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The AI cost illusion explained | Instagram new updates & GoPro Mission 1 Pro first look | Tech Today
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00:13For years, we've been told that AI would make businesses faster, smarter and most importantly, cheaper.
00:19But is that really what's happening today?
00:22Because this week we look at why enterprise AI is turning out to be far more expensive than expected
00:28and whether those rising costs could eventually find their way into the products and services that you and I pay
00:35for.
00:35That's our big tech story.
00:37Also on the show, Instagram has rolled out a bunch of new features for 2026,
00:42from changes to your profile grid to smarter ways of sharing content.
00:46We'll show you all of these updates and whether they're actually worth knowing about.
00:50And finally, we get our hands on the brand new GoPro Mission 1 Pro.
00:54It's our first unlook and unboxing of the latest action camera to find out what's really new and whether it's
01:00worth upgrading.
01:02An exciting take today up ahead.
01:04I am Cyrus and let's start with the top tech headlines of the week.
01:12OpenAI has unveiled GPT Live, a new generation of voice AI models designed to make conversations with chat GPT feel
01:20entirely natural.
01:21The upgrade introduces full duplex capabilities, allowing the assistant to listen and speak simultaneously so users can interrupt, pause, or
01:30change topics mid-sentence.
01:32Rolling out globally across web and mobile apps, it features a premium GPT Live 1 model for paid subscribers and
01:39a mini version for free tier.
01:45Meta has officially launched its AI-powered Meta Business Agent on WhatsApp in India, allowing merchants to automate customer service,
01:54recommend products, and manage leads around the clock.
01:57Debut at the WhatsApp Business Summit in Mumbai, the assistant trains on a merchant's inventory, catalogues, and operational hours to
02:05handle interactions independently.
02:06The system also includes a direct hand-off feature that instantly flags a human representative if a customer requires specialized
02:14attention.
02:20Meta has expanded its creative AI portfolio with the global rollout of Muse, its most advanced generative media engine to
02:28date.
02:28The tool allows users to generate hyper-realistic, high-resolution photographs and edit existing images using simple, natural language prompts
02:37directly within Instagram and WhatsApp.
02:40Built on a proprietary, non-open-source foundation, the engine is being heavily integrated into Meta's advertising platform to let
02:47businesses build custom visual campaigns instantly.
02:54Elon Musk's SpaceX has launched Grok 4.5, positioning the flagship mixture of experts' model as its most advanced tool
03:02for engineering and agentic workflows.
03:04Trained on tens of thousands of NVIDIA GP300 GPUs, the model is built to write complex software architectures and run
03:13at a fast 80 tokens per second.
03:15Space X-AI has prized the model at an aggressive $2 per million input tokens, aiming to undercut rival platforms
03:22like Anthropix's Claude significantly.
03:28Microsoft is eliminating 4,800 jobs, roughly 2% of its global workforce, in a massive restructuring targeted heavily at
03:37its struggling Xbox gaming division.
03:39The restructuring includes shredding 3,200 gaming roles and transitioning prominent developers like Compulsion Games and Double Fine Back to
03:48independent studios.
03:50Xbox executives cited a severe hardware crisis and ultra-low profit margins compared to rival publishing platforms as the core
03:58reasons for the cuts.
04:06All right, do this, open your phone right now, go and check all of the applications.
04:10How many things or apps have AI quietly sitting inside of them?
04:14Now the reality check over here is none of this is actually free to run.
04:18Every one of those little touches, the summary, the automatic reply, the caption, the photos,
04:23somebody somewhere is paying real money for every time you use it.
04:30Now, right now, that somebody is not you.
04:33Give this a year, maybe less, because that's usually the pattern when you talk about freebies.
04:38It's right now $20, could be $40 tomorrow.
04:40And this isn't a guess about the future.
04:43This is already happening.
04:45It's starting behind the scenes at companies building all of this AI.
04:49That's what this segment is all about.
04:53Not just AI is expensive for big corporations, though it genuinely is.
04:58It's about to get more expensive for you as well.
05:01We check out why and how it ends up like this and how eventually you will end up paying for
05:06all of this.
05:10Here's the thing nobody tells when they sell the narrative that AI makes everything cheaper.
