On this week's show, we get you a closer look at 'Champak', the robot dog that's grabbing headlines at this year's IPL. We also have a look at some of the new Gemini AI features for India and speak with experts about how the company is driving the AI India mission: this and a lot more tech on Tech Today.
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00:00You are watching the Tech Today Show and we have a special guest.
00:08You know, I've always had this fear that AI will come for my job one day.
00:12It's 2025 and it's already happening.
00:15But jokes apart, you've already seen this star in the IPL
00:19and we have an exclusive look here with Shampak.
00:23We're going to be talking about the tech that runs Shampak
00:25and also a little more tech that drives the IPL and the cricket around the world.
00:30So, let's explore what makes this one run and a whole lot more on the show.
00:35Let's go.
00:36All right, so before we get to all of the tech that's driving AI and in sports,
00:58let's first check out all of the top tech headlines of the week.
01:02Nothing CMF Phone 2 Pro has officially launched in India,
01:11starting at 18,999 for the 8GB plus 128GB storage variant
01:17and 20,999 for the 8GB plus 256GB model.
01:22The sleek device boasts a 6.7-inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate,
01:28a MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Pro chipset and a versatile triple camera setup.
01:34With its modular design and competitive pricing,
01:37the CMF Phone 2 Pro aims to make a significant impact in the budget segment.
01:42Stay tuned to Tech Today as we'll get you a comprehensive review of the device soon.
01:48Meta has introduced a standalone Meta AI app aiming to compete directly with ChatGPT.
01:58The app is currently available in select countries including the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
02:05It's expected that the app will be launched in India soon.
02:09Powered by Meta's latest Llama 4 model, the app offers features like text and voice interactions, image generation and web search.
02:18A unique aspect is the Discover feat, allowing users to view and share AI interactions within their social circles.
02:26Meta plans to introduce a premium tier and ads in the future, focusing initially on expanding user engagement.
02:34OpenAI has rolled out a new shopping feature in ChatGPT, taking on big players like Google and Amazon.
02:46Users can now receive tailored product recommendations across categories like electronics, fashion, beauty and home goods.
02:54These suggestions come with images, reviews and direct purchase links all within the Chat interface.
03:00Unlike traditional search engines, ChatGPT's results are organic and not influenced by paid advertisements focusing on user preferences and conversational context.
03:12This feature is available to all users including those without an account, marking a significant step in integrating AI into everyday shopping experiences.
03:30It's not just the cricket that's drawing crowds this IPL season.
03:42It's this four-legged, camera-totting tech marvel trotting straight into the hearts of the fans.
03:48Meet Champak, the robo-dog who's gone from machine to mascot, from circuits to celebrity.
03:55He's doing it all, walking up with the coin for the toss, working as a camera person, getting the best shots for the viewers at home, catching selfies with cricketers and casually stealing the limelight.
04:07If robots had a cricket fantasy league, Champak would be the captain.
04:12So besides all of the cricketing glamour that you've already seen Champak do on the field, we wanted to show you what you can do right here on the Tech Today show.
04:20So, Champak, I've been told that you can dance. Let's see your dance moves.
04:29That's incredible, right? I mean, we've already seen some sort of these dance-offs on the Tech Today show earlier as well.
04:36I mean, I cannot dance that well. I can try, I mean, but I can't, you know, match these moves.
04:42Alright, anyway, I think the audience loved your dance, maybe show them a bit of appreciation, a little bit of love.
04:48How about you show that?
04:50Isn't that incredible?
04:55I'm sure the audience just loves you, but what more can you show us?
04:58I'm sure you have certain tricks that you haven't shown the players.
05:02That's incredible. That's like a hop.
05:05So, I mean, this is the kind of tech that is available here.
05:10Oh, he's also waving. I mean, it's excellent.
05:12So, this is the kind of tech that's available here, and Jumper can make all of these moves happen.
05:16But how is it really happening? What's the tech behind it? Let me show you.
05:20But a bit of a high-five? Come on, high-five.
05:23This is lovely.
05:25This is lovely.
05:26But it's just not speed.
05:30This RoboDog has got style.
05:32With programmable moves, a built-in voice recognition module, mics, speakers, and even an ultra-wide-angle 3D LiDAR,
05:40Jumper isn't just smart, he's basically a four-legged rock star.
05:48Hey, Jumper, come here.
05:56All right, hang on, hang on, hang on.
05:57I've been told that you've been racing these cricketers and you're winning against them.
06:01So, why don't we race, huh? Let's go.
06:04So, I'm a bit of an adventure freak.
