19/02/2026

BIZ & FINANCE THURSDAY | FEB 19, 2026

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Indian startups embrace AI despite concerns about jobs

ECB president plans to quit before Macron’s term ends FRANKFURT: European Central Bank (ECB) president Christine Lagarde plans to leave her job before next year’s French presidential election to allow Emmanuel Macron to have an input into picking her successor, the Financial Times reported yesterday. Lagarde’s term is due to end in October 2027 but some fear that the far right may win the French presidential race in the spring of 2027, complicating the selection for the new leader of Europe’s most important financial institution. Citing a person familiar with the matter, the FT said Lagarde has not yet decided on the exact timing of her departure but was keen on Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to be the key deciders in who succeeds her. Macron cannot run again for a third term. “President Lagarde is totally focused on her mission and has not taken any decision regarding the end of her term,“ an ECB spokesman said. The FT report comes only a week after Bank of France governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau said he would step down in June this year, more than a year before the end of his term, allowing Macron to name his replacement before the presidential election that the far right could win. While it will be up to all leaders from the 21-nation euro zone to pick Lagarde’s successor, past practice suggests that any successful candidate must have both German and French support to clinch the role. There are no formal candidates for the job yet but several names have been floating among ECB circles as potential ECB presidents. The most prominent among these are former Dutch central bank chief Klaas Knot and Bank for International Settlements general mManager Pablo Hernandez de Cos. Lagarde’s non-renewable term at the ECB runs until Oct 31, 2027. Prior to heading the ECB, she was managing director of the International Monetary Fund from 2011 to 2019 and before that, the French finance minister. – Reuters BENGALURU: Microsoft yesterday said it is on pace to invest US$50 billion (RM195 billion) by the end of the decade to help expand AI to countries across the “Global South”. The announcement was made at the AI summit in New Delhi, where top executives from global AI giants meet several world leaders this week. The “Global South” refers to developing, emerging or lower income countries, mostly in the southern hemisphere. Microsoft unveiled US$17.5 billion worth of AI investments in India last year, as the US tech giant deepened its bet on one of the world’s fastest growing digital markets. – Reuters Microsoft sets US$50b Global South AI push

The 41-year-old head of Meta – which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – is the most anticipated witness in the California trial, the first in a series of cases that could set legal precedent for thousands of lawsuits filed by American families against major social media platforms. The trial will mark the first time the multibillionaire will address the safety of his world-dominating platforms directly before a jury. Zuckerberg’s controversial reputation has loomed over the proceedings since jury selection, when Meta’s lawyers worked to exclude California residents deemed too hostile towards the Facebook founder. The 12 jurors in Los Angeles will hear testimony until late March to decide whether Google-owned YouTube and Meta’s Instagram bear any responsibility for the mental health problems suffered by Kaley G.M., a 20-year-old California resident who has been a heavy social media user since childhood. Kaley G.M. started using YouTube at age 6, Instagram at 11, then TikTok and Snapchat. NEW DELHI: Glinting under the exhibition centre lights, the gold brooch studded with gemstones on the startup founder’s lapel was handmade by Indian artisans – but artificial intelligence (AI) dreamt up its elaborate design. The brooch, in the shape of Hindu deity Lord Krishna, is an emblem of both the fast-developing power of AI technology and hopes it will drive innovation in India’s youthful economy. Siddharth Soni, 23, showed AFP a box of AI-designed jewellery, mostly in classical Indian style, made by the company Idea Jewellery which he co-founded in 2023. “Jewellery like this used to take around six months, seven months” to manufacture using traditional methods, said Soni, at a global AI summit in New Delhi. Now, using a 3D-printed mould based on an AI blueprint, and o From 3D-printed jewellery to multilingual voice bots, artificial intelligence is reshaping industries across India

populations to better personalising medical care. Peush Bery’s startup Xtreme Gen AI sells a voice chat tool that can answer and make calls for Indian businesses in a dozen local languages. It’s a competitive field, but the company hopes to carve out a niche by offering smaller businesses a customised tool that they don’t need technical know-how to implement. Different accents and India’s noisy streets can make accuracy a challenge. But as the technology improves and becomes more affordable, it could threaten the country’s huge call centre industry. Bery remains optimistic. “New jobs come up, new fields come up,” such as working with data to improve the AI models, he said. Another startup Soil Doctor has offered AI-powered soil testing to 500 farms across 10 Indian states, working with NGOs to run programmes with rural women and youth. The government could help the company by granting access to historical agricultural data that it currently does not have, said Soil Doctor’s chief of staff Vartika Gupta. AI technology can “benefit farmers big time”, helping them save money by buying fertiliser better targeted to their soil type, Gupta said.

