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Why is Iran fast-tracking trials and executions for detained protesters?
1. Iran Sees the Protests as an Existential Threat Iran’s leadership frames the current wave of protests not merely as demonstrations, but as a direct challenge to the authority and stability of the Islamic Republic. Officials including the judiciary have publicly described many detainees as “rioterRead more
1. Iran Sees the Protests as an Existential Threat
Iran’s leadership frames the current wave of protests not merely as demonstrations, but as a direct challenge to the authority and stability of the Islamic Republic. Officials including the judiciary have publicly described many detainees as “rioters,” “terrorists,” or even “enemies of God” under Iranian law, which carries the death penalty. This characterization is significant because charges like moharebeh (“waging war against God”) and corruption on Earth are among the most severe in Iran’s penal code and can justify expedited procedures and capital punishment.
Fast-tracking trials and executions, from the regime’s perspective, is intended to crush dissent quickly and signal to the population that any large-scale challenge to state power will be met with overwhelming force.
2. The Judiciary’s Own Rationale: Speed to Maintain Order
Iran’s top judicial officials have explicitly stated that delays in prosecuting protesters would diminish the “impact” of judicial action. The head of the judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, emphasized that addressing cases promptly is essential in his view for justice to serve its purpose and deter further unrest. That official discourse is used internally to justify accelerated case handling and harsh sentencing.
3. A Response to Widespread Unrest and State Violence
The current protests are among the largest and most sustained anti-government demonstrations in Iran in decades, sparked by deep economic grievances and evolving into broader demands for political change. Security forces have killed large numbers of civilians in clashes with demonstrators, and tens of thousands of people have been arrested. The scale of unrest combined with efforts by the government to maintain control underpins the judiciary’s push to conclude cases rapidly and impose severe penalties, including death sentences, to create a chilling effect.
4. International Pressure and Internal Messaging
Iran’s leadership is operating under intense international scrutiny and pressure, including warnings from the United States and concerns from human rights bodies. Rather than softening its stance, the judiciary’s signaling of fast trials and executions appears partly intended to display resolve domestically and to international audiences that it will not bow to external demands. Officials often justify this approach by accusing foreign powers of inciting or supporting unrest.
5. Human Rights Concerns About Due Process
Human rights organizations have long documented that Iran’s use of fast-track or “summary” trials in politically charged cases often comes at the expense of basic legal protections. Reports from earlier protest waves show that defendants have been denied meaningful access to lawyers, subjected to forced confessions, and convicted after proceedings that fall far short of international fair-trial standards. This historical pattern intensifies global concern about the current situation.
6. Symbolism and Deterrence in a Climate of Fear
In legal and symbolic terms, swift judgments and executions serve multiple functions:
Deterrence: Harsh and quick punishments are intended to deter others from participating in protests.
Reassertion of Authority: It shows the regime is unwilling to tolerate challenges to its rule.
Internal Messaging: Within governmental, judicial, and security structures, such measures reinforce discipline and loyalty.
Taken together, these elements demonstrate that fast-tracking trials and executions for detained protesters is part of a broader strategy by Iran’s leadership to maintain control and intimidate opposition amid one of the most volatile periods in its modern history.
See lessWhat is the future of AI models: scaling laws vs. efficiency-driven innovation?
Scaling Laws: A Key Aspect of AI Scaling laws identify a pattern found in current AI models: when you are scaling model size, the size of the training data, and computational capacity, there is smooth convergence. It is this principle that has driven most of the biggest successes in language, visionRead more
Scaling Laws: A Key Aspect of AI
Scaling laws identify a pattern found in current AI models:
when you are scaling model size, the size of the training data, and computational capacity, there is smooth convergence. It is this principle that has driven most of the biggest successes in language, vision, and multi-modal AI.
Large-scale models have the following advantages:
Its appeal has been that it is simple to understand: “The more data you have and the more computing power you bring to the table, the better your results will be.” Organizations that had access to enormous infrastructure have been able to extend the frontiers of the potential for AI rather quickly.
The Limits of Pure Scaling
To better understand what
1. Cost and Accessibility
So, training very large-scale language models requires a huge amount of financial investment. Large-scale language models can only be trained with vastly expensive hardware.
