Quick notes: AI scraping | R Thyagarajan...

• AI Scraping: Big Tech wants to "digest" copyrighted works. Google is training its bots on millions of copyrighted works without permission. The company wants to change copyright laws so that it can grab any content it wants from the Internet, use it as training data for its AI products, and argue “fair use” if anyone objects to its plagiarism.



• The Economic Losers in the New World Order: Giant subsidies and rising protectionism are upending decades of free trade. The world’s biggest economies are offering huge subsidies in a cutthroat race to win the industries of the future. The losers: all the countries that can’t pay up. Smaller countries, from the U.K. to Singapore, are getting left behind



• R Thyagarajan: Indian tycoon gave away $750 million. He doesn't even own a mobile phone. RT founded the Shriram group in Chennai in 1974



• India is a rising force in Southeast Asia: India is taking major strides to expand its influence in Southeast Asia, a move that will allow countries to counter China’s dominance in the region. “Since China hasn’t budged on the border issue, India now feels there has been no real return for its cautious attitude towards Southeast Asia”.
  
  For several states that most distrust China in the region — namely the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Singapore, India is an additional partner to help counter Beijing.



• Decouple: India bars makers of military drones from using Chinese parts. India relies on foreign manufacturers for both parts and entire systems as it lacks the know-how to make certain types of drones. "There has to be coherent national strategy to fill the technology gaps" to deliver commercially viable products.



• Stop feeding your enemy: U.S. bans future investments in Chinese AI, Semiconductor, and Quantum Computing



• Sunway supercomputer: China builds Exascale supercomputer with 19.2 Million cores. Despite sanctions, Chinese supercomputers continue to develop.



• TSMC faces opposition to worker visas for Arizona Fab: The "Stand with American Workers" campaign demands that TSMC's foreign worker visas be denied, insisting that the company should employ locals



• English Note: Prince Rama Varma




• Toxic pharma exports from India: A cold medication made in India and sold in Iraq is tainted with toxic chemicals. The Cold Out label indicates it was made by Fourrts (India) Pvt. Ltd., a Chennai-based exporter of medicines.
  
  It’s the fifth time in a year that testing has found an Indian exporter’s drugs to contain excessive levels of ethylene glycol. Cases of Indian-made tainted cold syrups have been reported in Indonesia, Gambia, Uzbekistan and Cameroon, and have killed about 300 children in the past year.



• When will UK return its loot? US returns haul of stolen artefacts to Italy



• What alcohol does to a woman’s body: For a variety of reasons, women can’t metabolize alcohol as fast as men, meaning they have more of the toxic substance in their systems for longer. Women have lower amounts of the enzyme, alcohol dehydrogenase, needed to break their drinks down, so they are left with higher levels of a substance that is toxic to organs like the liver. Moreover, women have less body water to dilute the alcohol they’ve consumed — the end result is that alcohol in their systems becomes more concentrated



• India’s English-medium craze stunts brains: The more highly developed the first language skills, the better the results in the second language.

English-medium education leaves students worse off not just in overall learning but even in English skills.

This is because a base of mother-tongue education is best for brain development.

India’s English-medium craze stunts brains.@SubramanianKri writes in TOI. pic.twitter.com/a195HxPiYg

— Sankrant Sanu सानु संक्रान्त ਸੰਕ੍ਰਾਂਤ ਸਾਨੁ (@sankrant) August 11, 2023