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PALO ALTO, Calif. , Nov. 25, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- AKOOL, Inc., the global leader in generative AI video, is excited to announce its strategic partnership with Immerso AI, a wholly owned subsidiary of Eros Digital, the largest producer and distributor of Bollywood content worldwide. This partnership aims to transform the digital immersion and video markets through cutting-edge AI technologies, merging Immerso AI's extensive digital IP content libraries with AKOOL's generative AI expertise. With a vast library of over 12,000 digital titles, Eros Digital brings invaluable content assets to the collaboration. Together, the alliance will leverage this repository to deliver groundbreaking AI-driven experiences for the video and digital business and consumer markets. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, AKOOL specializes in generative AI for visual applications, renowned for its Faceswap and Avatar technologies that lead innovation in the field. The partnership will focus on developing unique AI applications, including personalized movie recommendations, AI-generated visual effects tailored for Bollywood films, and automated editing tools for content creators. Additionally, AKOOL will fine-tune AI models to meet the specific needs of the Bollywood market, enhancing content delivery and audience engagement. Jiajun Lu , CEO of AKOOL, shared, "Partnering with Immerso AI and Eros Digital is a significant milestone. Their vast media assets and market presence perfectly complement our advanced AI technology. Together, we'll create innovative solutions to revolutionize content creation and consumption. By leveraging Eros Digital's extensive video library, we can develop AI-tuned models that redefine Bollywood's digital landscape." Under the agreement, Immerso AI will lead regional business development and handle operations, while AKOOL will focus on technical development and proprietary AI innovations. Both companies will share rights to jointly developed intellectual property, fostering a collaborative approach to commercialization. For more information about AKOOL and its innovative AI solutions, visit www.akool.com . About AKOOL, Inc.: AKOOL is a leading AI technology company based in Palo Alto, CA , specializing in generative AI for visual applications. The company develops state-of-the-art AI solutions to drive innovation in video and digital immersion markets. View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/akool-announces-strategic-bollywood-partnership-to-revolutionize-ai-in-digital-immersion-and-video-markets-302315726.html SOURCE AKOOLRisk adjusted net present value: What is the current valuation of Atara Biotherapeutics’s ATA-3219?By ALEXANDRA OLSON and CATHY BUSSEWITZ NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart’s sweeping rollback of its diversity policies is the strongest indication yet of a profound shift taking hold at U.S. companies that are revaluating the legal and political risks associated with bold programs to bolster historically underrepresented groups in business. The changes announced by the world’s biggest retailer followed a string of legal victories by conservative groups that have filed an onslaught of lawsuits challenging corporate and federal programs aimed at elevating minority and women-owned businesses and employees. The risk associated with some of programs crystalized with the election of former President Donald Trump, whose administration is certain to make dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion programs a priority. Trump’s incoming deputy chief of policy will be his former adviser Stephen Miller , who leads a group called America First Legal that has aggressively challenged corporate DEI policies. “There has been a lot of reassessment of risk looking at programs that could be deemed to constitute reverse discrimination,” said Allan Schweyer, principal researcher the Human Capital Center at the Conference Board. “This is another domino to fall and it is a rather large domino,” he added. Among other changes, Walmart said it will no longer give priority treatment to suppliers owned by women or minorities. The company also will not renew a five-year commitment for a racial equity center set up in 2020 after the police killing of George Floyd. And it pulled out of a prominent gay rights index . Schweyer said the biggest trigger for companies making such changes is simply a reassessment of their legal risk exposure, which began after U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in June 2023 that ended affirmative action in college admissions. Since then, conservative groups using similar arguments have secured court victories against various diversity programs, especially those that steer contracts to minority or women-owned businesses. Most recently, the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty won a victory in a case against the U.S. Department of Transportation over its use of a program that gives priority to minority-owned businesses when it awards contracts. Companies are seeing a big legal risk in continuing with DEI efforts, said Dan Lennington, a deputy counsel at the institute. His organization says it has identified more than 60 programs in the federal government that it considers discriminatory, he said. “We have a legal landscape within the entire federal government, all three branches — the U.S. Supreme Court, the Congress and the President — are all now firmly pointed in the direction towards equality of individuals and individualized treatment of all Americans, instead of diversity, equity and inclusion treating people as members of racial groups,” Lennington said. The Trump administration is also likely to take direct aim at DEI initiatives through executive orders and other policies that affect private companies, especially federal contractors. “The impact of the election on DEI policies is huge. It can’t be overstated,” said Jason Schwartz, co-chair of the Labor & Employment Practice Group at law firm Gibson Dunn. With Miller returning to the White House, rolling back DEI initiatives is likely to be a priority, Schwartz said. “Companies are trying to strike the right balance to make clear they’ve got an inclusive workplace where everyone is welcome, and they want to get the best talent, while at the same time trying not to alienate various parts of their employees and customer base who might feel one way or the other. It’s a virtually impossible dilemma,” Schwartz said. A recent survey by Pew Research Center showed that workers are divided on the merits of DEI policies. While still broadly popular, the share of workers who said focusing on workplace diversity was mostly a good thing fell to 52% in the November survey, compared to 56% in a similar survey in February 2023. Rachel Minkin, a research associated at Pew called it a small but significant shift in short amount of time. There will be more companies pulling back from their DEI policies, but it likely won’t be a retreat across the