360 Million Indians Just Got Premium AI Chatbots For Free For a Year (indiadispatch.com) 40
Perplexity has partnered with Indian telecoms giant Bharti Airtel to provide its premium Pro service to 360 million customers for free for an entire year, representing the largest distribution deal of its kind globally.
The service normally costs $200 annually and provides access to advanced models including GPT-4.1 and Claude Sonnet and Opus 4. India is already ChatGPT's largest market by mobile usage.
The service normally costs $200 annually and provides access to advanced models including GPT-4.1 and Claude Sonnet and Opus 4. India is already ChatGPT's largest market by mobile usage.
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perhaps they are the same people that parade our streets chanting support for terrorists, you know the kind!
These people? https://www.latimes.com/opinio... [latimes.com]
From your Zakaria name, you sound like a Muslim .. (Score:1)
blaming Hindus per usual
This reads like a drug-pusher's scheme (Score:5, Insightful)
The first few hits are free, then after addiction, a price must be paid.
Re: This reads like a drug-pusher's scheme (Score:2)
It will cancel after the first year automatically.
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It will cancel after the first year automatically.
Or maybe it will appear as an opt-out subscription charge after the 12 months. At $20/month, if 10% of the 360 million forget to cancel, that's $720 million in that first month.
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Telcom companies pulling a bait and switch?? I've never heard of such a thing.
That's why I pay $160 a month for $30 internet service.
Re: This reads like a drug-pusher's scheme (Score:2)
That is not allowed in India any more.
Credit card companies and banks are on the hook to send a reminder prior to the auto renewal OR disallow auto renewals.
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A year is a lot of time in that space. Next year you probably have models of that quality that run on your PC. If not on your phone.
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The first few hits are free, then after addiction, a price must be paid.
The drug pushers don't get to collect data from those first few hits the way this AI will. This headline just as well read, "360 Million Indians just got hardcore tracking systems for free for a year." The AI game is at least 50% about data collection, and this is a prime example of a company that knows PRECISELY what it's doing. If they can possibly addict a few along the way, great, but that's not the main purpose.
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My thoughts exactly. More like a pharmaceutical phase-1 drug trial using humans.
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The first few hits are free, then after addiction, a price must be paid.
GitHub Copilot just imposed a 300 transaction per month limit on advanced reasoning models for professional accounts. Of course, you can pay for more.
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Yep. Mentally rot them and make sure they have no chance but to subscribe later. Does not work for the smart minority, but for the rest ...
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Just signed up for it. (Score:5, Informative)
Sign up is slow and might appear to time out, but youâ(TM)ll get an SMS confirmation.
It shows Grok 4 as an option but no way to check what is in use.
360 million Indians out of work (Score:1)
Just wait until one of them discovers chatbot robocalling and a whole industry of telephone/online support will be history.
Am I complaining though...
AI will speak Inglish (Score:1)
... ah my lovely adaptable language. We are the world's plucky mongrel.
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It's like Katamari Damacy but with intelligence.
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Yes, we might even call it a conspiracy. Conquer an empire, give them your language and laws, then bugger off and let a common language show the way to peace and trade.
You get what you measure (Score:1)
The performance metrics for AI must be how many API calls or prompts are generated - and that's it. All AI investors just keep shoving it everywhere they can in the hope someone will eventually get something useful out of it.
Re: Just what they need. (Score:2)
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Almost everyone's been invaded and whacked. History is brutality. Get over it!
Re: We had the most "big beautiful" bathrooms ... (Score:1)
but it should not be repeated.
hence the awareness campaign
AI access (Score:2)
Re: AI access (Score:1)
You really thought it is always going to be one way!
Free... (Score:3)
Intellectual Damage? (Score:5, Insightful)
I sure hope the Indian government is tracking how this affects the population. There are reports here and there about AI assistants making their users lazy/dumb, as these users rely on the AI instead of their own brains. There are other reports of students using an AI to write papers, and then college professors using AI to grade them. Neither the students nor the teachers are going to learn/grow much using this approach.
Since we're using the drug dealer analogy on this one, AI offers immediate wonders, but may leave users bereft in the end.
360 million Indians just got bugged for a Year (Score:2)
If something is free (Score:2)
Either a) it's worthless or b) YOU are the product.
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Only it's not free, it's included with the subscription cost that airtel customers are already paying. If it was free it would be available for everyone.
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"worry about the ones in the neighborhoods where all the stolen bicycles turn up."
Which ones are those?
There is a historically racist trope suggesting that Black people cannot ride bicycles or aren't suited for them, so they are obviously out.
great (Score:2)