Think Artificial Intelligence

Netflix branches out into fitness content with upcoming launch of Nike Training Club classes Netflix has officially entered the fitness content market after announcing today that it will begin streaming Nike Training Club classes the following week. In two distinct batches, the streaming service will make available a total of 30 hours of workout sessions. The programmes, which offer exercises for people of all fitness levels, will be accessible on all Netflix subscriptions in a variety of languages. On December 30, the first round of fitness classes will debut, and the second round will follow in 2023. The first batch will consist of 45 episodes in total, and it will feature the following classes: Feel-Good Fitness, HIIT & Strength with Tara, Fall in Love with Vinyasa Yoga, Kickstart Fitness with the Basics, and Two Weeks to a Stronger Core. Users of Netflix will be able to search for "Nike" to access the classes once they are made available.

Adani Group launches Adani One for airport services like air tickets, flight status, access to lounges, etc. Adani Group rolled out a digital platform for its airport vertical on Monday as the ports-to-power conglomerate, helmed by Gautam Adani, inches closer to unveiling its super app. Adani One, developed in-house, will enable users to book air tickets, check flight status, access lounges, shop for duty-free products, get cabs and avail parking facilities. “We have taken a step forward in our digital journey,” Nitin Sethi, senior vice president and chief digital officer for consumer businesses at Adani Group, wrote in a LinkedIn post. “It’s our collective effort to build a digital twin that will eventually parallel our traditional businesses.” Details: https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/adani-group-takes-digital-route-with-adani-one-airport-vertical-integrated-first/amp-11671448562576.html

India seeks to rope in Meta as a reliable AI partner Top government officials are said to have floated ideas that include onboarding social media giant Meta as the government's trusted artificial intelligence (AI) partner at a time when India has assumed the chairmanship of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI). India reportedly offered to use its position at GPAI to push for more innovative regulations if Meta became the government's trusted AI partner. Indian authorities also inquired about Meta's interest in establishing a local initiative for Indian AI researchers. The country's AI software market, which was worth $2.76 billion in 2020, is expected to grow to $7.8 billion by 2025. Details: https://inc42.com/buzz/india-looks-to-rope-in-meta-as-its-trusted-ai-partner/

Here are the steps to access the Paddy Doctor dataset without an IEEE DataPort subscription fee ($40/month): 1. Log in to your IEEE DataPort account at https://ieee-dataport.org/. If you are not an IEEE member, create a free IEEE account and log in. 2. Visit the Paddy Doctor dataset at https://dx.doi.org/10.21227/hz4v-af08 3. Click on "Send Author a Private Message" (under the questions section) and send a message with your name and affiliation. 4. You will receive a link to the dataset in response to this message within 24 hours.

Paddy Doctor: A Visual Image Dataset for Automated Paddy Disease Classification and Benchmarking About: Paddy Doctor is the largest annotated visual image dataset for automated paddy disease classification. The paddy leaf images were collected from real paddy fields using high-resolution (1,080 x 1,440 pixels) smartphone cameras. The collected images were carefully cleaned and annotated with the help of an agronomist. The final dataset contains 16,225 leaf images across 13 classes (12 distinct paddy diseases and healthy leaves). Dataset link: https://dx.doi.org/10.21227/hz4v-af08 Project website: https://paddydoc.github.io/ Code and results: https://paddydoc.github.io/code/ Paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2205.11108 Kaggle competition: https://www.kaggle.com/competitions/paddy-disease-classification

Sony Brings Metaverse to Smartphones with Wearable Motion Trackers Sony launched a set of wearable motion trackers that will bring users into the metaverse with their smartphones. The Mocopi system comprises six pucks worn around the user’s wrist, ankles, hands and hips. These sensors will work to animate avatars inside various metaverse apps. Sony said it will launch these motion trackers in Japan in January next year at a retail price of 49,500 Yen (or approx Rs 29,222). YouTubers and people working in content development are the key target audiences for the Mocopi motion trackers. With the Mocopi system, Sony is essentially expanding the market for metaverse which is in its early stages. The low-cost accessory, which requires a phone, is a great way to experience metaverse, the 3D version of the web where you can interact with digital surroundings within your real-world surroundings.

RBI to test retail digital rupee on December 1 The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced that the retail digital rupee will be launched on a trial basis on December 1, 2022. The central bank has identified eight banks to participate in this trial in stages. The retail digital rupee will take the form of a legal tender digital token. The RBI will print digital currency in the same denominations as paper money and coins. Retail digital rupee transactions can be completed on mobile phones and other devices using a digital wallet. Only digital wallets provided by banks participating in the RBI's digital rupee programme can conduct digital currency transactions.

