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Google brings AI Mode in Search to India: Ask anything, ask any way

Google brings AI Mode in Search to India: Ask anything, ask any way

India Today5 days ago
Google has started rolling out its AI Mode in Search to users in India. This new artificial intelligence tool is integrated into Google's traditional search engine and allows users to ask questions and receive detailed, context-aware answers directly within the search results. Unlike traditional search, which replies with a list of links, AI Mode generates a complete, detailed response using AI, breaking down complex or layered queries and pulling together information from across the web.advertisementGoogle first introduced the feature in the U.S. earlier this year and later made it available in India through Search Labs in June. Following early trials and user feedback, Google is now expanding access across India without requiring users to sign up through Labs. However, the feature will only be available in English right now.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai announces rollout of AI Mode in India
How Google AI Mode worksAccording to Google, it has designed AI Mode to respond to detailed and multi-part user queries that would typically require several separate searches in traditional search. It uses a version of Google's Gemini 2.5 model and breaks down a query into sub-questions, gathering relevant information from across the web. The final response then appears as a summarised answer, often including links for further reading and the option to continue the search with follow-up questions.How to use AI Mode
Indian users can access the feature through a new 'AI Mode' tab that will appear in Google Search results and in the Google app's search bar. To interact with AI Mode, users simply need to type questions, speak them using voice input, or upload images using Google Lens. For example, users can take a photo of a plant and ask how to care for it—the AI model will then provide step-by-step instructions, identification, and links to relevant sources.Google says AI Mode has been especially useful for longer, exploratory searches—such as comparing products, planning travel, or understanding technical topics. Early users have reportedly submitted queries two to three times longer than typical searches, often asking for detailed guidance or advice.The feature relies on a technique called 'query fan-out', where Google's system breaks a question into parts, conducts multiple searches, and compiles a response. This allows for deeper coverage of topics and can surface content that might not appear in standard search results.Current limitationsNotably, at this stage, AI Mode in India is limited to the English language. Although Google has promised to bring support for other languages in the future. Additionally, the company notes that the AI tool is still experimental, and it will display traditional search results when it lacks high confidence in its AI-generated answers.The feature is being released gradually and will become available to users over the coming days on both desktop and mobile platforms.- Ends
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NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, announces International Expansion with New London Campus Opening in 2026
NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, announces International Expansion with New London Campus Opening in 2026

Business Standard

time25 minutes ago

  • Business Standard

NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, announces International Expansion with New London Campus Opening in 2026

