SEBI Takes AI Route to Curb Misselling, Zoom Rolls Out AI Companion

SEBI Aims to Reduce Misselling by Mutual Funds Through Artificial Intelligence

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is taking the artificial intelligence (AI) route to curb the misselling of capital market products like mutual funds. SEBI chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch, on Tuesday, said that the market regulator is working on an artificial intelligence tool to help detect misselling by mutual funds by mutual fund distributors or stock brokers. She states that it is a very complex problem and cites a recent case to illustrate an instance of misselling in which a 90-year-old investor was sold a product with a seven-year lock-in period. The proposed AI tool is expected to detect misselling that may go unnoticed in the market regulator's rule-based supervision.

Zoom Unveils AI Companion

Zoom has introduced a new ChatGPT-like generative assistant called AI Companion. The new AI chatbot will assist users in crafting chat responses and emails based on their prompts and provide meeting summaries highlighting important details in case users miss them. The chatbot also provides smart recordings by automatically dividing cloud recordings into smart chapters for easy review and creating the next steps for attendees to take action. Zoom's new AI Companion will be available at no additional cost to existing Pro and Business users. Zoom's AI Companion will be able to summarise chat messages instantly as well. Other updates to the AI chatbot will launch in the coming weeks.

Mappls KOGO Secures Rs. 9 Crore Funding From MapMyIndia

AI travel expert app Mappls KOGO has raised Rs. 9 crore in funding from digital maps company MapMyIndia. This is MapmyIndia's second investment in Mappls KOGO. Earlier, the geotech company had invested Rs. 10 crore in Mappls KOGO. Mappls KOGO was founded by Raj K Gopalakrishnan and Praveer Kochhar and is claimed to have a user base of over 20 lakh. The platform assists people in planning their travel quickly with expert recommendations generated by AI. MapMyIndia's expertise in mapping is expected to increase KOGO's AI travel services.

Hyderabad Firm Launches India's First AI-Backed Anti-Drone System

Hyderabad-based robotics firm Grene Robotics has unveiled India's first AI-powered autonomous anti-drone system. The latest state-of-the-art system dubbed "Indrajaal" is designed to safeguard nuclear installations and oil rigs. It can also cover an entire city from various types of drones. It is designed to defend against autonomous drones over an area of 4,000 square kilometres. 

The anti-drone system is claimed to be the world's only wide-area Counter-Unmanned Aircraft System (C-UAS). The trial for Indrajaal was conducted at Grene Robotics' test facility located in Hyderabad. Indrajaal is said to cover low radar cross section (RCS) threats to medium and high-altitude long endurance (MALE and HALE) UAVs, loitering munitions, smart bombs, rocket showers, nano and micro drones, swarm drones among others.

IBM Renews Collaboration With IIT-B and IISc to Drive AI Development

IT service major IBM has renewed its research collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc.), Bengaluru to drive innovations in hybrid cloud and AI. IIT Bombay joined the IBM AI Horizon Network in 2018 to advance AI research in the country. IBM and IISc. launched the IBM-IISc Hybrid Cloud lab in 2021 to advance research in hybrid cloud technologies.  The renewed association will focus on areas like extending prior research in natural language processing and question answering, machine learning, hybrid cloud optimisation and sustainable computing among others.

Cops to use AI to counter threats of drones 

The police department is looking to increase artificial intelligence technologies to track and find criminals. Punjab DGP Gaurav Yadav shared this plan to employ AI to counter the threats of drones and drugs in border areas during his visit to Pathankot and Gurdaspur to strengthen Village Defence Committees (VDCs). He will also reward members of the VDCs which had helped the police curb drug smuggling in the border areas in the last few months. The adoption of AI is expected to improve border security and help authorities combat emerging threats.