2. Energy and Sustainability
Such large models are large energy consumers when trained and deployed. There are, thereby, environmental concerns being raised.
3.Diminishing Returns
When models become bigger, the benefits per additional computation become smaller, with every new gain costing even more than before.
4. Deployment Constraints
Most realistic domains, such as mobile, hospital, government, or edge computing, may not be able to support large models based on latency, cost, or privacy constraints.
These challenges have encouraged a new vision of what is to come.
What is Efficiency-Driven Innovation?
Efficiency innovation aims at doing more with less. Rather than leaning on size, this innovation seeks ways to enhance how models are trained, designed, and deployed for maximum performance with minimal resources.
Key strategies are:
How knowledge distills from large models to smaller models
The aim is not only smaller models, but rather more functional, accessible, and deployable AI.
The Increasing Importance of Efficiency
1. Real-World
The value of AI is not created in research settings but by systems that are used in healthcare, government services, businesses, and consumer products. These types of settings call for reliability, efficiency, explainability, and cost optimization.
2. Democratization of AI
Efficiency enables start-ups, the government, and smaller entities to develop very efficient AI because they would not require scaled infrastructure.
3. Regulation and Trust
Smaller models that are better understood can also be more auditable, explainable, and governable—a consideration that is becoming increasingly important with the rise of AI regulations internationally.
4. Edge and On-Device AI
Such applications as smart sensors, autonomous systems, and mobile assistants demand the use of ai models, which should be loowar on power and connectivity.
Scaling vs. Efficiency: An Apparent Contradiction?
The truth is, however, that neither scaling nor optimizing is going to be what the future of AI looks like: instead, it will be a combination of both.
Big models will play an equally important part as:
Benefit Billions of Users
This is also reflected in other technologies because big, centralized solutions are usually combined with locally optimized ones.
The Future Looks Like This
The next wave in the development process involves:
Rather than focusing on how big, progress will be measured by usefulness, reliability, and impact.
Conclusion
Scaling laws enabled the current state of the art in AI, demonstrating the power of larger models to reveal the potential of intelligence. Innovation through efficiency will determine what the future holds, ensuring that this intelligence is meaningful, accessible, and sustainable. The future of AI models will be the integration of the best of both worlds: the ability of scaling to discover what is possible, and the ability of efficiency to make it impactful in the world.
See lessHow is prompt engineering different from traditional model training?
What Is Traditional Model Training Conventional training of models is essentially the development and optimization of an AI system by exposing it to data and optimizing its internal parameters accordingly. Here, the team of developers gathers data from various sources and labels it and then employsRead more
What Is Traditional Model Training
Conventional training of models is essentially the development and optimization of an AI system by exposing it to data and optimizing its internal parameters accordingly. Here, the team of developers gathers data from various sources and labels it and then employs algorithms that reduce an error by iterating numerous times.
While training, the system will learn about the patterns from the data over a period of time. For instance, an email spam filter system will learn to categorize those emails by training thousands to millions of emails. If the system is performing poorly, engineers would require retraining the system using better data and/or algorithms.
This process usually involves:
After it is trained, it acts in a way that cannot be changed much until it is retrained again.
What is Prompt Engineering?
“Prompt Engineering” is basically designing and fine-tuning these input instructions or prompts to provide to a pre-trained model of AI technology, and specifically large language models to this point in our discussion, so as to produce better and more meaningful results from these models. The technique of prompt engineering operates at a purely interaction level and does not necessarily adjust weights.
In general, the prompt may contain instructions, context, examples, constraints, and/or formatting aids. As an example, the difference between the question “summarize this text” and “summarize this text in simple language for a nonspecialist” influences the response to the question asked.
Prompt engineering is based on:
It doesn’t change the model itself, but the way we communicate with the model will be different.
Key Points of Contrast between Prompt Engineering and Conventional Training
1. Comparing Model Modification and Model Usage
“Traditional training involves modifying the parameters of the model to optimize performance. Prompt engineering involves no modification of the model—only how to better utilize what knowledge already exists within it.”
2. Data and Resource Requirements
Model training involves extensive data, human labeling, and costly infrastructure. Contrast this with prompt design, which can be performed at low cost with minimal data and does not require training data.
