Zero Shot

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TECHNOLOGY
UPDATED WEEKLY

Join Brady Ng, Praveen Gopal Krishnan, and Rohin Dharmakumar of The Ken as they discuss the big ideas in artificial intelligence. You’ll get the macro view, explore their experiments in practical applications, go deeper than the news coverage you’ve seen, and hear about the implications of the latest developments. Nothing is off the table.

1 DAY AGO

Will Sarvam be to AI what PhonePe became for UPI? No.

Pick any conversation on AI in India, one project keeps coming up again and again: UPI. Every major stakeholder — across government and industry — seems to be interested in replicating the success story of the payments interface. Praveen Gopal Krishnan argues that Sarvam AI — the startup that is a VC darling and government favourite at once — is at the heart of this narrative. Here is the problem. The UPI moment came to India in very specific circumstances. We did catch “lightning in a bottle” as Rohin Dharmakumar puts it. But it is unlikely to happen again. The AI supply chain is fundamentally different. There are many moving parts and a range of use cases to be solved for. A state-led centralised approach — with a main character around which everything pivots — is not the answer. What are the alternatives? Competing AI companies. The government enabling innovation in a diffused manner. Research incentives. Encouraging competition so that Indian AI companies are at par with the best in the world. There is precedent to this. Brady Ng, our resident China expert and tech nerd, gives us a history lesson. And if you have been wondering where the foundational model is, Sarvam AI is expected to unveil one soon. We will cover that ground when that happens. Until then, tune in for a round up of India’s AI strategy and its main company. ------Zeus, the mascot of Zero Shot, was generated using AI. Everything else is made by humans, just like all articles, columns, newsletters, and other podcasts created by The Ken. This episode was produced by Vidhatri Rao and edited by Rajiv CN. Share your comments, critiques and suggestions with us at zeroshot@the-ken.com. Or write in just to say hi. We would love to hear from you! ------ Additional Resources: Sarvam AI’s Rs 10,000 crore pivot India’s ‘UPI Moment’ in AI has Arrived For AI, India can build on the Aadhaar-UPI model Voice AI is India's next UPI moment: Infosys chairman Nandan Nilekani The Economic Survey PhonePe dominates payments but loses money. Now what? AI is not UPI: Why going by the UPI model risks stalling progress on artificial intelligence

51 min
28 JAN

Google has the driver’s seat in the AI race. Who will trip it?

“Imagine the AI race is a giant F1 race where the biggest AI companies are driving in their souped-up racing vehicles around the track again and again…” Rohin Dharmakumar sets the scene. Who’s winning this? Google, he argues. OpenAI and Anthropic are on the cusp of their IPOs and are doing whatever they can to generate revenue. Microsoft is trying to integrate Copilot into everything and is primarily in the enterprise game. Meta’s AI efforts are stuck in a loop of ads and more ads. That leaves Google — “the 800-pound gorilla”. Google’s LLM Gemini now has 650 million users. Gmail — where Gemini is integrated — has a 25 to 40% market share globally, depending on who you ask. What about Android? 70% market share. YouTube? 97%. And search stands at 90% — basically the entire market. The company’s shares are moving up and up. Then, there is the latest news that affirms Google’s lead: Apple will now use Gemini models to roll out its much awaited Siri updates. It clearly has a handle on everything in the AI supply chain — from research to application to distribution. Pretty solid, right? Brady Ng has a different take — and Praveen Gopal Krishnan is in agreement. But only partly. Tune in! ---------- Zeus, the mascot of Zero Shot, was generated using AI. Everything else is made by humans, just like all articles, columns, newsletters, and other podcasts created by The Ken. This episode was produced by Vidhatri Rao and edited by Rajiv CN. Share your comments, critiques and suggestions with us at zeroshot@the-ken.com. Or write in just to say hi. We would love to hear from you! ---------- Additional Reading: The Seven Basic Plots Inside Apple’s AI Shake-Up and Its Plans for Two New Versions of SiriThe TPU battle Anthropic rolls out Claude AI for finance, integrates with Excel to rival Microsoft CopilotOpenAI Seeks Premium Prices in Early Ads Push

50 min
21 JAN • THE KEN PREMIUM ONLY

Perplexity’s rug pull in India, AI PCs are the new Chromebooks, Deepseek isn’t an AI company

