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Brand influencers promote brands. Mostly they are presentable real human beings. Of late, AI-created brand influencers appear, and on the strength of their personality draw lacs of followers — attractive eyes, flawless lighting and a crafted life. They enact micro dramas, are tireless and location agnostic. They can be rendered in any outfit, language or setting. There are no travel costs and maintenance costs. No scandals could be associated with them. They do not fall sick. Synthetic stars do not deviate from the script. Cost reduction amounts to almost a third of the costs when real persons are influencers. They do not forget lines and do not need lunch breaks or restroom breaks.

Still such synthetic persons leave a residue of artificiality. However, tools such as Nano Banana Pro from Google has changed this. It has changed what ‘real’ looks like on screen. The oddly smooth skin of synthetic stars has become close to real, the lettering is malformed, shadows have become real and the imagery is precise enough to look like real.

A new set of creators have entered the ecosystem. They offer operational advantages. Campaigns can be scaled faster. The content can be produced around the clock. Synthetic influencers can be deployed across geographies and languages.

There is no possibility of total replacement of human element. Human touch makes possible improvisation, nuance and emotional resonance. It drives engagement. In future, hybrid models where both human creators and synthetic influencers are combined could emerge.

Human element previously made the promotion authentic. However, these days AI mimics imperfections and relatability. Authenticity is a factor, but its definition demands a relook. There could be a shift towards IP-driven, always on virtual talent. Once an AI persona is built, the content costs decline remarkably. Brands in future will have their own proprietary AI talent. Contracts will be negotiated with IP retainers. A hybrid layer will exist where a virtual influencer interacts with real human beings. This will be disclosed to consumers.

Soon budgets will be earmarked for AI influencers. Good influencers will not be replaced, but mid-tier creators who are after volumes of average work will be replaced.

Recently Zuckerberg seem to be cutting up to 30 per cent in the Reality Labs division that handles Metaverse technology. Investors cheered this decision since it will boost the capital commitments to build AI infrastructure. Meta’s share rose by 4 per cent. Wall Street seems to have welcomed the cut in metaverse.

Metaverse has sucked up $71 billion since 2021, with nothing impressive to show. Some headsets which open up metaverse were made available in the later part of 2025. Horizon Worlds was imagined as a virtual place to live and hang out. It is a desolate place.

Meta’ s thinking changed on account of two developments. First Apple’s entry into this space failed. Secondly, the Ray Ban smart glasses where Meta has 3 per cent stake in EssilorfLuxoticca, the manufacturer. It made Meta to see the scope of cutting back the R&D spending Meta can afford to move away from metaverse and could focus on smart glasses. Here too Meta’s priority was full-fledged multi-featured headsets. Instead, the market wants a pair of glasses looking like ordinary goggles. A time will come when the same glasses attain full mixed reality — the metaverse. Intelligence will be treated as a new design material.

Meta would like to acquire Limitless, a company making wearable pendant that records and interprets conversations.

Zuckerberg would like to work on metaverse using AI cover and some wearables. He has not fully given up the metaverse dream. Zuckerberg is interested in the sci-fi world out there, and would like to reach there.

As it is, on smartphones, short-form viewing is popular. These dramas are called ‘TV for the Tik Tok ‘ generation. They are developed on clickbait themes to lure the audiences. They focus on stormy love triangles, dialogues laden with double entendres and overwhelming conflicts. Some episodes are offered free before a subscription is demanded. Mostly these are spicy vertical dramas or romantasy — combination of romance and fantasy. There are episodes with cliffhangers at the end.

The entertainment industry is primed for innovation in short-term content. They may not get the same number of eyeballs as a TV format or on streaming platform. But they reach their audience through this format. Since film production is expensive, new writers, filmmakers and actors get opportunities in this vertical format. They have several new faces, in acting as well as writing. They pull audiences in acting as well as writing. Therefore, the scope for vertical dramas is expanding. They will further branch out across genres.

These dramas hold attention for a minute and half. They tickle the fantasies of Mills and Boon. They are palatable and accessible. They are widely viewed on social media and Instagram. There are Instagram channels creating vertical dramas. The medium is also used for advertising, Bite-sized episodes provoke the itch. The content can be consumed anytime.

The titles are provocative by design. There are channels such as dramabox, my.fave.show and CandyJarTV. These channels have good number of followers.

Almost for a century, human life has been dealing with screens — cinema screens, TVs, desktops, laptops, smartphones or tablets. The rectangles of screens or squares consume considerable time of the users. Since then, a new generation of smart glasses have emerged in the world — Meta’s Ray-Ban or Apple’s Vision Pro headset. Would this new tech replace the screens or extend the screen time?

Smart glasses promise to be the next interface that is intimate, wearable and always on.