run them. Idea Jewellery, which does not receive government support but would like to, is in talks with 20 retailers including well-known brands in major cities who are already clients of the long-running family business. On a tool powered by a fine tuned version of Google’s Gemini, customers can specify the type of metal, precious stones and price range of their jewellery, and describe their desired style with a simple text prompt. The tool shows examples of the piece and can then produce a detailed 3D model to be turned by hand into real jewellery. Some of the workers, who have spent years mastering their craft and usually spend weeks designing a piece of jewellery, are “very uncomfortable with it” and fear their jobs could eventually disappear, Soni admitted. However they are still making the AI-designed pieces, “because it’s their livelihood”. The AI boom has brought huge profits for tech giants and sprouted many startups worldwide, but the bubble could pop if the frenzied excitement loses momentum. For now, governments and companies are bullish that AI innovation will benefit society, from helping teachers educate large

The case, along with two similar trials scheduled in Los Angeles this summer, aims to establish a standard for resolving thousands of lawsuits that blame social media for fueling an epidemic of depression, anxiety, eating disorders and suicide among young people. The proceedings focus solely on app design, algorithms and personalization features, since US law grants platforms nearly complete immunity from liability over user generated content. TikTok and Snapchat, also named in the complaint, reached confidential settlements with the plaintiff before the trial began. Instagram chief Adam Mosseri was the first Silicon Valley executive to testify on Feb 11, in which he told jurors he rejected the concept of social media addiction in favour of “problematic use” – Meta’s preferred terminology. “I’m sure I’ve said that I was addicted to a Netflix show when I binged it really late one night, but I don’t think that’s the same thing as clinical addiction,“ Mosseri said. In the courtroom gallery, mothers whose teenage children had died by suicide visibly struggled to contain streamlining the process in other ways, “I can make this piece in one week” with a few more needed for hallmarking, he said. Tech bosses and world leaders are gathered in the Indian capital this week to discuss the opportunities and challenges presented by AI, including the threat of mass redundancies and loss of human expertise. Soni’s startup is a new direction for his decades-old family jewellery manufacturing business in the city of Hyderabad. He said his father was “excited” about the new venture and “wants to take it all over the world” so retailers in places like the US can offer custom AI-designed Indian jewellery. At the same time, his father and grandfather, both in the industry for around 30 years, are conflicted because they believe “artisans should not lose their imagination”, Soni said. “We’re losing the form of art, basically, by using AI,” but even so, “we have to move forward.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi says the AI summit “shows the capability of our country’s youth” as “further proof that our country is progressing rapidly” in technology. India’s government is expecting US$200 billion (RM779 billion) in AI investment in the next two years, with plans to build large-scale data centres and nuclear power plants to

Zuckerberg to testify in landmark social media addiction trial LOS ANGELES: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was set to testify yesterday at a groundbreaking social media addiction trial, summoned by lawyers representing a plaintiff who alleges Instagram and other platforms were deliberately designed to make young users addicted. The trial will determine whether Google and Meta deliberately designed their platforms to encourage compulsive use among young people, damaging their mental health in the process.

Los Angeles case could set the benchmark for thousands of lawsuits accusing social media platforms of harming young users’ mental health. – PEXELS PIX

despite strong objections from other executives who warned of their harmful effects on young girls. Some executives had pushed to reinstate the filters – which show users how cosmetic procedures would look – to avoid losing market share amid growing competition from TikTok. YouTube CEO Neal Mohan was also scheduled to testify, but lawyers for the plaintiff on Tuesday said they would call another YouTube executive instead. – AFP

their anger. They had camped overnight in the rain outside the courthouse to secure seats. The day before, the plaintiff’s lawyers called psychiatrist Anna Lembke to explain how social media can act as a “gateway drug” for young people, rewiring their still developing brains towards addictive behaviors. When confronted with internal email exchanges, Mosseri defended Zuckerberg’s 2020 decision to allow cosmetic surgery filters on Instagram,