Pakistan's iCube-Qamar satellite has sent back its first pictures from orbiting the moon

Morning! AI is not only gonna steal your job, it’s also gonna steal your girl/boy. More on that later..

In this week’s edition:

🍿 Streaming 🤝 Cable

🧾 Taxes Taxes Taxes

✨ Eid in AI world

🌕 China to Pak: “I'd go to the moon and back for you.”

- The Itla Squad 💼

Business

Global 🌎️

No one invited Netflix to the party?

The streaming industry - that went head-to-head with the cable industry and claimed that streaming is cooler than cable for years - just realized that cable might not be so bad after all.

Disney and Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) have teamed up to offer a streaming bundle that includes Disney’s services Disney+ and Hulu, along with WBD’s Max, a fusion of HBO Max and Discovery+ so essentially …a cable service?

The details:

• The combined bundle will offer access to a vast array of entertainment content from major brands like ABC, CNN, DC, Discovery, Disney, HBO, Marvel, Pixar, Warner Bros, and more.

• The streaming bundle will provide both ad-free and ad-supported options, and customers can purchase it online through the respective websites of Disney+, Hulu, and Max.

• Although pricing details are yet to be disclosed, company representatives have promised to share more information in the coming months (please, don’t break our wallets).

Way forward: You might've sensed that Netflix seems to be missing from the party as it doesn’t seem to be a fan of cable. What Netflix might be interested in is how consumers perceive this bundle’s value proposition. Tracking subscriber numbers and user feedback will tell us whether it’s a win or not.

TLDR: The streaming giants Disney and Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) are teaming up to offer a bundle that feels a lot like cable. With Disney+, Hulu, and Max combined, customers get access to a ton of entertainment content.

What else is new in news

✶Tesla is being sued for allegedly violating the Clean Air Act at its California plant, emitting harmful pollution into nearby neighborhoods hundreds of times since January 2021. Despite promoting EVs' environmental benefits, Tesla has faced criticism for its manufacturing practices, ranking 89th on the 2023 Toxic 100 Air Polluters list.

Local 🇵🇰

We might be scared of them but IMF isn’t

The IMF is in Pakistan to discuss financial aid and has suggested some changes for the upcoming budget. One big change they propose is to start taxing pensioners, both civilian and military 👀, and remove tax exemptions from pension schemes.

The details:

• The IMF wants Pakistan to generate more tax revenue, about 0.5% of its GDP, which could be around Rs600 billion. They suggest taxing retired people and removing tax breaks from pension funds.

• Talks for financial aid have begun, just days after the Finance Minister's announcement. Pakistan wants two types of aid: the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for structural reforms and the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) for climate change issues.

• These IMF also want to make taxes the same for all cigarettes, no matter where they're made. Recently, taxes on cigarettes went up a lot, making them more expensive, resulting in a decline in cigarette purchases by about 20-25%.

Way forward: If implemented, taxing retiring and retired individuals could result in additional annual income tax ranging from Rs22 billion to Rs25 billion after the elimination of all tax exemptions on pension funds.

TLDR: The IMF is proposing changes for Pakistan's budget, including taxing pensioners and removing tax exemptions from pension schemes to increase tax revenue by around Rs600 billion. Pakistan is seeking two types of assistance for reforms and climate change issues. Additionally, the IMF suggests making taxes same for all cigarettes, which could impact cigarette purchases. If these changes are accepted, it could lead to significant additional income tax annually.

News Flash

✶Two Japanese car companies, Honda Atlas Cars Ltd (HACL) and Indus Motor Company (IMC), are staying out of a pricing competition started by other car companies (where car companies are decreasing the car’s prices). Meanwhile, Lucky Motor Corporation Ltd (LMCL) has lowered the price of one of its cars by a lot.

Tech

Global 🌎️

OpenAI launched Mr. Steal-Your-Girl GPT-4o

It was Eid in the AI world this Monday i.e. OpenAI launched the GPT-4o (the ‘o’ stands for ‘Omni’) model for ChatGPT that is aimed at “reducing the friction” between “humans and machines” and “bringing AI to everyone.”

The details:

• Unlike previous versions that can only understand text, GPT-4o can work like a voice assistant which means it can understand speech, images, and videos, making interactions with ChatGPT much more versatile and engaging.

• ChatGPT can now cringe-flirt understand and respond to emotions, making conversations more human-like even responding with expressions like "Oh stop it, you’re making me blush." GPT-4o also even makes jokes in different voices, from playful to dramatic to singsong at the request of OpenAI researcher Mark Chen.