PRNewswire Milan [Italy], July 14: NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, is proud to announce the forthcoming opening of a new venue in the city of London. The London campus - NABA's first outside Italy - will take its place in the context of the Here East innovation and technology campus inside the Olympic Park and, starting from October 2026, it will be a strategic hub for the Academy's process of internationalisation and the benchmark for other future centres outside Italy. London has long been an international point of reference for artistic and creative education and is a strategic centre where innovation, culture and new trends in the sectors of art, fashion design and design come together, offering a dynamic educational proposal that is integrated with the evolution of the contemporary panorama. The opening of the new campus will enable NABA to take its place in an ideal context for cultivating new talent and promoting Italian heritage and know-how, as well as making a major contribution to building and shaping the future of the creative industries, in line with the Academy's mission "Through Artistic Intelligence, we nurture people to design a new tomorrow." The launch phases are being overseen by Daniele Bisello o Ragno, Managing Director of NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, along with Guido Tattoni, NABA Dean, and the Academy's Leadership Team: together, they are successfully driving forward its development strategy at the international level, of which the forthcoming London opening will be the first major milestone. Specifically, the new London campus - the third after Milan and Rome - will offer an educational proposal made up initially of three BAs in Design, Fashion Design and Fashion Marketing Management in addition to the Foundation Course from the start of the 2026/27 Academic Year. The programmes, all delivered in the English language, will be characterised by a strong practical, interdisciplinary orientation and connected with the world of work, thanks to laboratories furnished with technical equipment, where students will have the opportunity to create their own projects and improve their techniques: the Design Lab, the Fashion Design Lab and the Textile and Knitwear Lab, in addition to a studio classroom and a number of creative spaces. Students will be offered educational and academic services equivalent to the other two Italian centres with the possibility of making use of the Career Service, assistance in obtaining the necessary visas, psychological counselling and a library. The admission criteria will be in line and consistent with the model of NABA campus in Milan and Rome, with the option of transferring from one to another. Participants who successfully complete the three-year courses will obtain a BA (Hons) Degree accredited by Regent's University London, a leading historic London institution at the international level and, since 2020, part of the Galileo Global Education (GGE) group of which NABA is also a part. Through the partnership with the Academy, students will be offered the opportunity to obtain a qualification valid in the United Kingdom and recognised at the international level. The site will cover an area of more than 2,000 square metres within the innovation and technology centre 'Here East' in the heart of the Olympic Park, one of the most dynamic and innovative areas of the city and home of the Liverpool Media Academy, also part of the GGE group. London is a real outdoor laboratory, an ecosystem where artistic know-how merges with innovation and where the Academy's "learning by doing" approach can be showcased, characterised by the determination to create connections and openness to the future, not only as a space dedicated to education but also as an organisation where students can gain hands-on experience while working on real briefs and projects with companies and institutions, with the aim of thoroughly training the professionals of the future. Moreover, it will be an innovative centre with a focus on digital technologies and a sustainable approach, in line with NABA's sustainability manifesto. "At NABA, we believe in an education that trains people, not just professionals. With this opening, the Academy is strengthening its global vocation, creating an environment where cultures come together to design tomorrow together. The NABA campus in London will be an important step that allows us to replicate outside Italy the didactic and educational approach that has always set us apart and enables us to consolidate the Academy's positioning in the panorama of artistic education at the international level. Indeed, NABA was included in the 2025 QS World University Rankings® by Subject as the first and only Italian Academy of Fine Arts to be among the 100 best universities in the world in the field of Art & Design. Our aim is not just to offer an alternative to the great British institutions, we want to introduce a new voice, able to unite heritage and the avant-garde," said Daniele Bisello o Ragno, Managing Director of NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti. And he added: "Our uniqueness lies in the combination of the excellence of Italian design and an experiential and creative educational approach with interdisciplinary, tech-driven programmes connected with the creative industries. We offer classes tailor-made for the student, a 'boutique' model that values individual talent. Our wish is to be able to offer a model that can be replicated in other countries, in the short and long term. We hope that London is the first of many new premises at the global level." For further information visit NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti NABA is an international Academy focused on arts and design: it is the largest Academy of Fine Arts in Italy, and the first one to have been recognised by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR), back in 1981. In its campus in Milan, Rome and now also in London, NABA offers academic diplomas equivalent to first and second level university degrees in the fields of design, fashion design, graphics and communication, multimedia arts, new technologies, set design, visual arts, as well as PhD and Special Programmes. The Academy was founded by Ausonio Zappa in Milan in 1980 with the involvement of Guido Ballo and Tito Varisco during a first phase, later attracting to its faculty artists such as Gianni Colombo and many others, the idea being to abandon rigorous academic traditions and instead introduce new visions and languages based on contemporary artistic and professional practice. NABA was selected by Frame to be included in the Masterclass Frame Guide to the 30 World's Leading Graduate Design, Architecture and Fashion Schools, and by Domus Magazine as one of Europe's Top 100 schools of Architecture and Design.

Trump administration leaves Congress in dark on spending decisions
Trump administration leaves Congress in dark on spending decisions