3. Speed and Flexibility
Model training and retraining can take several days or weeks. Prompt engineering enables instant changes to the behavioral pattern through changes to the prompt and thus is highly adaptable and amenable to rapid experimentation.
4. Skill Sets Involved
“Traditional training involves special knowledge of statistics, optimization, and machine learning paradigms. Prompt engineering stresses the need for knowledge of the field, clarifying messages, and structuring instructions in a logical manner.”
5. Scope of Control
Training the model allows one to have a high, long-term degree of control over the performance of particular tasks. It allows one to have a high, surface-level degree of control over the performance of multiple tasks.
Why Prompt Engineering has Emerged to be So Crucial
The emergence of large general-purpose models has changed the dynamics for the application of AI in organizations. Instead of training models for different tasks, a team can utilize a single highly advanced model using the prompt method. The trend has greatly eased the adoption process and accelerated the pace of innovation,
Additionally, “prompt engineering enables scaling through customization,” and various prompts may be used to customize outputs for “marketing, healthcare writing, educational content, customer service, or policy analysis,” through “the same model.”
Shortcomings of Prompt Engineering
Despite its power, there are some boundaries of prompt engineering. For example, neither prompt engineering nor any other method can teach the AI new information, remove deeply set biases, or function correctly all the time. Specialized or governed applications still need traditional or fine-tuning approaches.
Conclusion
At a very conceptual level, training a traditional model involves creating intelligence, whereas prompt engineering involves guiding this intelligence. Training modifies what a model knows, whereas prompt engineering modifies how a certain body of knowledge can be utilized. In this way, both of these aspects combine to constitute methodologies that create contrasting trajectories in AI development.
See lessHow do multimodal AI models work, and why are they important?
How Multi-Modal AI Models Function On a higher level, multimodal AI systems function on three integrated levels: 1. Modality-S First, every type of input, whether it is text, image, audio, or video, is passed through a unique encoder: Text is represented in numerical form to convey grammar and meaniRead more
How Multi-Modal AI Models Function
On a higher level, multimodal AI systems function on three integrated levels:
1. Modality-S
First, every type of input, whether it is text, image, audio, or video, is passed through a unique encoder:
These are the types of encoders that take unprocessed data and turn it into mathematical representations that the model can process.
2. Shared
After encoding, the information from the various modalities is then projected or mapped to a common representation space. The model is able to connect concepts across representations.
For instance:
Such a shared space is essential to the model, as it allows the model to make connections between the meaning of different data types rather than simply handling them as separate inputs.
3. Cross-Modal Reasoning and Generation
The last stage of the process is cross-modal reasoning on the part of the model; hence, it uses multiple inputs to come up with outputs or decisions. It may involve:
Instead, state-of-the-art multi-modal models utilize sophisticated attention mechanisms that highlight the relevant areas of the inputs during the process of reasoning.
Importance of Multimodal AI Models
1. They Reflect Real-World Complexity
“The real world is multimodal.” This is because health and medical informatics, travel, and even human communication are all multimodal. This makes it easier for AI to handle information in such a way that it is processed in a way that human beings also do.
2. Increased Accuracy and Contextual Understanding
A single data source may be restrictive or inaccurate. Multimodal models utilize multiple inputs, making it less ambiguous and accurate than relying on one data source. For example, analyzing images and text information together is more accurate than analyzing only images or text information while diagnosing.
3. More Natural Human AI Interaction
Multimodal AIs allow more intuitive ways of communication, like talking while pointing at an object, as well as uploading an image file and then posing questions about it. As a result, AIs become more inclusive, user-friendly, and accessible, even to people who are not technologically savvy.
4. Wider Industry Applications
Multimodal models are creating a paradigm shift in the following:
5. Foundation for Advanced AI Capabilities
Multimodal AI is only a stepping stone towards more complex models, such as autonomous agents, and decision-making systems in real time. Models which possess the ability to see, listen, read, and reason simultaneously are far closer to full-fledged intelligence as opposed to models based on single modalities.
Issues and Concerns
Although they promise much, multimodal models of AI remain difficult to develop and resource-heavy. They demand extensive data and alignment of the modalities, and robust protection against problems of bias and trust. Nevertheless, work continues to increase efficiency and trustworthiness.
