IAMAI fumes over new anti-tobacco rules for OTTs; Local firms ride ‘AI outsourcing’ wave

Also in the letter:
■ Sam Altman puts competition comments in context
■ Policybazaar’s broking business breaking even, almost
■ Short video app Tiki shutters

Anti-tobacco rules difficult to implement on OTTs, says IAMAI

The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has flagged “fundamental concerns” and “practical difficulties” in complying with new norms about anti-tobacco warnings on video streaming platforms.

Background: On May 31, the health ministry notified amendments in the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2004, which mandate over-the-top (OTT) video streaming platforms to display anti-tobacco warnings and disclaimers on the lines of such warnings displayed in movies in theatres.

What’s IAMAI’s issue? The IAMAI wrote to the health ministry that the new norms were announced without consulting the industry. The body has requested that the government revisit the 2023 Tobacco Warning Rules in consultation with OTT platforms “in the spirit of collaboration”.

Notably, the IAMAI has formed a self-regulatory body, the Digital Publishers Content Grievances Council (DPCGC), for video streaming platforms per rules issued by the information & broadcasting ministry.

Streaming platforms miffed: The online video streaming industry has argued that enforcement of these rules will result in them having to edit thousands of hours of footage to add anti-tobacco warnings, which would take substantial time and money.

Quick recap: The IAMAI recently elected a new governing council for a two-year term, with tech tsars like Google, Meta, and Amazon being absent from the council. Dream11 chief executive Harsh Jain replaced Google’s Sanjay Gupta as chairperson.

Advantage India as local firms ride AI outsourcing wave

The faster adoption of Generative AI globally is leading to increased client interest in AI consulting firms here as they are getting requests for proposals (RFPs) and projects around the new technology.

On a roll: NSE-listed Latent View Analytics said client conversations around Generative AI use-cases are up five times since the launch of ChatGPT, while unicorn Fractal Analytics said its client queries are up “dramatically”.

“This is like the mobile app revolution that happened in the early 2010s. Almost every company was developing an app (then). Now that’s happening with AI,” said Abhishek Agarwalla, CEO and cofounder at AI consulting firm Aidetic.

Outsourcing advantages: Experts and companies are dubbing this as “AI outsourcing” as existing members of clients are backlogged already with other product development work. They say typical advantages of outsourcing — quicker progress, budget constraints to host a dedicated team and expertise — are the reasons why it is getting triggered.

Say it again, Sam: Altman puts competition comments in context

OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman’s comments on Indian startups and competition during an event organised by ET on Wednesday ruffled the feathers of the country’s tech tribe and set them atwitter. Altman, however, put his comments in context on Saturday.

What happened? Altman had said during a Q&A session at the event that it was “totally hopeless to compete with us (OpenAI) on training foundational models,” responding to a hypothetical scenario where three engineers with $10 million tried to emulate the feat. Responding to this, Tech Mahindra MD and CEO CP Gurnani tweeted: “Dear @sama, from one CEO to another… challenge accepted’’.

Altman clarified that his comments were taken “out of context”. “The question was about competing with us with $10 million, which I really do think is not going to work. But I still said try!”

Read the full transcript of Sam Altman’s Q&A with India Inc

Entrepreneurs defend Altman: Businessmen lit into those who were offended by Altman’s statement. Unacademy cofounder Gaurav Munjal tweeted that founders and investors in India lack a long-term view.

Former Swiggy chief technology officer Dale Vaz also joined in. “He was answering a very specific question about whether ‘a group of 3 smart engineers with a $10mn budget could build foundational AI models’’.

Nikhil Kumar, cofounder of application programming interface (API) infrastructure startup Setu, also chimed in. “I don’t even know why some people are just trying to do chest thumping and saying challenge accepted’’, he tweeted.

Altman for regulation: The OpenAI chief said major companies operating in the AI space, including OpenAI, should be regulated, but not the smaller ones and startups. In conversation with Times Internet vice chairman Satyan Gajwani, he spoke about the advantages and dangers of OpenAI, including the serious geopolitical implications of potential misuse by dictators.

Tweet of the day

Policybazaar’s broking biz almost breaking even, contributing 42% of revenue

Alok Bansal and Yashish Dahiya, founders, Policybazaar

Policybazaar, once a consumer-focussed online insurance distribution platform, is expanding the share of revenue from its new business lines.

Money matters: PBFintech, a publicly listed entity which owns Policybazaar and credit aggregator Paisabazaar, generated Rs 365 crore of revenue in the fourth quarter of the last financial year from its new initiatives. This is up 137% from Rs 154 crore in the fourth quarter of the year prior.

PB Fintech joint group CEO Sarbvir Singh told ET that the new initiatives are doing well, with losses down to Rs 36 crore in the last quarter from around Rs 90 crore in the preceding one.

Also read | Paisabazaar looks to clock net profits in FY24, bets big on co-created products

New businesses: Policybazaar started three major new initiatives: PB Partners, PB Corporate, and expanded its business in the Gulf. The first two started after it received its insurance broking licence in 2021.

Under PB Partners, Policybazaar works with a network of real-life agents. PB Corporate sells B2B products like fire, marine, directors and officers insurance, and employee insurance.

Not just blingy tech: Singh clarified that these business lines aren’t only about shiny technology, but require hard-nosed bargaining with large corporations. Policybazaar is working aggressively to corner a large chunk of these markets, fighting large brokers like Marsh and others, he added.

Short video app Tiki shutters; Indian players to benefit

The turbulent tech industry saw its latest surrender. Social media company Tiki announced the shuttering of its business from June 28.

Why? In a tweet, the company announced that “due to challenges faced by the tech industry”, it will be ceasing operations.

With more than 100 million downloads on the Play Store, Tiki is among the top 30 grossing apps in India, and eighth among the top free social apps on the platform.

Boost for Indian players: The short video space in India is competitive, and this development is actually good news for some. Tiki’s closure could provide a fillip to Indian short video apps like Sharechat, Moj, and Josh, especially in tier II cities and beyond.

Other Top Stories By Our Reporters

Farm to Fork: How ONDC is giving nationwide visibility to FPOs: Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) aren’t typically on ecommerce merchant places such as Amazon and Flipkart where they can easily access consumers beyond their immediate neighbourhood. The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) is looking to change that.

Voice payments in local language bridge an eDivide: This technology is expected to significantly help feature phone users get the benefit of digital railroads such as Unified Payments Corporation (UPI).

Global Picks We Are Reading

Apple’s Vision Pro isn’t the future (Wired)

Reddit communities to ‘go dark’ in protest over third-party app charges (The Guardian)

Will generative AI boost productivity? (Financial Times)