Arun Srinivas appointed managing director and head for Meta in India
Meta
has appointed
Arun Srinivas
as the managing director and head for Meta in India. This follows the recent announcement of
Sandhya Devanathan
taking on an expanded role of leading both India and South East Asia.
As part of his new and expanded role, Srinivas will focus on bringing the organization's business, innovation, and revenue priorities together to serve partners and clients, while continuing to support the long-term growth of Meta's business and commitment to India. He will spearhead the India charter and strengthen the strategic relationships with the country's leading brands, advertisers, developers and partners to drive growth for India as a market.
He will transition to his new role from July 1, 2025, and will continue to report to Sandhya Devanathan.
A post-graduate from IIM Kolkata, Srinivas comes with nearly three decades of experience in sales and marketing leadership roles at companies such as Hindustan Unilever, Reebok, OLA, and investment firm WestBridge Capital.
Srinivas currently serves as the director and head of ads business in India. Since joining the company in 2020, he has played a pivotal role in leading Meta's work with the country's largest advertisers and agency partners focusing on strategic revenue priorities such as AI, Reels and Messaging.
'As India continues to be at the forefront of economic growth and innovation, we are excited to have Arun at the helm of our efforts in this critical market. Meta in India is leading the way in AI adoption, WhatsApp, and Reels, and Arun's impressive track record of building high-performing teams, driving product innovation, and fostering strong partnerships makes him the ideal leader to drive Meta's continued investment in the country. He will continue to work closely with me as we scale the business in India,' said Sandhya Devanathan, vice president (India and South East Asia), Meta.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Mint
an hour ago
- Mint
Colleagues or overlords? The debate over AI bots has been raging but needn't
There's the Terminator school of perceiving artificial intelligence (AI) risks, in which we'll all be killed by our robot overlords. And then there's one where, if not friends exactly, the machines serve as valued colleagues. A Japanese tech researcher is arguing that our global AI safety approach hinges on reframing efforts to achieve this benign partnership. In 2023, as the world was shaken by the release of ChatGPT, a pair of successive warnings came from Silicon Valley of existential threats from powerful AI tools. Elon Musk led a group of experts and industry executives in calling for a six-month pause in developing advanced systems until we figured out how to manage risks. Then hundreds of AI leaders—including Sam Altman of OpenAI and Demis Hassabis of Alphabet's DeepMind—sent shockwaves with a statement that warned: 'Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks, such as pandemics and nuclear war." Also Read: AI didn't take the job. It changed what the job is. Despite all the attention paid to the potentially catastrophic dangers, the years since have been marked by AI 'accelerationists' largely drowning out AI doomers. Companies and countries have raced towards being the first to achieve superhuman AI, brushing off the early calls to prioritise safety. And it has all left the public very confused. But maybe we've been viewing this all wrong. Hiroshi Yamakawa, a prominent AI scholar from the University of Tokyo who has spent the past three decades studying the technology, is now arguing that the most promising route to a sustainable future is to let humans and AIs 'live in symbiosis and flourish together, protecting each other's well-being and averting catastrophic risks." Yamakawa hit a nerve because while he recognizes the threats noted in 2023, he argues for a working path toward coexistence with super-intelligent machines—especially at a time when nobody is halting development over fears of falling behind. In other words, if we can't beat AI from becoming smarter than us, we're better off joining it as an equal partner. 'Equality' is the sensitive part. Humans want to keep believing they are superior, not equal to machines. Also Read: Rahul Matthan: AI models aren't copycats but learners just like us His statement has generated a lot of buzz in Japanese academic circles, receiving dozens of signatories so far, including from some influential AI safety researchers overseas. In an interview with Nikkei Asia, he argued that cultural differences in Asia are more likely to enable seeing machines as peers instead of as adversaries. While the United States has produced AI-inspired characters like the Terminator from the eponymous Hollywood movie, the Japanese have envisioned friendlier companions like Astro Boy or Doraemon, he told the news outlet. Beyond pop culture, there's some truth to this cultural embrace. At just 25%, Japanese people had the lowest share of respondents who say products using AI make them nervous, according to a global Ipsos survey last June, compared to 64% of Americans. It's likely his comments will fall on deaf ears, though, like so many of the other AI risk warnings. Development has its own momentum. And whether the machines will ever get to a point where they could spur 'civilization extinction' remains an extremely heated debate. It's fair to say that some of the industry's focus on far-off, science-fiction scenarios is meant to distract from the more immediate harm that the technology could bring—whether that's job displacement, allegations of copyright infringement or reneging on climate change goals. Still, Yamakawa's proposal is a timely re-up on an AI safety debate that has languished in recent years. These discussions can't just rely on eyebrow-raising warnings and the absence of governance. Also Read: You're absolutely right, as the AI chatbot says With the exception of Europe, most jurisdictions have focused on loosening regulations in the hope of not falling behind. Policymakers can't afford to turn a blind eye until it's too late. It also shows the need for more safety research beyond just the companies trying to create and sell these products, like in the social-media era. These platforms were obviously less incentivized to share their findings with the public. Governments and universities must prioritise independent analysis on large-scale AI risks. Meanwhile, as the global tech industry has been caught up in a race to create computer systems that are smarter than humans, it's yet to be determined whether we'll ever get there. But setting godlike AI as the goalpost has created a lot of counter-productive fear-mongering. There might be merit in seeing these machines as colleagues and not overlords. ©Bloomberg The author is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asia tech.