Conclusion
Multimodal AI models are a major milestone in the field of artificial intelligence. Through the incorporation of various forms of knowledge in a single concept, these models bring AI a step closer to human-style perception and cognition. While the relevance of these models mostly revolves around their effectiveness, they play a crucial part in making AI systems more relevant and real-world.
See lessHow did Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlight India’s global impact and achievements in 2025, particularly in terms of economic, technological, and strategic progress?
Economic Growth and International Confidence In 2025, the Prime Minister highlighted the resilience and changes in the economy of India. It was mentioned that despite global uncertainties, the Indian economy had been growing at a consistent rate. The fact that the economy had become more attractiveRead more
Economic Growth and International Confidence
In 2025, the Prime Minister highlighted the resilience and changes in the economy of India. It was mentioned that despite global uncertainties, the Indian economy had been growing at a consistent rate. The fact that the economy had become more attractive to foreign investors with better digital public infrastructure and the ease of doing business was counted as one of the factors responsible for the resilience of the economy. It was stated that the fact that India was developing as a manufacturing nation because of production-linked incentives was an indication of the fact that the economy was transforming from a consumption-driven economy to a production and export nation.
Technological Advancement and Digital Leadership
One of the key themes of this messaging has been the technological change taking place in India. The Prime Minister spoke of the role of digital platforms in taking much of India’s governance, finance, healthcare, and education to a population of a billion scale. India’s ability and success in developing digital public goods in areas like identity solutions that can interoperate with each other, digital payment solutions, and data platforms were outlined as a developing country success story that could be replicated in other developing countries. He emphasized India’s success in emerging technologies like AI, space technology, semiconductors, and renewable energy and noted that this clearly showed that innovation in India has stepped beyond services and has spread to deep technologies and research-driven areas.
Strategic and Geopolitical Rolesbackarrow
On the strategic horizon, the Prime Minister began to enumerate the increased stature and freedom in Indian external affairs. The Prime Minister referred to the fact that India has remained very active in world organizations, that it has been a “bridge between the advanced and the developing economies in the world, and a vocal voice for the Global South.” The Prime Minister went on to highlight the transformation in Indian defense modernization and indigenization, the rise in the Indian Navy’s “presence in the Indian Ocean and beyond” because “a country which can assure the world that it can safeguard its own interests but also contribute to regional and international stability” is coming into its own. The Prime Minister has referred to strategic partnerships with major world powers as “not alignments but partnerships and cooperation founded on mutual respect and mutual interest.”
India’s Soft Power and Global Responsibility
But aside from the hard indicators, he also stressed the soft power influence that India has had and continues to exercise to this day. Yoga, traditional knowledge, humanitarian charity, and leadership on climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts were presented as the expression of the values of the Indian civilizational tradition that the soft power project embodies and upholds. He laid emphasis on the fact that the rise of India is not an assertive, dominance-oriented one but is centered on sustainable development and climate change mitigation efforts.
A Vision of a Confident India
Overall, the tone and message of Prime Minister Modi in 2025 were that of a confident and self-reliant country that was making its presence felt in all spheres of economies, technologies, and international platforms for decision-making. Of course, to make India’s achievements significant globally, he linked India’s progress with that of the international world.
See lessHow can ethical frameworks help mitigate bias in AI learning tools?
Comprehending the Source of Bias Biases in AI learning tools are rarely intentional. Biases can come from data that contains historic inequalities, stereotypes, and under-representation in demographics. If an AI system is trained on data from a particular geographic location, language, or socio-econRead more
Comprehending the Source of Bias
Biases in AI learning tools are rarely intentional. Biases can come from data that contains historic inequalities, stereotypes, and under-representation in demographics. If an AI system is trained on data from a particular geographic location, language, or socio-economic background, it can underperform elsewhere.
Ethical guidelines play an important role in making developers and instructors realize that bias is not merely an error on the technical side but also has social undertones in data and design. This is the starting point for bias mitigation.
Incorporating Fairness as a Design Principle
A major advantage that can be attributed to the use of ethical frameworks is the consideration and incorporation of fairness as a main requirement rather than an aside. Fairness regarded as a priority allows developers to consider testing an AI system on various students prior to implementation.