06:10I always like challenging technology, which is why today I am going to race against machine
06:16and see whether I am actually capable of beating this one.
06:19So, let's race.
06:21Then came the moment of truth.
06:24Heart versus hardware, man versus machine, Jumper versus me, the big race.
06:30We lined up, I gave it my best sprint, and let's just say, I'm proud to announce, humanity still wins.
06:39Sorry, Jumper, maybe next year, after you get some faster legs or an OS update.
06:45It was hot outside, so we've just stepped inside, have a little exercise, just calm down, relax ourselves,
07:01and Jumper is going to coach me with my exercises.
07:05So, I'm ready, I'm, you know, ready to just wind down and stretch.
07:09So, what's first?
07:09All right, I think this is a nice movement to do.
07:12Oh, okay, fairly simple.
07:17This is helping, it helps me relax.
07:19What else, what else can we do?
07:21This is nice, it helps stretch my lower back.
07:24What else is there?
07:25Oh, okay, I can do that as well.
07:29That's pretty simple.
07:32Yes, see, I like having a personal exercise coach.
07:36It's always convenient, especially something that's so sophisticated and high-tech.
07:42Now, don't let this size fool you.
07:44Jumper may look like a mechanical puppy, but this robot dog weighs a solid 17 kilos.
07:50That's almost as heavy as a real dog.
07:53Measuring 70 by 31 by 40 centimeters, and with a payload of 8 kilograms, he can carry everything
07:59from a cricket ball to your tech kit.
08:02And how fast is he?
08:04This one can run up to 3.5 meters per second.
08:07That's fast enough.
08:08While all of this looks cute, Jumper does this without throwing tantrums for any treats.
08:14Talk about an obedient dog.
08:16I need something more challenging.
08:18What else can we do?
08:22Okay, I can't do that.
08:23That's just you showing off.
08:25I have my limitations.
08:26I'm still a human.
08:27So, while we saw its capabilities, it is quite flexible.
08:33But what's the tech behind it?
08:35Let's speak with the expert and find out what makes Champak jump.
08:40Thank you so much for your time.
08:46And first, let's just try to understand the basics.
08:49I've had a lot of fun with Champak.
08:52I've never experienced something like this.
08:53So, can you just give us a brief of the tech that is running this robot dog?
08:59The platform is a robotic system, which looks and functions like a dog.
09:04And that's why we call it that.
09:06But it is also mounted with a special gimbal camera.
09:11It's a camera that is stabilized to adjust to the movements of the dog.
09:16And it has a pan and a tilt control, remote control.
09:20And it also has an RF radio frequency video transmitter.
09:25So that we can see the point of view of the dog in whatever environment he's in.
09:31So, this whole tech is the platform and the camera and the complete ecosystem and the operations around it.
09:40So, all right.
09:41So, moving to a conversation about the tech.
09:44We've seen Champak do all of these movements.
09:46And it seems very fluid and actually almost moves like a real dog.
09:50So, I wanted to understand, are you programming this?
09:53Is it pre-programmed?
09:54What's happening there?
09:55It's the platform started off with the programming move.
09:58And of course, we have modified a few things here and there.
10:01Right.
10:01But yeah, it is programmable.
10:05So, let's just move on to the other tech that is happening in the IPL.
10:08I see a lot of augmented reality being used in the broadcast.
10:11So, can you just tell us how that tech, how you are basically working with AR in matches?
10:16So, for augmented reality in matches, we are seeing a huge trend where gaming technologies
10:24are moving into broadcast.
10:26Right.
10:27And in addition to that, we are also looking at doing 3D volumetric scans of players,
10:33putting them into 3D environments for augmented reality camera moves around.
10:38It looks nice.
10:39Something like which was done with me.
10:41Yes.
10:41Something that is done with you.
10:42So, we scan the talent and we put them into 3D environments and augment that in studios or in
10:51Stadia for augmented reality or whatever application.
10:53So, all of these expressions that are coming, do the players actually give these expressions
10:58or how is that happening?
11:00That's the future of artificial intelligence.
11:03It's generative AI.
11:05So, all of these expressions, the players aren't doing themselves.
11:08No.
11:08You are adding them using Gen AI.
11:11That's right.
11:11How does that happen?
11:12So, we take standard mugshots of players and we get another talent to
11:21emote such an expression.
11:22Could be anyone.
11:23And then we use generative AI to merge the two and produce the videos.
11:27That's fantastic.
11:28So, I think we've learned a lot of the tech that's happening within the IPL and I'm sure a lot
11:33of the audience would be fascinated by this.
