Category: Technology

In a major step towards making Pakistan a regional IT hub, Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja on Saturday said Google will manufacture approximately 600,000 Chromebooks annually in the country. Speaking to the media, she said Google has completed its registration in Pakistan and plans to open its office in the country soon. Highlighting recent developments under the leadership of the prime minister, she said that Pakistan’s engagement with leading global technology and social media companies has entered a new and productive phase. Shaza explained that…

Almost 28% of Americans confessed to pursuing “intimate or romantic” ties with AI chatbots, revealed a study. Vantage Point Counselling Services’ study revealed that at least 54% of respondents believe AI was a colleague, friend, or even a family member. Some respondents categorise their relationship with AI as a platonic friendship, business or working colleague, personal trainer, therapist, sibling or parent, and others. Vantage also shared a list of at least 30 AI platforms with which respondents claim to have a relationship. According to the study, GPT is on top,…

Take-Two Interactive said on Thursday it expects to launch “Grand Theft Auto VI” on November 19 next year, in the latest delay for the gaming industry’s most-anticipated title following the blockbuster success of its predecessor. Shares of the company, which had previously said it would launch the title on May 26, were down more than 7% in extended trading. This marks the second delay for the game – initially set for launch this year – and will further disappoint millions of fans who have waited for more than a decade…

WhatsApp has been restored following a widespread outage that left users across the globe unable to send messages or access chats for several hours. According to Downdetector, which tracks service disruptions, the first reports emerged shortly around 7pm in Pakistan, with the number of complaints sharply increasing within an hour. Graph shows WhatsApp outages end after global disruptions. — Downdetector Users from several countries — including the UK, Pakistan, Brazil, Peru, Costa Rica, Italy, and the United States — reported that chats failed to load and messages were not being delivered.…

Rapid advancements of artificial intelligence in game development have game creators on edge, as machines start dreaming up characters and worlds for next-generation video games. Already, “generative AI is used a lot more in commercial game development than people realise, but it’s used in very small ways”, such as dubbing, illustrations or coding help, said Mike Cook, a game designer and computer science lecturer at King’s College London. Such uses of AI are rarely noticeable for the player of the finished product, he added. One study from the American startup…

A three-person Chinese crew, including the country’s youngest astronaut to date, docked with the Tiangong space station early Saturday, accompanied by four laboratory mice. China’s Xinhua news agency said Shenzhou-21 made contact at 3:22am (1922 GMT Friday), roughly three and a half hours after lifting off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in north-west China atop a Long March-2F rocket. The Tiangong space station — crewed by teams of three astronauts that are exchanged every six months — is the crown jewel of China’s space programme, into which billions of dollars…

BEIJING: China will place a Pakistani astronaut on a short-duration mission to its space station, state news agency Xinhua reported on Thursday. Under the plan, two Pakistani candidates will train alongside Chinese taikonauts, the China Manned Space Agency said at a press conference, with one to be selected as a payload specialist for the brief spaceflight. Earlier this year, the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco) signed a cooperation agreement with CMSA, setting the stage for Pakistan’s first astronauts to set off on a mission to Tiangong – the Chinese Space…

SAN FRANCISCO: Amazon will lay off tens of thousands of office workers as the e-commerce and tech giant trims costs amid ramped-up investments in artificial intelligence, according to US media reports. Some 30,000 positions will be cut in a belt-tightening move expected to begin on Tuesday, multiple news outlets reported. The reduction will represent nearly 10% of the approximately 350,000 office jobs at Amazon but is reported not to affect the distribution and warehouse workforce that makes up the majority of the company’s more than 1.5 million employees. Seattle-based Amazon…

Meta has rolled out an Urdu version of its artificial intelligence platform, Meta AI, for users in Pakistan, aimed at promoting digital inclusivity. The launch took place during the event “Future in Focus: AI and Innovation,” organised in collaboration with the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT), according to a press release issued by the company. “These initiatives aim to accelerate the process of digital transformation in the country,” read the release, adding: “Pakistani users will now be able to interact with Meta AI not only in English but…