It's all AI these days!🤖 Musk and 1k others call for AI pause⏸️ Big 4 seeks AI integration🤝🏻
Musk and 1k others ask for a pause, PhonePe calls off ZestMoney deal, Funding Deals, 10 new Canva features, and more.
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Today, we are covering:
Musk and 1k others ask for a pause on AI projects
PhonePe calls off ZestMoney deal amid due diligence concerns
Big Four firms see spike in client requests for AI integration
Funding Updates
10 new Canva features to save you countless hours of work
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Elon Musk, other tech leaders call for AI pause, citing 'profound risks to society'⏸️
More than 1,000 technology leaders and researchers, including Musk, have urged artificial intelligence labs to pause the development of the most advanced systems, warning in an open letter that AI tools present “profound risks to society and humanity”.
AI developers are “locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one — not even their creators — can understand, predict or reliably control,” according to the letter.
Notable signatories besides Musk include Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn, and politician Andrew Yang.
PhonePe calls off ZestMoney deal amid due diligence concerns⚔️
PhonePe decided it will not go ahead with the ZestMoney acquisition primarily due to due diligence concerns. Till then, it looked like the transaction was on.
However, after handing out a non-binding term sheet in November last year, the amount of time the diligence was taking raised eyebrows and questions about the fruition of the deal.
Due diligence issues may have involved the high delinquency on the loan disbursals, the overall business of the company and the structuring of the firm across its Singapore and India entities. Non-performing assets (NPA) for ZestMoney were upwards of 10% which was a red flag.
Big Four firms see spike in client requests for AI integration👩🏻💼
The Big Four firms, Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC, are receiving increasing client requests for AI integration in projects after the success of ChatGPT, while also actively exploring the use of AI technology within their service offerings.
The prototype of ChatGPT, a generative AI language model, was unveiled on November 30, 2022, and industry experts now predict that the advent of generative AI technology will revolutionize various sectors and alter the modus operandi of businesses worldwide.
As digitisation emerges as a prevailing trend among corporations, companies are eager to explore the potential of generative AI to boost efficiency and productivity, lower costs, and unlock new avenues for expansion.
Funding Deals💰
Web3 startup Polytrade, raised $3.8 million (Rs 31.1 crore) in a seed funding round led by Alpha Wave, Matrix Partners, Polygon Ventures and CoinSwitch Ventures.
Software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup Atica has raised an undisclosed amount in its seed funding round led by Titan Capital.
Tweet of the day🐥
👉🏻 10 new Canva features to save you countless hours of work🎨

What else?
🏏 IPL starts today. Thanks to Motabhai, we can watch IPL in 4K
🤖 This Bengaluru company is ‘gifting’ ChatGPT Plus subscriptions to its employees.
"Tough times never last, but tough people do."
Thanks for reading till the end!