Welcome back to Zero Shot, where Brady, Praveen, and Rohin discuss and analyse major developments related to artificial intelligence every week. Praveen kicks off this episode with a look at Perplexity’s changes to its Pro plan’s free trial. Perplexity has changed its terms and conditions, and now requires users who signed up for a 12-month free subscription to put a credit card on file. The hosts of Zero Shot discuss why this is happening now. Then, Rohin tells everyone about AI PCs, the spiritual successors to Chromebooks. If you’re already using cloud services every day, would you replace every function on your personal computer with AI applications? AI is truly eating everything, now including hardware—at least in the rhetoric. Finally, Brady highlights that it’s been one year since the “Deepseek Moment”. The company dispelled the notion that Silicon Valley is charting the only way forward for creating better large language models. But Deepseek isn’t an AI company in the conventional sense. It works like a research lab funded by hedge fund profits, which shapes its R&D culture and exemplifies a different vision for bringing about AGI. Zeus, the mascot of Zero Shot, was generated using AI. Everything else is made by humans, just like all articles, columns, newsletters, and other podcasts created by The Ken. Share your comments, critiques and suggestions with us at zeroshot@the-ken.com. Or write in just to say hi. We respond to everyone who contacts us. Additional Reading Airtel’s free Perplexity Pro paused for Indians with no credit card, angering usershttps://www.msn.com/en-in/money/news/airtel-s-free-perplexity-pro-paused-for-indians-with-no-credit-card-angering-users/ar-AA1U2ig0 Jeff Bezos said the quiet part out loud — hopes that you'll give up your PC to rent one from the cloudhttps://www.windowscentral.com/artificial-intelligence/jeff-bezos-says-the-quiet-part-out-loud-bezos-envisions-that-youll-give-up-your-pc-for-an-ai-cloud-version The numbers behind OpenAI, Gemini, and Perplexity’s deals with Phonepe, Jio, and Airtelhttps://the-ken.com/newsletters/two-by-two/the-numbers-behind-openai-and-perplexitys-deals-with-jio-and-airtel/ CES 2026 – “The Future Is Here” and “Innovators Show Up”https://hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com/p/237-ces-2026-the-future-is-here-and ‘The enshittification of computer repair is happening.’https://infosec.exchange/@sawaba/115924627821844963 DeepSeek founder Liang’s funds surge 57% as China quants boomhttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-12/deepseek-founder-liang-s-funds-surge-57-as-china-quants-boom No business model: DeepSeek's enduring advantagehttps://interconnected.blog/no-business-model-deepseeks-enduring-advantage/ Lossfunkhttps://lossfunk.com/ Sarvam AI’s Rs 10,000 crore pivothttps://the-ken.com/columns/zero-shot/sarvam-ais-rs-10000-crore-pivot/

53 min
14 JAN • THE KEN PREMIUM ONLY

Infosys and Cognizant's message to Microsoft: Thanks, but we found better AI

“Everyone is ignoring the 800 pound gorilla in the room. The truth is that the tool doesn’t matter unless the IT company adopting them cannot translate it into increased revenue or reduced cost. And that’s the problem” That’s Sidu Ponappa, our first guest on Zero Shot. Sidu is CEO and co-founder of Realfast, a company that uses AI to accelerate Salesforce implementations. Today’s Zero Shot episode is about a simple question – why are India’s IT majors bypassing Microsoft’s Copilot and instead adopting other tools. Infosys just announced an org wide roll-out of Devin. Cognizant has picked Lovable for its 350,000 employees, becoming their largest enterprise customer. Where is Microsoft, which had its early advantage? That’s the question we posed in our discussion, and well, Sidu went beyond to second and third order effects, beyond the tools themselves. And we have something exciting – we want to hear from you about what kind of tools are used in your organisation. If you work in Indian IT (or know someone who does), let us know. Tell us. The poll is below. Oh, also in our second segment, Brady looks at the IPOs of two “AI Tigers” in Hong Kong: Minimax and Zhipu. Often (incorrectly) labeled as China’s responses to OpenAI, these two companies’ listings inadvertently became a source of unease among some AI companies—there is a deadline for their path to public markets. If OpenAI and Anthropic gain ticker codes, these firms will be black holes for liquidity, and any other AI company that goes public after these events aren’t going to be welcomed as warmly by investors. This means AI companies need to make a choice: go public as soon as possible, or expect to stay private for a very, very long time. Take our poll: What AI tools do you use at work? Zeus, the mascot of Zero Shot, was generated using AI. Everything else is made by humans, just like all articles, columns, newsletters, and other podcasts created by The Ken. Write to us with comments, critiques, suggestions, or just to say hi: zeroshot@the-ken.com. We respond to everyone who contacts us.