Economic Times

time33 minutes ago

  • Economic Times

Trump administration leaves Congress in dark on spending decisions

AP President Donald Trump. (File photo) Around 300 students in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, may face changes to after-school tutoring and English-language proficiency instruction unless the district's $860,000 federal grant is freed up by President Donald Trump's administration in time for the new school year. This funding is a part of more than $6 billion in school funds held up on July 1 for school programs nationwide, leaving superintendents including Cleveland Heights' Elizabeth Kirby in a budget bind. "We have not received any information about whether or not this money is coming," she said. The lack of clarity follows a broader pattern in which the Trump administration has provided less detail on how it plans to spend taxpayer dollars, drawing criticism from some Republicans in Congress. "Delayed budgets, missing details, and omitted spend plans make the federal budget less transparent and less accountable to the people and their elected representatives," Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee told Russell Vought, director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, at a June 25 hearing. The OMB and the White House did not respond to a request for comment. In previous statements, the OMB said the held-up education funds are a part of an "ongoing programmatic review" due to initial findings of grant programs being "grossly misused to subsidize a radical leftwing agenda." Budget experts say this unwillingness to share a broad range of spending details skirts funding law, complicates the budget process going forward, and breaks from precedent aimed at increasing spending transparency. "At this point in the year, there has never been less reliable information available to either the public or Congress about actual agency spending than at any time since the modern budget process was established in 1974," said David Taylor, a former leader of President George H.W. Bush's White House budget office and chief budget aide to Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, who now runs the research firm Federal Budget IQ. The U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power of the federal purse to decide how to allocate taxpayer money for the executive branch to disburse throughout its agencies. But since lawmakers passed a full-year stopgap funding bill in March -- signed by Trump -- they have been left with questions about where the money is going because a wide swath of federal agencies across the government either failed to share spending plans required by the stopgap bill, or sent incomplete data, according to U.S. lawmakers. "This administration has - more than any other in my time in office - refused to share basic information with this committee," said Democratic Senator Patty Murray, a 32-year veteran of the chamber and her party's top appropriator. This standoff on federal funding powers will be tested again this week as the Senate considers the administration's $9 billion request to cancel foreign aid and public media, which could undo the funding passed on a bipartisan basis in March with a simple Republican majority. The Republican-controlled Congress early this month narrowly passed Trump's sweeping tax-cut and spending bill, overriding some Republicans' objections about the heavy toll it was expected to take on the nation's $36.2 trillion in debt. The administration's reluctance to share detailed spending plans has placed Cabinet secretaries in the hot seat on Capitol Hill for the last several weeks, as the funding law required these details by the end of April. "We need more information than we have gotten," Republican House of Representatives Appropriations Chair Tom Cole of Oklahoma told Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in June, more than a month after his department's spending plan was required. "I'm doing the best I can," FBI Director Kash Patel said at his May hearing, pointing the finger at other parts of the administration when hounded about the lack of spending details. "We have a lot of irons in the fire ... as we try to build up staff," explained Interior Secretary Doug Burgum when pressed by Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon about the lack of clarity on conservation projects. Even the agency plans that were submitted had notable gaps. There were 530 asterisks in the Health and Human Services Department's plan where specific funding amounts for programs should have been listed, according to Murray and Representative Rosa DeLauro, the top House appropriations Democrat. "The fact that appropriators are discussing these issues in open hearings means that multiple attempts to get this information behind the scenes has failed," said Joe Carlile, a former Democratic budget official. Trump's focus on slashing the federal government also has made his administration less concerned about congressional queries, said Cerin Lindgrensavage, counsel at Protect Democracy, a group which is suing the administration over removal of online spending details. "Usually, administration officials would be wary of angering the appropriations committee for the same reason it's a bad idea to bite the hand that feeds you, but now, Congress is negotiating against an executive branch that seems happy to cut more spending," Lindgrensavage said. Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins cited White House budget office guidance and a 1983 Supreme Court ruling over congressional restraints on emergency powers to defend how his department notified Congress to "reprogram" money away from initiatives the administration deemed wasteful. Congressional leaders tasked with overseeing VA funding demanded the department request approval to redirect money. "The way this secretary, and this administration, has interacted with Congress on moving hundreds of millions of dollars from one account to the next is unprecedented," said Democratic Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida. The panel's Republican leader, Representative John Carter of Texas, backed Schultz up: "I've been on this committee for 20 years ... and we are not going to change it now."

