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In a response to Reuters questions, South Africa's national treasury said it, along with President Cyril Ramaphosa's office, had appointed a consultant that it did not name to find ways to resolve the issue. It would also allow the decommissioning of three power plants, which the government is considering delaying because of the shortages of generation capacity. Rudi Dicks, the head of project management at the South African presidency, said there was a need to "clarify as a matter of urgency" whether the international loans could be accepted. Of the $8.5 billion pledged to South Africa, $3 billion is from the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), a leading multilateral investor in developing countries. In a statement it said it remained "committed to supporting South Africa's just transition from coal to clean power".

Persons: Cyril Ramaphosa's, Rudi Dicks, Promit Mukherjee, Carien du Plessis, Olivia Kumwenda, Barbara Lewis Organizations: European Union, Reuters Graphics, Reuters, Partners, Investment Funds, Thomson Locations: JOHANNESBURG, Britain, France, Germany, United States, South Africa, Africa

BRUSSELS/STOCKHOLM, June 14 (Reuters) - EU lawmakers on Wednesday voted for tougher landmark draft artificial intelligence rules that include a ban on the use of the technology in biometric surveillance and for generative AI systems like ChatGPT to disclose AI-generated content. The lawmakers agreed the amendments to the draft legislation proposed by the European Commission which is seeking to set a global standard for the technology used in everything from automated factories to bots and self-driving cars. Microsoft, which has called for AI rules, welcomed the lawmakers' agreement. However, the Computer and Communications Industry Association said the amendments on high-risk AIs were likely to overburden European AI developers with "excessively prescriptive rules" and slow down innovation. The lawmakers will now have to thrash out details with European Union countries before the draft rules become legislation.

Persons: Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Brando Benifei, Thierry Breton, Foo Yun Chee, Bart Meijers, Supantha Mukherjee, Emelia Sithole Organizations: European, Microsoft, Elon, Big Tech, Union, Computer and Communications Industry Association, AIs, The Commission, Thomson Locations: BRUSSELS, STOCKHOLM, Europe, United States, China, Brussels, Stockholm

☆ From rockets to recruitment, Israel's military refocuses on AI
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Dan Williams | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

For the next flare-up, Colonel Eli Birenbaum, chief of the military's operational data and applications unit, has plans to use artificial intelligence aggregation to predict the salvoes. Currently, he said, there are "many hundreds" of personnel dealing broadly with AI-related projects, and who constitute 20% of military technologists. He has government backing, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu increasing the defence budget and pledging to make Israel an AI "powerhouse". During their mandatory service - two years for women, 32 months for men - military technologists earn a monthly $335. For Israel, AI target-acquisition will not spell automated target-destruction, Birenbaum stressed.

Persons: Nir Elias RAMAT, Eli Birenbaum, Birenbaum, Benjamin Netanyahu, Dan Williams, Supantha Mukherjee, Nick Macfie Organizations: IDF, REUTERS, Reuters, Google, Thomson Locations: Ramat Gan, Israel, Gaza, Tel Aviv

"This would be the nail in the coffin for Huawei in Europe," said Paolo Pescatore, an analyst at PP Foresight. China has asked for Huawei to be one of the main points on the agenda, one of the sources familiar with the matter said. Germany's China hawks expressed outrage in March when a Reuters story revealed that German state rail operator Deutsche Bahn was using Huawei gear to digitalise its operations. Berlin in 2021 passed a law setting high hurdles for makers of telecommunications equipment for the "critical components" of 5G networks. It is estimated it would cost billions of euros to rip out and replace Huawei equipment in European countries, potentially burdening telecom companies already sitting on huge debts.

