An anonymous reader shares a report: For decades, India’s economic promise has rested on its demographic dividend — the competitive edge of a massive, young, and increasingly educated workforce. Economists and policymakers have routinely cited the country’s population profile as its ticket to economic superpower status, with projections of reaching $10 trillion in GDP and achieving high-income status by 2047. These forecasts depend heavily on a critical assumption: that roughly 500 million Indians currently aged 5-24 will find productive employment as they enter the workforce over the next two decades. But a sobering new analysis from Bernstein suggests this fundamental premise may be crumbling under the weight of rapid advances in AI.

“The advent of AI threatens to erode all the advantages of India’s rich demographic dividend,” write Bernstein analysts Venugopal Garre and Nikhil Arela, who characterize their assessment as a potential “doomsday scenario” for a nation that has hitched its economic wagon to services-led growth. At stake is India’s $350 billion services export sector — a sprawling ecosystem of IT outsourcing, business process management, and offshore knowledge centers that employs over 10 million workers, mostly in jobs that place them in the top 25% of the country’s income distribution.

While India’s IT giants have successfully navigated previous technological shifts — from basic call centers in the late 1980s to cloud computing and data analytics more recently — AI poses a fundamentally different challenge. Unlike earlier transitions that required human adaptation, today’s AI systems threaten to replace rather than complement the workforce. “AI subscriptions that come at a fraction of the costs of India’s entry level engineers can be deployed to perform tasks at higher precision and speed,” the report note.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Washington Post: Virginia is set to become the first state in the country to require some reckless drivers to put devices on their cars that make it impossible to drive too fast. D.C. passed similar legislation last year. Several other states, including Maryland, are considering joining them. It’s an embrace of a technological solution to a human problem: Speeding contributes to more than 10,000 deaths a year. Under the Virginia legislation, a judge can decide to order drivers to install the speed limiters in their vehicles in lieu of taking away their driving privileges or sending them to jail. It takes effect in July 2026.

Del. Patrick A. Hope (D-Arlington) said various advocacy groups, including Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the National Safety Council, gave him the idea. He drove a car outfitted with the technology and was impressed. “It was easy to use, and once you’re engaged it’s impossible to go over the speed limit,” he said. “It will make our streets safer.” He thinks the device is preferable to suspending drivers’ licenses, a punishment that people frequently ignore because they have no other way of getting to work or the store or taking their children to school. It’s an approach similar to using an interlock device that requires a person convicted of drunken driving to pass a Breathalyzer test to start their car.

Hope wanted anyone convicted of reckless driving after going 100 mph or more to be required to use a limiter for two to six months, but Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) struck that part of the bill, leaving all use of the limiting technology up to the state courts. Hope expressed concern about the governor’s amendment but will urge the General Assembly to accept it, as the legislature typically does when the bill’s sponsor signals support. Drivers must pay for the speed limiters themselves. (As in D.C., indigent defendants are exempt from paying.) The limiters won’t be used in Virginia on commercial vehicles. Attempting to evade the speed limiter by tampering with it or driving a different car is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.

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Following OpenAI’s viral Studio Ghibli moment, CEO Sam Altman says it has temporarily limited image generation in ChatGPT due to the overwhelming demand on its GPU infrastructure. “It’s super fun seeing people love images in ChatGPT, but our GPUs are melting,” he posted on X today. The Verge reports: The demand crunch already caused the artificial intelligence company to push back availability of the built-in image generator for users on ChatGPT’s free tier. But apparently that measure alone wasn’t enough to ease the stress on OpenAI’s infrastructure. (Altman said free users will “soon” be able to generate up to three images per day.)