05:14I mean, you might be paying nothing for AI, but the ones running these in their workflows, they're spending a
05:20lot.
05:21But that's also changing.
05:24Take Ford, for example.
05:25CEO Jim Farley said AI is going to replace half of white-collar jobs in America, but recently rehired 350
05:32engineers.
05:34Why?
05:34The AI running quality checks kept missing stuff a human would have caught instantly.
05:39Or Microsoft, $13 billion invested into OpenAI, and now quietly swapping OpenAI and Anthropics models out of Excel and Outlook
05:49for their own cheaper ones.
05:51Not because the AI stopped working, but because most of what people ask in Excel do not require priciest models
05:58on the planet.
05:59Even General Motors cut over 10% of its IT department blaming AI.
06:04A few months later, rehired the AI rogues specifically.
06:08See what's happening here.
06:10First, deploy AI.
06:12It gets too expensive or not as useful, and then replace with better alternatives.
06:18But the cost of AI still keeps rising.
06:22Data prep alone can run up to $300,000.
06:26That's like 2.5 crore rupees of investment before the model does a single thing.
06:31Then compliances add another 40%.
06:35So yes, clearly not cheap and simple.
06:39And executives genuinely believed that AI coding assistants would let them cut their engineering teams in half.
06:46That belief hasn't aged particularly well.
06:49There's a study that actually tracked real engineering teams doing this.
06:53And yes, AI does make individual tasks faster.
06:58One wave of tools caused a 741% spike in raw code output.
07:03Sounds insane, right?
07:05But follow that code all the way to an actual shipped release.
07:09Something real users touch.
07:11And that number crashes down to just 20%.
07:17But again, why does this really happen?
07:20Because writing code was never really the bottleneck.
07:24Whenever AI writes code, it's subtly skipping some of the important bugs that cause disruptions later.
07:31Trust in AI written code has dropped sharply this past year.
07:35So instead of saving money, companies are paying their most expensive senior engineers to find bugs and fix AI's homework.
07:45Turns out, fixing bad AI code is costing businesses more than the automation was ever supposed to save.
07:53And the bleeding doesn't stop over there at software.
07:56Even something as basic as using these models daily is hiding a massive price trap thanks to a historic crunch
08:04in global hardware.
08:06Take a look.
08:09Tokens, the basic currency of AI.
08:12The price of a single token crashed almost 99% in two years.
08:17But the bill is still climbing.
08:19Let's try to understand this with an analogy.
08:25Ask an intern to answer one customer email.
08:28A five-minute job, right?
08:30Now picture that intern opening 20 browser tabs, digging through five databases, calling three co-workers to double-check, rewriting
08:38the reply six times before hitting send.
08:41That's an AI agent.
08:43Behind the scenes, only for one query.
08:47Gartner says these AI agents burn five to 30 times more tokens than a normal chatbot question for one task.
08:54Shows up on the bill as well.
08:57And optimize the software all you want.
08:59The hardware still gets more expensive.
09:02Everyone talks about chip shortage.
09:04And the real silent killer is memory.
09:07High bandwidth memory, HBM, eating more than three times the silicon wafer capacity of standard server RAM.
09:15Morgan Stanley dropped a number that left analysts cold.
09:18Nvidia's next-gen Vera Rubin server rack projected costs of hyperscalers 7 to 8 million a unit, nearly double the
09:28last generation.
09:30Close to 70 crore rupees per rack.
09:34GPUs were already burning AI cost and now it's memory.
09:38Memory cost per rack jumped 435% from around $374,000 to over $2 million.
09:48A quarter of a multi-million dollar system spent just for memory.
09:54At the cost of the building needed to house all of this and the math completely breaks down.
10:00Which is exactly what's forcing a fascinating corporate U-turn right now.
10:04Companies are stepping back from a full automation and looking at human labor again.
10:10And because of all the compounding costs, several industries are quietly doing something nobody expected.
10:18Hiring their humans back.
10:20And here's why.
10:24Making an AI agent trustworthy enough isn't cheap either.
10:28Accurate enough not to invent numbers.
10:30Secure enough not to leak data.
10:32And compliant enough not to trigger a regulatory mess.
10:36Needs constant compute and just as much human oversight.
10:41Leadership adds up the API builds.
