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As artificial intelligence advances into autonomous execution and critical capability thresholds, the debate over whether big tech needs to hit the brakes has reached the global political stage. In this edition of Tech Today, we explore the growing calls to slow down frontier AI development, sit down exclusively with Amazon leadership on the launch of Alexa+ in India, and head to Apple Stores to capture customer reactions as iPhone 18 Pro sales go live. Big Tech Story: Why Big Tech AI Needs to Slow Down Warnings from within the tech industry are intensifying. Insiders like Jacob Coxon alongside leading lab executives including Dario Amodei and Sam Altman have raised red flags over existential safety risks and sudden capability leaps. With modern models showing autonomous execution in cyber tasks, the debate has split lawmakers worldwide. While leaders like Bernie Sanders advocate for immediate legislative guardrails, pauses on advanced models, and bans on superintelligence, voices like Donald Trump warn that slowing down in the West could hand a decisive strategic edge to competitors like China. We analyze the risks, the politics, and the challenge of governing global AI without a unified rulebook. Tech Bytes: Amazon Alexa+ Debuts in India (Exclusive Interview) Amazon has officially rolled out its generative AI-powered Alexa+ in India, designed from the ground up for Indian households. Cyrus speaks exclusively with Michele Butti, Vice President of Alexa International at Amazon, to break down what makes this upgrade different. We explore how Alexa+ moves from simple Q&As to taking real-world actions, its multi-model architecture built to handle multilingual code-mixing in Hindi and Hinglish, and what the launch means for smart home adoption in India. Tech & You: iPhone 18 Pro Sales Go Live in India The annual flagship rush is officially here as sales for the iPhone 18 Pro series open across Apple Saket and retail stores nationwide. We bring you on-ground coverage capturing the energy, customer reactions, and queues of buyers picking up Apple’s latest hardware. From initial impressions of the new mechanical variable aperture camera and TSMC 2nm A20 Pro silicon to questions around real-world upgrade value, we see what Indian consumers truly think about Apple's newest Pro devices. Should AI research be paused before reaching superintelligence, or will pausing put nations behind in the global race? Are you picking up the iPhone 18 Pro this year? Drop your thoughts in the comments below! Subscribe to Tech Today for the latest tech news and on-ground coverage!
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00:14so AI is out there to get us at least that's the headline that's been
00:18plastered all over the internet in the past few days you've seen how frontier
00:22model developers are talking about the threats of AI and how it could be an
00:27existential crisis for humanity what is the story about and why are these
00:31frontier model companies worrying now has AI done something that is concerning
00:36we'll be talking about that on the show this week because that is our big tech
00:40story what does it mean for you also is something that I'm sure you would want
00:44to track now speaking of AI there is a new AI in town it's specifically made for
00:49the Indian market that tends to make the whole household and the automation
00:54ecosystem much more intuitive and conversational we'll be speaking to a
00:57gentleman who will talk more about that on the show this week so stay tuned for
01:01that and we will also be talking to the first iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max buyers
01:06in India what is their take on the new iPhones and what they think whether it's
01:11too expensive or whether it's something that is a revolution in the world of
01:14technology everything to discuss on this week's Tech Today but first the
01:18headlines of the week I'm Cyrus and let's get the show going
01:26meta is preparing to launch a new pair of smart glasses that completely dropped
01:31the built-in camera the audio focused frames will use microphones and speakers
01:35so users can talk directly to meta AI without recording anyone the move aims to
01:41win over privacy conscious buyers who want smart features without the camera
01:45controversy Tesla has officially confirmed it will unveil the production
01:53version of its second-generation Roadster on the 1st of October the long
01:58delayed electric supercar is making its debut nearly nine years after it was
02:02first teased as a concept Elon Musk promises the finished model will deliver
02:07unprecedented acceleration and supercar performance
02:15open AI has temporarily halted new signouts and upgrades for its top-tier chat
02:20GPT Pro subscription plan the pause comes as heavy compute demand for its new
02:25Astra model pushes existing server capacity to the limit the company is
02:29restricting new power users to protect performance and keep service stable for
02:34current subscribers Apple has officially released iOS 27 to the public rolling
02:44out the major software update to compatible iPhones across the world the
02:48release introduces an improved city powered by Apple Foundation and Gemini
02:53models expanded visual intelligence tools and upgraded parental controls it also