Persons: Paolo Pescatore, Andrew Small, Mikko Huotari, Sweden's, Sarah Marsh, Andreas Rinke, Supantha Mukherjee, Foo Yun Chee, Sergio Goncalves, Mark Potter Organizations: European, Huawei, Deutsche Telekom, Foresight, Deutsche Bahn, Mercator Institute for China Studies, Telecom, Nokia, Sweden's Ericsson, Thomson Locations: BERLIN, STOCKHOLM, Germany, Brussels, Berlin, Beijing, Europe, China, China's, Denmark, Portugal, West, U.S, Stockholm, Lisbon

☆ Denmark looks to curb collection of data on children by Big Tech
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] The logo for Google LLC is seen at the Google Store Chelsea in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., November 17, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew KellyCOPENHAGEN, June 12 (Reuters) - Denmark aims to raise the age limit for the collection of personal data from children by tech giants such as Google, Snapchat and Meta, in a bid to curb the massive accumulation of data on young people, the government said on Monday. It wants to raise to between 15 and 16 years the age at which children can consent to share personal data with tech companies, from 13 now. The companies will also require parental consent to use data from children younger than that. "The tech giants must take greater responsibility," business minister Morten Bodskov said as the government unveiled initiatives to rein in the influence of global tech companies.

Persons: Andrew Kelly COPENHAGEN, Morten Bodskov, Johannes Birkebaek, Nikolaj Skydsgaard, Supantha Mukherjee, Clarence Fernandez Organizations: Google LLC, Google, Chelsea, REUTERS, Meta, Thomson Locations: Manhattan , New York City, U.S, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Netherlands, United States

☆ OpenAI chief executive does not plan to take company public
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

STOCKHOLM, June 6 (Reuters) - Microsoft-backed OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has no plans to go public any time soon, Chief Executive Sam Altman said at a conference in Abu Dhabi. "When we develop super intelligence, we are likely to make some decisions that most investors would look at very strangely," Altman said. "I don't want to be sued by ... public market, Wall Street etc, so no, not that interested," he replied to a question on whether he will take OpenAI public. OpenAI has so far raised $10 billion from Microsoft (MSFT.O) at a valuation of almost $30 billion as it invests more on building computing capacity. Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm Editing by David GoodmanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Sam Altman, Altman, OpenAI, Supantha Mukherjee, David Goodman Organizations: Microsoft, Thomson Locations: STOCKHOLM, Abu Dhabi, Stockholm

STOCKHOLM, June 6 (Reuters) - Swedish startup evroc, which is backed by EQT Ventures and Norrsken VC, plans to raise and invest 3 billion euros ($3.2 billion) over the next couple of years to start operating two "hyperscale" data centres. Led by serial entrepreneur Mattias Åström, evroc plans to keep the data within Europe. It has raised a seed round, and plans to build eight hyperscale data centres by 2028, three software development hubs and employ over 3,000 people. It will use a technique called "eco load balancer" which will move data processing between evroc's data centres based on where renewable energy is most readily available and affordable. "When there is sunshine in Spain, we move data processing to Spain; when there's wind in the Netherlands, we move data processing there," Åström said.

Persons: Mattias Åström, Åström, Supantha Mukherjee, Hugh Lawson Organizations: EQT Ventures, Norrsken, Reuters, Thomson Locations: STOCKHOLM, Europe, Spain, Netherlands, Sweden, Northvolt, Stockholm

STOCKHOLM, June 6 (Reuters) - Microsoft-backed OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has no plans to go public any time soon, Chief Executive Sam Altman said at a conference in Abu Dhabi. OpenAI has so far raised $10 billion from Microsoft (MSFT.O) at a valuation of almost $30 billion as it invests more on building computing capacity. "We did not threaten to leave the EU," Altman said on Tuesday. There's still more clarity we are waiting for on the EU AI Act, but we are very excited to operate in Europe." Many experts have cited a potential threat to jobs being replaced by AI including in sectors such as transport and logistics, office support and administration, production, services and retail.