1h 2m
7 JAN • THE KEN PREMIUM ONLY

Anti-AI backlash aids big tech, CEOs and prompt-generated rhetoric, Emergent’s emergence

Welcome to Zero Shot, a weekly podcast by The Ken where Praveen, Brady, and Rohin ponder the latest developments in artificial intelligence—in India and around the world. This week, Brady starts by considering how backlashes against AI—whether it stems from job displacement, data centre construction, or general unease and uncertainty—gives major tech companies the conditions to centralise the internet even more. This is particularly true in the US, in contrast to a regulatory regime in China that encourages a set of diverse players. Praveen turns his attention to Deepinder Goyal, the outspoken CEO and co-founder of Zomato, who tweeted out a lengthy treatise in response to strikes by delivery workers. But… it turns out Goyal’s piece of text was probably generated using artificial intelligence. What prompted the change in how Goyal engages with his audience, and what does it mean if more personal messages by business leaders carry this flavour? Finally, Rohin profiles Emergent, a vibe-coding platform that lets users deploy production-ready apps and websites. It uses a multi-agent system that is favoured by non-technical users, and was one of the most-used tools by participants in The Ken’s recent Case-Build Competition. Founded by twin brothers Mukund and Madhav Jha, Emergent has roped in $30 million in funding and hit $25 million annual recurring revenue in five months. Zeus, the mascot of Zero Shot, was generated by AI. Everything else is made by humans, just like all articles, columns, newsletters, and other podcasts created by The Ken. As always, we love hearing from our listeners! Write to us with comments, critiques, suggestions, or just say hi at zeroshot@the-ken.com. We respond to everyone who contacts us. Additional Reading The January Chasmhttps://the-ken.com/newsletter/first-principles/the-january-chasm/ Microsoft: Out with Office, in with Copilothttps://www.office.com Microsoft CEO begs users to stop calling it “slop”https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/microsoft-satya-nadella-ai-slop IndiaAI startups resist Centre’s plan to seek equity for supporthttps://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/artificial-intelligence/indiaai-startups-resist-centres-plan-to-seek-equity-for-support/articleshow/126356889.cms Manus gets the best of both worlds—Chinese development for a global producthttps://the-ken.com/columns/zero-shot/manus-gets-the-best-of-both-worlds-chinese-development-for-a-global-product/ Mark Zuckerberg: ‘The internet needs new rules. Let’s start in these four areas’https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mark-zuckerberg-the-internet-needs-new-rules-lets-start-in-these-four-areas/2019/03/29/9e6f0504-521a-11e9-a3f7-78b7525a8d5f_story.html ‘Last one on this topic, and I have been holding this in myself for a while…’https://x.com/deepigoyal/status/2007030873711927381 Emergenthttps://app.emergent.sh/landing/

1h 15m
31/12/2025

Taking aim for 2026

It’s the end of 2025, so we don’t have a full episode of Zero Shot for you today. This podcast launched in September, and we’ve produced 14 episodes for you so far. We’ve covered a wide range of topics, and our conversations—between Praveen, Rohin, and Brady—only work because you’re willing to sit with the complexities we wade into. We know artificial intelligence will move fast in 2026, so we’ll keep asking the questions that matter in this AI hype cycle. We’re glad you’re coming along with us. So, thank you, and we’ll be back next week. As always, if you’d like to get in touch with any or all of our hosts, please drop us a note at zeroshot@the-ken.com. We respond to all messages. The cover art of Zero Shot is generated by AI. Everything else is made by humans, just like all articles, columns, newsletters, and other podcasts created by The Ken.

2 min
24/12/2025 • THE KEN PREMIUM ONLY

Habitually outlandish valuations, AI’s trough of disillusionment

Welcome to Zero Shot, The Ken’s weekly podcast that interprets the latest big moves in artificial intelligence—in India and around the world. This week, Praveen is on leave, but our two other co-hosts held down the fort. Brady took inspiration from the tagline of a game show, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, to consider some of the wild claims and projections made by OpenAI. Aside from CEO Sam Altman’s public statements, he considered CFO Sarah Friar’s past professional moves, where she made similar (but not as exaggerated) claims about revenue projections when she was Nextdoor’s CEO. It’s a bit of information that retail investors could consider when OpenAI prepares to go public. Then, Rohin described how AI products lost their novelty in 2025, entering the trough of disillusionment as described by the Gartner hype cycle. This presents an opportunity for companies that can develop products with an “anti-AI premium”, where the absence of artificial intelligence could find fans in customers. The cover art of Zero Shot is generated by AI. Everything else is made by humans, just like all articles, columns, newsletters, and other podcasts created by The Ken. If you have comments, critiques, or suggestions, you should share them with us! Write in at zeroshot@the-ken.com. We respond to every listener who contacts us. Additional Reading Whose Line Is It Anyway?https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whose_Line_Is_It_Anyway%3F_(American_TV_series) Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre by Keith Johnstonehttps://www.amazon.com/Impro-Improvisation-Theatre-Keith-Johnstone/dp/0878301178 Why OpenAI went into crisis PR mode (in November)https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/06/tech/openai-backtracks-government-support-chip-investments Nextdoor secures dismissal with prejudice in securities class actionhttps://www.cooley.com/news/coverage/2025/2025-11-20-nextdoor-secures-dismissal-with-prejudice-in-securities-class-action ‘How to disable all the AI features in Firefox to increase performance?’https://askubuntu.com/questions/1556081/how-to-disable-all-the-ai-features-in-firefox-to-increase-performance The Gartner hype cyclehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner_hype_cycle Eugen Rochko: ‘I've finally switched to the @Vivaldi browser.’https://mas.to/@Gargron@mastodon.social/115737483372515885 Meta tolerates rampant ad fraud from China to safeguard billions in revenuehttps://www.reuters.com/investigations/meta-tolerates-rampant-ad-fraud-china-safeguard-billions-revenue-2025-12-15/ LG will let TV owners delete Microsoft Copilot after customer outcryhttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-18/lg-will-let-tv-owners-delete-microsoft-copilot-after-customer-complaints

50 min
17/12/2025 • THE KEN PREMIUM ONLY

Energy engineers, SaaS prices and the moment of AI truth, Broadcom and the bubble

Welcome back to Zero Shot, where Brady, Praveen, and Rohin take on the big ideas and latest developments in artificial intelligence every Wednesday. This week, Praveen looks at a new future career in India—the energy engineer. With Amazon and Microsoft committing to a combined $52.5 billion of investments in India, these tech giants’ data centres will require immense power. India currently doesn’t produce enough renewable energy to service this demand, and even if there were enough power, there are other hurdles. Rohin considers how SaaS companies are contending with an existential crisis. If their clients can replace their software with AI agents, then what value do SaaS companies hold in the future? Some providers have opted to insert AI capabilities into their products and raise their prices, but that is not sustainable in the long run. Brady looked at Broadcom’s stock slump and provided another way to think about the AI investment bubble. The company designs chips for Google. Its revenue has shot up but the company is trapped in fulfilling contracts with lower margins. This all comes down to the picks-and-shovels vendors being unable to capture value in the AI supply chain. It’s another sign that the likes of Google, Microsoft, and Meta will reap the biggest benefits, no matter how the business of AI transforms in the coming years. The cover art of Zero Shot is generated by AI. Everything else is made by humans. We love to hear from our listeners! If you have comments, critiques, or suggestions, write to us at zeroshot@the-ken.com. * Additional Reading Tower of the Sunhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_the_Sun I’m Kenyan. I don’t write like ChatGPT. ChatGPT writes like mehttps://marcusolang.substack.com/p/im-kenyan-i-dont-write-like-chatgpt The Ken’s Case-Build Competition: Disrupt the Incumbentshttps://the-ken.com/case-competition-2025/submissions/ Microsoft and Amazon’s multibillion-dollar bets on Indiahttps://www.ft.com/content/d564ba34-7514-43ca-90db-b4fa01737a10 India’s e-bus dream is finally coming to life. The power grid can’t keep uphttps://the-ken.com/story/indias-e-bus-dream-is-finally-coming-to-life-no-one-told-the-power-grid/ AI agents are starting to eat SaaShttps://martinalderson.com/posts/ai-agents-are-starting-to-eat-saas/ Broadcom tumbles 11% despite blockbuster earnings as ‘AI angst’ weighs on Oracle, Nvidiahttps://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/12/broadcom-tumbles-10percent-after-earnings-as-ai-trade-sells-off-.html Global funds view Indian stocks as a top hedge against AI riskshttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-14/global-funds-view-indian-stocks-as-a-top-hedge-against-ai-risks

53 min

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