It's a wrap: News this week (May 18 - May 24)

There have been multiple developments this week on the tech front. From OpenAI’s struggle with responsible AI to Microsoft Build 2024 to acquisitions of the week, this is the list of the most important developments for a quick catch-up:

OpenAI runs into trouble with responsible AI

After the exit of some of the prominent members last week, OpenAI finds itself amid a new challenge. Actress Scarlett Johansson released a statement claiming that OpenAI has a voice ‘eerily similar’ to her own for the new chatbot audio mode Sky. To be sure, ChatGPT offers four voice options named — Breeze, Cove, Ember, Juniper and Sky. Since then, OpenAI clarified that it is not an imitation of Johansson’s voice; however, the Sky voice has been suspended. 

HCLTech to acquire few assets of HPE’ CTG

IT services company HCLTech has announced that it will be acquiring certain assets of Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s (HPE) Communications Technology Group (CTG). Under this purchase, HCLTech will obtain intellectual property (IP), Engineering and R&D talent and client relationships with top global Communication Service Providers (CSPs).

Acquired services such as solutions and systems integration around Business Support Systems (BSS), network applications, service cloudification and data intelligence are expected to complement HCLTech’s existing digitalised services.

Microsoft Build 2024

Microsoft Corp. held its annual developer conference Microsoft Build from May 21-23 in Seattle where CEO Satya Nadella took centre stage to deliver a keynote address to announce several new updates. On the first day of the event the tech giant unveiled Team Copilot, a new version of its Copilot assistant aimed at enhancing group collaboration, and a slew of artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives. 

Several new updates were also made for developers to build more intelligent and interactive applications using AI and generative AI tools. The updates came just a day after Microsoft announced new Copilot+ PCs, and a week after Alphabet's Google I/O developer conference.

Cisco launches Webex Calling in India with Tata Comm

Cisco has launched its Webex Calling feature in India in partnership with Tata Communications. To be sure, Webex Calling is a solution from Cisco for enterprise-grade calling through cloud. According to the announcement made on Wednesday, Webex Calling will be integrated with Tata Communications Cloud-based Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). It will be routed via Tata Communications’ Mumbai data centre.

While Webex Calling was available in India previously too through on-premise infrastructure, with Tata Communications, this service will be offered through the latter’s managed cloud voice services called the GlobalRapide platform.