Author: Rahul M

With the release of Grok 4, a next-generation large language model (LLM) intended to directly compete with market leaders like Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Elon Musk’s xAI is poised to upend the artificial intelligence field. The new model promises a breakthrough in AI-powered creativity and productivity by pushing the limits of reasoning, coding, and multimodal capabilities.Launch Date and Livestream DetailsOfficial Launch: July 9, 2025, at 8:00 PM Pacific Time (July 10, 8:30 AM IST)Livestream Platform: xAI’s official X (formerly Twitter) accountElon Musk confirmed the launch via a post on X, inviting users worldwide to join the livestream event, where the capabilities…

New DelhiJul 8, 2025 19:31 IST First published on: Jul 8, 2025 at 19:31 IST Share The BJP leadership’s move to appoint Pathankot MLA Ashwani Kumar Sharma as the Punjab unit’s working president has followed calls for “serious introspection” from within the party following its defeat in the June 19 Ludhiana Assembly bypoll. A senior leader, Sharma had also been the Punjab BJP president earlier. His current appointment was seen in BJP circles as the party’s first step towards “forming an effective front” ahead of the 2027 state Assembly polls. According to BJP insiders, Sharma’s new role is also being…

A missing-person complaint filed by a woman for husband in Karnataka has led to the arrest of three people including a woman he had been in a live-in relationship with, the police said on Monday. S D Sharanappa, Commissioner of Police, Kalaburagi city, identified the deceased as Raghavendra Naik, 39, and the arrested accused as Ashwini alias Tanu, 26, Gururaj, 36, and Lakshmikanth, 28. He said that a live-in relationship that went wrong could be the reason behind the murder. In March, when an unidentified dead body was discovered in the Krishna river near Shaktinagar in Raichur district, the police…

Till four years ago, the 34-year-old was the elected mukhiya of her village in Madhubani district. Now, amidst the confusion stirred up by the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, a question mark hangs over her status – as it does over hundreds of others originally from Nepal who, for generations, have had marital ties with people in eight border districts this side of the border.“Yahaan maamla phas raha hai (We are getting stuck on this),” admits a Booth Level Officer (BLO) and a relative of the 34-year-old, both of whom don’t want to be identified.…

Officers and employees of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) proceeded on mass leave Tuesday as part of a one-day protest organised by the BBMP New Officers and Employees Welfare Association demanding the resolution of long-pending grievances. The protest comes amid a larger stir by civic body employees across Karnataka over various demands. The protesting BBMP employees have gathered at Freedom Park near the BBMP head office raising serious concerns over the worsening staff crisis within the BBMP, and pointing out that more than 6,000 posts remain vacant across departments. With civic services under strain, the association has accused the…

Four years after the Karnataka High Court struck down amendments to the state Police Act which aimed to ban online gambling, the government is making another attempt to ban online gambling, betting and related activities. Taking a cue from the previous judgment on the issue, the state government has also decided to differentiate between ‘Game of Chance’ and ‘Game of Skill’ to ensure effective curbs against online betting. Apart from this, the Karnataka Police (Amendment) Bill, 2025, also provides for the establishment of an Online Gaming and Betting Regulatory Authority (KOGBRA) to oversee, regulate and enforce the provisions against online…

In 1972, archaeologists digging beneath the future site of a Lloyds Bank branch in York, England, made an unexpected and remarkable discovery. What they unearthed wasn’t just another artifact or piece of history—it was something far more unique: a fossilized human excrement from the Viking era. This discovery, which has since captivated archaeologists, sheds light on life in the 9th century and continues to offer invaluable insights into the past. An Unlikely Treasure: The Coprolite of York The fossilized excrement, measuring approximately 20 cm in length and 5 cm in width, was found during excavations conducted by the York Archaeological…

Microsoft and OpenAI announced on Tuesday that they are helping to launch an AI training center for members of the second-largest teachers’ union in the US.The National Academy for AI Instruction will open later this year in New York City and aims initially to equip kindergarten up to 12th grade instructors in the American Federation of Teachers with tools and training for integrating AI into classrooms.“Teachers are facing huge challenges, which include navigating AI wisely, ethically, and safely,” AFT president Randi Weingarten said during a press conference on Tuesday. “When we saw ChatGPT in November 2022, we knew it would…

Ahead of the Supreme Court hearing on July 10 on petitions challenging the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls being conducted by the Election Commission (EC) in poll-bound Bihar, the Opposition INDIA bloc has called for a Bihar bandh on Wednesday on the issue. Opposition parties and civil society organisations say the SIR may disenfranchise millions of voters, and the row dominated Urdu dailies’ news coverage, which talked about deepening fear among minorities over the “return of the NRC ghost”. Flagging the controversy triggered by the EC’s SIR move in Bihar just a few months before the Assembly polls,…

On TikTok, Gyasi Alexander likes to hold “yap sessions” about all sorts of vulnerable topics—self-image issues, anxiety, why you shouldn’t romanticize forgiveness. He started posting videos like that last summer, following the end of an 11-year relationship, after a group of friends encouraged him to use the platform as an outlet to talk about his healing process. Lately, though, the 28-year-old retail sales worker who lives in Providence, Rhode Island, has decided to fully embrace, and talk about, his most vulnerable trait—being a yearner.“Yearning is a little bit different from love in that it’s more intense,” he says. “It’s prolonged.…