Mint
an hour ago
- Mint
Zuckerberg leads AI recruitment blitz armed with $100 million pay packages
Next Story Meghan Bobrowsky , Berber Jin , Ben Cohen , The Wall Street Journal In a bid to address an AI crisis at his company, the Meta CEO has gotten personally involved in recruiting top talent. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg likes to be part of every step of recruiting AI talent. Gift this article The smartest AI researchers and engineers have spent the past few months getting hit up by one of the richest men in the world. The smartest AI researchers and engineers have spent the past few months getting hit up by one of the richest men in the world. Mark Zuckerberg is spending his days firing off emails and WhatsApp messages to the sharpest minds in artificial intelligence in a frenzied effort to play catch-up. He has personally reached out to hundreds of researchers, scientists, infrastructure engineers, product stars and entrepreneurs to try to get them to join a new Superintelligence lab he's putting together. Some of the people who have received the messages were so surprised they didn't believe it was really Zuckerberg. One person assumed it was a hoax and didn't respond for several days. And Meta's chief executive isn't just sending them cold emails. Zuckerberg is also offering hundreds of millions of dollars, sums of money that would make them some of the most expensive hires the tech industry has ever seen. In at least one case, he discussed buying a startup outright. While the financial incentives have been mouthwatering, some potential candidates have been hesitant to join Meta Platforms' efforts because of the challenges that its AI efforts have faced this year, as well as a series of restructures that have left prospects uncertain about who is in charge of what, people familiar with their views said. Meta's struggles to develop cutting-edge artificial-intelligence technology reached a head in April, when critics accused the company of gaming a leaderboard to make a recently released AI model look better than it was. They also delayed the unveiling of a new, flagship AI model, raising questions about the company's ability to continue advancing quickly in an industrywide AI arms race. To remedy Meta's AI malaise, Zuckerberg has become the company's recruiter-in-chief. He has tried to recruit OpenAI co-founder John Schulman and Bill Peebles, the co-creator of OpenAI's Sora video generator, according to people familiar with the matter. Neither of them have joined. Zuckerberg also has tried to recruit OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, according to people familiar with the matter. Meta invested in Sutskever's new AI startup called Safe Superintelligence earlier this year, and is in talks to hire Daniel Gross, SSI's CEO, and Nat Friedman, a former GitHub CEO and Microsoft executive. As part of those discussions, Meta is offering to buy out portions of their venture fund. At Meta, the two would help develop new AI products. Zuckerberg also held discussions with Perplexity and offered to buy the AI search startup, according to people familiar with the matter. The Information and Bloomberg previously reported details of Zuckerberg's efforts. Zuckerberg has offered $100 million packages to some people. He doled out $14 billion for a stake in AI startup Scale and its CEO Alexandr Wang, who is slated to run the new AI team that Zuckerberg is assembling. At that price, he essentially made the 28-year-old one of the most lucrative hires in history. Beyond the Scale deal and a few other hires, it is unclear how successful his efforts will ultimately be. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says his best people remain at his company. OpenAI has given counteroffers to people Meta has tried to poach, promising them more money and scope in their jobs if they stay, according to a person familiar with the matter. Meanwhile, Altman has been on a spending spree of his own, paying billions for former Apple designer Jony Ive's startup. For those who have turned him down, Zuckerberg's stated vision for his new AI superteam was also a concern. He has tasked the team, which will consist of about 50 people, with achieving tremendous advances with AI models, including reaching a point of 'superintelligence." Some found the concept vague or without a specific enough execution plan beyond the hiring blitz, the people said. Potential hires and Meta employees working on its AI teams also pointed to a major point of tension: Meta's chief AI scientist is a skeptic of the fundamental approach that his company and others are currently taking to advance AI technology. Yann LeCun, whom Zuckerberg convinced to come run a newly started AI research division at the time in 2013 using the same tactics, doesn't believe that the large language models that the company and others in the industry are currently building will get the world to artificial intelligence that is smarter than human beings. For Zuckerberg, the turning point came this past spring. After the model release fell flat, he sprung into action. These days, people inside the company say they have never seen him so focused on recruiting. Zuckerberg is in a WhatsApp chat called 'Recruiting Party 🎉" with Ruta Singh, a Meta executive in charge