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China's AI challenge explained | DJI Osmo Pocket 4 review & Dell AI PCs | Tech Today
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00:09The biggest threat to America's AI dominance isn't another American company.
00:16For years, the US has led the AI revolution with bigger models, investments and also bigger data centers.
00:23But now, China has changed the rules of the game.
00:27It's building AI that's not just powerful, but dramatically cheaper.
00:32So, has China cracked the code?
00:35And if AI becomes cheap, what does that mean for companies that have spent billions trying to stay ahead?
00:41We'll discuss this week on the Tech Today show.
00:44Also on the show, we sit down with Dell's Chris Kauger to talk about where AI PCs are headed,
00:50what Indian consumers want from their next laptop,
00:52and we take a quick look at Dell's newest laptops launching in India.
00:58And then finally, the new DJI Osmo Pocket 4 is here with us.
01:03Tiny enough to fit inside your pocket, but can it really replace a bigger DSLR camera?
01:09We bring you our review on the show this week.
01:12I'm Cyrus, lots to unpack on this week's Tech Today.
01:14But first, the headlines.
01:21India's homegrown AI startup Sarvam has announced plans to build a massive 1 trillion parameter AI model,
01:27putting it in direct competition with global giants like OpenAI and Anthropic.
01:32The company says the model will be designed with Indian languages and local use cases at its core,
01:38while also competing globally.
01:40If successful, it could become one of the largest AI models ever built by an Indian company.
01:51Buying a PlayStation 5 just got a lot more expensive.
01:55Sony has increased the prices of the PS5 Standard Edition in India by Rs. 15,000,
02:01taking its price nearly to Rs. 70,000.
02:04The company has cited changing market conditions and rising costs for the revision.
02:10The move makes India one of the markets to see a significant jump in PS5 pricing,
02:15disappointing gamers planning an upgrade.
02:23WhatsApp is finally bringing voice and video calling to WhatsApp web,
02:27allowing users to make calls directly from their browser without downloading the desktop app.
02:32Meta is also rolling out several other features,
02:36including improved channels, better status updates, and new chat tools.
02:40The update makes WhatsApp web much more useful for users
02:44who spend most of their day working from a computer.
02:53And OpenAI has confirmed its building not just one,
02:56but a family of AI hardware devices.
02:59Following its acquisition of Johnny Ives Startup,
03:02the company says it's developing multiple products designed around artificial intelligence
03:07rather than traditional apps and screens.
03:10While details remain under wraps,
03:12CEO Sam Altman says the goal is to create entirely new ways
03:16for people to interact with AI in their everyday lives.
03:27You talk about any powerful model right now,
03:31straight up you will mention names like GPT or even a Claude.
03:34Yes, that's great PR and advertising by US companies for their AI models.
03:39But when it comes to performance purely on paper,
03:42you would be surprised to know there are more powerful models out there
03:46and they are not even American.
03:48For the last three years,
03:49the US has been selling us on how the AI is the next internet
03:53and how it's looking to dominate that space
03:56by building the best models,
03:58controlling the chips and also the cloud infrastructure and many more.
04:01But something unexpected has happened in the last few months.
04:05China is changing the game entirely
04:08and this month alone,
04:10it released AI models that rival the best in Silicon Valley.
04:14Many of them, by the way,
04:16are free and open for developers around the world.
04:19And suddenly, this isn't just a tech race.
04:23It's an economic, geopolitical and data battle now.
04:27And perhaps the biggest challenge yet to America's AI dominance.
04:32So, let's talk about this rivalry
04:34and how it's big for the future of AI.
04:42For years, the world's best models came from American companies.
04:47OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta.
04:53These companies spent tens of billions of dollars
04:56building enormous data centers filled with NVIDIA chips.
05:00The expectation for returns was simple.
05:03Build the smartest AI,
05:05charge businesses to use it
05:07and recover those massive investments.
05:12But this strategy depends on one thing,
05:16that everyone keeps paying for American AI.
05:19And that's exactly where China has entered the picture.
05:26And I am not even talking about the time when a Chinese AI model called Deepsea crashed the entire AI
05:34US stock market a couple of months ago.
05:36I am talking about this month,
05:39when a Chinese startup called Moonshot AI launched its latest model called Kimi K3.
05:44And this has shaken Silicon Valley.
05:48Absolutely, it's been crazy.
05:49Now, why is this happening?
05:50Because performance-wise,
05:52it's surprisingly close to America's frontier AI models,
05:56while being significantly cheaper.
05:58And to top it off,
06:00these are released as open-source software that developers can build on.
06:05The launch has intensified the debate in Washington about whether the US is still clearly ahead.
06:16However, the launch immediately became controversial.
06:20The White House accused Moonshot of using distillation to copy Anthropics' latest AI models.
