Victoria Fox's Blog, page 169

Motion to disqualify Mahua Moitra may be brought today in Parliament at 2 pm, say opposition MPs

The Lok Sabha’s Ethics Committee on Friday submitted its report in the Lok Sabha recommending the expulsion of Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra over the “cash-for-query” allegation.

Trinamool Congress members and some from the Congress trooped in the Well of the House raising slogans demanding a copy of the report.

Congress leader Manickam Tagore said, “Congress party is going to oppose the motion. This is an attack on parliament. When an MP asks a question in relation to a corporate, there is a conspiracy to disqualify the lawmaker through the ethics panel”.

Ethics Committee Chairman Vinod Kumar Sonkar tabled the panel’s first report when the House re-convened at noon after an adjournment during the Question Hour.

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Published: 08 Dec 2023, 12:44 PM IST

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Backed by Cresta founders, Trove’s AI wants to make surveys fun again

Surveys have become an integral part of many aspects of our lives, but most of them are tedious, leading to ineffective responses and actions. Dinghan Shen and Yuan Xue, two software engineers working in Silicon Valley, recognized an opportunity to leverage the breakthroughs brought by large language models to make surveys more empathetic and engaging.

Around six months ago, Shen and Xue, who had been friends since high school, started Trove AI, a SaaS platform that lets users create conversational surveys powered by GPT-4 and its own fine-tuned models. The idea has received backing already. Zayd Enam and Tim Shi, co-founders of Shen’s former employer Cresta, an a16z-backed unicorn empowering contact center agents with AI, invested an undisclosed amount in the startup’s pre-seed funding.

Launched six weeks ago, Trove’s first version has amassed over 1,000 users who are mostly small and medium-sized businesses from around the world. “Dozens of” them have sent surveys at least twice since. Still free to use, the platform has attracted a wide range of users, including a London-based spa, a K-12 school in Boston, and a travel agency focused on Latin America.

Applying conversational AI to surveys appears to be a low-hanging fruit in this era of ChatGPT frenzy. Enterprise-focused survey giant Qualtrics has adopted AI across its line of customer and employee feedback products. SurveyMonkey, the go-to survey provider for SMBs, is using AI to automate the creation process.

To differentiate, Trove aims to ultimately become a “customer and employee experience management platform” for companies of all sizes, Shen said. The product is essentially experience management around customers, employees, products, and more. Following the recent management saga of OpenAI that briefly disrupted its chatbot service, applications that build on top of ChatGPT, or “wrapper products,” are rethinking their heavy dependence on third-party APIs.

“We are 80% SaaS and 20% AI,” Shen told TechCrunch in an interview. As such, he reckoned Trove offers ample value in addition to its features powered by OpenAI. “We aim to do everything from survey creation, response, analytics, ticket creation to CRM integration… It’s an AI-generated feedback loop.”

CRM integration, specifically, would allow Trove to create highly customized surveys upon which the system can create a ticket automatically and send a personalized follow-up email to thank the customer for giving feedback.

“Fundamentally, we’re rethinking the experience management workflows from scratch in the context of the powerful large language model capabilities today,” said the founder.

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Delhi Liquor Policy scam: SC grants bail to Pernod Ricard’s Benoy Babu, says ‘can’t keep people behind bars before…’

The Supreme Court on 8 December granted bail to Benoy Babu, Regional Manager of Pernod Ricard India, who was arrested in a money laundering case related to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam, Live Law has reported.

During the announcing the bail, Justice Sanjiv Khanna said, “You can’t keep people behind bars before trial for long. This is not proper…we still don’t know how this will go…there seems to be a contradiction between what CBI is alleging and ED is alleging..”

Earlier on 4 December, a Delhi court had denied interim bail to Benoy Babu. Babu was earlier on interim bail for 4.5 months on medical grounds, claiming he was suffering from ailments related to a degenerating jaw bone and gum disease.

Babu was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on November 10, 2022 and is currently in judicial custody.

 

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Published: 08 Dec 2023, 12:17 PM IST

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ZPM leader Lalduhoma takes oath as Mizoram CM

Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) leader Lalduhoma on Friday took oath as the chief minister of Mizoram. A total of 11 other party leaders will also take oath as ministers today at the Raj Bhavan where Mizo National Front leader and outgoing chief minister Zoramthanga was present.

All MNF MLAs, including its legislature party leader Lalchhandama Ralte, attended the event. Former chief minister Lal Thanhawla was also present there.

Lalduhoma met the Governor on Thursday and staked a claim to form the government in the state.

“We talked about the formation of the new government. He had asked me to form government which will be done on Friday and next week we’ll have the first session. We are very happy and were very honored by the Governor. Our priority is to buy agriculture products and we have selected four items for that,” he said after meeting the Governor.

