The Sunday Brew #58
In this brew - Global Innovation Index 2023 in a picture | Solomon’s Paradox & Hesitation Heuristic | Indian AI Race, COP 28 and Class Action against Google
Welcome to The Sunday Brew, weekly 1-2-3 newsletter by The Percolator. Every Sunday we drop in your inbox 1 story in a picture, 2 concepts, ideas or frameworks to expand your horizons and 3 news from the week, to keep you updated.
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ONE STORY IN A PICTURE
TWO IDEAS, FRAMEWORKS OR CONCEPTS
This week we bring to you two concepts - Solomon’s Paradox & Hesitation Heuristic
Solomon's Paradox
Solomon's Paradox, also known as the "Solomon Asch Conformity Experiment," is a psychological phenomenon named after the social psychologist Solomon Asch. The experiment, conducted in the 1950s, focused on the influence of peer pressure on individual decision-making and the tendency of people to conform to group opinions, even if they know the group is wrong.
In the experiment, participants were shown a line and asked to match its length to one of three other lines. What the participants didn't know was that the other people in the room, who were actually confederates of the experimenter, purposely gave incorrect answers. Despite the correct answer being obvious, many participants conformed to the group's incorrect response. This demonstrated the power of social influence and the willingness of individuals to go along with a group even when they know the group is making a mistake.
Solomon's Paradox highlights the conflict between an individual's desire to make accurate judgments and the pressure to conform to a group's opinion. It has broader implications in understanding social dynamics, group behaviour, and the impact of social influence on decision-making.
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Hesitation Heuristic
The Hesitation Heuristic is a cognitive bias that refers to the tendency of individuals to rely on the amount of time they spend thinking about a particular decision as a cue to the difficulty of the decision. In other words, people often believe that if they need more time to make a decision, the decision must be more challenging or important.
This heuristic suggests that individuals use the duration of their contemplation as a mental shortcut for evaluating the complexity or significance of a decision. However, the actual time spent thinking about a decision may not necessarily correlate with its difficulty or importance.
The Hesitation Heuristic can lead to suboptimal decision-making because it introduces an arbitrary factor, time, into the decision-making process. People might spend more time on decisions that are relatively trivial or straightforward, while overlooking the importance of efficiently making decisions that require deeper analysis.
Being aware of cognitive biases like the Hesitation Heuristic can help individuals make more informed and rational decisions by encouraging them to consider relevant factors rather than relying solely on the time spent contemplating a choice.
THREE NEWS FROM THE WEEK
Indian AI Race is Heating Up
This week had been massive for Indian AI ecosystem with significant announcements from two Indian AI start-ups, Sarvam AI and Krutrim AI regarding their large language models (LLMs).
Sarvam AI on 14th December launched its first Hindi LLM, OpenHathi-Hi-v0.1, built on Meta's open-source Llama2-7B architecture and reportedly delivers performance on par with GPT-3.5 for Indic languages. Sarvam AI plans to release enterprise-grade models on its full-stack GenAI platform in the near future. Started about five months ago, only last week Sarvam had raised $41 million is Series A round. Read More »»» & More »»»
A day later, on 15th December, Ola Group ride-hailing company launched India's first multilingual LLM, Krutrim AI. he LLM can generate text in 10 Indian languages, including Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, and Marathi. Read More »»»
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COP 28 Concluded with Landmark Decision
United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) ended on December 13, 2023, with a landmark decision that signalled the "beginning of the end" of the fossil fuel era. The agreement, which was reached by nearly 200 countries, calls for a "just, orderly, and equitable transition" away from fossil fuels, recognizing that this transition will require "significant investments in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and other low-carbon technologies and infrastructure."
The agreement also includes a commitment to phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that do not address energy poverty or just transitions. Additionally, countries agreed to enhance transparency and accountability in their climate action plans. Read More »»»
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News Publishers’ Class-Action against Google Expands
Earlier in the year news publishers had brought a class action suite against Google alleging that the company is illegally using their content to train its AI models without compensating them. On December 15, 2023, Helena World Chronicle, LLC, one of the lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit, filed an amended complaint that adds new allegations against Google. The amended complaint alleges that Google's use of news content to train its AI models is not only copyright infringement, but also a violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act, which prohibits anticompetitive behaviour.
The complaint seeks class-wide damages for all news publishers harmed by Google's alleged anticompetitive conduct. It also seeks injunctive relief to prevent Google from continuing its anticompetitive practices. Read More »»»
The Sunday Brew by The Percolator brings to you curated news on tech, business & entrepreneurship, from across the internet to give your week a perfect start.
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