06:26Moonshot has denied the allegation,
06:29and several AI researchers say no public evidence has yet been presented proving industrial-scale theft.
06:35But, what exactly is distillation?
06:41Now, it's a bit complicated to make you understand distillation,
06:44so I will try to explain it with an analogy.
06:47Imagine a brilliant student solving hundreds of math problems after reading thousands and thousands of textbooks.
06:54Now, instead of reading every textbook,
06:56another student simply watches the answers,
06:58spots the patterns,
07:00and learns tricks to solve these questions much more faster.
07:04That process in AI is called distillation.
07:07A smaller AI model reads patterns of a bigger model and learns from its responses.
07:13And this is widely used across the AI industry.
07:17The allegation is whether Chinese companies secretly used proprietary American models at industrial scale
07:25in ways that violated terms of intellectual property.
07:28Those allegations still remain disputed.
07:34Regardless of who is right,
07:36the bigger story is that China has proved it can build powerful AI much cheaper
07:41that the world is taking seriously.
07:44Unlike many American frontier models that sit behind paid subscriptions or commercial APIs,
07:50Chinese companies are increasingly releasing open-source models.
07:58Now, think about countries that cannot afford expensive AI or governments that don't want critical AI to be used by
08:06others,
08:07just like how the US government denied access to Anthropics flagship models.
08:11Now, open-source AI from China is cheaper, can be customized, run locally,
08:17and most importantly, reduces the dependence on American AI providers.
08:22For AI, for its growth and development, that is very important.
08:28For years, America believed export restrictions on advanced chips would slow China down.
08:34But China has been investing heavily in building alternatives at home,
08:39with Huawei emerging as one of the country's most important AI hardware players.
08:48While Chinese firms still trail the world's most advanced semiconductor manufacturing,
08:53they continue to improve domestic AI chips despite export controls.
08:57Reports also continue to speculate about future advances in Chinese lithography equipment,
09:03although there is no public evidence that China has matched the most advanced EUV systems used by global leaders today.
09:14Tech giants are pouring billions of dollars and have into AI infrastructure,
09:19and those investments, you expect returns from them, right?
09:23But if developers around the world increasingly choose capable, lower-cost Chinese models,
09:30the revenue flowing to American AI companies could come under pressure.
09:34That doesn't automatically mean that US companies are losing right now.
09:39The US thinks otherwise.
09:41So we're leading China in AI by a lot.
09:44China has virtually no controls.
09:46It's freewheeling a little bit.
09:49So we have to be careful in both ways.
09:51We don't want to restrict them.
09:53We're all of a sudden, we're coming second to China.
09:56Whoever wins with AI is going to win.
09:58That's how big it is.
09:59But here's the thing.
10:00Despite the US feeling confident about its AI strategies,
10:04China is changing the competitive landscape by putting pressure on pricing and business models.
10:11America still has enormous advantage in research, capital, chips and cloud infrastructure.
10:18And China still faces export restrictions and questions over intellectual property.
10:23But for the first time, the race no longer looks one-sided.
10:35Now, for years and years, people believed the AI race would produce only and only one winner.
10:40And that is going to be the US.
10:44But that is changing now.
10:46Now, instead of a world powered only by American AI,
10:50we may be heading towards two competing AI ecosystems.
10:54It's China versus the US.
10:56A battle that could change how AI is built to who controls it.
11:01Rest assured, the AI race is not over.
11:04In fact, I feel it's just begun.
11:18Anybody who creates good content these days needs a good camera system, right?
11:22I mean, smartphones today are so good, you don't even have to think twice before using this thing.
11:28However, when a company asks you to spend almost 55,000 rupees on a camera,
11:34which isn't even bigger than a chocolate bar,
11:37one has to ask themselves this question.
11:39Why would I spend on this?
11:44Well, that's exactly what the new DJI Osmo Pocket 4 is trying to answer.
11:50Now, I've been using it for a while now.
11:52And while it isn't a camera for everyone,
11:54there are a few things it does so well that your smartphones can't simply match.
12:00So, let's find out in our review what this is.
12:04Now, the first thing that just strikes you about this one is how compact this is.
12:15It literally slips into your pocket, weighs next to nothing,
12:18and is ready to shoot within seconds.
12:20But unlike a smartphone, there is a fully mechanical 3-axis gimbal system sitting right on the top.
12:27And that's where the magic begins.
12:30The interface is clean, intuitive, and extremely smooth.
12:33Swiping through menus feels responsive, and the touchscreen reacts quickly.
12:37You also get quick access buttons to record, zoom, and change joystick controls.
12:43You can even use the display to preview footage, which just makes life easier.
12:50Now, one of the biggest advantages of this camera is that it comes with a 1-inch Type-C MOS
12:54sensor,
12:54which means that your footage just lights up.
12:57And the best part is, conventional cameras don't give you that ability.
13:00And how does that impact what you shoot on this camera?