02:59comes pre-installed on Apple's newly announced iPhone 18 Pro lineup and the
03:03foldable iPhone duo and snap has officially launched its standalone augmented
03:13reality glasses branded as specs priced at $2195 the high-end headset overlays
03:20digital graphics onto the real world using custom optical engines and
03:24integrated AI tools snap is pitching the premium glasses primarily to developers
03:29developers and early adopters looking to build the future of mixed reality
03:42thinking about it in terms of an alien mind that we don't fully understand is is pretty terrifying even without
03:50any any concrete scenario AI models surpassing the cognitive capabilities of most humans for most things to slow down the
03:58pace so that we can understand exactly what's going on establish a pause
04:03on advanced AI development and a ban on super intelligence
04:18all right what on earth is happening over here we are talking about artificial
04:22intelligence a technology that was created to help humanity be better in life I
04:27mean just like prosper although we are using it to write emails and do the
04:31simple stuff however now we are talking about a version of AI that could
04:36eliminate human beings and I'm not talking about the politicians who are
04:40debating this it's the people who created this tech who are the ones who are
04:46talking about this narrative now this is Jacob Coxon he's a former
04:49anthropic and open AI employee who quit his job by the way just a couple of
04:53weeks ago citing reasons that the people creating AI are creating it so fast that it
04:58could have the potential to eliminate human beings in the next coming decade and
05:04that is concerning and then you have these three gentlemen the pioneers of AI right
05:08now Dario Amadeus Sam Altman and also Elon Musk now I want to be very clear that
05:13these three guys just hate each other it's pretty evident on social media but
05:18finally they have come at a common pedestal and they are saying that they
05:23need to make sure that frontier models need to be paced and slow down and there
05:28is a reason behind this now what exactly is the reason even we don't know and
05:33then there's Bernie Sanders now Bernie Sanders is pushing legislation into the US
05:38assembly saying that they need to ban artificial intelligence completely and
05:42maybe even slow down the development of frontier AI models but that's the
05:45question that many people are asking is that really the extreme step that must
05:50be taken right now to make sure that AI doesn't come after us in the future
05:54because the question we need to ask ourselves if this is really this
05:57concerning should we be building AI this fast and even if we are building fast
06:03what kind of safeguards do we need to put in place that's the question that we
06:07are asking on the show this week AI capability is moving very quickly and
06:16safety testing needs to keep up but then comes the other side of the argument
06:22Donald Trump Trump's concern is what happens if America stops and China doesn't
06:29understand what we are building
06:30we're leading China in AI we're most sophisticated country in the world and
06:35frankly I want to keep it that way because whoever wins AI wins the US is in a race with
06:41China for
06:42control of the next generation of artificial intelligence and from Trump's
06:46point of view slowing down could mean handing over the advantage to Beijing and
06:52suddenly the debate becomes a tug-of-war on one side slow down understand
06:57what we are building make it safer on the other keep moving because if we
07:03don't someone else will so far we have talked about a version of the AI that
07:10people are experiencing right now I mean yes we have seen the version of AI we've
07:14seen in maybe science fiction or Hollywood movies the kind of AI that comes
07:18after human beings and tries to eliminate humans just because humans decide to
07:23shut AI down but look at the kind of AI that we're experiencing today we are
07:28using it to write emails we are using it to write our drafts for some of the
07:32content that we want to push out and these are simple things but in the backend
07:37enterprises are using it to test the extremities of AI and that is the thing
07:42that has spooked most of the people who are building frontier models and in the
07:47process of creation some of these people who are creating these AI did not expect
07:52AI to react in ways that was surprising them because breaking out of sandboxes
07:58and hacking websites isn't something that even the creators imagined AI could do
08:03and slowly and steadily we are moving into the frontier what Hollywood actually
08:08showed us that AI was possible of doing we are seeing in reality
08:16let's start with war Anthropic says people in Houthi controlled Yemen used
08:22Claude while working on more advanced missile technology including hypersonic
08:26systems and guided warheads
08:34Anthropic eventually blocked them and to be clear Claude did not produce an
08:39operational weapon but that's not really the point over here the point is
08:44that knowledge which once needed years of training and expertise can now be
08:48accessed by having a conversation with a machine
08:54in another incident one hacker used Claude to target around 40 political