board, said David Glasgow, executive director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at New York University. “There are vastly more companies that are sticking with DEI,” Glasgow said. “The only reason you don’t hear about it is most of them are doing it by stealth. They’re putting their heads down and doing DEI work and hoping not to attract attention.” Glasgow advises organizations to stick to their own core values, because attitudes toward the topic can change quickly in the span of four years. “It’s going to leave them looking a little bit weak if there’s a kind of flip-flopping, depending on whichever direction the political winds are blowing,” he said. One reason DEI programs exist is because without those programs, companies may be vulnerable to lawsuits for traditional discrimination. “Really think carefully about the risks in all directions on this topic,” Glasgow said. Walmart confirmed will no longer consider race and gender as a litmus test to improve diversity when it offers supplier contracts. Last fiscal year, Walmart said it spent more than $13 billion on minority, women or veteran-owned good and service suppliers. It was unclear how its relationships with such business would change going forward. Organizations that that have partnered with Walmart on its diversity initiatives offered a cautious response. The Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, a non-profit that last year named Walmart one of America’s top corporation for women-owned enterprises, said it was still evaluating the impact of Walmart’s announcement. Pamela Prince-Eason, the president and CEO of the organization, said she hoped Walmart’s need to cater to its diverse customer base will continue to drive contracts to women-owned suppliers even if the company no longer has explicit dollar goals. “I suspect Walmart will continue to have one of the most inclusive supply chains in the World,” Prince-Eason wrote. “Any retailer’s ability to serve the communities they operate in will continue to value understanding their customers, (many of which are women), in order to better provide products and services desired and no one understands customers better than Walmart.” Related Articles National News | Ex-FBI informant accused of lying about the Bidens is indicted on federal tax charges National News | Bird flu virus was found in raw milk. What to know about the risks National News | Ransomware attack on software supplier disrupts operations for Starbucks and other retailers National News | Man found guilty of holding down teen while he was raped at a youth center in 1998 National News | Police say Maryland FBI agent sexually assaulted 2 women after promise of free tattoos, modeling Walmart’s announcement came after the company spoke directly with conservative political commentator and activist Robby Starbuck, who has been going after corporate DEI policies, calling out individual companies on the social media platform X. Several of those companies have subsequently announced that they are pulling back their initiatives, including Ford , Harley-Davidson, Lowe’s and Tractor Supply . Walmart confirmed to The Associated Press that it will better monitor its third-party marketplace items to make sure they don’t feature sexual and transgender products aimed at minors. The company also will stop participating in the Human Rights Campaign’s annual benchmark index that measures workplace inclusion for LGBTQ+ employees. A Walmart spokesperson added that some of the changes were already in progress and not as a result of conversations that it had with Starbuck. RaShawn “Shawnie” Hawkins, senior director of the HRC Foundation’s Workplace Equality Program, said companies that “abandon” their commitments workplace inclusion policies “are shirking their responsibility to their employees, consumers, and shareholders.” She said the buying power of LGBTQ customers is powerful and noted that the index will have record participation of more than 1,400 companies in 2025.College attendance in the U.S. has increased from under 10% to over 60% in the last century. Yet, according to a new paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, despite the change in attendance rates, most students at elite universities come from wealthy families. The researchers assembled a dataset of records from 2.5 million students at 65 elite colleges over the past hundred years. They found in the 1920s, 8% of college students were from families at the bottom 20% of the income distribution. A hundred years later, 13% of male college students and 20% of female college students were from the bottom 20% of the income distribution. However, for Harvard University and Yale University, only 5% of students came from the bottom 20% of the income distribution, and this has not changed over the past hundred years. This pattern also held true for the other Ivy League universities, as well as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford University, the University of Chicago, and Duke University. However, public universities have seen an increase. The University of California, Berkeley, for example, increased its number of low-income students from 3% in the 1920s to 10% by the early 2000s. | The researchers did find that upper-income student enrollment at elite colleges decreased after World War II (WWII), but has surged again since the 1980s. Before WWII, 70% of the student body at private elite institutions (and 55% at public elite institutions) were from families in the top 20% of the income distribution. After WWII, this fell to 50% for private institutions and 40% for public. However, during the 1980s, this bounced back to pre-WWII levels and has stayed there ever since. The researchers pointed out that since the proportion of low-income students at Ivy League schools has stayed the same, this increase comes at the expense of middle-income student enrollment. Finally, while economic diversity has not increased, racial and geographic diversity has increased. Before the 1960s, the student body was almost entirely white. Since the Civil Rights Moment, Black student enrollment has increased to about 7% of the student body population and held steady. Interestingly, for elite public schools, Black enrollment has dropped since the early 2000s, but it has held steady at elite private schools. In addition, international student enrollment has increased from under 5% before the 1950s to about 15% in private colleges. Meanwhile, prior to the 1950s, only 30% of students were from outside their college’s geographic region, but this has since increased to about 60%. In conclusion, the researchers wrote, “Two major policy changes in the history of American higher education, namely the G.I. Bill after World War II and the introduction of standardized tests for admissions, had little success in increasing the representation of lower- and middle-income students at elite colleges.” The application deadline for Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Awards is Friday, December 6, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply today.