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U.S. robotics companies, including Tesla and Boston Dynamics, are urging lawmakers to establish a national robotics strategy to keep pace with China’s aggressive investment in AI-driven robotics. The Associated Press reports: Jeff Cardenas, co-founder and CEO of humanoid startup Apptronik, of Austin, Texas, pointed out to lawmakers that it was American carmaker General Motors that deployed the first industrial robot at a New Jersey assembly plant in 1961. But the U.S. then ceded its early lead to Japan, which remains a powerhouse of industrial robotics, along with Europe. The next robotics race will be powered by artificial intelligence and will be “anybody’s to win,” Cardenas said in an interview after the closed-door meeting. “I think the U.S. has a great chance of winning. We’re leading in AI, and I think we’re building some of the best robots in the world. But we need a national strategy if we’re going to continue to build and stay ahead.”

The Association for Advancing Automation said a national strategy would help U.S. companies scale production and drive the adoption of robots as the “physical manifestation” of AI. The group made it clear that China and several other countries already have a plan in place. Without that leadership, “the U.S. will not only lose the robotics race but also the AI race,” the association said in a statement. The group also suggested tax incentives to help drive adoption, along with federally-funded training programs and funding for both academic research and commercial innovation. A new federal robotics office, the association argued, is necessary partly because of “the increasing global competition in the space” as well as the “growing sophistication” of the technology.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: Fashion retailer H&M is to use artificial intelligence (AI) to create digital “twins” of 30 models. It says it will use the AI doppelgangers in some social media posts and marketing in the place of humans, if given permission by models. “We are curious to explore how to showcase our fashion in new creative ways — and embrace the benefits of new technology — while staying true to our commitment to personal style,” said its chief creative officer Jorgen Andersson in a statement.

The initiative was first reported by industry publication Business of Fashion. H&M told the outlet that models would retain rights over their digital replicas and their use by the company and other brands for purposes such as marketing. Its images are likely to be initially used in social media posts, with watermarks that make their AI use clear, it added. H&M also said models would be compensated for use of their digital twins in a similar way to current arrangements — which sees them paid for use of their images based on rates agreed by their agent.

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Google is rolling out new AI-powered features across Maps, Search, and Hotels to simplify travel planning, including a screenshot-detection tool in Maps that identifies and saves locations mentioned in image text. The Verge reports: Once the new screenshot list is enabled in Maps, the Gemini-powered feature will detect places that are mentioned in text within screenshots on the device, show users the locations on the map, and allow them to review and save locations to a sharable list. The screenshot list feature will start rolling out in English this week to iOS users in the US, with Android support “coming soon.”

AI Overviews for Google Search are also being updated to expand travel planning tools, with itinerary-building features rolling out in English to mobile and desktop devices in the US this week that can create trip ideas for “distinct regions or entire countries.” Users can use terms like “create a vacation itinerary for Greece that focuses on history” to explore reviews and photos from other users alongside a map of location recommendations, which can be saved to Google Maps or exported to Docs or Gmail.

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Cats: they’re born rulers. And what better way to demonstrate their sovereignty than forcing their owner to build them forts? This is a video of Chris Burton of Half-Asleep Chris (I’m 95% Asleep Jack) building ten different forts for his cats Ralph and Bella using (in order): cardboard shipping tubes, foam bricks, a teepee, toilet paper rolls, a geodesic dome, plastic sticks and blankets, giant LEGO style bricks, a camouflaged bird-watching hide, a network of tunnels, and a kid’s playhouse. That’s fun! I mean, if you’re a cat. Most of those were barely big enough for me to fit inside. Ralph, Bella — demand your peasant comes and builds me a tree fort.

Two Democratic members of the Federal Trade Commission who were fired by President Trump sued him today, saying their removals are “in direct violation of a century of federal law and Supreme Court precedent.”

“Plaintiffs bring this action to vindicate their right to serve the remainder of their respective terms, to defend the integrity of the Commission, and to continue their work for the American people,” said the lawsuit filed by Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya in US District Court for the District of Columbia.

Trump last week sent Slaughter and Bedoya notices that said, “I am writing to inform you that you have been removed from the Federal Trade Commission, effective immediately.” They were then cut off from their FTC email addresses, asked to return electronic devices, and denied access to their offices.

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