Why Thailand's ‘weed wonderland' may be about to disappear
Why Thailand's ‘weed wonderland' may be about to disappear

Indian Express

timean hour ago

  • Indian Express

Why Thailand's ‘weed wonderland' may be about to disappear

Just three years ago, Thailand made history by becoming the first country in Asia to decriminalise cannabis. What followed was a rapid and unprecedented boom: neon-lit dispensaries sprang up across Bangkok's tourist hotspots, 'green' cafes dotted the islands, and entrepreneurs—from street vendors to seasoned investors—rushed in to claim a slice of the estimated $1 billion market. But that cannabis free-for-all may be coming to an abrupt end. In June, the Thai government imposed sweeping new rules that re-criminalise recreational cannabis use, triggering panic among shop owners and raising uncertainty over the future of the country's burgeoning marijuana industry. The new guidelines require all cannabis purchases to be backed by a prescription from a certified medical professional. However, the practical implementation of this policy—how prescriptions will be issued, how shops should adapt, and what will happen to existing businesses—remains murky. The abrupt change has left many wondering whether Thailand's short-lived experiment with legal cannabis is now over. Since decriminalisation in 2022, thousands of dispensaries have opened across Thailand. Along Khao San Road in Bangkok—a famous backpacker strip—bright storefronts have offered a smorgasbord of highs: cannabis strains promising everything from relaxation to euphoria, with catchy names and menus written in English. But after the government's announcement, many shops are bracing for shutdown. 'Most of the registered shops will shut down,' Bangkok-based entrepreneur Natthakan Punyathanaworakit told The Guardian, adding that many are likely to go underground. She has already closed one of her three cannabis stores in the capital, citing mounting pressure and the cost of compliance. The new regulations could force dispensaries to register as clinics and hire licensed doctors—an expensive and bureaucratic shift that small businesses say they cannot afford. 'It's the little guys—the mom and pop shops, the family business where the wife is helping trim while the husband is growing—they're the ones that will suffer,' cannabis entrepreneur Chokwan Chopaka told The Guardian. Chokwan, who once welcomed Thailand's progressive approach, now fears the rollback will only entrench big players and criminalise small-scale operators again. 'Even past rules weren't properly enforced. When there's no enforcement, there's just no way I can compete,' she said. The shift in policy comes amid a political shake-up. The Bhumjaithai Party, which had pushed for decriminalisation, has now exited the ruling coalition. Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, facing criticism over his handling of other political issues, has leaned on health minister Somsak Thepsutin to oversee the reform. Somsak has framed the new rules as necessary to 'improve public safety and protect young people and children.' But critics argue that the cannabis issue has become politicised. What started as a reform aimed at reducing drug-related incarceration and boosting the economy has become a lightning rod for conservative backlash, fuelled by concerns over youth exposure, cannabis tourism, and smuggling. The previous decriminalisation, while historic, was widely criticised for being rushed through with minimal safeguards. Piecemeal regulations followed—such as bans on sales to minors and pregnant women, or in proximity to schools—but enforcement was spotty. Now, the pendulum is swinging hard in the opposite direction. At Khao San Road, footfall has already dropped. 'It's going to affect [profits] because the tourists, they're scared,' Thammarat Siritanaratanakul, who works at a dispensary called iStoned, told The Guardian. Oler Silasilarat, 28, who works at Hygge Flower, said he supported reforms in principle, but feared for small farmers. 'They have a lot of knowledge, but they cannot grow any more because they cannot compete with the big companies,' he said. 'After legalisation, everyone had the opportunity to try to make money. You could open a shop, you could make a career,' Oler added. 'And then they change it.' Small growers will now be required to obtain new certifications, while dispensaries must convert into medically licensed businesses or risk being shuttered. For many, the cost of adapting to the new system is simply too high. Decriminalisation had marked a sharp reversal in a country long known for its harsh anti-drug laws. Thousands of people jailed for cannabis-related offences were released, and Thailand's leaders positioned the policy as a symbol of progress and economic rejuvenation. But the explosion of dispensaries and a flood of marijuana into the market stoked public unease. Reports of cannabis smuggling and arrests of foreign nationals added to the controversy. Earlier this year, two young British women were arrested in Georgia and Sri Lanka after flying from Bangkok with large quantities of cannabis; both now face prison. Despite the backlash, many argue that rolling back legalisation is not the solution. 'What we needed was proper regulation—not criminalisation again,' said Chokwan. She fears that closing dispensaries will only revive the black market, pushing users and growers into legal limbo. Back in Bangkok, Natthakan is holding on to her two remaining shops—barely. 'If one of the shops cannot keep up with the new rules,' she said, 'I will have to close.' Thailand's green rush may not be over yet—but the haze of uncertainty is thick, and its once-celebrated weed wonderland may soon become a cautionary tale.

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