NEW DELHI: In a stunning display of counter-attacking batting, Travis Head propelled Australia to a commanding position on the opening day of the World Test Championship final on Wednesday. His scintillating hundred left the Indian bowling attack bereft of ideas as Australia reached an impressive 327 for 3 under bright sunshine at The Oval.
After being sent in to bat first, Australia faced an out-of-sorts Indian attack that seemed to lack the necessary penetration. India’s decision to leave out the experienced Ravichandran Ashwin backfired, as the pitch offered little assistance to their bowlers once the sun came out.
As it happened: WTC Final, Day 1
Head, with his aggressive stroke play, turned the tide in Australia’s favour. Partnering with the ever-dependable Steve Smith, Head amassed an unbeaten 251-run partnership for the fourth wicket. Their alliance lifted Australia from a shaky 73 for 3 to a position of dominance, leaving the Indian bowlers frustrated and searching for answers.

The day began positively for India, with Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami delivering a fiery opening spell. Both pacers showcased excellent control and kept Australia in check during the first hour of play. Siraj, in particular, bowled with a scrambled seam and extracted more from the surface than his counterparts.
The big breakthrough for India came when Shardul Thakur dismissed the well-set David Warner for 43 off 60 balls, breaking his partnership with Marnus Labuschagne. Warner’s dismissal came from a well-directed short ball, which he failed to keep down, and wicketkeeper KS Bharat took a sharp diving catch.

However, it was Head’s aggressive approach that stole the limelight. Untroubled by fuller deliveries, the left-hander used his quick wrists to flick the ball away when the Indian pacers targeted his pads. He punished anything short and wide on the off side with disdain, finding the boundaries with ease.
Head notched up his fifty with a crisp back-foot punch off Shardul Thakur and grew even more audacious as his innings progressed. He reached the 90s with a spectacular six over third man off Mohammad Shami, displaying his fearless intent.

Meanwhile, Steve Smith played a supporting role to perfection, allowing Head to dominate proceedings. Smith’s elegant stroke play and ability to manoeuvre the ball around the field showcased his class. He capitalised on the left-arm spin of Ravindra Jadeja and played some exquisite straight drives against the pacers.
India’s decision to pick an extra fast bowler at the expense of Ashwin raised eyebrows, and the absence of the seasoned spinner was deeply felt as Jadeja failed to make an impact, going wicketless in his 14 overs.
As the day wore on, the Indian bowlers attempted to unsettle Head with a barrage of short-pitched deliveries. However, once Head settled into his groove, the short-ball tactic lost its effectiveness, and he continued to plunder runs with confidence.

At stumps on day one, Head remained unbeaten on 146, while Smith was poised on 95. Their unbroken partnership not only steered Australia out of trouble but also solidified their dominance over a faltering Indian bowling attack.
With India left pondering the decision to exclude Ashwin and Rohit Sharma’s captaincy coming under scrutiny, the second day of the World Test Championship final promises to be a critical one for the Indian team. They will need to regroup, rediscover their rhythm, and find ways to dismantle Australia’s resilient batting duo to turn the tide in their favour.
(With inputs from PTI)

NEW DELHI: Five days after the horrific triple train crash in Odisha’s Balasore, dozens of bodies of the passengers who died in the accident still remain unidentified.
As many as 288 people lost their life in the accident that happened last Friday. Railway officials said there were 83 unclaimed bodies as of Wednesday.
The railways is now using artificial intelligence-powered website and SIM card triangulation to identify the unclaimed bodies.