11:35And I hope more tech keeps getting added to sport and thank you so much for your time.
11:42Whether it's sports, surveillance or showbiz, dogs like Chumpak aren't just mechanical mascots.
11:48They're the future of four legs.
11:50And here at Tech Today, we had a total blast.
11:54Sure, he may not fetch your slippers yet, but hey, he brings the tech charm and that's a win in our book.
12:00So, Google is launching some very cool features in their AI division, but understanding AI is a bit
12:16complicated. So, we spoke to the people who are closely working with AI to find out what's new.
12:21Let's check it out.
12:25Google is stepping up its AI game in India and its new Gemini features could give it the edge it needs.
12:32With India first tools and a clear focus on regional users, the tech giant is doubling down on the market.
12:39So, what's the strategy behind it all? I spoke to Google's top execs to find out.
12:44What has Gemini announced today for India?
12:48We conducted a research which is probably one of the most comprehensive
12:52Gen AI, AI researchers in India to really understand deeply, you know, how AI is, you know,
12:58entering people's lives. That nearly 60% of people aren't quite familiar with AI. And the penetration or,
13:05you know, people have used it are in their early 30%. So, there is a tremendous opportunity,
13:10therefore, of building, you know, therefore, the penetration and awareness of AI.
13:14Gemini 2.5 is viewed as this most powerful thinking model. And on these leaderboards like this
13:22chatbot arena, it has taken the leadership position by a fairly significant margin.
13:28Of course, my team continues to make it also the most efficient model out there,
13:34in particular, Gemini Flash. Another aspect in which we are continuing to drive
13:38its capabilities are in languages, understanding many more languages.
13:42So, Gemini Live formally supports nine Indian languages. And under the covers, we are making,
13:49again, these Gemini models understand over 100 Indian languages, hundreds of languages across the world.
13:55But what about the next step in understanding the different other languages that we have in India?
14:01One of the issues that has held back, right, their due place,
14:06has been the relatively low amount of digital presence of these languages. Even if you look at
14:13Hindi, for instance, it's spoken by roughly 10% of the world. And yet, if you look at the percentage of
14:19open web content, which is available in Hindi, it's 0.1%. It's a factor of 1000 difference.
14:25Then we have seen languages which are spoken by millions of people. How much digital content do you
14:31have on that language available on the public web? For many of these languages, 0. We need to start
14:40collecting the speech data from different parts of India. Because in India, we have this saying,
14:44right, kos kos pe badle paani, char kos per wani. And already with the first phase of Project Wani,
14:51we have made data freely available, over 14,000 hours of speech data, covering 59 Indian languages,
14:59of which 15 are what used to be zero corpus languages. This is the first known digital data
15:05for those languages, which is now available to the research community as well as the AI practitioners,
15:13to utilize that data in building their models.
15:21I want you to understand breakthroughs like these. When do they and how do they trickle down into
15:27user case where average users, people like us, would be able to use something like this?
15:32I would love to see more researchers in India make use of, recognize the potential for AI to accelerate
15:42scientific discovery. We have such an amazing pharmaceutical industry, but a lot of it has
15:48been around generics, right, where we let others discover new drugs and then we figure out a way to
15:56manufacture them inexpensively. Why shouldn't India be at the forefront of even discovering new drugs?
16:02And we have seen again, some very, very inspiring examples of startups, which are beginning to do
16:08that. Is Gemini looking to democratize or make models more affordable that can also give us the
16:15pro experience, but you won't have to pay for it. We're talking about multi-modality in which you can
16:20now engage with the model. So it's not just a through text, but you can do it through Gemini live,
16:24you know, having a voice conversation and take the option of video and actually point your camera
16:30towards items and talk about it. So it's now becoming video interface as well, or indeed have VO2,
16:36which is our model, our latest model, which is really setting the standard from a text to a video
16:41point of view. So these are many, many multiple access points for users to satisfy their curiosity.
16:46What DeepSeek showed is, I think, very impressive. It showed, yes, there is a company out of China,
16:58which built this foundation model and kind of something in open source. But it was not a new
17:05paradigm in how to build these models more efficiently. I think there we have already shown
17:11the way with Gemini. And some of that numbers about that $6 million cost, while it is accurate,
17:18it is misleading because this is the cost of the final training run. And pretty much,
17:23most of these other models have a very similar cost.
17:26When we make use of, again, all of this, like creative material and so on,
17:37we work a lot, right, with artists and kind of compensating the sources from which we draw upon.