In the educational sector, AI systems should ensure:
By establishing fairness standards upstream, ethical standards diminish the chances of unjust results becoming normalized.
“Promoting Transparency and Explainability”
Ethicists consider the role of transparency, stating that students, educators, and parents should be able to see the role that AI plays in educational outcomes. Users ought to be able to query the AI system to gain an understanding of why, for instance, an AI system recommends additional practice, places the student “at risk,” or assigns an educational grade to an assignment.
Explainable systems help detect bias more easily. Since instructors are capable of interpreting how the decisions are made, they are more likely to observe patterns that impact certain groups in an unjustified manner. Transparency helps create trust, and trust is critical in these learning environments.
Accountability and Oversight with a Human Touch
Bias is further compounded if decisions made by AI systems are considered final and absolute. Ethical considerations remind us that no matter what AI systems accomplish, human accountability remains paramount. Teachers and administrators must always retain the discretion to check, override, or qualify AI-based suggestions.
By using the human-in-the-loop system, the:
Responsibility changes AI from an invisible power to a responsible assisting tool.
Protecting Student Data and Privacy
Biases and ethics are interwoven within the realm of data governance. Ethics emphasize proper data gathering and privacy concerns. If student data is garnered in a transparent and fair manner, control can be maintained over how the AI is fed data.
Reducing unnecessary data minimizes the chances of sensitive information being misused and inferred, which also leads to biased results. Fair data use acts as a shield that prevents discrimination.
Incorporating Diverse Perspectives in Development and Policy Approaches
Ethical considerations promote inclusive engagement in the creation and management of AI learning tools. These tools are viewed as less biased where education stakeholders, such as tutors, students, parents, and experts, are involved from different backgrounds.
Addition of multiple views is helpful in pointing out blind spots which might not be apparent to technical teams alone. This ensures that AI systems embody views on education and not mere assumptions.
Continuous Monitoring & Improvement
Ethical considerations regard bias mitigation as an ongoing task, not simply an event to be checked once. Learning environments shift, populations of learners change, while AI systems evolve with the passage of time. Regular audits, data feedback, and performance reviews identify new biases that could creep into the system from time to time.
This is because this commitment to improvement ensures that AI aligns with the ever-changing demands of education.
Conclusion
Ethical frameworks can also reduce bias in AI-based learning tools because they set the tone on issues such as fairness, transparency, accountability, and inclusivity. Ethical frameworks redirect the attention from technical efficiency to humans because AI must facilitate learning without exacerbating inequalities that already exist. With a solid foundation of ethics, AI will no longer be an invisibly biased source but a means to achieve an equal and responsible education.
See lessWhy is AI rapidly transforming teaching and learning?
Creating a Culture that Supports Personalized Learning Personalization of the learning experience is one of the main factors contributing to the widespread adoption of AI in the education sector. In a classroom setting, it is the job of one teacher to support dozens of pupils, each of whom may haveRead more
Creating a Culture that Supports Personalized Learning
Personalization of the learning experience is one of the main factors contributing to the widespread adoption of AI in the education sector. In a classroom setting, it is the job of one teacher to support dozens of pupils, each of whom may have distinct skills, rates of learning, and interests.
Additionally, the use of artificial intelligence makes it easy to scale the delivery of quality education, as it can handle tens of millions of people worldwide.
What this means is that better-prepared learners get to advance faster while learners who are struggling can be supported, unlike in the former system. By AI platforms, personalization previously only possible in private tutor or top universities is going to be scalable.
Supporting Teachers Rather Than Replacing Them
Artificial intelligence is also changing the education sector in the aspect that it reduces the role played by teachers in administrative aspects. activities such as grading test results, recording the attendance level, analyzing performance results, and preparing school reports take time away from the teaching role of a teacher. Software applications that use artificial intelligence make all this relevant to the teaching role automatic.
Instead of replacing teachers, AI is increasingly becoming a teaching assistant that complements the effectiveness of teachers.
Instant Feedback and Continuous Assessment
Traditional assessment methodologies involve a lot of exams at fixed intervals; hence, the results might not be received in time for improvement in the next exam. AI allows students to be assessed instantly and receive feedback at the time of assessment with the possibility of correcting their mistakes while they still have the concept in their heads.