Initially, the railways had called a team from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to the accident site to take thumbprints of the dead to ascertain their identity.
However, the method did not work out since the skin of the thumbs of victims were damaged and prints were difficult to take.
“Then we thought of identifying the bodies using Sanchar Saathi which is an AI-based portal,” an official said.
The recently launched Sanchar Saathi web portal was put to use to identify 64 bodies and it was successful in 45 cases, officials said.
Sanchar Saathi allows customers to know the mobile connections issued in their name and also track and block their lost smartphones.
This artificial intelligence-based portal was recently launched by railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw who also holds the information and technology portfolio.
To identify the bodies of the train accident victims, the portal traced the victims’ phone numbers and Aadhaar details using their photographs.
Following this, their family members were contacted, officials said.
But officials added that even this was an uphill task since many of these bodies were beyond recognition.
“Some have no identifiable features left. It is difficult to identify them even from their clothes since they are caked with blood,” an officer said.
Railway officials are also hoping to identify some bodies by using cellphone impressions around the accident sites.
By tracing calls made through nearby towers just before the accident and linking them to those which shut down immediately at the time of the crash, the railways is trying to figure out if they belonged to the unidentified victims.
“We are trying to trace phones which were active just before the accident and shut down as soon as it happened.
“So far, out of the 45 unclaimed bodies we are trying to trace through this method, we found 15 phones which were switched off but those were of survivors. We are still trying to trace the other 30,” an official said.
The railways made mammoth efforts to complete its rescue and restoration work in 51 hours. The ministry deployed eight teams, each comprising 70 personnel and headed by an officer for the operation. DRMs and GMs supervised four teams each.
Five cameras transmitted live to Rail Bhawan where it was monitored from the war room. The teams and officers did eight-hour shifts and took adequate breaks, officials said.
Meanwhile, the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express on Wednesday passed the accident site in Odisha’s Balasore, days after it was reduced to a mangled heap of steal in the deadly crash.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has taken over the probe in the triple train accident and has also registered an FIR.
The CBI was handed over the probe into the accident after some railway officials suspected “deliberate interference” in the electronic interlocking system.
(With inputs from PTI)

LAHORE: A Pakistani court on Wednesday granted protective bail to former prime minister Imran Khan till June 21 after a fresh FIR was registered against him for committing forgery in selling the state gifts.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Pakistan government registered a case of fraud and forgery against former prime minister Khan, his wife Bushra Bibi and their close aides for allegedly preparing and submitting fake and forged receipts regarding Toshakhana gifts.
The Lahore high court (LHC) also stopped police from arresting Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi till June 13 in any case.
The LHC judge Amjad Rafique granted bail to the couple after Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman appeared before it amid high security.
Khan’s counsel contended that his client has been falsely implicated in the case with malafide intentions and ulterior motives.
“The sole objective of naming the petitioner in the FIR is to harass, blackmail and politically victimise Khan,” the lawyer said and requested that protective bail be granted.
In the FIR registered in Islamabad, the police booked Khan, his wife Bushra Bibi and his two aides Shahzad Akbar and Zulfi Bukhari.
“The suspects committed fraud, and forgery when the PTI was in power for the purpose of cheating and presented a fake receipt of our business letterhead wherein false receipt showing sale purchases of gifts such as watches, cuff links are fraudulently obtained from Toshakhana (national treasury) with false signatures was prepared,” the FIR said.
The Toshakhana is a department under the administrative control of the Cabinet Division and stores precious gifts given to rulers, parliamentarians, bureaucrats, and officials by heads of other governments and states and foreign dignitaries.
On a separate petition of Bushra Bibi, Amjad Rafique granted her bail in this case and also stopped the police from arresting her till June 13.
The Toshakhana issue over the sale of state gifts received by the cricketer-turned-politician became a major issue in national politics after the Election Commission of Pakistan disqualified the former premier for making “false statements and incorrect declaration”.
Khan is facing over 100 cases, while Bushra is nominated in two cases — Toshakhana (gifts) and the Al-Qadir Trust case.
The Al-Qadir Trust case alleges that the PTI chief and his wife obtained billions of rupees and land from a real estate firm for legalising Rs 50 billion that was identified and returned to the country by the UK during the previous PTI government.