Following Monday’s assembly polls, the Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) secured a decisive victory, unseating the reigning Mizo National Front (MNF) with a substantial lead, securing 27 seats. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress lagged significantly behind, securing two and one seat, respectively.

ZPM media cell general secretary Eddy Zosangliana said that the Val Upa Council, an advisory body of the party, met Lalduhoma on Wednesday to decide the formation of the council of ministers. With a 40-member assembly, Mizoram can have 12 ministers, including the chief minister.

After forming the government, Lalduhoma promised that his party would make a resource mobilization team for financial reforms. “Mizoram is facing financial crises… That is what we are going to inherit from the outgoing government…We are going to fulfill our commitment… Financial reform is necessary, and for that, we are going to make a resource mobilization team.”

He also emphasized that should his party assume power in the November 7 assembly elections in Mizoram, farmers would be accorded the highest priority. He additionally committed to the construction of three new hydroelectric dams, aiming to generate approximately 300 MW of power, and assured that there would be no increase in power tariffs for the ensuing five years.

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Published: 08 Dec 2023, 11:44 AM IST

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Tamil Nadu: Chennai schools, colleges shut today; IMD predicts heavy rains till 9 Dec. 10 points

Cyclone Michaung which made landfall on the Andhra Pradesh coast near Bapatla on Tuesday afternoon, accompanied by intense rain and wind speeds up to 100 kmph, caused widespread devastation and affecting more than two crore people. The storm also claimed over a dozen lives. Thousands of ground-floor homes and vehicles remained submerged. In Andhra Pradesh, the cyclone wreaked havoc on thousands of acres of standing crops, primarily paddy. Around 10,000 people were evacuated.

Several areas of Chennai continued to reel under severe waterlogging conditions on Thursday amid heavy rainfall in the region in the immediate aftermath of Cyclone Michaung, which made landfall two days ago. Various parts of the city, including a petrol pump in the Pallikaranai area, Jerusalem College of Engineering remained inundated after heavy rainfall. The waterfalls at the Kodaikanal Hills in Dindigul district also swelled and overflowed due to heavy rainfall in the region.

Here are Top 10 Updates you need to know:

1. The Tamil Nadu government announced that schools and colleges in the Chennai district will remain closed today i.e. on 8 December as relief works are underway in rain-affected areas.

2. Tamil Nadu chief secretary Shiv Das Meena on Thursday said that 9,000 officials from other districts are deployed for the relief work. “Work on water stagnation at 343 places is underway. Food packets are being distributed in the flood-affected areas. Other district workers like medical staff, fire service staff, EN staff, etc., have been called to work in Chennai for restoration. A total of 9,000 officials from other districts are also deployed for the relief work in Chennai,” Meena said.

3. As per IMD, Isolated heavy rainfall also very likely over Kerala and Tamil Nadu on 8th & 9th December and over Lakshadweep on 8th December. The IMD Chennai has predicted heavy rain at one or two places over Nilgiris and Ghat areas of Coimbatore districts, while thunderstorm and lightning is likely to occur at one or two places over Tamil Nadu, Puducherry & Karaikal area till 9 December.

4. Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu is scheduled to visit the cyclone-ravaged regions of Vemuru, Tenali, Bapatla, Parchur, and Prattipadu in the districts of Guntur and Prakasam on December 8 and 9 respectively. Former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu will visit the constituencies of Vemuru, Tenali, and Bapatla on Friday. On Saturday, he will inspect the crop fields devastated by cyclone Michaung in Parchur and Prattipadu constituencies.

5. Shopkeepers in Usilampatti in Madurai district kept their shops closed on 7th December, as part of their support to seeking water through 58-canal in Usilampatti. This canal is the source of water for the region as it brings water from the Vaigai River to Usilampatti.

7. Congress MP Manickam Tagore on Friday gave an adjournment motion in Lok Sabha seeking discussion on the current condition of Chennai and other parts of Tamil Nadu as the state witnessed damages due to the effect of Cyclone Michaung. He demanded that the Lower House should initiate a discussion on the damage assessment for the Southern state and demanded that it direct the Centre to release a minimum of ₹5100 crore to facilitate comprehensive and effective relief efforts.

8. Rajnath Singh on Thursday said that PM Modi directed the Ministry of Home Affairs to release in advance the Central share of the second instalment of SDRF of ₹493.60 crore to Andhra Pradesh and ₹450 crore to Tamil Nadu.

9. Toyota Kirloskar Motor on Thursday said its dealers have initiated various measures for customers in the Cyclone-hit regions of Chennai and Andhra Pradesh. The company, in association with its dealer partners, have set up special emergency helpline numbers and designated personnel for extending immediate assistance to customers in need, the automaker said in a statement. 

