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Investment research firm Bernstein warned Thursday that India faces a "strategic tech crisis" as US technology giants deploy predatory pricing strategies to lock up the Indian AI market. Perplexity Pro launched free for one year to Airtel's 350 million subscribers while OpenAI introduced a $5 monthly India subscription compared to $20 in the United States. Bernstein analysts described regulatory "double standards" where foreign tech companies receive favorable treatment while domestic companies face what the firm called "crushing rules and government-led 'tech stacks' that make private business unviable." Private AI investment in India totaled $11.29 billion between 2013 and 2024 compared to $471 billion in the United States and $119 billion in China. From the report: When OpenAI, which is reportedly looking to set up a data center in India, announced the plans to launch a new office, it was met with another round of excitement -- "as if Open AI will hire all Indians at hefty salaries," the firm wrote in a note to clients Thursday. Bernstein analysts pour cold water on this excitement, dismissing it as a "repeat of the 90s" and arguing that the hype misses the fundamental power imbalance. "Anyone, we repeat anyone, can build a data center... This is the start of the dominance of US tech in Indian AI environment ensuring Indian entrepreneurs do not get a fighting chance to stay relevant. They will run on the sidelines - piggybacking on the US foundation models or maybe even the Chinese," they wrote.

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Nexthink estimates ESU bills could top $7.3B as millions of devices set to miss upgrade deadline

Free support is ending for many editions of Windows 10 on October 14, and enterprises unable to make the jump are on the hook for billions to keep the fixes flowing.…

German giant takes aim at US hyperscaler dominance as some EU customers fret amid Trump 2.0 rhetoric

SAP says it will pump €20 billion into expanding sovereign cloud infrastructure in Europe over the next ten years, pitching itself as a secure and compliant alternative to American cloud giants.…

ARIA spent £16.5M, has £600M in the tank, and no one asked for it back

ARIA – the UK science and technology agency inspired by DARPA in the US – was not asked to make savings leading up to the Spending Review, unlike other government departments.…

AI tech shows promise writing emails or summarizing meetings. Don't bother with anything more complex

A UK government department's three-month trial of Microsoft's M365 Copilot has revealed no discernible gain in productivity – speeding up some tasks yet making others slower due to lower quality outputs.…

Privacy campaigners cry foul as grocer joins Asda, Iceland, and others in retail surveillance boom

Sainsbury's, Britain's second-largest supermarket chain, has caught the attention of privacy campaigners by launching an eight-week trial of live facial recognition (LFR) tech in two of its stores to curb shoplifting.…

GOTO 1976

Microsoft has open-sourced the version of BASIC it created in 1976 for the MOS 6502 processor used in many early microcomputers.…

After 26 years and over 1,000 episodes, Melvyn Bragg is stepping down as presenter of BBC Radio 4's In Our Time, leaving behind a legacy of intellectual curiosity and broadcasting excellence. While he will no longer host the series, he will remain involved with the BBC and is set to launch a new project in 2026. The BBC reports: Over the last quarter of a century, Melvyn has skilfully led conversations about everything from the age of the Universe to 'Zenobia', Queen of the Palmyrene Empire. He has welcomed the company of the brightest and best academics in their fields, sharing their passion and knowledge with a fascinated audience right around the globe. While he will be much missed on In Our Time, Melvyn will continue to be a friend of Radio 4 with more to come to celebrate his extraordinary career, and a new series in 2026 (details to be announced soon). Melvyn Bragg says: "For a program with a wholly misleading title which started from scratch with a six-month contract, it's been quite a ride! I have worked with many extremely talented and helpful people inside the BBC as well as some of the greatest academics around the world. It's been a great privilege and pleasure. I much look forward to continuing to work for the BBC on Radio 4. Thank you for listening." [...] In Our Time will be back on Radio 4 with a new presenter who will be announced in due course.

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Web giant and Chinese e-tailer whacked for dropping trackers without permission

France’s data protection authority levied massive fines against Google and SHEIN for dropping cookies on customers without securing their permission, and also whacked Google for showing ads in email service.…

Shift to self-service will apparently improve support, presumably Big Blue's bottom line too

IBM Cloud will update the services it provides under its Basic Support tier, which will move to a self-service model in January 2026.…

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Hill: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping were caught on a hot mic discussing organ transplants and immortality at the military parade in Beijing on Wednesday. The two leaders were captured on the stream as they walked with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at Tiananmen Square, with the Russian translator saying: "Biotechnology is continuously developing," according to Reuters. "Human organs can be continuously transplanted. The longer you live, the younger you become, and (you can) even achieve immortality," the translator added. Xi responded by saying that some predict that humans could live up to "150 years old." The Kremlin head later confirmed that the two leaders discussed immortality. "Modern means of healing, and medical means, all kinds of surgical means related to organ replacement, they allow humanity to hope that active life will continue not as it does today. The average age in different countries is different, but nevertheless, life expectancy will increase significantly," Putin told reporters, according to CNN.

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Seven-year-old Cisco vuln that remains inexplicably unpatched is their way in

The US State Department has put a $10 million bounty on the heads of three Russians accused of being intelligence agents hacking America's critical infrastructure - primarily via old Cisco kit, it seems.…