From glazed skin to soft eye makeup: 5 easy makeup trends taking over summer evening beauty looksMakeup trends have significantly changed in the past few years. Here are some of the easy trends you can consider for summer evenings. Updated on: May 19
Summer vacation started and kids want to play outside? Paediatrician warns of 12 dangerous signs of heat exhaustionParents need to monitor children during summer vacation to prevent heat exhaustion. Know which are the observable signs which indicate medical emergency. Updated on: May 19
U.S. President Donald Trump said he was planning a major new assault on Iran on Tuesday (May 19, 2026), but held off as he saw hope for securing a so far elusive agreement to end the war. Mr. Trump said that he stopped his purported attack plan at the urging of Gulf Arab allies
The Ministry of External Affairs defended India’s record on democracy on Monday (May 18 2026), for the second time during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s European tour, over the PM’s decision not to take questions from the press. During the joint press appearance with Norwegian Prime Minister
Noida CEO says he fired senior employee for asking him ‘Sir, tell me what to do?’The Noida-based founder and CEO of InstaAstro has revealed that he once fired a senior employee over lack of ‘ownership’ Updated on: May 19, 2026 2:04 PM IST By Sanya Jain Share via Copy link The Noida-based
Who is Helle Lyng, the Norway journalist who wanted to ask PM Modi a question?Helle Lyng grabbed headlines after calling out to PM Modi at the end of a joint press appearance with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store in Oslo. Updated on: May 19
Bengaluru-born techie outlines hidden financial, emotional struggles of chasing the NRI dreamA techie tells HT.com about the raw reality of the NRI dream, from a $70k student loan to battling extreme homesickness. Published on: May 19, 2026 1:31 PM IST By Trisha Sengupta Share via Copy link Moving
SC allows euthanasia for rabid, incurably ill stray dogsSC allows euthanasia for rabid, incurably ill stray dogs Published on: May 19, 2026 1:45 PM IST PTI Share via Copy link New Delhi, The Supreme Court for the first time on Tuesday allowed euthanasia for rabid, incurably ill
Google’s leading cancer therapy research, and decoding AI’s intersections
Cognitive warmup. Among the frontier AI players, Google remains the only one that truly owns the entire stack — from the Gemini family of models and massive proprietary datasets, to its cloud infrastructure and custom tensor processing units (TPUs). But what really sets it apart is the research-first instinct that never went out of fashion in Mountain View.
While others love grandstanding about “solving world hunger” or “curing cancer,” Google quietly went ahead and started doing the work. Its latest milestone, developed in collaboration with Yale University, is Cell2Sentence-Scale 27B (C2S-Scale), a new 27 billion parameter foundation model designed to decode the language of individual cells. It's not hyperbole to call this a landmark — in AI for science, and in cancer research itself. The C2S-Scale 27B model was tasked with identifying a drug that could act as a conditional amplifier, boosting immune signals in specific cellular environments. The results were staggering: “C2S-Scale successfully identified a novel interferon-conditional amplifier, revealing a new pathway to make ‘cold' tumors ‘hot,' potentially improving their response to immunotherapy,” the researchers wrote — cautiously calling it “an early first step.” But make no mistake — this is Google at its most dangerous: focused, methodical, and quietly disruptive. While the rest of the AI world is busy hosting panels and pitching visions of utopia, Google's lab lights are still on, deep in the night, teaching machines to understand biology itself. And that should make every other AI company a little nervous — once they're done counting their valuations and clapping in their own echo chambers.
Late last week, I had one of those rare opportunities that few in global tech journalism have enjoyed so far — a long, uninterrupted conversation with a man who wears many hats, and arguably, uses much more of his brain than most of us do. He joined us from the US, having skipped dinner to make time for the chat. (Not that it worried him — he calls himself a night owl, which means the meal was just postponed, not missed.) That man is Blaise Agüera y Arcas, a name that sits comfortably at the intersection of art, science, and intelligence itself. He is Vice President, Fellow, and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Technology & Society at Google, where he leads the Paradigms of Intelligence (Pi) team — a group tasked with exploring the boundaries of what artificial intelligence can become. And in our conversation came a statement that lingers: “We already have AGI.” A verdict as calm as it was seismic, and a striking departure from the industry's endless obsession with when artificial general intelligence might arrive. And why.
The conversation with Agüera y Arcas spanned a lot more, some of which I've covered here in this week's Neural Dispatch. The reason is simple — it wouldn't harm to listen to a voice of reason in an era when AI bosses seem to have more a funding and valuation obsession, alongside a fixation with targets and an expansive future without exactly a solid foundation for any of that. The electricity consumption targets, an example, something we'd chatted about last week. Edited excerpts, for the conversation around creativity and AI, touching upon empathy and self-reflection, as well as principles of interaction.