10. The Tamil Nadu IAS Officers’ Association has stepped forward to bolster relief efforts in Chennai after Cyclone Michaung wreaked havoc across the state capital. The association demonstrated its commitment to supporting the state government in the ongoing relief operations by contributing a day’s salary of its members to the Chief Minister’s Public Relief Fund, an official release stated.

(With ANI, PTI inputs)

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Published: 08 Dec 2023, 11:04 AM IST

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Play Our 2023 TechCrunch Pub Quiz!

From the collapse and rebirth of Silicon Valley Bank to the indictment of Sam Bankman-Fried — it’s safe to say that this has been a long year. Emotionally, at least. That’s why the team here at TechCrunch thought it would be fun to have an end-of-year pub quiz testing you, dear reader, on how well you remember the wild ride that was 2023.

Feel free to play this at home, with friends, at the park, or at the office holiday party. If you win the quiz, sadly, we have nothing to offer. But if you play with others, maybe the next round is on them. Enjoy!

(P.S: Remember to click the box and scroll.) 

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Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son, served with federal charges by DOJ for tax evasion

Hunter Biden, 53, was hit with three felony and six misdemeanor tax offenses, according to an indictment filed in U.S. District Court, Central District of California.

He faces up to 17 years in prison if convicted. The Justice Department said its investigation into Biden is ongoing.

“The Defendant engaged in a four-year scheme to not pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019,” the indictment read.

It added that he had instead spent huge sums “on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature” including over $70,000 on drug rehabilitation.

A lawyer for Hunter Biden did not immediately reply to a request for comment. The White House declined to comment.

It was not clear when Hunter Biden would appear in court.

The indictment says Hunter Biden “earned handsomely” while serving on the boards of Burisma, a Ukrainian industrial conglomerate, and a Chinese private equity fund.

Prosecutors said that between 2016 and October 2020, he received more than $7 million in total gross income.

That included nearly $2.3 million from his position on the board of directors of Burisma between 2016 and 2019, the filing says.

Hunter Biden’s affiliation with Burisma has been the focus of years of attacks from Republican lawmakers who have accused him of leveraging his family name to make money overseas.

“The Defendant had a legal obligation to pay taxes on all his income, including income earned in Ukraine from his service on Burisma’s Board, fees generated by deal-making with the Chinese private equity fund, as well as income derived from his work as a lawyer and other sources,” the indictment said.

Adding to Hunter Biden’s income was work for CEFC China Energy Co Ltd, a Chinese energy conglomerate.

As Hunter Biden’s income increased, so did his spending, according to the filing.

In 2018 alone, the indictment read, Hunter Biden “spent more than $1.8 million, including approximately $772,000 in cash withdrawals, approximately $383,000 in payments to women, approximately $151,000 in clothing and accessories”.

The indictment added: “The Defendant did not use any of these funds to pay his taxes in 2018.”

Hunter Biden in October pleaded not guilty to charges in Delaware that he lied about his drug use while buying a handgun, in the first criminal prosecution of a sitting U.S. president’s child.

U.S. Special Counsel David Weiss, who is leading the probe into Hunter Biden, was appointed Delaware U.S. attorney by former President Donald Trump. He was made special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland in August.

He brought charges in Delaware against Hunter Biden after the unraveling of an earlier proposed plea deal that had called for him to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges for failing to pay taxes in 2017 and 2018, an agreement which likely would have allowed him to avoid prison.

U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika rejected the proposed plea deal in July, raising concerns over its legality and the scope of immunity it offered.

Trump, the leading contender to be the Republican Party’s nominee in next year’s presidential election, said the plea deal amounted to favorable treatment for the president’s son.

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Published: 08 Dec 2023, 10:20 AM IST

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Sacked UK minister Suella Braverman backs PM Rishi Sunak for next election

UK former Home Secretary Suella Braverman back PM Rishi Sunak for next election

This is a developing story, will be updated with more inputs

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Published: 07 Dec 2023, 02:05 PM IST

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Pimento turns creative briefs into visual mood boards using generative AI

Pimento is a new French startup that is using generative AI in an interesting way as the company focuses on the first step of creative processes — ideation, brainstorming and moodboarding. And the company recently raised a $3.2 million (€3 million) funding round from an interesting list of investors.

The best way to describe Pimento is by talking about people who could use a tool like this. Creative teams working on a brand redesign, an ad campaign, an upcoming video game, an animation movie will open Pimento on the first day of their new projects. It’s the tool that you use to start the research process.

These users want to compile a reference document with images, text and colors that will be used down the road for these projects. They will serve as the main inspiration and the first guidelines of the project for other teams working on it.

And there’s a lot of back and forth during this phase because clients or managers can be picky and often change their mind. They give you a direction for the next meeting in two weeks, but then they don’t like what the creative team brings to the table so creative workers have to start from scratch again.