NEW DELHI: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Wednesday said that some jobs will go away due to Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems but they will be replaced by “newer and better ones”.
Altman, who is the man behind ChatGPT, was addressing an interactive session organized by The Economic Times in the national capital about the impact of AI revolution on businesses, jobs and economies like India.
Speaking at the session, Altman said that every technological revolution leads to changes in the job market and AI is not an exception.
As it happened: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s interaction with Times Internet Vice-Chairman Satyan Gajwani
“In two generations, we can kind of adapt to any amount of labour market change and there are new jobs. That is going to happen here [with AI]. Some jobs are going to go away. But there will be new better jobs that are difficult to imagine,” Altman said.
During a conversation with Times Internet Vice-Chairman Satyan Gajwani, Altman said that we are on an “exponential curve” vis-a-vis AI revolution and it would be a mistake to just focus on the current AI systems such as ChatGPT and their various flaws.
“The rate of AI progress in the coming years will be significant. A future AI system can radically improve education, cure diseases, etc,” Altman said.
Speaking about his company OpenAI, which is a key player in the ongoing AI revolution, Altman said that the tech giant wants to be a force that can mitigate the risks associated with these systems so that we can ultimately reap the benefits.
“OpenAI is about a quest. This is one of the coolest things that humanity has ever built. We want to make sure people get that benefit,” he said.
Risks and capabilities
During the QnA round at the session, Samir Jain, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of the Times Group, asked Sam Altman if AI can make something (like a robot) capable of expressing greater love than humans.
The OpenAI CEO replied that he hopes people do not fall in love with robots.
“I hope we don’t all fall in love with robots. I hope we all become better versions of ourselves with these AI systems helping us as coaches and therapists. I am okay with AI making good classical music but not about people falling in love with robots,” he said.

To a question by Times Group’s Samir Jain about the risks of AI falling into the hands of a dictator, Altman said that the possibility is indeed “very scary” and we must build tools to prevent that.
“I do think there are Sci-Fi concerns about AI which will turn out to be wrong. But the idea of a dictator possibly using AI to oppress people is very scary. We need to build systems in a way to address that risk and that is going to be a very complicated geopolitical challenge,” Altman said.

Trust factor
Asked about concerns regarding the use of AI systems to spread fake content and images, Altman said that while he does have some fears about it, the society will develop techniques to counter these threats.
“We, as a society, will rise to the occasion. … we will have techniques like watermarking detectors very quickly. More importantly, in the future if people are saying something really important, they will cryptographically sign it,” he said, adding that people will adapt to these challenges.
Altman pointed out that such concerns were raised with tools like photoshop too, but people learned over time to tell if an image is photoshopped or not. “Society can build antibodies very quickly,” he added.
Extinction risk
Altman also dismissed fears that current AI technologies can pose a threat to humanity but sounded caution about the future.
“I don’t think current AI systems are dangerous. But ChatGPT 10 may be an extremely different thing. We have to put in a lot of effort on how to align an AGI (Artificial general intelligence) and it is super important to design safe systems at this kind of scale. We are developing techniques to mitigate the risk,” Altman said.
‘India has truly embraced ChatGPT’
Altman said that India has been a country that has truly embraced ChatGPT.
“There is a lot of early adoption and real enthusiasm from the users,” Altman noted during his interaction with Times Internet’s Gajwani.
Later in the session, Altman also said that with G20, India can play a huge role in the global conversation about AI regulations.
Asked about AI baises when it comes to languages and the systems being western-focused, Altman said that while transitioning from GPT3.5 to GPT4, OpenAI introduced several non-English languages.
“It’s not just the language, but also history, culture and values. We want the entire world represented in here,” he said, when asked how it can be useful in countries like India.
AI in the real world
At a fun session during their interaction, Times Internet’s Satyan Gajwani asked Altman to imagine himself in different roles to help us “do our jobs better”.
If he were a CEO of a hospital …
Altman: Doctors are using ChatGPT to help come up with new ideas for tricky cases and are getting great results in many cases.
If he were working at a bank
Altman: The consumer experience at banking is still quite terrible and a lot of it can be replaced by chatting with a large language model (LLM).
If he were a media professional …
Altman: One of the things we have heard from journalists is that AI helps them do boring parts of their jobs better. Thus, I would encourage them to start using it.
On his fears and the road ahead
On what excites him the most about the future of AI, Altman said it is the prospect of such systems improving the overall quality of lives of humans.
“I think if AI systems can contribute towards the additional understanding of the world, towards better science & technology, it will help improve quality of life. We are not there yet, but I think we will get there in the future,” he said.
The OpenAI CEO also spoke about his fears regarding AI.
“What I lose the most sleep over is the hypothetical idea that we already have done something really bad by launching ChatGPT. That maybe there was something hard and complicated in there (the system) that we didn’t understand and have now already kicked it off,” Altman said.