This feedback cycle promotes active learning and minimizes anxiety associated with high-stakes testing. Students feel more informed about their learning process and develop a greater level of ownership of their learning process.
Improving Access to Quality Education
AI educational tools are closing the gaps that exist in educational access. Students who are located in distant and resource-challenged regions are gaining access to intelligent tutoring systems, language translation systems, and adaptive learning that they could not have otherwise.
In fact, for people with disabilities, assistive technologies such as speech-to-text, text-to-speech, or visual recognition technologies powered through AI are spreading inclusive learning. This is because inclusive learning resources are among those that have propelled AI’s swift integration in education.
Addressing Shifts in Learner Demand and Expect
The generation of students today is brought up in a digital context that is interactive and responsive to them. The traditional textbook or lecture may just not be able to capture their interest. This is where technology and artificial intelligence help to develop interactive learning sessions such as simulations and virtual labs.
Learning that appears more relevant and more interactive increases motivation and hence improves retention and understanding.
Equipping Students for the AI-Powered World
The educational institutions are also incorporating AI into their systems because of an awareness of a need to equip pupils with knowledge of how to function within a future where AI is embedded into most of their lines of expertise. AI-enabled learning aids pupils not only in content mastery but also equips them to interact with intelligence.
Practical familiarity with AI can be accomplished through experiencing it, which is not possible through traditional methods of learning about it.
Data-Driven Decision Making in Education
AI allows educational institutions and schools to make informed, data-backed decisions. AI is able to pick up on trends such as the risk of students dropping out of school, subjects or teaching methodologies, and so on, based on large chunks of educational data.
Partner, Not Savior
AI is disrupting the teaching and learning space at an unprecedented rate due to the alignment of AI with the actual educational requirements of personalization, efficiency, inclusion, and relevance. However, for the success of AI, there is a need to implement it judiciously, with proper ethics in place, and with robust and sound human intervention.
Closing Perspective
AI will transform the education experience, not redefine learning, by providing the means to adapt to the learner, support the teacher, and broaden the educational experience to all, regardless of traditional boundaries. As education advances into the future, the applications of AI are becoming an unprecedented catalyst.
See lessWhat role should AI literacy play in compulsory school education?
AI Literacy as the New Basic Literacy Whereas traditional literacy allows people to make sense of the text, AI literacy allows students to make sense of the systems driving decisions and opportunities that affect them. From social media feeds to online exams, students are using AI-driven tools everyRead more
AI Literacy as the New Basic Literacy
Whereas traditional literacy allows people to make sense of the text, AI literacy allows students to make sense of the systems driving decisions and opportunities that affect them. From social media feeds to online exams, students are using AI-driven tools every day, usually without realizing it. Without foundational knowledge, they might take the outputs of AI as absolute truths rather than probabilistic suggestions.
Introduction to AI literacy at an early age helps students learn the following:
This helps place students in a position where they can interact more critically, rather than passively, with technology.
Building Critical Thinking and Responsible Use
One of the most crucial jobs that AI literacy performs is in solidifying critical thinking. Students need to be taught that AI doesn’t “think” or “understand” in a human sense. It predicts outcomes from patterns in data, which can contain errors, stereotypes, or incomplete standpoints.
By learning this, students become better at:
This is even more significant in an age where AI networks can now generate essays, images, and videos that seem highly convincing but may not be entirely accurate or ethical.
Ethical Awareness and Digital Citizenship
AI literacy also will play a very important role in ethical education. Students also need to be aware of issues revolving around data privacy, surveillance, consent, and algorithmic bias. All these topics touch on their everyday life in the use of learning apps, face recognition systems, or online platforms.
Embedding ethics in AI education will assist students in:
This approach keeps AI education in step with wider imperatives around responsible digital citizenship.
Preparing students for life in the professions
The future workforce will not be divided into “AI experts” and “non-AI users.” Most professions will require some level of interaction with these AI systems. Doctors, teachers, lawyers, artists, and administrators will all need to work alongside intelligent tools.
Compulsory AI Literacy will ensure that students:
Early exposure can also allow learners to decide on their interests in either science, technology, ethics, design, or policy-all fields which are increasingly related to AI.