Right now, many creative workers rely on Pinterest, Instagram, Behance, Canva and Figma to find images around the web and create mood boards. And in many ways, your creativity is defined by the tools that you use. The Pimento team hopes that it can foster your creativity thanks to artificial intelligence.

“It allows you to explore more directions more quickly, so that you can produce projects of higher quality,” co-founder Tomás Yany told me. AI models “bring a wealth of knowledge that no designer will ever have. They’ve seen a lot of things, because they were originally trained with data from Japan and Latin America,” he added later in the conversation as an example.

Pimento’s seed round was led by Partech and Cygni Capital. Several angel investors also participated in the round, such as Julien Chaumond (Hugging Face), Stanislas Polu (Dust), Thibaud Elzière (Hexa), Jean-Charles Samuelian (Alan), Igor Manceau (former creative director at Ubisoft), Jonathan Widawski (Maze), Alessandro Sabatelli (ex-Apple) and Nicolas Steegmann (ex-Stupeflix).

Image Credits: Pimento

So how do you use the tool exactly? Pimento’s co-founders showed me a demo of the product. You first start by typing some instructions of what you’re looking to achieve with your project, a sort of text brief. You then add a handful of images that will serve as the basis of your project.

After that, Pimento uses your instructions with AI models to help you come up with images, text and colors. There are three buttons on the screen that you can use whenever you want to generate images, text or colors.

If some of Pimento’s propositions seem interesting, you can save them for later. When you’re done, you can generate a link and share a board with all the images, colors and text that you have saved.

What makes Pimento different from using an off-the-shelf image-generating AI model is that everything you generate in Pimento is tailored to your initial brief — it becomes a sort of creative companion. In addition to that, you can also iterate on Pimento’s output.

For instance, you can select two images that you like and merge them to iterate one step further. You can pick a color from an image. You can reuse text to generate more images. You can ask for more image variants.

“There’s a debate on how you interact with these AI models. I don’t think the future is a chat interface where you enter prompt,” co-founder Florent Facq told me. It doesn’t mean that there’s no prompting in Pimento. But the company plans to offer several ways to interact with your content.

In the future, the company plans to add more features, such as the ability to customize the board that you’re going to share with the team or the client. Right now, the company uses fine-tuned open-source models, such as Stable Diffusion, Llama and soon Mistral AI.

It’s clear that there’s a long roadmap of new features that could be interesting for a product like Pimento. And the recent funding round will definitely help when it comes to product development. It’s also going to be interesting to see how companies start using the product.

Image Credits: Pimento

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IIT Hyderabad invites Women applicants for Assistant Professor post in various departments. See eligibility, salary here

The Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH) has invited women candidates to fill the position of Assistant Professor in various departments. Eligible and interested candidates can be send their applications online through the official website i.e. iith.ac.in. As per the notification, the last date to apply is 22nd December.

The notification states the opening is available for 15 departments namely: Artificial Intelligence, Electrical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Entrepreneurship and Management, Biotechnology, Liberal Arts, Chemical Engineering, Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering, Chemistry, Mathematics, Civil Engineering, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Computer Science & Engineering, Physics, Design.

The age limit of the candidates should be below 35 years, however, age limit is relaxed for SC till 40 years, OBC/NCL (38 years).

Eligibility: 

For Assistant Professor Grade I (Pay level 12), a minimum of three years of post-PhD teaching/research/professional experience, excluding the experience gained while pursuing PhD. The applicant should have demonstrated research capabilities in terms of publications in reputed journals and conferences and patents. As per 7thCPC, the minimum pay will be fixed at Rs. 1,01,500 (Matrix pay level of 12) along with admissible allowances. After completion of 3 years of satisfactory service, they may be moved to Pay Level13A1.

While for Assistant Professor Grade II (Pay level 10/11), applicants with less than 3 years’ post-PhD industrial/research/teaching experience may apply for direct recruitment for the positions of Assistant Professor Grade II. The minimum basic pay will be fixed Rs. 98,200/- along with allowances. It further added that the applicant can be considered via an internal assessment, for the post of Assistant Professor Grade I upon satisfactory completion 3 years of post-PhD experience.

Instructions for applicants:

– The applicants who applied during the last two years may highlight the substantial improvement in their CV since the last application.

– Separate applications must be submitted if an applicant is applying for a faculty position in more than one department.

– Applicants should submit their valid SC/ST/OBC-NCL certificate issued by the competent authority in the prescribed format along with the application form in support of their claim

– Applicants, if called for interview in physical mode, will be reimbursed airfare within India by Economy class from the place of their residence and back by the shortest route.

 

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Published: 07 Dec 2023, 01:47 PM IST

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