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NEW DELHI: Japanese auto major Nissan's plans to turn around its Indian operations remain intact, and it is looking to increase headcount in the country despite the turbulence it is facing globally, according to a senior company official. The company, which has increased headcount at its Chennai plant by 600 to add a third shift, does not foresee steps to cut 9,000 jobs and 20 per cent production globally having an impact on India as long as it remains competitive in the market, Nissan India Operations President Frank Torres told PTI. "Nissan is betting big on India...and the plans (for India) remain intact despite this global turbulence," he said. Torres was responding to a query on whether the announcement for global job and production cuts will have an impact on Nissan's India operations. "Contrary to the perception, in India, we are strengthening our members, growing our production, and we just included almost 600 new employments in our manufacturing plant in Chennai," Torres said. "This move is to help the production shifts. We are expanding production very soon with two new models...this is despite the global action, which involves restructuring. We don't forecast that the impact will be in India because our plans remain untouched. Of course, the key point for us is to keep being competitive. Because, in the end, this is what is considered most important inside Nissan." Earlier in July this year, Nissan India announced that it is looking to introduce five models over the next 30 months as it looks to turn around its operations in the fast-growing Indian car market. The company has set a target of tripling its domestic and export volumes to 1 lakh each per annum by the end of FY26. In November this year, Nissan announced that globally, it would cut 9,000 jobs and production by 20 per cent as part of a turnaround plan and cut costs by 400 billion yen (USD 2.6 billion). "There is no risk, or there is no impact for India as far as the plans for India are concerned, they will remain intact. We will keep on being competitive, right in terms of product, in terms of cost, in terms of everything, including our partners, suppliers and dealers," Torres noted. The third shift at the Chennai plant started some weeks ago, as the company targets full capacity utilisation of the manufacturing plant. "It means that we have grown one full new shift. And then also moving forward towards 2026, where we will need to put our manufacturing plant at full capacity with both lines at three shifts. As of today, we are modifying one of them for the new models," Torres added. If the company achieves its volume forecast with the new models by the end of 2026, he said, "This will put the plant utilisation at more than 80 per cent, which will require more headcount than today". "Increasing headcount is part of our commitment. We have committed to the Tamil Nadu government to grow our headcount next year based on the new investments, and we are well supported by the Tamil Nadu government." Moreover, he said, the Reault-Nissan alliance had committed to more than 2,000 employment creations not just in manufacturing, but also in other areas like R&D as part of their USD 600 million investment plan announced in 2023. Torres also said the company is now refurbishing one line to adapt to new technology, such as EVs, ahead of the planned launch of an electric SUV. "We are planning to grow our volumes both in domestic and export markets. Our target is to increase three-times our domestic and export volume by FY26 compared to FY23...Our plans remain intact, and our plans for the new models remain untouched," Torres asserted. When asked about sales growth, Torres said in the ongoing fiscal 2024-25, Nissan India is looking at over 45 per cent total sales growth at over 1.05 lakh units against 72,666 units sold in the previous fiscal on the back of its upgraded compact SUV Magnite. The company has expanded its export market to more than 65 countries from just 14 nations in 2023, with the introduction of the left-hand drive version of the Magnite, he added. The company is targeting to export over 74,200 units in 2024-25 against 42,597 in the previous fiscal. In the domestic market, Nissan India expects sales to grow by 4 per cent to 31,155 units in 2024-25 compared to 30,065 in the previous fiscal.California 74, Arizona 62