This Week I Learned - Week #25 2024

This Week I Learned - 

* Google has launched the Gemini mobile app in India, offering support in English and nine Indian languages, including Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. The app enables users to type, speak, or upload an image for assistance. For instance, taking a photo of a flat tire can provide instructions on how to fix it. Android users can access Gemini by downloading the app or opting in via Google Assistant, and activate it by corner swiping, pressing the power button on certain phones, or by saying "Hey Google."

* Gemini Advanced, featuring a one million token context window, boasts the most extensive context capability among consumer chatbots globally. This feature enables it to process and comprehend a massive range of information, including documents as long as 1,500 pages, extensive email threads, and, potentially in the near future, hours of video content and large codebases.

* Gemini Advanced has the capability to clean, explore, analyze, and visualize data, converting it into interactive charts and graphs. Complex data analysis tasks can be managed by uploading spreadsheets such as Google Sheets, CSVs, and Excel files. Gemini Advanced serves as a personal data analyst, revealing insights and creating custom visualizations instantly. 

* Perplexity chatbot attributes fake quotes to real people. According to a WIRED investigation, Perplexity is scraping websites without permission. Perplexity ignores a widely accepted web standard known as the Robots Exclusion Protocol to surreptitiously scrape areas of websites that operators do not want accessed by bots, likely using an automated web browser running on a server with an IP address that the company does not publicly disclose. Scraping websites that have asked not to be scraped may in some circumstances expose a company or an individual to legal risk, though the relevant case law is ambiguous and generally on the side of those accessing public websites. - Wired

* Apple is stepping up its game with Apple Intelligence, bringing OpenAI's smarts to Siri. It's a big leap for the tech giant, finally letting generative AI play in its exclusive "walled garden" of products. 

* AI-Powered Diagnosis - In the "The Good Doctor" (S7E4), an intern uses AI software to search for all potentially relevant non-English language articles to find a relevant case study with an unusual fix to a health issue.

* Calculating Empires is a large-scale research visualization exploring how technical and social structures co-evolved over five centuries....the industrial transformations in AI are concentrating power into even fewer hands, while accelerating polarization and alienation. If we are to address the urgent challenges of the contemporary time - including technocratic fascism, climate catastrophe, colonial wars, and wealth inequality - we need to contend with the interwoven nature of their histories. In order to have a future, we must first confront our past.

* The United States imposed a ban on the Russia-based cybersecurity company Kaspersky, prohibiting the distribution of its widely-used antivirus products there.

* Japan’s NTT has merged its non-Japan businesses into NTT Data Inc.

* The Bismarck model is a universal healthcare system where everyone must have health insurance. This insurance is typically funded by contributions from both employers and employees to a government-regulated fund, which in turn pays for medical care. It’s characterized by non-profit payers and is used in countries like Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Czech Republic. Providers are usually privately owned, and patients have direct access to specialists. Countries like South Korea and the Netherlands, while having a basic state insurance, have a much stronger private presence in the healthcare providers and insurances systems. While primary care is generally more accessible in a Bismarck system, there is an argument that obtaining elective care can be slower in a Bismarck system compared to a free-market healthcare system, such as that of the US.

* Stonehenge, the ancient stone circle in Wiltshire, England, is believed to have been constructed in various phases from 3000 BCE to 1500 BCE. Historically, it likely served as an important ceremonial site for rituals held during the summer and winter solstices, given that the arrangement of the stones corresponds precisely with the path of the sun on these occasions.

* Despite being narrower, the small intestine is the longest part of the digestive tract, stretching approximately 22 feet (or seven meters), which is over three times the length of an average human body.

* In India, the top 10 selling cars account for 46% of total passenger vehicle sales. In large auto markets like China, the US and Europe, that number is 19%. - ET

* Electric vehicles (EVs) in India are currently subject to a mere 5% tax, while hybrids face a steep 43% tax, slightly less than the 48% levied on petrol cars. EVs represent a modest 2% of total passenger vehicle sales in India, in stark contrast to China, where EVs comprise a substantial 38% market share. In India, battery electric vehicles (EVs) outsell hybrids, whereas in Europe, the US, and Japan, the situation is reversed, with hybrids selling more than battery EVs.

* Currently, cash on delivery (COD) accounts for approximately 60% of all e-commerce transactions in India.

* The Post Office Act, 2023 repeals the Indian Post Office Act, 1898. The Act aims to create a simple legislative framework for delivery of citizen centric services, banking services and benefits of Government schemes at the last mile.