Today’s Cache | OpenAI CEO denies departures linked to restructuring; Swiggy files for IPO; Google Maps to review businesses using fake reviews
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

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OpenAI CEO denies departures linked to restructuring

Sam Altman denied on Thursday that there was any link between the departure of three senior OpenAI executives and a planned restructuring of the company which he said the board had been considering for several months. The world-leading AI firm’s longtime chief technology officer Mira Murati abruptly announced her departure on Wednesday. Within hours, two senior research executives Barret Zoph and Bob McGrew revealed they were also leaving the company.

On the same day, Reuters reported OpenAI was working on a plan to restructure its core business into a for-profit benefit corporation that will no longer be controlled by its non-profit board, in a move aimed at making the company more attractive to investors. Speaking on stage at the Italian Tech Week conference in Turin, OpenAI CEO Altman said that “some stuff” reported around the executives’ departures was inaccurate, adding that the personnel changes were unrelated to the restructuring.

Swiggy files for IPO

Softbank-backed food delivery firm Swiggy said on Thursday it aims to raise 37.5 billion rupees ($448.56 million) in its initial public offering, which looks set to be among India’s biggest listings this year. Existing shareholders including Accel India and Tencent Europe will sell about 185.3 million shares, the Bengaluru-based startup said in its draft prospectus.

Swiggy’s long-awaited public listing comes amid a booming IPO market, with 198 companies having raised $7.1 billion in the year to Sept.4, more than double the amount for the same period last year. The company, backed by investment group Prosus and Japan’s SoftBank, competes with Zomato in India’s online restaurant and cafe food deliveries sector. Both companies have made major bets on the new so-called quick commerce boom where groceries and other products are being delivered in 10 minutes.

Google Maps to review businesses using fake reviews

Google Maps is planning to make its reviews more trustworthy by detecting and removing fake reviews and taking action against business pages posting them. Google will now impose restrictions against business profiles that violate their Fake Engagement policy by temporarily removing reviews, blocking new reviews and ratings and even throwing up a warning for profiles that have these fake reviews deleted.

While the changes were made just the in the UK earlier this year, but now it has been reported that the support page was eventually updated in mid-September globally. According to the terms, business pages cannot display content which doesn’t “accurately represent the location or product in question,” or was a favour in exchange for payment, discounts or freebies. Google Maps will also tamp down on reviews which are looking to manipulate their ratings by either posting from multiple accounts, emulate reviewers or using other methods to recreate genuine engagement.