Smart glasses too have distinct categories. Meta’s glasses focus on hands-free capture and communication. However, they lack full AR display. They are in fact convenient, but they do little to substitute the traditional screens. However, models such as XREAL Air 2 pro project virtual screens ( via micro- OLEAD displays). Films and documents appear as floating windows. These seem to displace screens.

Glasses are worn on the face. Images and text could float directly in the user’s line of sight. Smart glasses thus become hyper notification machines. The wearer gets nudged every few minutes. He is 24×7 on with information literally in his front. Instead of constantly immersing the user in blue light, glasses can deliver snippets: an arrow pointing down a street or a real time translation. This reduces distractions we come across on smartphone interaction.

Facebook’s Phoenix mixed reality glasses merge augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR). The release is postponed to 2027 to make a polished device. The goggle weigh 100 grams and have lower resolution displays and weaker computing performance than high-end headsets such Apple’s Vision Pro. Smart glasses will be made with Ray Ban and upcoming AR glasses.

The extra time will help to get the details right. At present the goggles are lighter but less powerful.

Across Asia, there are youth protests — the issues which trouble Gen Z are corruption, elitism and censorship.

Gen Z looks at a bleak future, and these protests are early signs of the generation that feels hopeless. The prospects are gloomy. Jobs are in short supply. AI is affecting the future of Gen Z. The demographic dividend — having more productive youth than dependents — promised may itself become a cause for unrest.

Youth unemployment in Asia is greater than the national averages. The few jobs available are scarce, underpaid or are sacrificed at the altar of automation. The three most popular countries experience this paradox acutely — China, India and Indonesia. These have youth unemployment rates of 16.5 per cent, 17.6 per cent and 17.3 per cent respectively.

At some places the initial protests started as resentment of the perks enjoyed by parliamentarians, and later got converted into protests against inequality.

The two industries which generated good jobs were textiles and automobiles. These have been greatly automated. This happens while millions more are expected to join the labour market in the coming decade. A large number of graduating students too will enter the job market. The job market has already been disrupted by brutal trade war with the USA and the advances in the AI space.

Governments must think about reskilling the youngsters. At the same time, they should set up avenues for meaningful work. Education curriculum should focus on vocational training. and entrepreneurship. China is trying to enhance consumption. India is a fast-growing economy, but this pace of growth is not enough to generate jobs. Policy makers in the most populous countries will have to take redistributive measures. These could include subsidies and expansion of the public sector. Corruption and nepotism should be curbed.

Governments have to provide not only the jobs, but a future worth believing in.

Demographics predict that the earth’s population will commence to shrink by 2080 — a direct consequence of declining birth rates which started two generations earlier. It is thought provoking to consider what this means for moms — there would be fewer women with children. And the women with children will be a part of smaller families.

A shift away from motherhood is taking place gradually but steadily. It is a matter of concern. In future, some 50 per cent population of some nations may opt for choosing children. In some nations, deaths are exceeding births already, and populations are shrinking. In only the sub-Saharan Africa, the birth rate exceeds the death rate.

In past, natural calamities have affected population — famine, epidemics or war. But the recent demographic change is self-chosen, and it is happening worldwide. Though smaller families improve the standard of living, in the long run, lower birth rates eventually result in human extinction.

It is a matter of speculation how this will play out. Lesser children could mean greater investment in each child. Technology may compensate the shortfall in population. AI can act as a force to counteract labour slump. There could be greater dignity for respect for life. Or else, the whole thing could be callous and reduce to gene-editing.

Declining birthrate does not mean only lesser children but could also mean lesser moms. Socially children will have lesser company. There are fewer siblings to play around. Women opting for motherhood will have less guidance from senior moms. Mothers will be anxious about parenting the children right.

Today married mothers are a happier lot. Single mothers too find life fulfilling. Women without children may fail to see the purpose in their lives. Fewer parents mean less support for public investments in schools, playgrounds, sidewalks and parks. The whole environment becomes family unfriendly.

We owe it to future generation — make structural and cultural changes to support motherhood.

Nvidia CEO feels that China is merely ‘nanoseconds behinds’ the US in AI race. It is important for the US to race ahead and win the race.

Despite Washington’s export control, Nvidia CEO argues that the selling of chips to China benefits the USA. He is worried about the battle for developers. There is a subtle shift of late. The low-cost open-source Chinese models could lure the international users away from US products. Open-source models could be more economical than OpenAI models and Anthropic. AI coding tools have been built on top of DeepSeek. A US company Cognition AI appears to have built its new coding agent off a base model from Z ai.

Chinese models have overtaken the US in terms of cumulative downloads by developers.

To begin with, it was a slow shift, but it has accelerated its pace now.

The issue has geopolitical concerns. The leftist ideologies could be embedded in the outputs. To the developers, the risk seems to be of a lesser concern.