Blaise Agüera y Arcas: A few years ago, I wrote an essay called Art in the Age of Machine Intelligence. This was really at the very beginning of generative models we knew as well before we had LLMs, but we started to have models that could render images. They weren't realistic yet, but were really interesting. It was the era of deep dreams if you remember, where everything was psychedelic. But we could see that space enlarging and enriching. We knew that AI that could generate really convincing media, was coming. That was the basis for us founding the Artists + Machine Intelligence program at Google. I think that defensive reactions, that it erases the need for artists or devalues human creativity, are reductive and pose a false dichotomy. In sort of the same way that when photography was invented in the 19th century, there was an uproar in certain quarters that it supposedly devalued painting. But you know what actually happened of course — it was the golden age of art that followed right after the invention of photography, some of which involved photographers who really leaned into the technology to do things that were difficult to do with painting.
This is not to say that there's not a lot of garbage. In fact, there's a lot of AI generated slop, for lack of a better word. Then again, human output is not uniformly brilliant either. But I expect that the range of outputs that humans make both with and without AI, and that AI makes, that the whole space is in the process of expanding in ways that I'm very, very curious to see how they play out.
Blaise Agüera y Arcas: You use the word emulate, and it's an important qualifier because it's a reasonable belief that in order to actually have versus emulating empathy, for instance, you have to have feelings. And now we get into more complex territory than just cognition. When an LLM reads a short story and you ask it, “how does this character feel at this point?”, it answers convincingly. We've run a bunch of experiments with LLMs to test for theory of mind, which includes factual and also emotion or how somebody will behave or react in a certain way. And they do a good job of this, which is not surprising because when you pre-train them on lots of human dialogue, our feelings and our emotions are a part of that dialogue. So it understands all of those things. The question of whether it has those feelings itself is, I think, a lot less answerable. It certainly doesn't have the same chemistry that we do. It's doing all these computations on a very different platform.
Neural Dispatch is your weekly guide to the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence. Each edition delivers curated insights on breakthrough technologies, practical applications, and strategic implications shaping our digital future.
Source: HindustanTimes
Related Posts: A Cognitive Decline Trump 'cognitive decline and dementia' searches blocked 5 Meditative Practices That Reduce Cognitive Overload In A Hyperconnected World How AI and automation are eroding our cognitive skills How do parental traits influence distinct cognitive skills in gifted children India’s Workforce Goes AI-First As Frontier Firms Lead Transformation Tripartite agreement signed to form Frontier Nagaland Territorial Authority The final frontier Frontier Warehousing At Least 3 Killed As Suicide Bombers Hit Frontier Constabulary HQ
and deeptech platform has appointed as its managing director and .Kumar joins Moglix's central leadership team with a mandate to build and scale the company's emerging business segments and new opportunity areas. He brings over two decades of experience across business leadership
1 days ago
When was the last time you walked through centuries in a single afternoon? As Hyderabad’s Salar Jung Museum marks its diamond jubilee, this is a good time to revisit its vast, globally sourced collection. Established in 1951 by Nawab Mir Yousuf Ali Khan, Salar Jung III at Dewan Devdi
1 days ago
Ever stopped to think about the spoon of oil you pour into your pan every day? That familiar drizzle into the kadhai, so routine it barely registers, may be one of the most overlooked elements of our daily diet. For decades, cooking oil has quietly played a supporting role in our kitchens
1 days ago
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has strongly criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding recent fuel price increases. Kharge alleged that the government is burdening common citizens while allegedly giving industrialist Gautam Adani a 'free pass'
1 days ago
Thick, creamy curd from the dairy tastes irresistible—but recreating that same texture at home can feel tricky. Many people complain that homemade curd turns watery or lacks the rich, firm consistency of store-bought dahi. The good news? The secret lies in choosing the right milk and following a
1 days ago
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Oslo on Monday (May 18, 2026) for a two-day visit where he will hold bilateral talks and then meet with leaders of Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Finland and Denmark for the 3rd India-Nordic summit, conflicts in Ukraine and Iran and their economic impact will be
1 days ago
Warning: contains details of alleged sexual offences and misconduct Two women have told the BBC they were raped during the filming of one of Channel 4's biggest shows, Married at First Sight UK, while a third has described an allegation of a non-consensual sex act
1 days ago
New Harry Potter's Ginny Weasley, Gracie Coachrane, quits show due to ‘unforeseen circumstances’; HBO to recast roleHarry Potter reboot from HBO is in the works with the first season releasing later this year. May 19, 2026, 10:29:58 IST By Abhimanyu Mathur Share via Copy link The new Harry
