Author: Satyen K Bordoloi

Two Nobel Prizes this year, one for developers of AI and the other for researchers using it, have sparked unnecessary controversy writes Satyen K. Bordoloi The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which selects Nobel Prize winners, stunned the world by awarding two prizes with AI connections this year. The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to physicist John Hopfield, and computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton for their work in developing Artificial Intelligence. The Chemistry Nobel went to Professor David Baker of the University of Washington, and Demis Hassabis and John Jumper, co-founders of the AI firm DeepMind. This has divided the world. The…

Much like Kodak, Xerox, and Nokia before, four big tech companies missed the biggest opportunity of this decade: AI. Now, they are struggling to catch up, writes Satyen K. Bordoloi. Not many know that Kodak invented the digital camera, or that Xerox invented the GUI, Ethernet, mouse, and PC among many other things that are the backbone of our digital lives. But they became so big, that they got comfortable with what they had, and this myopia took them to the brink of extinction. Image Courtesy: lexica.art When we talk of AI, we already have four aspirants who almost made…

As we concretise plans to build a colony on the Moon, real-time communication with that space real estate still eludes us, writes Satyen K. Bordoloi. He finds setting up data centres on the Moon is the first step toward becoming a spacefaring ‘civilization’. In sci-fi, communication between planets was instantaneous even before it was so on Earth. Now that voice and video messaging is fast on Earth, our belief in space communications has shot-up. The truth is that transmission through the vast expanse of space is the final frontier before we become a spacefaring civilization. Voyager 1, travelling away from…

It is said AI in filmmaking will change cinema. Satyen K. Bordoloi argues that the opposite is also true as he outlines the amazing tools that deals like this could unleash into the world. In the 2002 film Awara Paagal Deewana, Akshay Kumar copies the lobby fight sequence from The Matrix. It was achieved by flying in the team that created the original to Mumbai. Naturally, it cost a bomb. Today, AI can achieve better quality at a fraction of the cost. A deal to make something like this possible, transforming both AI and filmmaking, was signed between Lionsgate and…

Amazon, the tech titan that reshaped retail, is late to the AI party. Satyen K. Bordoloi delves into why a key pioneer of our tech-driven lives took its time on AI and chatbots, and wonders if it can catch up. In a move that has surprised the tech world, Amazon, the e-commerce giant that revolutionized retail and reshaped how we interact with tech for over a quarter century, unveiled its own AI-powered shopping assistant. Called ‘Rufus’, you’ll find it on the extreme right bottom corner of your Amazon app. The astonishment was because this chatbot, still in its beta and…

That barely any content we consume is original, used to be a metaphysical and artistic angst, but with GenAI content in the mix for 2 years, researchers warn of a threat to AI itself, writes Satyen K. Bordoloi. Few lines in literature have generated as much debate about their meaning as writer Chuck Palahniuk’s in Fight Club: ‘…everything is a copy of a copy of a copy.’ The protagonist says it, as he walks through life as a raging insomniac, unable to focus. The Hollywood film made the line and the book’s philosophy famous, but I don’t think anyone has…

Women’s tears have been a subject of ridicule for alpha males, but turns out it is exactly for those brutes that tears evolved, writes Satyen K. Bordoloi. At an all-women’s filmmaker panel in the 2010 Mumbai Film Festival, filmmaker Zoya Akhtar was unapologetic about her mood swings during her periods, saying: “On my sets I will cry if I want to. I will be in all my hormonal glory. As a man, you have chosen to be part of my set, so you handle it, boy.” Back then, before the full manifestation of women’s power, we saw in the second…

Quantum computing, though in its infancy, threatens to change everything. Leading the research is a recent quantum communications experiment in New York that could change the world in our lifetimes, opines Satyen K. Bordoloi. In the “Three-Body Problem” trilogy by sci-fi writer Liu Cixin, an alien species called Trisolarans have unlocked the secrets of quantum physics. As they journey to colonise us on an armada of ships to reach Earth 400 years later, they send two quantum photons packed in another dimension to keep Earth in check. These quantum particles create a near-instantaneous communication bridge between them and Earth, trillions…

AIoT has been around for a decade, but few know how transformative it can be to your business and life, writes Satyen K. Bordoloi. The world is overflowing with information. From your heartbeat to the movement of clouds and stock markets, we have data about everything but intelligence about nothing. Adding to this flood is the Internet of Things (IoT); devices with sensors that create more data, overwhelming our minds. What if we could address this problem by adding a layer that analyses all the data to make sense of it and provide useful insights that we can action? This…

Susan Wojcicki slipped away into the night, a quiet departure for a woman who gave millions a voice through YouTube. As Satyen K. Bordoloi pieces together her extraordinary life, he’s struck by the stark contrast between her public legacy and her private existence. In September 1998, a newlywed Susan Wojcicki, working at Intel, crossed paths with two Stanford PhD students. A shared passion for technology, ignited by her Stanford upbringing, created an instant connection. The students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, were searching for a workspace to nurture their nascent search engine. Struggling to make ends meet in their newly…