G42, a leading AI-based firm in Abu Dhabi, UAE, has announced the upcoming launch of NANDA, a Hindi Large Language Model (LLM), designed predominantly for Hindi speakers in India.

The announcement was made in the presence of His Highness Sheikh Khaled bin Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi during the UAE-India Business Forum in Mumbai on September 10, 2024.

NANDA was named after Nanda Devi, second-highest mountain in India, after Kangchenjunga. The program is a 13-billion parameter model trained on approximately 2.13 trillion tokens of language datasets, including Hindi, English and Hinglish.

The project is a collaboration between Inception (a G42 company), Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (the world’s first graduate research university dedicated to AI) and Cerebras (an American artificial intelligence company based in Sunnyvale, California, with an office in Bangalore).

Manu Jain, the CEO of G42 India, has said that India has solidified its position as a “global technology leader”, with many initiatives like ‘Digital India’ and ‘Startup India’ emerging under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership.

As the country stands on the brink of AI-powered growth, G42 is proud to contribute to this journey with the launch of NANDA in support of India’s AI ambitions,” says Jain.

Dr Andrew Jackson, Acting CEO of Inception, says that, “G42 has a strong track record in the development of language and domain-specific LLMs. With NANDA, we are heralding a new era of AI inclusivity, ensuring that the rich heritage and depth of Hindi language is represented in the digital and AI landscape. NANDA exemplifies G42’s unwavering commitment to excellence and fostering equitable AI.”

Earlier this year, leading software company Microsoft, invested $1.5 billion in G42, hoping to advance AI’s capabilities and broaden its reach.

This is not the first time that G42 has created a language model AI. Back in 2023, they launched an Arabic LLM called ‘JAIS’, the first of its kind.

“JAIS set a new standard for linguistic AI which G42 now seeks to replicate for other regions whose languages are still underrepresented,” the company said.

Building on the success of JAIS, the release of NANDA hopes to empower India’s scientific, academic, and developer communities while at the same time growing the Hindi language AI ecosystem.

The smallest soft lithium-ion battery ever made consists of just three tiny droplets formed from a silk-based hydrogel. The droplet battery can deliver defibrillator electric shocks to beating mouse hearts, along with providing pacemaker-style control – but it may eventually power biomedical implants and wearable electronics for humans.

“Potentially, our tiny battery could be used as an implantable microrobotic battery, which can be moved to target locations by a magnetic field and then release its energy for medical treatments,” says Yujia Zhang at the University of Oxford.

Zhang and his colleagues designed the tiny batteries as three connected droplets that can self-assemble in a liquid solution, after the various ingredients are injected into the liquid by micro-syringe. One droplet contains lithium manganese oxide particles and acts as the battery’s negative electrode, while a second droplet contains lithium titanate particles and represents the positive electrode. A central droplet filled with lithium chloride separates these electrodes. UV light activates the battery by rupturing the layers separating each droplet and allowing lithium ions to flow freely between them.

The droplet batteries are 10 times smaller in length than previous soft lithium-ion batteries. At just 600 micrometres, it is about six times the width of a human hair. The batteries are also 1000 times smaller in volume than similar flexible lithium-ion batteries. And because the central droplet can incorporate magnetic nickel particles, the batteries can be controlled remotely via an external magnetic field.

Such miniature batteries also deliver an unprecedented amount of energy given their tiny size, says Wei Gao at the California Institute of Technology. “This energy density is notably higher than what has been achieved in other similar-sized batteries,” he says.

The droplet batteries were tested in mouse hearts that were removed from the animals’ bodies. They successfully acted as defibrillators to restore a normal heartbeat and pacemakers to regulate heartbeats. Additional testing showed that the batteries retain 77 per cent of their original capacity after 10 charge and discharge cycles.

The simplicity and scalability of such droplet batteries could represent a potential advantage over traditional battery manufacturing in the future, says Gao. He suggested that such batteries can power minimally invasive biomedical implants and biodegradable medical devices.

“What impressed me most was how this soft battery mirrors the aqueous environment of human tissue by being hydrogel-based,” says Gao. “However, we still need to consider the safety and biocompatibility of the materials used in this battery, especially as we move toward commercialisation or further research applications.”

The showcases in 2024 gave us a ton of upcoming games to look forward to. From Doom: The Dark Ages to Perfect Dark and Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, plenty of new entries to beloved franchises are on the way. However, nothing gets us quite as excited as a new game set in a mysterious world we’ve never seen before. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 comes from a new developer but has the promise to be one of the best games in a stacked year already. With so much to discover, join us on our expedition to learn everything there is about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

Release date window

As of right now, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 only has a rough release window of spring 2025. That could be as early as March but could be April or May as well if there are no delays.

Platforms

Trailers

Gameplay

Preorder

We only know the expedition will begin sometime in spring 2025 for now, so preorders aren’t ready just yet. If you’re eager, you can still wishlist the game on any platform to be notified when preorders do go live. Of course, we will also keep this post up to date with all the latest information as it becomes available.

Google Fi has internally released fixes for the SIM card issues that several subscribers were facing. The search giant is also issuing $60 bill credits to those who faced problems with their SIM cards.

Google Fi acknowledges and fixes SIM card issues

Google Fi Wireless, the lesser-known telecom service provider in the US, has cellular service operational in the country. It offers decent plans for wireless communication and internet.

Some Google Fi subscribers recently experienced SIM card failures. Impacted users started receiving an “Insert SIM card” error message on their smartphones. The issue is noticeable on Android phones primarily because modern Apple iPhones only support eSIM in the US. For some reason, devices were failing to recognize that a SIM card was inserted. Users would continue to get this error even if the SIM card was swapped out for a new one.

Google sent out emails acknowledging the issue. The email confirms Google Fi “recently discovered that certain SIM cards have been failing due to a manufacturing issue.” As compensation for the issue, Google seems to be sending out $60 bill credits to those who were impacted. Subscribers who are facing problems with Google Fi SIM cards need to get a replacement card.

How did Google address faults in SIM cards?

Just like every other carrier, Google also sources SIM cards from third-party manufacturers. Although the company hasn’t disclosed the source, it could be safe to presume the company could be buying SIM cards in bulk from multiple manufacturers.

Google claimed it had “resolved” the manufacturing issue. The company has assured that the “new SIM cards should work as expected.” The most reliable way to permanently address this issue would be to opt for an eSIM. Opting for an eSIM essentially involves the digital activation of a smartphone on a carrier’s service. Needless to say, phones must support the eSIM standard.

Google Fi is offering a free replacement for subscribers who wish to insert a physical SIM in their devices. Those impacted by SIM card issues can order a new one with expedited shipping for free.