Reducing the Digital and Knowledge Divide
Making AI literacy optional or restricting it to elite institutions threatens to widen social and economic inequalities. Students from under-resourced backgrounds may be doomed to remain mere consumers of AI, while others become the creators and decision-makers.
Compulsory AI literacy gives a mammoth boost to:
Such inclusion would make it an inclusive, democratic future in terms of technology.
A gradual and age-appropriate approach
There is no requirement that AI literacy need be complex and technical from the beginning. Simple ideas, such as that of “smart machines” and decision-making, may be explained to students in primary school, while the higher classes can be introduced to more advanced ideas like data, algorithms, ethics, and real-world applications. In the end, one wants progressive understanding, not information overload.
Conclusion
This is where AI literacy should constitute a core and mandatory part of school education AI is part of students’ present reality. Teaching young people how AI works and where it can fail, and the responsible use of AI, equips them with critical awareness and ethical judgment and prepares them for the future. The fear of AI and blind trust in it are replaced by awareness of this as a strong tool-continuously guided by human values and informed decision-making. ChatGPT may make mistakes. Check impo
See lessAre IT and tech stocks still good long-term bets?
Are IT & Tech stocks good long-term bets? Technology stocks have remained some of the most profitable investment opportunities in markets for many decades. These stocks have continued to reap the benefits associated with the adoption of technology in most industries. However, due to the increaseRead more
Are IT & Tech stocks good long-term bets?
Technology stocks have remained some of the most profitable investment opportunities in markets for many decades. These stocks have continued to reap the benefits associated with the adoption of technology in most industries. However, due to the increased volatility in markets, layoffs in technology companies, and changes in interest rates, most investors have continued to wonder if technology stocks are worth considering for investment. The answer is yes, but there are many considerations.
Why IT and Technology Have Historically Done Well: Analyzing Market Trends
Scalability is an area in which tech companies excel. Once the product or service has been developed, the same can be replicated and marketed to millions of people in a scalable manner. This has enabled many tech companies to report stellar margins and cash flows. Furthermore, the scope of tech innovation has continued to grow and expand from enterprise software, the cloud, and cyber to payments, analytics, and most recently, artificial intelligence.
A second reason for this resilience is relevance. Information technology is no longer a supporting function; it has become integral to business activities. Such relevance has, at all times, ensured a stable demand for IT services and products.
Impact of Economic Cycles and Interest Rates
Although technology stocks offer many advantages, the fact remains that these stocks are not isolated from the economic cycles when the interest rates are increasing, which puts pressure on the technology stocks as many technology stocks derive their major value from the future stocks, which become less desirable when the interest costs are higher.
Despite this, the short-term correction of valuations does not necessarily have any effect on the long-term argument. Over the long term, those businesses that continue to experience innovation and revenue growth with healthy balance sheets will ultimately start performing well once the macroeconomic conditions have stabilized.
Innovation Is Still a Powerful Tailwind
Some people might look
The new future for technology continues to be driven by innovation. Topics such as artificial intelligence, automation, cloud migration, and digital infrastructure are more than just passing fads – they are paradigm shifts in how our economies actually function. From healthcare to finance to manufacturing and into government, organizations are leveraging technology tools to achieve more efficiency and cost savings.
This continuing innovation loop indicates that the demand for technology-based services and products is probably going to be there for a long time to come.
Not all tech stocks are created equal
A mistake often committed by investors is to categorize all technology stocks as one group. This is because technology stocks are comprised of both mature companies with adequate Cash Flow Generation, as well as relatively new ones that are struggling to reach scale and become profitable. Mature technology stocks can be less risky as compared to relatively new ones.
Long-term investors need to look at fundamentals like quality of revenues, profitability, customer retention, and ability to withstand technological changes. Well-governed companies, diversified customer bases, and resilient businesses will stand better in tough times.
Investing in the Stock Market: Risks That Investors
Although the future looks promising, there are still some concerns. The increasing rate of technology change can lead to the products being made obsolete in the future. The areas of data protection and competition regulation could also see more regulation in the coming times.
Additionally, the expectations of investors also play a significant role. Tech stocks show the best performance when expectations are not unachievable. When expectations run too high, correction periods can be severe.