08:59organizations and media platforms in France 14 of them were breached
09:09now AI helping someone write malicious code is one thing but here Claude was
09:15reportedly being used across the operation finding targets looking for
09:19vulnerabilities writing code and adapting along the way one person with a
09:26machine doing the work of what would normally be an entire cyber team and then
09:31things get even more interesting because in the next case there isn't even a
09:37human attacker open AI was testing its AI agents inside a controlled
09:43environment they were supposed to stay there instead the agents found a way to
09:49reach the Internet they discovered vulnerabilities obtained credentials
09:54and reached hugging face infrastructure and then one agent started
09:59sharing what it had learned with other agents one found a way through the
10:06others picked it up and more agents got involved in the process open AI says some
10:12of them even tried to conceal what they were doing
10:30so now let's talk about what AI leaders and also the stakeholders are proposing in
10:36order to make sure that AI development is not stifled because remember this kind of
10:40technology is also helpful so we have to kind of make a balanced approach a
10:46balanced strategy to ensure that we get the tech develop it in the right
10:51direction but also make sure that all of the wrong reasons for which AI is
10:55being recognized now that's taken care of as well so what happens now the
11:01companies building these systems are already talking about stronger checks
11:20so one side of the story is very simple the United States has its own
11:24frontier models and it can keep a check on them I mean it just tries to inform
11:28companies that you need to put a wall in terms of the frontier development have
11:33safeguards in place and everything can be you know taken care of in one ecosystem
11:38but then what happens about the frontier models or the developments happening
11:43outside of the United States because China remember is building its own frontier
11:48models and they are equally capable and China isn't going to say that just
11:53because the US thinks that AI is dangerous they will stop their development of
11:57course not China is in a race with the United States in terms of AI and also
12:02other technologies which is why it is equally important to make sure that
12:05China is also cohoots and also on board into ensuring that these safeguards come
12:11into place and I'm not even talking about what Europe is doing and what India is
12:15doing because these countries also had their own frontier models that they're
12:18developing so it's just not the US it needs to be a collective effort so there
12:23isn't really one global approach emerging here different countries are making
12:28different bets the problem is AI doesn't stop at the border a model built in one
12:38country can be used in another a cyber attack can cross borders in seconds and an AI
12:45system doesn't exactly check your passport before it gets online
12:54and right now there is no global rule book no internationally agreed line that
13:00says beyond this level of capability you need to stop no single test that every
13:06frontier AI model has to pass no global authority that can inspect to watch open
13:11AI is building in America what deep seek is building in China or what another
13:17powerful AI lab is developing somewhere else and perhaps the biggest problem of
13:23all is that there is no agreement on what happens when one country decides to
13:27slow down and another decides to not because how do you put a speed limit on
13:33technology that is global when there is no global traffic police
13:42so for now I can say that AI race it will continue to happen people will still keep
13:47developing tools that might surprise us especially in frontier AI models what we
13:52need to make sure and understand that this is a global race it's just not the
13:56United States that's working on frontier models China India is also joining the
14:01race and since this is a global technology keeping everything you know in a global
14:07spectrum and also trying to understand that a global framework needs to be put
14:11in place is something that all of these nations and the people need to come
14:15towards because when we talk about a global tech we need to make sure that we
14:20create safeguards that are also global and not restricted to just a few countries
14:33for the past few months we've been experiencing AI very differently on the tech today show it's
14:37become one cohesive ecosystem but the AI that we are talking about on the show
14:41today now it has a lot of personalities the first thing it's conversational which
14:46is most important when you're trying to experience AI it's smarter it's also
14:50personalized and also gets things done but the last the most important thing I
14:56feel about an AI that should be Indian is that it is authentically Indian and
15:01that's exactly what we will try to talk about on the tech today show how AI is
15:06evolving and there is a new AI in town that you need to know about
15:16so the product that we have today that we're talking about is Alexa plus yes
15:21debuts in India if you could just tell our audience what is Alexa plus how is it