Convert 2D image to a 3D model with AI Gaming industry need realistic view in 3D and researchers are proposing several ways to creating 3D models of the real world. Check the following link for details on this. Magically turn a 2D image to a 3D model with Artificial Intelligence using the following link: Details: https://magicfabricblog.com/from-image-to-3d-model/

Huge Potential of Robotic Systems Humanoid robots could generate $154 billion in revenue over next 15 years, Goldman Sachs reports. Details: https://interestingengineering.com/culture/humanoid-154-billion-business-in-15-years

Deep Learning for Robots Checkout the following Google AI paper on Learning from Large-Scale Interaction [March 2016] Details: https://ai.googleblog.com/2016/03/deep-learning-for-robots-learning-from.html

**AI Based Method for Whole Body Control of a Robot Dog** Carnegie Mellon researchers claim they have used new AI techniques to train much cheaper robot dogs (approx $6,000 cost) to reproduce the advanced functionality of the Boston Dynamics Spot robot. Details: https://manipulation-locomotion.github.io/

Man vs. Machine: AI narrowly beats out human scholar in test of scientific skill - Predicting which proteins would self-fold. Humans six out of eleven predicted. AI six out of nine predicted. Details: https://studyfinds.org/man-vs-machine-ai-beats-human/

The Indian startup ecosystem is worth a whopping Rs 3 trillion! India, one of the world's largest economies, is witnessing a continuous rise in its startup ecosystem, with the country now home to more than 100 unicorns. A unicorn is a privately held startup worth more than $1 billion. Not only is the number of startups increasing in the country, but the valuation of India's startup ecosystem has risen to nearly Rs 3 lakh crore, or Rs 3 trillion, according to Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday. Goyal was speaking to students, faculty, and alumni from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), the National Institute of Design (NID), and other institutions. In addition, when discussing the various initiatives undertaken by the government to promote startups, the commerce minister stated that the Centre is strengthening patent offices and that everything will be done online.

Wishing you a very Happy Diwali. May the lights of the splendid festival spread happiness, love & prosperity into the lives of your loved ones. Warm regards.

Elon Musk's Starlink applied for a DoT licence to bring satellite internet to India SpaceX, Starlink's parent company, is said to have applied to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for a licence to bring satellite-based broadband to India. Elon Musk's company applied to the DoT for a Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite (GMPCS) licence last week, according to ET, citing DoT officials. Starlink is, by the way, the third company to apply for a GMPCS licence. Starlink is the third company to submit an application for a GMPCS licence. OneWeb, which is backed by Airtel, and Jio's satellite arm, Jio Space Technology, have also applied. Before it can begin operations in India, the company will need to obtain a number of additional licences.

Flipkart launched a metaverse-based virtual shopping experience 'Flipverse' Indian ecommerce platform Flipkart launched Flipverse, a metaverse-based virtual shopping experience. The news comes just a month after it was revealed that Flipkart was preparing to introduce a metaverse-based experience. The news comes six months after Flipkart launched Flipkart Labs, a new initiative to test Web3 technology and ecommerce use cases. Flipverse will be available on Flipkart's newly launched FireDrops platform, which can be accessed via the ecommerce platform's app. In a metaverse environment, the Flipverse will allow users to discover and shop for products. To create the virtual shopping experience, the ecommerce company collaborated with eDAO, Meta, and Ethereum Layer-2 scaling startup Polygon.

RBI issues concept note on CBDC, plans to launch digital rupee pilot soon The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced on Friday that the pilot launch of digital rupees for specific use cases will begin soon, and that the concept note for the Central Bank Digital Currency has been released (CBDC). CBDCs are sovereign currencies issued by central banks to support their monetary policy. The RBI said in a statement that as the extent and scope of the digital rupee pilot launch expands, it will continue to communicate about the specific features and benefits of the digital rupee on a regular basis. The RBI stated in the concept note that it hopes to raise awareness about digital currencies in general and the planned features of the digital rupee in particular.

Space Billboards According to a new study, a billboard-like constellation of about 50 satellites could shine ads to every corner of the Earth for months — and potentially make money while doing so. The study, conducted by Russian researchers at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) and the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), makes a reasonably compelling case, which is bolstered by the recent controversy surrounding SpaceX's highly visible Starlink satellites. The proposal in the paper is to launch a constellation of about 50 satellites at a 12U CubeSat volume — roughly the size of a full paper grocery bag. The satellites would be placed in a sun-synchronous orbit, which means they would always be in direct sunlight as they circled the Earth.

PhD Students Meet-Up at Delhi, IND Follow us at https://www.linkedin.com/company/ai-shala Why? To enable interactions among PhD Students and provide a platform for PhD students to present their work to fellow PhD students & local faculty, to develop a network & have discussion, we are organizing PhD Students Meet-up. Who?: For registered CS / IT / Computing PhD Students in & around NCR / Delhi When?: 10:30 A.M. –1:00 P.M. IST, 15 Oct 2022 Where?: IIIT Delhi [More details will be shared with registered students] To attend and / or to present, please register at https://forms.office.com/r/gMuCNsvK44

Flipkart joins the Metaverse Revolution, planning to launch Flipverse this Diwali Flipkart is reportedly planning to launch Flipverse, an interactive and Metaverse-themed virtual shopping platform, during the ongoing 'Big Billion Days Sale.' According to sources, Flipkart has collaborated on the project with social media giant Meta and Ethereum Layer-2 scaling startup Polygon. They also stated that the Metaverse project could be launched this year as early as Diwali (around October). Flipverse is expected to use a variety of Web3.0 technologies to enhance the current user experience with virtual reality. The new service will allow users to navigate a virtual shopping mall and interact with digital storefronts. Flipverse, according to the report, will host games, NFTs, product launches, and other contests.