Persons: Sam Altman, Altman, OpenAI, Thierry Breton, Margrethe Vestager, Supantha Mukherjee, David Goodman, Emelia Organizations: Microsoft, United Arab Emirates, EU, Thomson Locations: STOCKHOLM, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, India, South Korea, EU, Europe, Stockholm

☆ South Africa's Standard Bank says it exceeds 2022 green financing target
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

JOHANNESBURG, May 30 (Reuters) - South Africa's Standard Bank Group (SBKJ.J) funded renewable energy projects worth 55 billion rand ($2.79 billion) in 2022, exceeding its green financing target and putting it ahead of the world's top lenders, it said on Tuesday. Africa's biggest lender by assets earmarked 40 billion rand for sustainable projects last year, Kenny Fihla, its chief executive for Corporate and Investment Banking, said in slides prepared for journalists. However, in October he pegged that target at 50 billion rand. Standard Bank has been regularly criticised by environmental advocates and activist investors for funding climate-polluting hydrocarbon assets on the continent. "Our financing of renewable energy is 439% greater than our financing of non-renewable energy," Filha said, adding this achievement was significant when compared with the world's largest financiers.

Persons: Kenny Fihla, TotalEnergies, Filha, Anait Miridzhanian, Promit Mukherjee, Emelia Organizations: Standard Bank, Corporate, Investment Banking, Bank, Oil Pipeline, Absa, Thomson Locations: JOHANNESBURG, Mozambique, South Africa

"Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war," more than 350 signatories wrote in a letter published by the nonprofit Center for AI Safety (CAIS). As well as Altman, they included the CEOs of AI firms DeepMind and Anthropic, and executives from Microsoft (MSFT.O) and Google (GOOGL.O). Elon Musk and a group of AI experts and industry executives were the first ones to cite potential risks to society in April. AI pioneer Hinton earlier told Reuters that AI could pose a "more urgent" threat to humanity than climate change. Last week OpenAI CEO Sam Altman referred to EU AI - the first efforts to create a regulation for AI - as over-regulation and threatened to leave Europe.

☆ Reliance's JioCinema signs content streaming deal with NBC Universal
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BENGALURU, May 29 (Reuters) - JioCinema, the streaming platform run by India's Reliance Industries Ltd (RELI.NS), has signed a partnership with NBC Universal Media in a push to increase Hollywood content on the platform for Indian viewers, the companies said on Monday. The multi-year deal will give JioCinema's premium subscribers access to popular shows such as "Downton Abbey", "Suits" and "The Office," the companies said in a joint statement. This comes after JioCinema signed a content streaming deal with Warner Bros Discovery Inc (WBD.O) in April for shows such as "Succession" and "Game of Thrones". JioCinema announced its premium pricing earlier this month, moving away from free content model to fight rivals like Netflix (NFLX.O) and Disney (DIS.N) in the content streaming space. Reporting by Shilpa Jamkhandikar and Hritam Mukherjee; Editing by Savio D'SouzaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Xiaomi to make wireless audio products in India
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW DELHI/BENGALURU, May 29 (Reuters) - Xiaomi Corp's (1810.HK) Indian arm will start making wireless audio products in the country through a partnership with electronics manufacturer Optiemus in a push to further localise its operations, the company said on Monday. The push comes as the manufacturer of the Redmi brand of smartphones recently lost out to South Korean rival Samsung (005930.KS) as India's top smartphones company. Xiaomi, which locally manufactures most of the smartphones and TVs it sells in India, did not say when it will start making the audio products. It sells speakers, ear-buds, wired and wireless headphones in India. Reporting by Aditya Kalra in New Delhi, writing by Hritam Mukherjee in BengaluruOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

SummarySummary Companies OpenAI CEO reverses earlier threat to leave EuropeSays had productive week of conversations about regulating AIEU lawmakers were critical about OpenAI's threat regionMay 26 (Reuters) - OpenAI has no plans to leave Europe, CEO Sam Altman said on Friday, reversing a threat made earlier this week to leave the region if it becomes too hard to comply with upcoming laws on artificial intelligence. "We are excited to continue to operate here and of course have no plans to leave," Altman said in a tweet on Friday. His threat of quitting Europe had drawn criticism from EU industry chief Thierry Breton and a host of other lawmakers. He called his tour a "very productive week of conversations in Europe about how to best regulate AI!" OpenAI first clashed with regulators in March, when Italian data regulator Garante shut the app down domestically, accusing OpenAI of flouting European privacy rules.