1 days ago
The line between viral marketing and criminal nuisance has officially been crossed, and global travellers are paying the price. As per reports, two American nationals were arrested on May 17 in Japan after one of them allegedly entered the enclosure of Punch the Monkey
1 days ago
After prevailing in its court fight with Elon Musk, - the ChatGPT maker valued at $852 billion - remains on track for what could be one of the largest initial public offerings in history.Musk had been seeking the ouster of his fellow , CEO Sam Altman, among other changes to the company
1 days ago
Just days after milk prices went up by Rs 2 per litre on May 14, consumers are now facing another blow to their kitchen budgets as bread prices across Mumbai have increased by as much as Rs 5 per pack. Industry players say soaring transportation costs
1 days ago
Hello ma'am, I'm calling from FedEx. We've been alerted by police that a courier you sent to Iraq contains drugs. This is what a man on the other end of the phone told Ankita Shrivastav, a stand-up comedian based in Mumbai city, one afternoon in October 2024
1 days ago
Bengaluru man leaves Bellandur at 5 pm, remains stuck in traffic 3+ hours laterVarun Rangarajan wrote in an X post that he left Bellandur at 5:17 pm but remained stuck in traffic hours later. Updated on: May 19, 2026 10:36 AM IST By Sanya Jain Share via Copy link A Bengaluru man’s social media
1 days ago
The Karnataka government’s decision last week to withdraw the 2022 order of the previous Bharatiya Janata Party government that effectively prohibited hijab in pre-university colleges has been viewed as a constitutional correction. Yet, the withdrawal also exposes a difficult truth:
1 days ago
Editorial independence is core to our work. Some links may earn us a commission, without influencing our opinions.I tried these 5 face serums on my sensitive skin, and this Korean brand one worked like magicIf you have sensitive skin and always dicey about which face serums to go for
1 days ago
The Donald Trump administration in the United States on Monday asked a court to dismiss fraud charges against Adani Group chairperson Gautam Adani, Reuters reported. This came days after reports said Gautam Adani’s lawyers had told the US Department of Justice that he would invest $10 billion in
1 days ago
Iran has started a Bitcoin-backed insurance service for shipping companies wanting to transit the Strait of Hormuz, according to a report by Fars news agency. Citing documents from Iran’s Ministry of Economy and Financial Affairs, the semi-official Iran media stated that this service could
1 days ago
Some TCS employees claim lower take-home pay after appraisals: ‘Salary decreased by ₹3,000’Employees report mixed appraisal outcomes at TCS, with top performers receiving up to 13% hikes while others face reductions in compensation. Updated on: May 19
1 days ago
Acting as a mediator between the United States and Iran amid the ongoing conflict in West Asia, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi reportedly returned to Tehran on Monday. The Pakistani Minister is learnt to have held discussions with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi as
1 days ago
Mouni Roy makes Cannes comeback amid 'chaos', days after announcing separation from Suraj. See her chic monochrome lookMouni Roy makes a powerful statement at Cannes Film Festival 2026 following her recent separation from Suraj Nambiar. She was spotted in a striking look. Published on: May 19
1 days ago
May 19 Birthday Horoscope: Here's what the tarot cards have in store for you this yearIf your birthday falls on May 19, here’s what your year ahead looks like, as per Tarot. Published on: May 19, 2026 11:00 AM IST By Kishori Sud Share via Copy link If you were born on May 19
1 days ago
OMCs still losing ₹750 crore a day: GovtThe losses are on account of an increase in the price of crude oil -- up 51% between February 28, when the US-Israel attack on Iran began, and Monday. Published on: May 19, 2026 8:20 AM IST By Rajeev Jayaswal Share via Copy link State-run oil marketing
1 days ago
The U.S. Department of Justice has permanently dropped all criminal charges against Indian tycoon Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar, bringing the high-profile securities and wire fraud case in New York to a complete close after prosecutors concluded they could not sustain the allegations.The U.S
1 days ago
and its South Korean labour union began another round of government-mediated talks on Tuesday to break an impasse in negotiations over pay and bonuses and avert the biggest strike in the tech conglomerate's history.The two sides are under mounting pressure to prevent an imminent strike by 45
1 days ago
Congress leader VD Satheesan takes oath as Kerala CM; makes important decisionsSenior Congress leader VD Satheesan took oath as the 13th chief minister of Kerala, made key decisions for the welfare of women and senior citizens. Published on: May 19
1 days ago
In Paris, police deployed tear gas. In Milan, Italy, a fistfight erupted. In London, Singapore and New York, all-night queues snaked from the doors of Swatch stores — the latest examples of status-symbol “drop culture” to flash across the globe when status symbols and resale value collide
1 days ago
Chennai, May 19 (PTI) Chennai Super Kings’ head coach Stephen Fleming acknowledged that Ruturaj Gaikwad is still a work in progress as captain after the side’s playoff hopes in the ongoing IPL were left massively dented by a loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad here.Chennai
1 days ago