10:43Factors in the legal risk of one automated mistake.
10:47And the math flips.
10:48For high stakes work, a trained human is more reliable, more adaptable.
10:53Often cheaper than AI running around the clock.
10:57You've probably seen this closer to home to layoffs out of India's tech scene last year.
11:04Then quieter hiring drives months later in some roles.
11:09Same story.
11:10Bigger scale.
11:11AI handles the repetitive 80%.
11:13Humans are back in the room for the 20% where a mistake actually got something.
11:21And then there's the exploding cost of the data center itself.
11:25These AI chips are unbelievably thirsty for power like genuinely insane amounts.
11:30Electric Power Research Institute's latest 2026 numbers say data centers could eat up anywhere between 9-17% of all
11:38of America's electricity by 2030.
11:41More than double and in the worst case scenario, more than triple of what we are seeing today.
11:46That's pushing power grids to their actual breaking point.
11:51Tech giants are building entire electrical grids, funding dedicated power plants, basically pouring billions into liquid cooling just so these
11:59server farms don't melt.
12:02And to pay for all of this, the five biggest cloud and AI companies, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Oracle, are
12:11on track to spend a combined $660 to $690 billion this year.
12:16For context, that's more than India's entire annual union budget.
12:21All of it.
12:22Almost $3 trillion in AI infrastructure spending expected globally by 2028.
12:29And analysts at Goldman Sachs are asking the question everyone should be right now.
12:34Where is the revenue to justify all of this?
12:37But the truth is that infrastructure is not going anywhere.
12:41What's actually going to pop is the hype around the price tag.
12:47Ford, Microsoft, GM are not the companies giving up on AI right now.
12:51They are having a live experiment figuring out where AI earns its keep and what a human still does better.
13:00This is the hybrid model everyone is quietly building toward.
13:04But remember, that $20 subscription we opened with?
13:09Companies won't keep absorbing this cost forever.
13:12Right now, a lot of what you pay for AI is subsidized.
13:17Someone else eats the real cost.
13:19That will not last.
13:21Eventually, it will come to us.
13:22So the AI revolution isn't over, I feel.
13:25But the dream we got sold, cheap, unlimited, affordable AI, what about that?
13:30Doesn't look like that's happening.
13:33Not the way it was pitched to us.
13:50When you hear about the brand GoPro, you often associate it with adventure sports, motor sports or even something more
13:57adventurous like surfing or skateboarding, right?
14:00However, this one is something very different as per GoPro because GoPro is calling this one a cinematic camera.
14:09But the problem here is for something this compact, you have to almost spend 87,000 rupees.
14:15But get this, GoPro has been struggling with sales.
14:18In fact, in the last two years, its camera sales have dipped by almost one third.
14:23So the obvious questions are, can this one really make things right?
14:27And why would anyone spend nearly 90,000 rupees on something like this?
14:36And the big question here is launching something like this at a crucial juncture when the competition is offering much
14:42better specs.
14:43Is GoPro really risking it?
14:45So let's unbox the GoPro Mission 1 Pro and try to find out who this camera is really for and
14:51whether you should really consider it.
14:54The Mission 1 Pro arrives in GoPro's familiar minimalistic packaging, but the branding makes it clear that this is a
15:01completely new product line.
15:03Inside of the box, you get the Mission 1 Pro camera.
15:06You also get the rechargeable Enduro 2 battery, curved adhesive mount, mounting buckle, the USB Type-C cable.
15:14You also get the thumbscrew and also the documentation.
15:17And we also got this point-and-shoot accessory in which you can just slide the camera like this and
15:23use it as like a natural camera, right?
15:26Just makes things comfortable.
15:27The first thing that strikes you about this one is that it looks unmistakably like a GoPro.
15:32It's compact, rugged and waterproof.
15:35Despite familiarity, almost everything inside this camera has changed.
15:39And that's why this one costs a bomb.
15:49If there's one feature that defines the Mission 1 Pro, it's the camera sensor.
15:54Because this one now has a 50 megapixel 1-inch image sensor.
15:581-inch type, not exactly 1-inch.
16:00That's a huge relief compared to the previous GoPros.
16:03A large sensor captures more light, which generally translates into better image quality, improved dynamic range, cleaner night footage and
16:11more natural-looking background separation.
