It’s a wrap: News this week (Feb 22 – Feb 28)

There have been multiple developments this week on the tech front. From new data center launches to OpenAI’s GPT-4.5 announcement, here is a list of the most important updates for a quick catch-up:

CtrlS opens Chennai data center park

CtrlS launched a data center park in Chennai on Wednesday. The park has two data center facilities — DC 1 and DC 2, with an overall capacity of 72 MW. It will create 500 direct and 9,000 indirect jobs. With the new facility, CtrlS now has 15 data centers in 10 cities, including Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Patna, and Lucknow, among others. 

The Chennai data center park has been built with a direct investment of ₹4,000 crore (~$480 million). The company also said that an indirect investment of ₹50,000 crore ($6 billion) from customers who would be leveraging the facility’s colocation services.

Sify Infinit Space, a subsidiary of Sify Technologies Limited, announced the launch of its AI-Hub Data Centre in Lucknow on Monday to enhance data infrastructure in northern India. Located within the HCL IT City campus on Sultanpur Road, the facility will be developed in four phases, with the first phase expected to be operational by June 2025.

Orient Tech partners with AWS

Mid-sized IT services company Orient Technologies announced a partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) India on Thursday to provide enhanced GPU and Artificial Intelligence (AI) services for the domestic market. This collaboration supports the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s (MeitY) IndiaAI initiative, underscoring Orient Technologies’ dedication to fostering AI development and promoting innovation within India’s technology landscape.

AWS’ high-performance GPUs present cost-effective options for AI model training, enabling businesses to optimise their budgets while accelerating AI advancements. By utilising AWS’s GPU technology, AI services, and cloud infrastructure, the Mumbai-based firm seeks to help organisations leverage AI capabilities on a larger scale.

Infosys launches open source responsible AI toolkit

IT major Infosys has launched an open source 'Responsible AI' toolkit to address various risks and ethical concerns. Part of the Infosys Topaz Responsible AI Suite, this toolkit assists businesses in adopting AI ethically. 

The new toolkit builds on the company's AI3S framework (scan, shield, and steer) by providing advanced defensive technical measures, including specialised AI models and shielding algorithms. These tools help detect and mitigate issues like privacy breaches, security threats, biased outcomes, harmful content, copyright violations, hallucinations, misuse, and deepfakes.

Tech Mahindra announces AI partnership with Qualcomm

Tech Mahindra has announced the integration of its AI model, IndusQ LLM, with Qualcomm AI Hub, a platform designed for on-device AI deployment. This collaboration aims to enhance AI capabilities for enterprises, enabling real-time automation and insights across industries. 

The partnership brings together Tech Mahindra’s AI solutions and Qualcomm’s expertise in AI technologies. It is expected to drive advancements in connected devices, autonomous vehicles, and smart cities. By deploying AI models directly on devices, businesses can scale applications more efficiently while reducing setup complexities. 

PayTM partners with Perplexity

Digital payments platform Paytm has announced a partnership with Perplexity, an AI-driven answer engine. This collaboration aims to integrate real-time AI-powered search within the Paytm app, allowing users to access quick and reliable financial information.

Perplexity, marketed as a rival to traditional search engines like Google Search, will enhance the Paytm platform by providing users with instant insights on financial services, market trends, and other relevant topics. This move is expected to improve digital literacy and assist users in making informed decisions.

OpenAI launches GPT-4.5

ChatGPT maker has announced GPT-4.5, close to two years after the launch of its predecessor GPT-4. OpenAI says that it is its largest and best model for chat yet, and presents a step forward in scaling up pre-training and post-training. It is reportedly more ‘human’ in its responses and is also expected to hallucinate less. 

Sam Altman, however, said that it is a giant and expensive model. “We really wanted to launch it to plus and pro at the same time, but we've been growing a lot and are out of GPUs.” He wrote that the company would add tens of thousands of GPUs next week and then roll it out to the plus tier.