Samsung to launch AI-based commands in vernacular languages for appliances
The move comes as Samsung sees strong momentum in the country, particularly with the rising adoption of its SmartThings app, which now ranks third globally in terms of registered users.
They stated, “We have approximately 23 million registered users of SmartThings in India, and India ranks third globally. The top two countries are the US and Brazil. The number of registered devices is also growing fast, having increased 39 per cent (globally) in 2024 compared to the previous year.”
Samsung is expanding AI capabilities to its mid-range appliances in India, aiming for 70% of its local sales to come from AI-powered products. With a global SmartThings app user base of around 390 million, the company is leveraging this momentum to meet rising demand for smart home solutions.
Airtel To Spot International Spam Calls, Alert Users In Vernacular Languages
Bharti Airtel announced two major upgrades to its AI-based spam detection tool to protect users from spam calls and messages. The telecom company will now alert customers about international spam calls and SMS messages. In addition, users will receive spam alerts in their preferred Indian languages — making it easier for people across the country to understand and respond to these warnings. This new feature will be available in ten Indian languages, including Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, Punjabi, and Urdu. Airtel said more languages will be added in the future. Currently, the alerts in regional languages are available only for Android users. The move comes after Airtel noticed a worrying trend. While the company’s spam detection tool had successfully reduced domestic spam, scammers started using foreign networks to make spam calls to Indian users. This led to a 12 per cent increase in international spam calls over the last six months. The latest upgrade is aimed at stopping this new threat.
Instagram is using AI to find teens lying about their age and restricting their accounts
Meta is using AI technology to search for kids who are lying about their age on Instagram in order to bypass safeguards, the company announced on Monday. When Meta finds an account that it suspects belongs to a teen, the platform will enroll them into a restricted Teen Account, even if the account lists an adult birthday.
Teen Accounts, which launched on Instagram last year, enroll young users into an app experience with built-in protections. The safeguards are applied to teens automatically, and limit who can contact a teen on the app and restrict the type of content the account holder can view. Teens under the age of 16 need their parents’ permission to change any of these settings.
Instagram has been using AI to determine age for quite some time, but now the social network confirms it’s using the technology to ensure that teens are accessing Instagram via a Teen Account rather than an adult one.
67% Indians trust influencer recommendations… over traditional ads
Sixty-seven per cent Indians trust influencer recommendations more than claims made in traditional ads underscoring the role of influencer marketing as a game-changer for brands, delivering significant. impact and engagement. This and more insights have been made public by Kantar, the marketing data and analytics major in ‘The Influencer Playbook’ that helps brands evaluate and benchmark influencer campaigns against cross-format digital ads and influencer peer groups.
The insights and data it throws are interesting:
- 67% Indians trust influencer recommendations over traditional advertisements. A further 26% also prefer influencer recommendations but remain cautious and do not trust them blindly.
- Influencer content, along with ecommerce and online display ads currently represent the most equitable online media channels in India
- Influencer content outperforms digital ads in driving lower and mid-funnel metrics, with higher brand favourability (15% vs 12%), brand attributes (11% vs 9%), and purchase intent (10% vs 9%).
- Influencer ads outperform other digital ad formats in driving short-term sales with a 57% chance of driving immediate impact but are less effective in building long-term brand equity.
Google loses ad tech monopoly trial
The verdict is in, and Google has been found to illegally hold online ad tech monopolies.
For over a decade, “Google has willfully engaged in a series of anticompetitive acts to acquire and maintain monopoly power in the publisher ad server and ad exchange markets for open-web display advertising,” tying its publisher ad server and ad exchange together “to establish and protect its monopoly power in these two markets,” the ruling said.
At trial, the DOJ argued that Google’s ad business expanded to choke out competitors and benefit only Google. They argued that Google “rigged” ad auctions, allegedly controlling “multiple parts” of services used to place ads all over the Internet, unfairly advantaging itself in various markets.
YouTube Publishes New Insights Into the Rise of Virtual Influencers
YouTube has published a new report into the rising significance of virtual influencers and how AI-generated or digitally-enabled entities are gaining traction, both on YouTube and more broadly.
Which may sound farfetched, it’s a little strange to consider that non-human characters are somehow building bigger followings than real people online.
But in a rising number of cases, these digital characters are driving big success, despite not being attached to an actual human presence.
As per YouTube:
“Last year a sample of just 300 Virtual Creators on YouTube earned over 15 billion views across videos, live streams, and Shorts, with one billion of those views coming from the U.S. alone
Instagram launches Blend, a new way of sharing Reels feed with friends
Instagram revealed a new feature called Blend, designed to deliver a tailored Reels feed shared exclusively between you and a friend or a group chat. Access to Blend is by invitation only, and it provides a fresh, personalised selection of videos every day. This update is part of Instagram’s strategy to boost user interaction and set itself apart from TikTok, especially as Meta continues to face mounting antitrust concerns over its dominance in the social media landscape.
With this feature, the Meta-owned social media platform gives you a glimpse into the Reels you and your friends enjoy, while also creating a shared space to connect and uncover fresh content together.
Instagram Blend: How to use it?
Instagram has introduced Blend to make the platform more fun with friends. To start a Blend, open either a private or group DM and tap the new Blend icon at the top of the screen. From there, choose “Invite” to select people from the chat to join in. The Blend will activate once at least one person accepts your invitation.
LG: Smart TVs to monitor viewers’ emotions and evaluate them using AI
LG, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of smart TVs, wants to better understand the personal convictions, beliefs, values and emotions of viewers and turn these insights into cash with the help of personalized advertising. The South Korean company has signed a multi-year license agreement with Zenapse via its advertising subsidiary LG Ad Solutions. This US-based supplier describes itself as a software-as-a-service marketing platform that aims to increase advertisers’ sales “with AI-supported emotional intelligence” and “psychographic targeting”.
The collaboration will drive the development of new advertising products based on the Zenapse platform for connected TV (CTV), the two companies announced this week. Connected TV allows content to be transmitted via streaming services, internet browsers and social media. The new technology for targeted advertising will soon offer “more meaningful and measurable brand experiences on over 200 million LG Smart TVs worldwide”.
That’s it today.
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