17:46We have been at the forefront of, so my colleagues came out with this Synth ID technology,
17:51which is able to create those digital, whatever, bookmarks, watermarks, right,
17:58to identify AI-generated content so that it can be very clearly distinguished, right,
18:03from human-generated content. And in fact, we have kind of made it freely available in open source.
18:09We have recently announced a partnership with Nvidia that they will start using it. We are working with,
18:15for instance, music artists and we are working on developing models in a manner that now you can
18:23attribute, kind of, you can fine-tune that model in a manner that any kind of output that you generate
18:30out of that fine-tuned version of the model will be attributable to this particular artist whose work
18:36has been used so that the appropriate sharing can be done.
18:40We have started the process. We are acquiring GPUs. We are acquiring the talent.
18:49What is Google's role? Is there a role that Google is playing in accelerating or assisting that effort
18:55right now? We have been partnering with the India AI mission in terms of both kind of sharing some of
19:02our own know-how, sharing kind of our views, right, of areas in which the investments need to be made.
19:10Correct.
19:11And then, of course, contributing to things like data sets, collecting all of this data in different
19:16languages, making that freely available. Like, we provided a million-dollar grant to the Center for
19:22Responsible AI when it was set up at IT Madras. Centers in AI at IT Bombay, IT Delhi, we have been funding them for a long time.
19:32Does regulation stifle AI development in any way or is it something that should be there?
19:42It is absolutely important for AI to be regulated, but then it is so important it is also absolutely
19:51essential for it to be regulated well, right. So not regulated in a manner that kind of comes in the way
19:58of recognizing this positive impact, right, that we are seeing of AI. So I find it, again, extremely
20:07gratifying to see the very pro-innovation stance that the Indian government has taken when it comes to
20:13regulation. But of course, we have to protect the citizens and we have to kind of… So there is a lot of,
20:20again, very thoughtful approach being taken in creating those guardrails and kind of trying to
20:30measure and start to guard against these biases that these models could lead to while not stifling
20:38innovation, not like throwing the baby out of the bathwater.
20:41All right, it's time for our segment with Sana. And Sana, I cannot tell you how close I was
20:51when I was about to buy an iPhone for almost 3000 rupees. Yes, sounds too good to be true. It wasn't
20:57because I was on a fake website and the deal was offering me a phone for 3000. But I'm sure a lot
21:04of people who are surfing online would want to know how to deal with these fake websites when they're
21:09offering these gadgets and iPhones for like half of the amount or maybe even less. So is there a solution?
21:16Oh wow, I hope it didn't come with a free brick. But seriously, fake sites are getting trickier.
21:22First, check the web address if it's missing letters, has weird spellings,
21:26or doesn't start with HTTPS, that's a red flag. Real sites usually have proper contact details,
21:32clear return policies, and genuine reviews and not just reviews like amazing phone from someone named
21:37user123. All right, Sana, I think that's a great tip. And also for all of the viewers,
21:43please stay away from all of these platforms that have these fake products. And also do not put any of
21:49your card information or give any OTPs on these platforms until and unless you actually
21:54trust these platforms. Because most of these offers that they will be selling the iPhone for
21:593000 or 10,000 rupees sound too good to be true because they are not genuine. So stay away from
22:05this. And yes, if anybody is selling you gadgets at the price of samosas, please don't go there. And
22:11speaking of hot samosas, it's time for another question because a user on X wants to know that their
22:18smartphones tend to get hot, a lot hot when they are charging their batteries or gaming on their
22:24phone. So, Sana, can we help out the user? Why does this happen? And how can they stop this from
22:30happening? Phones heating up is actually quite common. When you game, your phone's processor and
22:35graphics chip work overtime and that generates heat. Then, if you're charging it at the same time,
22:41especially with a fast charger, you're stacking to heat sources together.
22:44Right, I think these are great tips. Also remember guys, please do not be charging your devices
22:49whenever you are running heavy applications, especially when you are gaming on your smartphone.
22:54Stay away from environments or spaces which are hot and especially do not game under direct sunlight
23:00because it affects the temperature of the phone. And as always, stay cool because your smartphone
23:07batteries will deplete and their lives will also die. But hopefully, these tips were helpful
23:14thank you so much, Sana, for all of the help and I'll see you next week.
23:17That's it for this week's Tech Today. Hope you enjoyed our segment with Champak and also
23:22more information about the IPL and how cricket is driven and also combining with technology.
23:27If you have any suggestions, comments, please send us to them on the email id that we have mentioned
23:32and I'll be back with next week episode. More tech and more fun coming your way.
23:36The Society is signing off. Champak, say goodbye.