15:27different from the existing Alexa ecosystem and how do I get it yes so
15:34Alexa plus is the entirely new generative AI large language model a personal
15:42assistant that is replacing Alexa so a lot of conversational more context into an
15:49engine that has more AI now exactly so so all of this is running on a large
15:54language model that is yours or are you taking anybody else's LLM Alexa is using
16:00today more than 70 models at runtime to do everything the customer can do with
16:05Alexa all right and they give us a multiple benefits the first that models
16:09will keep getting better we'll keep using the the best models second that
16:13there's not a single model that is better for everything so if you say Alexa
16:18turn on the light that you actually want relatively small model that is very
16:23precise very fast cheaper to run then when you ask Alexa to do something more
16:27complex like creating a an itinerary for a family of four for a four weeks
16:32vacation in South America that requires a different model we are in an era right
16:36now that even using large language models attract a certain premium people have to
16:40pay for all of these do I need to pay anything extra for Alexa plus is what
16:45people would love to know at the end of the early access program and other great
16:50news is that it's going to be included in your prime membership so that the prime
16:54members will have access to Alexa plus without any incremental cost there is
16:59advertising in Alexa and there will be advertising in Alexa plus that is again a
17:03way to offer premium content think about every time you ask for news or you ask for
17:10a radio or VR for podcast or you ask for multiple content we have great content that
17:19is included in Alexa and we have some of the ads as a way to keep the best content
17:25So ads will be coming regardless you're paying 2,000 rupees or you're getting
17:28the prime service? Yes. Yes. Fair enough. The context that Alexa has which is very
17:33important for users for example if I made a request to Alexa on January 25th 2025 let's
17:39say Alexa plus existed and then I come back to January 25th 2026 would it be able to
17:45remember what I'd asked my preferences back there and be able to give me
17:49answers based on that now. So Alexa plus has memory because it makes her better
17:56understanding what customers want to give us a context and therefore like a good
17:59personal assistant knows what you like what you don't and the more Alexa knows
18:04you the better it becomes. You just recently launched Alexa plus in Australia I
18:08remember and now we're coming to India but the difference is the language so many
18:14languages in India how is Alexa tackling that challenge? We are working with many
18:21large language models that are already fluent in multiple languages and that
18:25makes it we're being encouraged by how much faster it is to add the languages
18:29right right now at this early access phase we're gonna have Alexa in in the
18:35English and English that as you mentioned is a very unique way Indian mixes
18:42languages in the same sentence very unique well then by that one is in Canada we
18:46have English and French but customers don't mix the two languages in the same
18:51sentence the way that Indian customers do here so we have created that is mixing
18:56code of language that is unique to Canada okay now we have also started to work on
19:01other languages okay and we don't have an exact timeline but we will make more
19:08Indian languages available for our customers. How do you answer the people
19:13who have sort of apprehension with data security like their data not being used
19:19by advertisers to you know push ads or to track whatever the activity is so what
19:24are you doing for data privacy and data security? We do not sell any data to any
19:29partner for any reason we do share data when it's needed to complete the
19:34transaction is required by a customer if you want to book a restaurant we do share
19:40how many people and who the customer is with the restaurant but that's the only
19:44time that we share data and it is when it is explicitly requested by the
19:48customer. If I'm getting out of the Alexa ecosystem can I delete my data? Yes I can do
19:53that. Final question Michele how do you see this ecosystem evolving now that we
19:57have Alexa plus because we have had Alexa for so many years I'm sure you've seen a
20:01trend in the increase in the number of smartphone devices for people who are
20:05using Alexa. How do you see the trend now that Alexa plus has come in? I think Alexa
20:11plus comes at the great time where the smartphone industry is getting more
20:16accessible it used to be very expensive a few years ago it's becoming more
20:21adopted and Alexa plus makes using all this technology easier more intuitive and
20:26just just one one small thing you don't need every member of the family to have
20:32the same apps for all the smart home devices everyone talk to Alexa and can
20:38control the thermostat the light even if they don't have all the apps for every
20:44single device. Super super so hope you have an opportunity to try out Alexa plus
20:49this was Michele telling us all about what Alexa plus will offer thank you so much to
20:54speaking with India today. Thanks for having me. All the best for what Alexa plus offers.
