisis isn’t coming — it’s already here?

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