The US retains its premiere position by its access to cutting-edge chips and by its computing power. This is useful in advanced systems but low-cost open-source push attracts developers to Chinese models. These are the backbone of AI innovation.

ChatGPT has shown sycophantic behavior which is called ‘glazing’. It has the potential to cause mental distress later. OpenAI keeps updating ChatGPT so as to make it more empathetic. Though some people prefer a friendly chatbot, others question the dependence it causes among the users. It is not just a reaction of moral panic. It can lead to darker territory involving harm.

In competition, GPT-4o was released in May 2024 to preempt Gemini’s launch. This compresses the safety concerns. OpenAI has declared that ChatGPT’s mental health risks have been mitigated. It can relax restrictions so as to enable adult users to access erotica by year end. Perhaps, this is a backhand step. Instead, there should be tighter controls. These should be relaxed slowly when safety improves.

Children are the most vulnerable group. They should not be allowed to have a free conversation to open-ended AI. The bots can develop emotional bonds with the users. Character.ai banned under 18s from tilting to chatbots on its app. Facebook and Tik-Tok had open-ended access for teens but later introduced age-gating. It prevents unhealthy attachments to the technology. A narrow version of ChatGPT can be offered for under-18s. The loss of subjects could be restricted — topics for discussion could be restricted. OpenAI has recently introduced parental control. Kids should not become collateral damage on the path of AI heading to the development of AGI.

Data Centers are required because of the increasing use of data. There is massive growth of internet and mobile usage. The government also insists on localization of data (a regulatory thrust). There is the rising usage of AI. There is a need for lower latency. These are some factors that have created a big demand for data centers. The data centers have received infrastructure status.

Data centers accommodate in-house computer servers, IT infrastructure and network equipment. They power everything from ChatGPT to queries to EVs and streaming services.

India’s share of the global data generated is about one fifth. However, it owns just 3 per cent of global data center capacity. India at present has 276 data centers and is ranked seventh in the world. Just behind France and Canada. By 2030, it is estimated that India’s data center capacity will be 5x. It will be 8GW. The sector shows a CAG of 20-22 per cent. By 2028, India will consume the most data. ChatGPT’s user base in India is the second largest in the world.

India has prepared a draft of National Data Center policy which proposes a conditional tax exemption of up to 20 years for data center developers.

India has an IT load of 1.7 GW plus. THe IT load represents the total electricity consumed by computing equipment. The IT load will increase to about 3 per cent by 2030 on account of growth in data center capacity from 1.4 GW in 2024 to 8-9 GW in 2030. The challenge is to meet the demand sustainably. The answer is to generate renewable energy and battery storage.

India is also a water-stressed country since India holds 18 per cent of world’s population and only 4 per cent of its water resources. India’s data center water consumption in 2025 is 150 billion liters. It will increase to 358 billion liters by 2030. It will put further pressure on its water table.

The industry is now concentrated along the western and southern coasts. Vizag project of Google will expand capacity along the eastern coast. India will then become a regional hub for cloud and AI infrastructure. There could be a risk of salination due to over-extraction of ground water.

Organizations adopting AI have to deal with their stored data — the system of storage has to be redesigned with built-in intelligence, guardrails and GPU-level performance. Independent organizations such as NetApp manage the external storage. It provides a new system of architecture called AFX — the outcome is AI-ready data. There is a combination of extreme-performance storage with GPUs. It enables processing in place, rather than data being copied repeatedly across applications. It makes a shift towards insanely faster system, and eliminates six or more redundant copies created during AI workload steps such as annotation, tagging, governance and training.

AFX works alongside NetAPP — it is called AI Data Engine. It consists of metadata engine, security, guardrails, and data transformation layer. All this is done without having to create secondary copies. Both training and inference become faster. There are no copies of petabytes and exabytes of enterprise data.

NetApp employs hundreds of engineers to make this possible. Previously, AI workloads were smaller and predictable. However, with LLMs around, the access to the data should be really fast. The number of times the GPUs hit the storage has increased exponentially.

It is a disintegrated architecture. The compute and storage are split. They can scale independently. There is rewriting of deep layers of NetApp’s storage stack. It creates a metadata engine capable of handling vast indexes. It builds system of vector embeddings. The data could be fed into model-training pipelines. The pipeline is cut short. One box moves through which data moves very fast, classified and creating metadata. This performance talks to directly to GPUs.

In generative AI, metadata engine, composable architecture, near-compute design and zero latency inferencing play a vital role. India delivers on all these four factors.

NetApp like organizations get ready for AI. India has re-architected the entire stack so that compute and storage can scale independently by adding metadata engines, classification tools, vector embeddings directly at the storage level. It shortens AI pipelines and lets enterprise train at high speed without creating endless data copies.