16:14GoPro says that the new sensor is paired with its brand new GP3 processor, which enables not just higher resolutions,
16:21but also improved battery efficiency and better thermal performance for extended recording.
16:36Now, let's talk about some of the numbers inside of this because they are genuinely impressive.
16:41However, yes, numbers may be synthetic, but they in certain ways help improve the overall performance.
16:47The Mission 1 Pro can record up to 8K and 60 frames per second.
16:52It also has 4K up to 240fps and an incredible 1080p at 960fps for ultra-slow motion shots.
17:00It also introduces open-gate recording, which means instead of recording only in a widescreen format, the camera captures almost
17:07the full sensor area.
17:09That means you can shoot once and later crop the same footage into horizontal videos for YouTube or even vertical
17:15videos for Instagram reels or shots without losing on image quality.
17:21So, this gives you a demonstration of the audio quality from the Mission 1 Pro and also kind of a
17:28sample when you are recording in the selfie mode, which, by the way, I can see on the front display
17:33and that's a great feature to have.
17:35But with this action camera, GoPro is basically saying that if you want to shoot cinematic, if you want to
17:40go pro, you don't actually have to carry a professional DSLR with you.
17:44You can use this one and the quality has indeed impressed us because traditionally many creators shoot action sequences on
17:55a GoPro and then switch it to a mirrorless camera whenever they want a cinematic footage.
18:01But GoPro believes that the Mission 1 Pro can narrow that gap.
18:04The company has packed in features like 50 megapixel raw photography, 10 bit color support, HDR recording, subject tracking and
18:12even high bit rate recording.
18:13Now, when you're using action cameras, and I've heard this in the past as well, that people have struggled with
18:18the interface, but that's one department that GoPro has fixed this time around because the user interface is absolutely fluid,
18:25which I've been using for the past couple of days.
18:27Another thing that is additionally great for creators is that you can actually plug in a mic into the camera
18:34and record the audio directly into this system, which makes it great for creators.
18:39However, we cannot forget that this is still a GoPro, which means it is ideal for your adventure package.
18:46The Mission 1 Pro is waterproof without an external housing built to handle bumps and rough use and designed to
18:52deliver high resolution footage in conditions where many traditional cameras simply would not be practical.
18:58Mind you that this is one of the heaviest GoPros out there.
19:01So keep that in mind.
19:02And with the Mission series, GoPro is trying to offer cinematic quality footage with portable options, something you can't have
19:10with a conventional camera system.
19:12So the big question here is, who is this camera for, for almost 87,000 rupees, I believe that is
19:18something we will try to find out in the coming days.
19:21But the initial impressions of the Mission 1 Pro, I would say this is purely for people who are running
19:27enterprises, businesses, like they're doing serious content creation and making money out of this one.
19:33Because yes, paying 87,000 and if you're just doing for casual use, you have better options in the market.
19:40However, if you're creating professional videos, then the Mission 1 Pro series could be of your use.
19:45And remember, on paper, this is arguably the biggest leak GoPro has made in years and it's no longer just
19:52chasing the best action camera title, but it's aiming to become a serious filmmaking tool as well.
19:58So don't worry, we will get you a review, a full comprehensive review of the video quality, the battery life,
20:04heat management, everything in our future episodes.
20:07But as an initial impression, we do like it, but a little price on the higher side.
20:25For many years, Instagram has been working seamlessly across platforms and for different set of users.
20:32You post something and you're done with it, right?
20:35However, in 2026, they have added some features that let you customize the platform as per your preference.
20:41And you don't have to even delete old posts, you can customize and edit them right then and there.
20:46But how do you go about these?
20:48These 2026 features are just going to completely change the way you use Instagram.
20:53And on the Tech Today show, we will show you exactly how to work these features and what they really
20:57are.
20:57So let's go.
21:04Let's begin with one of the biggest changes the platform has got to itself.
21:08And I feel it's one of the biggest ever, because now you can rearrange your posts in any order you
21:16want.
21:17That means your profile is no longer locked into a chronological order.
21:22Maybe your best travel photo is buried three years down.
21:25Or maybe you're a creator who wants your latest work right at the top.
21:28You can now simply move posts around without deleting or reposting anything.
