The concerns over AI eating away jobs keep mounting, especially with 15 Nobel laureates issuing a warning for imminent, large-scale job losses across the world – something that humans last witnessed during the Industrial Revolution. Such a warning should keep all tech and AI enthusiasts up at night, but the industry doesn’t sleep. Hence, even on a slow-paced Tuesday, there’s a lot to catch up on in technology and AI.
One of the updates that hit the headlines was WhatsApp testing an independent, end-to-end encrypted cloud backup infrastructure to completely bypass Apple’s tight iCloud limitations. While this may affect the global WhatsApp user base, the state of New York has taken action on something else that’s a major concern – data centers. The state has officially hit the brakes on large-scale data center construction to protect its power grid from insatiable AI workloads.
Then we have updates from India, where Google revealed its new plans and policies for interacting with India. The Karnataka administration also revealed plans to establish an AI university.
All that and a lot more. Here is your comprehensive daily roundup of the top tech and AI headlines from today:
Global economists, tech leaders issue stark AI warning
Over 200 economists and tech pioneers, including 15 Nobel laureates, have issued a joint open statement warning that the current pace of rapid AI advancements could trigger mass technological unemployment. The experts cautioned that the upcoming labour market disruptions could occur on a scale significantly larger and faster than what humanity observed during the Industrial Revolution, and hence urged immediate policy intervention.
WhatsApp tests first-party backup to bypass Apple iCloud storage limits
WhatsApp is testing a major feature in its latest iOS beta, allowing users to back up their chat history directly to WhatsApp’s own servers. The change will offer iPhone users a way to safeguard their media without exhausting Apple’s free 5GB iCloud cap. The feature is expected to include 2GB of free storage alongside premium paid tiers, with all data end-to-end encrypted by default via passkeys or passwords.
Google I/O Connect India brings localised AI, MedGemma expansion
At its annual developer event in Bengaluru, Google announced a couple of major AI expansions tailored specifically for the Indian ecosystem. Key announcements included new AI education and training programs, critical healthcare integrations with partners like AIIMS Delhi to deploy the medical-focused model ‘MedGemma’, and expanded Gemini Live support rolling out across 25 distinct Indian languages.
Karnataka to establish India’s first government-driven AI University
Alongside Google’s tech showcase, the Karnataka government announced structural plans to build India’s first state-supported AI University and a dedicated AI incubation hub in Bengaluru. The initiative aims to transition Karnataka into an “AI-native state,” fostering localised startup talent and deploying advanced algorithms directly within agriculture, healthcare, and governance.
New York blocks new large-scale data centers
In a major regulatory pushback against the structural infrastructure demands of AI, the New York state has moved to halt the construction of new large-scale data centers for up to one year. The halt is intended to protect the local environment and prevent power-hungry AI workloads from overwhelming the state’s energy grid while officials assess long-term infrastructure impacts.
Apple iOS 27, macOS 27 Golden Gate public betas now out
Apple has officially pushed out the first public beta builds for iOS 27, macOS 27 Golden Gate, iPadOS 27, and watchOS 27. The release gives non-developer users a taste of next-generation Apple Intelligence features, including highly anticipated Siri AI upgrades and system-wide multimodal writing assistants. Eligible Apple consumers need to enrol in Apple’s Beta programme and download the update manually. Note that the beta versions are unstable and may expose bugs that could break your user experience, hence, it is advised to proceed with caution.
Samsung teases AI-powered health tracking for Galaxy Watch models
Ahead of its official Galaxy Unpacked event, which is scheduled for July 22 in London, Samsung has begun dropping official teasers for its next-generation wearables – the Galaxy Watch 9 and Galaxy Watch Ultra 2. Samsung revealed that the upcoming smartwatches will focus heavily on “effortless wellness” through real-time, background-monitored AI health insights. The new hardware will build upon existing metrics by introducing features like a Daily Cardio Load and a refined Vitals index, backed by upgraded internals and significantly longer battery life to improve data accuracy over longer wear periods.