AI with Benefits
All artificial intelligence (AI) platforms are free for users, but there are upper-paid tiers which have much more features and utility. And they don't come cheap. A Google AI Pro subscription is ₹1,950 per month. But now, an increasing number of players are giving their paid products for free for a limited time in India.
It started with Airtel partnering with Perplexity, allowing everyone on its network to get Perplexity Pro for a year. Earlier, ChatGPT had announced that it was coming out with an affordable upper tier called ChatGPT Go for India. Now, it is giving Go free to Indian users for as long as 12 months. And then there is Jio, which had to match up with what Airtel was doing. It is giving Gemini Pro free for 18 months to users in its network. Users have to register their interest on the app to avail of it. At present, a significant percentage of Indians still don’t know about AI. Everyone, however, has a mobile and will become engaged with it if they see it on their phones. AI usage can be expected to increase dramatically with such tie-ups with mobile providers.
Sora on Phone
Sora, the AI video generation tool of Open AI, is now available on Android phones as an app that can be downloaded from the Play Store. The initial launch is in a few select countries like South Korea, Japan, and Korea. An interesting feature of Sora is the ability for users to create cameos. They can upload selfies and photos of friends and make small videos around a prompt.
The Lean Season
31 Oct 2025 - Vol 04 | Issue 45
Indians join the global craze for weight loss medications
Watch WhatsApp
WhatsApp, whose official app had so far been unavailable on Apple Watch, has finally found a place there. This is especially useful for Indians with Apple Watches because so many in the country depend on WhatsApp for their personal networking. They can see call notifications, view and reply to messages, and can also react to them using emojis.
Robot Chair
At the Japan Mobility Show 2025, Toyota unveiled a robot that can change the idea of the wheelchair. Called Walk Me, it looks like a chair with four legs, except that they can all coordinate so as to travel in areas where wheelchairs cannot. Like climbing stairs. All four legs of the chair behave like actual legs during movement.