21:33To do this, make sure you go to your profile first.
21:37Tap and hold the post.
21:38And then you will see the option reorder grid.
21:41Tap on that.
21:44Then you will see all the posts and you basically need to just tap and hold and rearrange the posts
21:50anywhere you want.
21:51This gives you the ability to customize your entire profile grid.
21:55Yes, I know it's simple, but this is one of the biggest Instagram upgrades that has been made in years
22:00and will definitely change the way you use Instagram.
22:10This next feature is something that users have been wanting for a very long time.
22:14Because when you post something, you feel that you can't change the order, right?
22:17Well, that's changed now.
22:19Instagram now lets users rearrange photos inside an already published carousel.
22:25So, if image number seven maybe deserves to be the cover photo, or if you simply want to improve the
22:31flow of your post, you can do it without deleting the entire carousel.
22:36Not only that, each photo can have a custom caption now.
22:40To do this, open the carousel, tap the three dots right here.
22:44Choose edit and then hold and drag each image into the order you prefer.
22:49I know this feature sounds small, but it could be very important for creators who are posting entire albums, because
22:55now you can post up to 20 images at a time.
22:58So, this really works for them.
23:00The next feature is about having more interactive conversations in the comments section.
23:05And apparently, I feel that Instagram feels that emojis and texts aren't enough.
23:09Because now you can reply to Instagram posts using images instead of typing only texts.
23:16Users can upload a picture directly inside the comments.
23:19This means, reaction memes, screenshots, photos, or visual replies become a part of the conversation.
23:25For creators, this could make engagement much richer.
23:29And for the people, I feel this just becomes more entertaining because you have so many images in your gallery
23:34that you want to post in your comments, right?
23:36So, there you go.
23:37While writing a comment, tap the image icon, choose a photo from your gallery, and then post it like a
23:43normal comment.
23:44It's that simple.
23:49Now, let's talk about one feature that is not for people who want to always post polished content, right?
23:56Sometimes you just want to share what's going on in your day, and maybe you just want to let your
24:00followers know that, hey, I'm right here in this moment.
24:04And that's exactly where Instance comes in.
24:07Think of it as an even quicker way to share what's happening right now.
24:11Instead of carefully creating a post, users can instantly capture and share moments with close friends or selected audiences.
24:18It's designed to be casual, fast, and much less about perfection.
24:23So, how do you do that?
24:24Open Instagram, tap the Instance shortcut, capture your photo or short video, and that's it.
24:30Choose who you want to share it with and send.
24:33And yes, this has been inspired by what Snap has been doing for years, but the fact that Instagram has
24:39many more users, it just gives them another option to feel and be more creative.
24:46And finally, Instagram is working on something that could completely change the way you are using the app, especially if
24:52you are a professional and if you are a creator who is earning a business on the platform.
24:57Because Instagram is testing a premium subscription called Instagram+.
25:01The idea is to offer additional tools and features beyond the standard app.
25:07While Meta hasn't released every feature yet, reports suggest subscribers could get access to exclusive editing tools, advanced profile customizations,
25:16and even extra creative options.
25:18And perhaps even AI-powered features before everyone else.
25:21The company is also expected to reduce ads for subscribers in certain regions, although availability will likely vary by country.
25:30At the moment, Instagram+, as a feature, remains limited and hasn't rolled out in every country.
25:35However, it's being phased out and being sent to select users.
25:39So, these are the top 5 features on Instagram in 2026 that you should definitely try out.
25:44Because it will just change the way you've been using Instagram till now.
25:48The customizations, the analytics, everything just becomes much more better.
25:52Do try these options and if you run into any problem, you can always reach out to us and I
25:57will try to help you out.
25:58For sure.
25:59And that's all that we have for you on this week's Tech Today.
26:04The world of technology never slows down and neither do we.
26:08Over the next few days, some of the biggest names in tech are expected to unveil new products, smarter AI
26:13features,
26:14and innovations that could change the way we work and live.
26:18And whenever that happens, you know exactly where to find the complete story.
26:22Until next week, stay curious, stay connected and thanks for watching Tech Today.
26:26This is Cyrus, saying goodbye.
26:28We'll see you next time.
26:36We'll see you next time.
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