Tech Trends in a Long-Term Portfolio
For long-term investors, IT stocks could still be used, but should not form a major part of the overall portfolio. IT stocks fall under technology stocks, and should be well spread out. A proper strategy like systematic investment could help avoid market timing errors.
Instead of pursuing short-term trends, successful investors would be better off investing in technology companies that show good execution, flexibility, and vision.
Final Takeaway
The technology and technology stocks continue to be an attractive long-term investment opportunity, not because they are unaffected by market downturns, but because technology remains an integral part of the future of economies and enterprises. There may be ups and downs in this sector, but this sector has resilience in terms of innovation, relevance, and scalability, which make it an attractive addition to an investment plan focused on growth.fv
See lessAre new-age IPOs worth investing in?
Are New Age IPOs Worth Investing In? New-age IPOs: The new-age IPOs, or technology-driven companies that function on platforms, have witnessed tremendous investment interest over the last few years. The new-age IPO offers rapid growth and the disruption of conventional sectors through its associatioRead more
Are New Age IPOs Worth Investing In?
New-age IPOs: The new-age IPOs, or technology-driven companies that function on platforms, have witnessed tremendous investment interest over the last few years. The new-age IPO offers rapid growth and the disruption of conventional sectors through its association with the digital economy. However, their performance post-listing has been erratic, and an important question that arises here is whether new-age IPOs are actually worthy of investment or just high-risk stories?
Recent Developments in New-Age IPOs
New age IPOs are largely those which are based on digital platforms. The key characteristic of new age firms is that they are more concerned about market share and scalability as opposed to more traditional firms which are more concerned about profitability. It would be clear from above examples that the kind of firms which have come to the Indian market in the “food delivery,” fintech, “e-commerce,” logistics, “SaaS based” spaces are examples of firms belonging to this segment. Some prominent examples of firms which belong to this segment are Zomato, Paytm, and Nykaa.
The Core Investment Attraction
What new-age IPOs offer the most is the potential for growth. New-age companies target massive untapped markets and use technology to grow-big, fast. If achieved, these companies can establish powerful network effects, high brand recall, and high operating leverage.
There is also early access. As IPO investors, individuals can gain early access to companies that have the potential to influence consumer behaviors or business models over many decades. It may seem similar to early-stage investments in what are today global technology giants to investors with early access.
The Profitability Challenge
Amongst one of the most significant apprehensions associated with new age IPOs is that they are not profitable on a constant basis. A significant number of IPO-giving organizations are still posting losses. These organizations are of the view that as soon as they are able to create mass, their profits will not be a concern.
High customer acquisition costs, a focus on discounts for growth, as well as competitiveness could lead to a lag in achieving profitability. It is essential for investors to assess whether the company’s loss could be strategic, temporary, or structural.
Valuation: Growth Versus Reality
Valuation can be another pertinent consideration in this context. In general, new-age IPOs tend to be valued either by looking at future projections instead of looking at their present financial performances. Concepts like price/earning ratio can’t be applicable in such scenarios.
This means that stock valuations are sensitive to market sentiment. If market sentiment is optimistic, stock values can jump. But if market conditions become tighter, as in the case of increased interest rates, these stocks can see sharp corrections.
Governance and Business Model Risks
But, along with the numbers, the investors need to look at the quality of governance, transparency, and execution skills. A good idea is insufficient. The caliber of the management’s leadership in controlling expenses, adjusting the strategy, and communicating effectively with the investors matters a lot.
Viability in business model also raises questions. Certain businesses rely to some extent on financing or favorable markets. They may find difficulty in entering the profits phase if financing becomes costly or markets change.
Who Should Consider Investing?
New age IPOs may not be ideal for all investors. New age IPOs are generally more suitable for investors who:
However, for a more conservative investor who is interested in income or return on investment, conventional businesses could be more suitable.
A Balanced Perspective
The IPOs belonging to the new age are not wealth creators per se or concepts that should be shunned altogether as investment options. They lie at the point where innovation meets risk. While some will be able to develop themselves into a robust, profitable entity, others could end up struggling to remain justified by their valuation multiples.
It is all about selectivity. Investors need to sift through the hype, learn about the fundamentals, and have realistic expectations. If done with caution, innovative IPOs can have a limited but important role in an investor’s diversified portfolio.
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