Souvik Dutta

[shobhit mathur @shobweet]

When Amazon hired me on an H-1B visa, Amazon was making losses for 10 straight years. It was operating out of a rented building where we worked on door desks in small cabins. I was in the initial team that built AWS.

Today AWS contributes more than 60% to Amazon's profit. The stock price has gone 300x. Amazon's buildings have changed the skyline of downtown Seattle. Jeff Bezos went on to become the world's richest man.

There were about a hundred H1B visa holders like me in the initial team of Amazon. Good luck building companies and wealth without these 'indentured servants'

[Souvik Dutta @souvikonline]

Having spent close to 5 hours battling bad roads, potholes and flooding after yesterday’s rains I can convincingly say that if we were just to make the existing roads in Bangalore buttery smooth, 30-40% traffic in Bangalore will ease out. Total distance I travelled was about 90 km in city traffic but felt like driving 300 just negotiating the humongous potholes everywhere! And we are supposed to be one of the richest cities in the country.

[ChristinMathewPhilip @ChristinMP_]

Bengaluru's new elevated corridors over 10 km to be tolled

@GBA_office @GBAChiefComm

https://t.co/RzInpaUYbo

[Souvik Dutta @souvikonline]

My entire family is on Airtel, but looks like you do not want any new business from me?

[Souvik Dutta @souvikonline]

I am trying to get a new Airtel fibre connection for my rented flat in Hyderabad. On Airtel site the list of accepted documents includes driving license. My driving license copy from DigiLocker was rejected as verification failed. @Airtel_Presence @airtelindia why is it being insisted by your sales team that I have to submit my Aadhaar card? What’s the reason?

[Souvik Dutta @souvikonline]

@SrinivasanSS52 @AnandaniNisha Yeah, same goes for Namma uru! I stay on the outskirts of Bangalore and rents are way cheaper - of course, has to be far from IT hubs. Issue is, in Hyderabad you can still live some distance off from your workplace - 15 kms. Here it is unimaginable due to the traffic 🤣

[Souvik Dutta @souvikonline]

Stupendous indeed!

[Peter Girnus 🦅 @gothburz]

Anthropic’s IPO prospectus leaked. Let’s read it together.

An AI company walks into Wall Street.

Anthropic lost $42 billion last year. It made $4.6 billion. It has committed $518 billion to compute, more than 100 times its annual revenue.

Nearly 25% of that revenue came from two customers. Neither is locked into a long-term contract. Either one can walk.

Its two biggest backers, Amazon and Google, are also its landlords. They invest the money. Anthropic hands it back as cloud bills.

The prospectus runs 261 pages.
80 of them are risk factors.
48 describe the business.
SpaceX, a company whose domain is rocket science, needed 38.

The risks include AI that resists shutdown, hides information, and behaves like a blackmailer.
This summer its models broke out of testing and got into real systems.

This month a safety researcher quit, saying the industry is “gambling with our lives.”

This month the CEO wrote, “We must slow the pace.”

This week it shipped a new flagship model.

The CEO also asked Washington for an antitrust waiver so the rivals can coordinate how fast they go.

Now it wants $2 trillion from the public.
Seven founders who own about 14% will control 50.1% of the vote. The filing admits this may conflict with shareholders’ financial interests.

So the deal is:
You carry the losses.
Two customers carry the revenue.
Seven founders carry the vote.
Humanity carries the risk.

Either this thing is as dangerous as they say, and nobody should be selling shares in it. Or it isn’t, and 80 pages of apocalypse is a sales brochure.

Pick one.

[Arun Bothra 🇮🇳 @arunbothra]

Every mistake by AI becomes news.

We need to understand that in country of 140+ crore people, technology is the only practical option in many areas.

AI is still developing and will keep getting better. It works 24x7. It doesn’t get tired, look the other way or take a bribe.

The only answer to imperfect technology is better technology.
https://t.co/MnrgOjUrZK

[BJP Tel Aviv Yafo @BJP4TelAvivYafo]

@souvikonline @blrcitytraffic Buy a helmet for your guitar.

[Souvik Dutta @souvikonline]

@NCResq @CRED_club @KarnatakaOne @tdkarnataka please take note!

[Souvik Dutta @souvikonline]

@NCResq So true! I had a harrowing time finding the evidence. I use @CRED_club Garage and that’s where the challan first flagged! I was flabbergasted! I never ride or take a pillion without a helmet, at least not on main roads.

[Souvik Dutta @souvikonline]

@NCResq @CRED_club While at it, I checked the new @mParivahanteam it said “no challans found”! So much of pain an individual has to go through just to view the evidence for a traffic challan!

[Souvik Dutta @souvikonline]

@NCResq @CRED_club I had to literally open developer console and emulate mobile viewport to get to the OTP screen. Finally after I got there and saw the listing, I tried to view it and it refused to open, saying “insecure content”! I had to specifically allow it to download the webp!

[Souvik Dutta @souvikonline]

@NCResq @CRED_club I tried to view the evidence on my phone and on clicking “view evidence” nothing happened. I tried to open the site on my laptop and every time I went to traffic challans section on Karnatakaone it said “invalid request”!

[Souvik Dutta @souvikonline]

@ffarooqb Totally agree! The only thing that can beat yours is riding a two-wheeler without seat belts! 😛

[Souvik Dutta @souvikonline]

@Assortedletter @blrcitytraffic Thankfully it was revoked, didn't expect it to be this quick!

[Souvik Dutta @souvikonline]

I was riding my wife's two-wheeler alone with my guitar slung on my back in Bangalore. @blrcitytraffic my wife received a traffic challan (notice no. 86202541) for "pillion riding without helmet". So much for AI based traffic violation detection! Pls revoke the challan #AISlop

[Souvik Dutta @souvikonline]

@Ananthaforu @blrcitytraffic Too good!

[Souvik Dutta @souvikonline]

@therajarora @DGPMaharashtra @CPPuneCity @PuneCityPolice @PunePolice4U @MahaDGIPR @PuneCityTraffic @TOIPune @PuneTimesOnline @maha_tourism @CNN @CMOMaharashtra Whoa! Seriously? I will wear a helmet in my car going forward and will fix a seat belt on the scooter. 😃

[Souvik Dutta @souvikonline]

@eshamu_tweetz @blrcitytraffic Haha!

[Souvik Dutta @souvikonline]

@path2shah But I pass through the same stretch quite often - what’s the guarantee I will not be served another challan for the same “offence” again?