Garante is among the most proactive of the 31 national data protection authorities which oversee Europe's data privacy regime known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The agency was the first to ban AI chatbot company Replika, to impose fines on facial recognition software maker Clearview AI, and to restrict TikTok in Europe. "We are looking for three AI advisers because we are aware AI tools are evolving very quickly and we need experts with tech background to help us in our data protection activity," Ghiglia said. "We explored ChatGPT and realised it was not compliant with EU data privacy rules." "That's why we decided to act swiftly with ChatGPT", Ghiglia said.

The European Union is at the forefront of drafting new AI rules that could set the global benchmark to address privacy and safety concerns that have arisen with the rapid advances in the generative AI technology behind OpenAI's ChatGPT. "If it's about protecting personal data, they apply data protection laws, if it's a threat to safety of people, there are regulations that have not been specifically defined for AI, but they are still applicable." Data protection authorities in France and Spain also launched in April probes into OpenAI's compliance with privacy laws. 'THINKING CREATIVELY'French data regulator CNIL has started "thinking creatively" about how existing laws might apply to AI, according to Bertrand Pailhes, its technology lead. "We are looking at the full range of effects, although our focus remains on data protection and privacy," he told Reuters.

☆ India's PhonePe raises additional $100 mln from General Atlantic
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

BENGALURU, May 22 (Reuters) - Walmart Inc (WMT.N)-owned Indian payments firm PhonePe on Monday said that it has secured an additional $100 million from private equity firm General Atlantic, in the latest round of its ongoing $1 billion fundraising. Including the latest round, PhonePe has raised a total of $850 million so far. PhonePe is India's most valuable payments firm with an estimated value of $12 billion and among the country's most highly-valued startups. The company plans to deploy these funds to build and scale new businesses including insurance, wealth management and lending, PhonePe said in March. American retailer Walmart, which acquired a majority share in PhonePe in 2018, will continue as a majority investor in the company.

The agreement came after the European Union, which participates in the G7, inched closer this month to passing legislation to regulate AI technology, potentially the world's first comprehensive AI law that could form a precedent among the advanced economies. The G7 leaders said they "need to immediately take stock of the opportunities and challenges of generative AI", a subset of the technology popularised by the ChatGPT app. A month later, EU lawmakers urged world leaders to find ways to control AI technologies, saying they were developing faster than expected. The United States so far has taken a cautious approach on governing AI, with President Joe Biden last month saying it remained to be seen whether AI is dangerous. While acknowledging differences on how AI should be regulated, the G7 leaders agreed on Friday to create a ministerial forum dubbed the "Hiroshima AI process" to discuss issues around generative AI, such as copyrights and disinformation, by the end of this year.

TOKYO, May 20 (Reuters) - Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) nations on Saturday called for the development and adoption of international technical standards for trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI) as lawmakers of the rich countries focus on the new technology. The agreement came after European Union, which is represented at the G7, inched closer this month to passing legislation to regulate AI technology, potentially the world's first comprehensive AI law. The G7 leaders mentioned generative AI, the subset popularised by the ChatGPT app, saying they "need to immediately take stock of the opportunities and challenges of generative AI." The heads of government agreed on Friday to create a ministerial forum dubbed the "Hiroshima AI process" to discuss issues around generative AI tools, such as intellectual property rights and disinformation, by the end of this year. The summit followed a G7 digital ministers' meeting last month, where the countries - the U.S., Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada - said they should adopt "risk-based" AI regulation.

☆ How to Wear a Sari? A New Exhibition Counts the Ways.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Phyllida Jay | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The sari, in essence, is a six- to nine-yard cloth draped freely around the body. In April, Zendaya wore a sparkling deep-blue sari by Rahul Mishra on a red carpet in Mumbai, India. At the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, the Indian actress Deepika Padukone wore a shimmering gold-and-black sari by Sabyasachi Mukherjee that Vogue France called “the star piece” of the festival. Ms. Poonawalla’s Met Gala sari is among the pieces featured in a new exhibition, “The Offbeat Sari,” opening on Friday at the Design Museum in London. The show, which runs through September, explores how the sari is being newly defined, said Priya Khanchandani, the head of curatorial at the museum.