13:03Let me show you.
13:07A larger sensor helps gather more light and capture more detail.
13:11Both my day and sunset shots get good image quality,
13:15and I was particularly impressed with the low-light performance.
13:25Night shots retain plenty of detail without falling apart,
13:29and footage has much cleaner look compared to what you would expect from such a compact device.
13:36The camera also records 4K video with the addition of 10-bit D-Log recording and a claimed 14-stop
13:43dynamic range.
13:47It provides much more creative flexibility in post-production to edit videos.
13:52Another feature which I really loved is the active track.
13:59You can place the Pocket 4 on a tripod, or just lay it on the ground, walk around naturally,
14:04and the camera intelligently follows your face while keeping you in the frame.
14:14Throughout my use, the tracking remained smooth and reliable, without constantly losing me from the frame.
14:23For solo creators, that's almost like having a camera operator following you around.
14:28The sound quality is good with ample noise suppression thanks to the 4-channel audio recording,
14:33making it far more versatile for multi-person recordings.
14:42The companion app makes pairing the camera simple,
14:45and once connected, you can quickly transfer your footage,
14:49remotely control the camera, and even manage recordings without constantly touching the device.
14:54It comes with 107 GB of built-in storage with support for external memory,
14:59along with transfer speeds of up to 800 MB per second.
15:06Now, for someone who already owns a smartphone, a flagship phone with which they shoot,
15:11does something like this make sense?
15:13Because you can get a gimbal system and put the smartphone on it.
15:17Well, for me, I feel something like this makes more sense, and here's why.
15:25A smartphone gimbal still depends on your smartphone.
15:28It's larger once you mount the phone, takes longer to set up,
15:32and you are draining your phone's battery while shooting.
15:37With the Pocket 4, everything is already integrated.
15:42Everything inside one compact device, and we got about 3 hours of use with mixed recording,
15:48which is great for a compact camera.
15:56Of course, spending around $55,000 on this one isn't a small decision.
16:01For basic photos and video, a smartphone, I feel, is ideal.
16:05But if you're a travel vlogger or a creator, the Pocket 4 starts making a lot more sense.
16:13Now, remember, the exposed mechanical gimbal system makes it really tough to use,
16:18because you'll need to handle it with care.
16:20And also, I did not see any IP rating for this one, which means,
16:23if you're shooting in rain or maybe in dusty conditions, you'll have to be extra careful.
16:30And DJI's service footprint in India isn't nearly as extensive,
16:35so getting repairs or servicing may not be as easy.
16:39So, that was a quick review of the DJI Pocket 4.
16:42Let me know what you think about this kind of a camera system,
16:45and whether it makes practical sense to go for a smartphone or buy something like this.
16:51You can always reach out to us, and if you want us to compare this with an actual smartphone camera,
16:56just let me know and I'll get it to you on the Tech Today Show.
17:05It's been a while we spoke about laptops on the Tech Today Show,
17:08but this week we have two special guests.
17:11One, the XPS 13, more of a utility engine and also doubles as a great, great option for office work.
17:17This one is a hardcore gaming station, the Alienware 15, two new laptops launched in India.
17:23More details about that on the show, but we've also spoken to the guy who's responsible
17:27for making sure that these laptops sell in the country, and some more details. Let's check it out.
17:36The XPS 13 marks the return of Dell's iconic premium laptop brand.
17:44It's one of the thinnest and lightest XPS yet, featuring a 13.4-inch 2.5K touchscreen,
17:51with a 120Hz variable refresh rate, Intel Core Series 3 processor, Wi-Fi 7, up to 32GB of RAM,
18:00and 1TB of SSD storage. Dell is positioning it as the most accessible XPS ever,
18:08with prices in India starting at Rs. 79,990.
18:12For gamers, there is the new Alienware 15, Dell's most affordable Alienware laptop yet.
18:19It packs up to an AMD Ryzen 7260 processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 graphics,
18:26a 15.3-inch 165Hz display. You get RAM up to 32GB, and storage up to 1TB.
18:33The Alienware 15 with the Intel version starts at 1,28,990 in India.
18:43With AI reshaping the PC industry, and consumers demanding more than just faster hardware,
18:49I caught up with Chris Kauga, Senior Vice President, Global Consumer and E-Commerce at Dell.
18:58Chris, welcome to India, and also welcome to India today.
19:01Thank you. Glad to be here. Thanks for having me.
19:04First, let's talk about your XPS strategy. We understand that XPS is a brand,
19:09which was out of the market for a while, and now it's made a comeback.
19:13What made you bring the iconic XPS brand return?
19:18I really think customer demand and desire, and not even so much end customer, end consumers,
19:25but a lot of our partners, worldwide retail partners like we have here in India, North America, Japan,
19:34all over the world. There was, I think, such strong brand recognition and identification.