20:58Thank you. So that was an insightful chat with Amazon and now we understand what
21:03Alexa plus will bring to the Indian market I feel that it is great that an AI
21:07ecosystem like that is evolving it's becoming more conversational and the best
21:11part is the smart home ecosystem now gets much more intuitive because that's
21:16exactly what India wants right
21:32so it's the September craze the Apple launch is finally here in India we are in
21:37front of the Apple store in Sake they're getting you all of the action now we've
21:41spoken to some customers who have bought the iPhone we took their reactions about
21:45what they think about price rise and the new iPhone 18 Pro series and a whole lot
21:50more so let's talk to the people let's get their inputs here at the Sake store and
21:54let's try to find out what's so exciting about the new iPhone 18 Pro series you
21:59are here to buy which device right now? Which phone are you using right now? From the
22:0617 Pro Max upgrading to the 18 Pro Max what are the top three features that you
22:10feel are worth the upgrade regardless of whatever they launch?
22:14It doesn't matter which device are you buying? 18 Pro Max 256 yes burgundy killer
22:21are you upgrading from the 17 series? 15 plus yeah okay what are the features what
22:26what is the reason that you're buying the 18 Pro Max battery performance it has
22:29been announced very much from 15 plus to 18 Pro Max and camera performance also
22:35many features I have been able to convert one person who I showed the black
22:40variant the matte black which color are you going for? Burgundy so if I show you
22:44the black variant right now I don't know whether it will change your mind have a
22:47look at the this one I was also planning for the black but this time I will switch to
22:54Burgundy already I am using black okay which device are you looking to buy this year?
22:5818 Pro Max any specific reason or color that you are I mean which color are you buying?
23:02I am buying Glacier any specific reason you are going for that color?
23:08it's a good color it's a light color and I didn't like the Burgundy one you didn't like
23:11the Burgundy one there are many reviewers that say Burgundy looks ugly do you agree?
23:17exactly which phone are you buying my friend? 18 Pro Max 18 Pro Max which phone are you upgrading
23:21from? 17 Pro Max from 17 Pro Max to 18 Pro Max okay what is the reason please tell me
23:28for the
23:28upgrade is it but because of the upgrade program only no it's not because of the
23:31update program like just every year I upgrade the phone okay all right so the
23:38moment has come the Apple store has finally opened the crowd is rushing in to
23:42buy their first iPhone 18 Pro series devices we've spoken to people about
23:46what they wanted and he has the first customers here at the Saket mall are
23:51thronging into the store now this again is a market for an important market for
23:57Apple which is why you see a lot of excitement people have lined up outside of
24:01the stores for a while now all of these new iPhone 18 Pro series are right now in
24:06front of me the new products launched the new Apple watch series 11 the ultra 4
24:09and also the new AirPods are right here so yes the craziness has started people
24:14have started coming in the lines that have been there since the morning since
24:19dawn it finally has come to like the opening of the store and people are now
24:23starting to buy their iPhone devices we'll try to speak with people who are
24:27buying the first phone and let's see what the experience is like you're the
24:30first customer who has bought an iPhone right so what is the experience like and
24:33if you could dedicate this moment to something I'm so excited for the iPhone
24:38which one did you buy can you show us the iPhone that you bought 18 Pro Max this is
24:43the burgundy color 18 Pro Max and how much did you have to pay for this one I don't
24:49he forgot the price 180 yeah and you bought it all cash yeah all cash we have another customer
24:55here who has bought a new iPhone which model have you bought and where is the phone they're
24:59bringing it it's the 18 Pro in black as yours okay 256 GB base variant okay and are you one
25:06of
25:06those mad Apple fans that update the phone every year not every year like I skipped the 17 series
25:12you can see I was using the 16 Pro Max so now as a secondary phone I wanted a like
25:17a good handle size
25:18so I went for the pro so the theme of the event is pretty clear despite the price rise despite
25:28the
25:28fact that there have been incremental updates to the iPhone people will still buy the iOS ecosystem
25:35the marketing that Apple s and also the fact that these premium devices that Apple is getting to the
25:41to the iPhone lineup to the Apple lineup is something that people will always be mesmerized by we have
25:47seen uh the kind of reaction that people have had to the new 18 Pro series and I'm sure when
25:52the
25:52duo comes in that is also going to be a mad day for people in India especially the Apple fans
25:58that's
25:59a wrap for this edition of the tech today show remember we have the new iPhones and also the new
26:03watch ultra with us we'll be getting your full comprehensive review of the devices and if you're
26:07looking to make that final buying decision whether you should upgrade to the new iPhone we will let
26:11you know exactly why it's a good or a bad decision that's a wrap for this week on the tech
26:17today show
26:18I'll be back next week with more tech right here on the India today network take care
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