☆ India's Sterlite Tech swings to profit in Q4 on optical networking boost
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BENGALURU, May 17 (Reuters) - Indian networking solutions provider Sterlite Technologies Ltd (STTE.NS) swung to a fourth-quarter profit on Wednesday, aided by strong growth in its mainstay optical networking business. The company's consolidated net profit stood at 650 million rupees ($8 million) for the quarter ended March 2023, compared to a net loss of 220 million rupees a year ago, it said in an exchange filing. Consolidated revenue from operations jumped 25% to 18.72 billion rupees, the company said. Optical networking business, which contributed a hefty 80% of the company's topline, grew 40% to 15.05 billion rupees. Additionally, the company declared a final dividend of 1 rupee per share and approved fundraise of up to 10 billion rupees.

[1/2] An advertising board shows a 5G logo at the International Airport in Zaventem, Belgium May 4, 2020. The proposal is part of feedback to the European Commission which launched a consultation into the issue in February. The document, which was reviewed by Reuters and has not been published, was compiled by lobbying groups GSMA and ETNO. Telecom operators have lobbied for years for leading technology companies to contribute to funding 5G and broadband roll-out, saying that they use a huge part of the region's internet traffic. Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google, Apple (AAPL.O), Meta (META.O), Netflix , Amazon (AMZN.O) and Microsoft (MSFT.O) account for more than half of data internet traffic.

☆ Vodacom reports 6.4% drop in full-year profit
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

JOHANNESBURG, May 15 (Reuters) - African telecoms major and South Africa's biggest mobile carrier Vodacom Group (VODJ.J) reported a 6.4% drop in full-year profit due to a local power crisis and other operational activities. Its headline earnings per share, a profit measure used in South Africa, came in at 948 South African cents for the year ended on March 31, down from 1,013 cents posted a year ago. The company, owned by Britain's Vodafone (VOD.L), has been investing to become a pan-African player, a leading financial services firm and strengthen its data offering in South Africa. But those efforts were dampened as South Africa, its biggest market in the region, has been struggling with rolling blackouts for up to 10 hours a day, forcing telecom firms to run their towers and network on diesel-run generators. ($1 = 18.3161 rand)Reporting by Promit Mukherjee; Editing by Jacqueline WongOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ South Africa is 'actively non-aligned' on Ukraine war, says government
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

JOHANNESBURG, May 13 (Reuters) - South Africa's presidential security advisor said on Saturday the country was "actively non-aligned" in Russia's war against Ukraine, after U.S. allegations it had supplied weapons to Moscow led to a diplomatic crisis this week. The U.S. ambassador to South Africa Reuben Brigety said on Thursday he was confident a Russian ship under U.S. sanctions had collected weapons from a base near Cape Town in December. Senior U.S. officials had "profound concerns" about South Africa not respecting its professed policy of non-alignment, he added. South Africa has abstained from voting on U.N. resolutions condemning the war. A government statement late in the evening said: the ambassador "admitted that he crossed the line and apologised unreservedly to the government and the people of South Africa."

Both plants will start production in 2026, employ thousands of people and supply batteries to European car makers. With Taiwan a focal point in tensions between Washington and Beijing, the company also wanted to secure a base overseas. Volkswagen was expected to announce a battery plant location in Europe late last year but said in March it is awaiting more clarity from Europe on subsidies before making a decision. The plant by Taiwan's ProLogium would be its first overseas car battery factory. A second plant could also be constructed in parallel elsewhere, a Northvolt spokesperson said, including in North America.

☆ Japan's Mitsubishi Electric to build India plant for $231 mln
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

BENGALURU, May 9 (Reuters) - The Indian arm of Japan's Mitsubishi Electric Corp (6503.T) said on Tuesday that it will invest 18.91 billion rupees ($231.2 million) to set up a manufacturing facility in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. Mitsubishi Electric India will employ 2004 people for this project, it said in an official statement. ($1 = 81.7800 Indian rupees)Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Ann ThoppilOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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