19:41With that, I think a lot of our partners and consumers knew the identity. They knew what those
19:46products stand for, and even though when we had briefly pivoted off of using it,
19:52still building products that met those same tenants and requirements, but called it something
19:57different, it just wasn't resonating with them. When we found ourselves translating it for customers,
20:04so, oh, well, that's, we call it a this, but that means XPS. And so, and then people, oh, okay,
20:11now I get it. So once you find yourself re-translating a new brand back into an old brand, you're
20:16like,
20:16it seems like we should probably stick with the old brand and what we used to call it, that identity.
20:21Okay. So let's talk about what's going on right now across the world. Memory shortage is causing a lot
20:26of disruptions in supply chains, especially for the PC segment. Now, I want your take on this. How are you
20:33navigating this kind of a shortage for your PC segment? Well, I'd say very carefully, but that's
20:41probably an obvious thing to say. I do think at Dell, we have a bit of a unique advantage with
20:47strength
20:48of our global supply chain and purchasing power, having a very large global infrastructure business in
20:55addition to, you know, a very large PC business. So that kind of scale overall, you know, affords us
21:03a lot of, you know, procurement scale, and I think advantage in the market, keeping up with
21:10the pricing and the changes in the commodity markets is a little more challenging. But, you know,
21:17we negotiate that by, you know, kind of monitoring those markets, balancing demand supply, how we think
21:24that translates to customer value and where that needs to be maintained. And I think it's a motion we've
21:29always had. We just have to, we have to exercise it more frequently. Have you, like, contemplated on
21:35some of the price increases that we've seen across industry? I mean, Apple has increased prices of
21:40their hardware. Does something like that we can expect for Dell hardware in the future? Well, we've
21:46made increases so far year to date across the majority of our product line and globally, you know, really
21:54out of necessity, like, like a lot of our competitors. We continue to see, you know, upward pressure in
22:01those markets going forward. I'm not prepared to kind of talk about any planned or known increases in the
22:07future today. But I would say, you know, in the future, we'll kind of continue to react against
22:13that force in the market as we, as we have so far this year.
22:17If you can, like, maybe give a sort of a prediction, when do you see these prices stabilizing?
22:22Certainly not soon. Okay.
22:24I, you know, I don't think there's anyone you can, you can speak to, and either my part of the
22:29industry or more kind of in the, the enterprise infrastructure side that, that sees, you know,
22:36relief coming within the next year by any stretch. All right.
22:40Um, potentially longer for there. So it's kind of one, I think, in terms of
22:44how we're running our, our business down, we're like, this is a new normal.
22:49Um, I think our, our vice chairman has said that, you know, we, we need to get comfortable
22:53being uncomfortable, um, in markets like this. And I think, um, you know, how we've responded thus far
22:59in the last nine months, um, is, is, you know, uh, becoming more and more comfortable us, uh, for us.
23:05And, you know, seems to be the, the new norm for at least the next year.
23:09Have you seen yourself this transition and what do you see and how do you see India evolving?
23:14Because is it still the premium PC market or do you consider it as a volume market?
23:19Definition of premium is actually coming down to more accessible, uh, price points, um, as well,
23:25largely driven by markets like, like India, where it's not just, again, a, a feature set or a set of,
23:33um,
23:33um, hardware capabilities you need to have. Brands are important and people want access to those
23:38brands at more affordable levels. So that's why you see like what we have here today, an XPS that
23:43you can get into at half the price, roughly of, of what historically the entry-level price point for
23:50an XPS has been and same for, for Alienware with the 15. What's your take on AI PCs? The, the
23:57marketing
23:57moniker of an AI PC is largely fallen flat. I think where, where folks are still, are still
24:03struggling with the exception of a very, very small percentage of the population who's actively
24:09building their own agents, right? And they're actually running local models because they've
24:14already figured out the pain of tokenomics, um, and everything else. But that's kind of a,
24:19that's a very, very small fringe, um, set of consumers. And I think like any other technology,
24:25as it hits consumer, that will kind of grow over time. Super, super. That was Chris from Dell.
24:31Thank you so much for giving your time to India today. I am sure we are looking forward to the
24:35products that you have to launch today and also some of the future products. And we'll be talking
24:39about those also in the future. Thank you so much. Yeah, excellent. Look forward to it. Lovely chat.
24:43What I just love about technology is that it does not stand still for even one second. One week,
24:50it's an AI breakthrough. The next is a new gadget. And before you know it, the rules of the industry
24:56just change and we have to start all over again. That's why every weekend you need to stay tuned to
25:02the Tech Today show for all of the latest tech and AI updates, because my job is to keep you
25:07informed,
25:08updated and stay ahead of the curve when it comes to tech. So make sure you join us next week.
25:13Until
25:13then, this is Cyrus saying goodbye on the Tech Today show. Take care.
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