• ChatGPT now has this awesome new feature where it can describe images and videos to users. This could be a game-changer for people with visual impairments, giving them a way to understand their surroundings better.

• To make sure that your girl math is really math-ing, it can assist you in solving math problems by interpreting what you've written on paper. Just hold your camera over the equations, and the model will engage with you like a tutor, chatting with you as you work through each step, helping you solve them in real-time.

• The best part? OpenAI upgraded the free version of ChatGPT, giving everyone access to cool features that used to be only for paid users. Sam further said, “This is important to our mission; we want to put great AI tools in the hands of everyone”.

Moving forward: With ChatGPT's upcoming voice mode upgrades, which are part of the new model, you'll have a better experience. It will be able to respond in real time and understand what's happening around you. Right now, the voice mode is a bit limited - it can only respond to one command at a time and it only listens to audio. But with the new improvements, imagine asking ChatGPT about the weather and it not only gives you the forecast but also notices if there are birds chirping in the background and mentions that it sounds like a nice day outside. Weird but super cool.

TLDR: OpenAI launched GPT-4o, an upgraded model for ChatGPT, making it more versatile. Now, ChatGPT can understand speech, images, and videos, respond to emotions, make jokes, and describe visuals. It can even help with math problems by interpreting handwritten equations. Plus, OpenAI made these features available for free to everyone

What else is new in news

✶ In this who-can-launch-AI-products-the-fastest race, Google was a day late as the very next day (this Tuesday), Google hosted its annual I/O developer conference called Google I/O where it also launched many AI updates. Our favorite announcement was Project Astra which is Google's latest step in creating its AI assistant, developed by its DeepMind AI unit. It's currently in prototype stage, but it's like Google's version of J.A.R.V.I.S. from the Marvel Universe (the device that Tony Stark was using). In a demo video at Google I/O, the assistant, using video and audio instead of text, could help users recall where they left their glasses, review code, and identify parts of a speaker shown in a video. We might go into detail about other features in the next edition.

Local 🇵🇰 

The sky is the limit? Not for this friendship

“I'd go to the moon and back for you.” China to Pak.

Pakistan's first-ever lunar satellite, iCube-Qamar, has recently sent back its very first images from the moon's orbit, marking a big achievement for Pakistan's space efforts. It's part of China's Chang'e-6 mission, which aims to explore the moon and collect data.

The details:

• iCube-Qamar was launched from Hainan province, China, on May 3 and reached the moon's orbit on May 8.

• It was created by Pakistan's Institute of Space Technology (IST) in collaboration with China's Shanghai University (SJTU) and Pakistan's space agency SUPARCO.

• The satellite sent its initial pictures from the moon's orbit, showing various features of the lunar surface.

• Despite its small size, iCube-Qamar has two cameras and can operate in extreme temperatures. It sends data at a moderate rate, giving us valuable information about the moon.

• iCube-Qamar is part of China's Chang'e-6 mission, which wants to study the moon's "dark side" and collect samples to study.

Way forward: It's now aiming for a tricky soft landing at the South Pole on the Moon's surface which is one of the most challenging things to do in space exploration-Olympics. It seems like Pakistan is also stepping up in the space mania.

TLDR: Pakistan's first-ever moon satellite, iCube-Qamar, sent back its first pictures from the moon's orbit. It's part of China's mission to explore the moon. Created by Pakistan's IST, China's SJTU, and SUPARCO, it has two cameras and works in extreme temperatures. Now, it's heading for a tricky landing at the Moon's South Pole, which is a tough task.

Tech tour of news

✶Telecom companies have agreed with the FBR to block SIM cards of individuals who haven't filed their income tax returns. Telecom operators will start blocking SIMs manually in small batches until their systems can automate the process, with the first batch starting from 5000 non-filers.

More interesting Itla (اطلاع) we consumed:

🔮 The latest OpenAI’s GPT-4o changes were called ‘magical’ by CEO Sam Altman. It really was magic if you could take 26 minutes out of your day and watch the live-recording of the demo. It was weirdly charming, funny, and thought-provoking (and the voice assistant sounded a bit like Scarlet Johanson??). Please reply to this email if you think so too.

🖼️ Too much AI? Watch this tour by the Architectural Digest where they go behind the scenes of Netflix's 'Bridgerton' season 3 with production designer, Alison Gartshore, for an exclusive tour of the set. The design thought for even the smallest things is always astounding.