of recruiting, and Janelle Gale, the company's head of people. Zuckerberg is also in the weeds of wonky AI research papers, digging into the tech and trying to find out about who is actually building it. He also believes there is a flywheel effect to recruiting: By talking to the smartest person he can find, they will introduce him to the smartest people in their networks. When the Recruiting Party 🎉 chat finds people worth targeting, Zuckerberg wants to know their preferred method of communication, and he gets their attention by sending the first messages himself. Zuckerberg has taken recruiting into his own hands, according to a person familiar with his approach, because he recognizes that it is where he can personally have the most leverage inside the company he founded—that an email from him is a more powerful weapon than outreach from a faceless headhunter. Once the researchers actually believe the person emailing them really is the CEO of Meta, Zuckerberg often hosts them for meals at his homes in Palo Alto, Calif., and Lake Tahoe. He likes to remain involved during every step of the recruiting process, right down to planning their desk locations. He is also telling researchers they won't have to worry about computing power or funding at Meta, since their work will be supported by hundreds of billions of dollars in advertising revenue and the company's plentiful access to the most powerful chips. But it remains unclear whether this strategy of combining a personal touch with piles of money will pay off for Meta. In recent days, one of Zuckerberg's rivals publicly derided his offers. 'At least so far," Altman said, 'none of our best people have decided to take them up on that." Topics You May Be Interested In Catch all the Business News , Corporate news , Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
News18
an hour ago
- News18
Reddit Co-founder Uses AI To ‘Hug' Late Mother, Internet Warns Of ‘False Memory'
Last Updated: Ohanian used an old picture of himself with his mother and converted it into a short video clip. Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian used artificial intelligence to create a moment with his late mother, and the results left him quite emotional. Ohanian, the husband of Serena Williams, often uses his social media handles to show the importance of his family. He is frequently spotted spending time with Serena and their daughters, Olympia and Adira. Taking help from a cutting-edge AI, Ohanian chose an old picture of himself and his mother and converted it into a moving image that shows the mother and son hugging each other. 'Damn, I wasn't ready for how this would feel. We didn't have a camcorder, so there's no video of me with my mom. I dropped one of my favourite photos of us in mid-journey as a 'starting frame for an AI video' and wow… This is how she hugged me. I've rewatched it 50 times," he wrote in the caption. Damn, I wasn't ready for how this would feel. We didn't have a camcorder, so there's no video of me with my mom. I dropped one of my favorite photos of us in midjourney as 'starting frame for an AI video' and wow… This is how she hugged me. I've rewatched it 50 times. — Alexis Ohanian The post includes the original picture of the Reddit co-founder along with his mother, uploaded alongside the AI-generated video that shows a heartwarming moment. Despite being an emotional creation for him, the video had mixed reactions online, with many warning about creating fake memories with the help of AI, which can affect his mental health. One wrote, 'Be careful with this. Human memories are very malleable, and you'll remember what the AI shows you, whether it's true or not," while another added, 'I've tried this. But be cautious. At least do it repeatedly until you get one that perfectly matches your current memory of them, and delete the rest. Otherwise, you may create false memories. Be aware of what you're doing, potentially rewriting history in a way that can't be reversed." A comment read, 'It's not how she hugged you. You've been given a false memory," while another added, 'feels like I'm watching a bunch of people about to jump into a pit of despair following and worshipping the AI output." Amid the strong criticism from social media users, Ohanian, in a follow-up tweet on Monday, June 23, shared another message. Noting that he lost his mother almost 20 years ago, the businessman added, 'I lost my mom almost 20 years ago. Trolls can rest assured, that I've grieved sufficiently. My family couldn't afford a camcorder, and using tech to generate a few seconds of animation from a still is the equivalent of using AI to stabilise a poorly recorded video — or fill in the gaps of a deteriorated video — of her (if we'd had it). It's not a replacement for a loved one, nor should it be." I lost my mom almost 20 years ago. Trolls can rest assured I've grieved sufficiently. My family couldn't afford a camcorder and using tech to generate few seconds of animation from a still is the equivalent of using AI to stabilize a poorly recorded video — or fill in the gaps of… top videos View all — Alexis Ohanian Despite the negative remarks on the use of AI, a section of users appeared pleased, with some even creating their own videos of their parents and their close ones. First Published:
