Indian computer scientist Prafulla Dhariwal has been making headlines as the leading force behind GPT-4o, OpenAI’s latest innovation. Co-creator of GPT-3, he leads the Omni team at OpenAI, Earlier this week, OpenAI unveiled its latest flagship AI model at its Spring Update event, “showcasing its ability to reason across voice, text, and vision,” according to the company website.  GPT-4o (o for “omni”) is the first model to come out of the omni team, OpenAI’s first natively fully multimodal model. This launch was a huge org-wide effort, but I’d like to give a shout out to a few of my awe ..read more

Several Indian Americans are among this year’s Presidential Scholars, one of the nation’s highest honors for high school students. The U.S. Presidential Scholars Program was established in 1964, by executive order of the president, to recognize and honor some of our nation’s most distinguished graduating high school seniors.  In 1979, the program was extended to recognize students who demonstrate exceptional talent in the visual, creative and performing arts. In 2015, the program was again extended to recognize students who demonstrate ability and accomplishment in career and technical ed ..read more

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Society for Science announced that Krish Pai, 17, of Del Mar, California, received the second Regeneron Young Scientist Award in the 2024 Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, the world’s largest pre-college science and engineering competition. The young Indian American received the $50,000 prize for his machine-learning research to identify microbial genetic sequences that can be modified to biodegrade plastic. Krish Pai His new software, called Microby, scans databases of microorganisms and determines which ones can be changed genetically ..read more

“Give Flowers to the Rebels who Failed!” (Graffiti, Sorbonne. France. May 1968, students’ uprising.) It’s just that, now, the rebels have not failed! Instead, they are flying on the wings of justice, painting the walls with the watermelon colors of the Palestine flag. And they are all doing the ‘Dabke’ dance to the liberating song from Palestine, hands holding hands, wearing the black and white keffiyeh, going round and round in circles, their young faces flush with all the luminescent colors of youthful rebellion and freedom. Perhaps, they know. Perhaps, they don’t. April 30, 2024, marked the ..read more

Salim Ramji, 53, a longtime financial services executive, has been named the chief executive officer of Vanguard, the Malvern, Pennsylvania-based investment advisor, effective July 8. He succeeds Tim Buckley, who, as previously announced, will retire and step down as chairman and CEO. In his new role, Ramji “will run the $9 trillion asset manager, a behemoth responsible for the retirement assets of tens of millions of Americans,” The Wall Street Journal reported.  A senior financial services executive with “more than 25 years of experience in investments, capital markets and wealth manage ..read more

“Laapataa Ladies” (Lost Ladies) is set in the fictional Indian state of Nirmal Pradesh, where two brides are accidentally swapped during a train ride. Both women are dressed in identical, uniform-like red saris with their faces hidden by long red veils. Deepak (Sparsh Srivastava) mistakenly takes home Pradeep’s wife Pushpa (Pratibha Ranta), while his wife, Phool (Nitanshi Goel), is left stranded at a railway station. In “Laapataa Ladies,” both brides are lost both in the personal and literal sense. The ghoonghat in the movie symbolizes the veil that obscures women’s real identities, and the fi ..read more

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has appointed Abidali “Abid” Neemuchwala of Little Elm to the OneStar Foundation for terms set to expire on March 15, 2027. The OneStar Foundation provides technical assistance, education, information, and other support to Texas’ extensive volunteer community and works to improve and strengthen the state’s volunteerism and community service infrastructure.  Abbott also reappointed Michael Parker and Robert G. “Bob” Wright, II to the foundation. A technology executive and investor, Neemuchwala is co-founder and director of Dallas Venture Capital (DVC) and chairma ..read more

Indian actress, writer, director and producer Radhika Apte and British-American actor Naveen Andrews have been cast in “Last Days,” the next film from the Fast & Furious franchise’s Justin Lin. They will star opposite actor Sky Yang.  The film is based on the Outside Magazine article “The Last Days of John Allen Chau” by journalist Alex Perry, according to Deadline. It is a story of “John Allen Chau, who believes he has been chosen to save the souls of the uncontacted tribe of North Sentinel Island,” the report adds. “Designated as a protected site by the Indian government, John sets ..read more

Sneha Revanur has become a major force in global discussions around the development and safety of Artificial intelligence (AI). The 19-year-old sophomore studying political science and economics at Williams College in Massachusetts is the founder and president of Encode Justice, which she launched in July 2020. The youth-led organization fights for human rights and justice in the age of AI and is pushing policymakers and companies to put people at the center of the AI revolution. We just made this happen — and now we need you to help us leave an impact. Add your name today at https://t.co/ry ..read more

Perplexity AI CEO and co-founder Aravind Srinivas is unfazed by Google’s planned roll-out of AI-summarized search results. The Indian American techie’s startup has offered a popular AI-driven search tool providing similar digests for nearly two years. Speaking at Axios BFD, a bi-annual dealmakers summit in San Francisco on May 14, Srinivas “gently mocked Google’s marketing resets as it has maneuvered to respond to the popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT over the past 18 months,” Axios said. “A year ago, it was called  ‘search generative experience,’” he told Axios’ Kia Kokalitcheva .”Today it ..read more