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UPenn Launches Off-Campus Supercomputer ‘Betty’ Supported by NVIDIA AI System
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have leveraged AI to enhance their capabilities with a newly established off-campus supercomputer named Betty.
The primary AI system was supplied by NVIDIA and constructed according to their reference specifications for a SuperPOD. A dedicated NDR400 InfiniBand fabric allows for the scaling of a single experiment across the entire SuperPOD. The setup consists of 31 eight-way GPU nodes.
Betty was created to manage AI applications that can analyse large datasets and generate progressively refined outcomes, adapting over time to fulfil specific directives from the researchers.
“The needs for modern AI research have grown to a scale…where it is no longer feasible to be maintained by any one school,” Penn Advanced Research Computing Centre’s (PARCC) associate director of AI and technology, Kenneth Chaney, told The Daily Pennsylvanian.
Betty showcases a transition to collective high-performance computing at Penn. Rather than each lab keeping its servers, which Marylyn Ritchie, the vice dean of artificial intelligence and computing at the Perelman School of Medicine, referred to as expensive and unfeasible, researchers now have the option to utilise a centralised resource via PARCC.
“In the future, we will be leveraging AI in all areas of research. While GPU computing may only be needed in some fields today, I think we will see it adopted in many/most fields in the future,” Ritchie wrote in a statement to The DP.
Ritchie pointed out that Betty requires specialised energy and cooling systems, which would be challenging to provide on campus. Meanwhile, Chaney mentioned that the current version demands one megawatt of power, which he described as impossible to scale in urban Philadelphia.
Ritchie emphasised that Betty and all future PARCC computers will be fully accessible, regardless of whether the system is located off-campus.
The supercomputer was named after Frances Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Snyder Holberton, a trailblazer for women in the field of computing and one of the first six programmers of the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer created at Penn in the 1940s. This name acknowledges the university’s contribution to the advancement of computing innovation.
The post UPenn Launches Off-Campus Supercomputer ‘Betty’ Supported by NVIDIA AI System appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.
Reliance’s Jio Haptik has introduced enterprise-grade AI agents for small and medium businesses (SMBs) in India, priced at ₹10,000 for 2,000 conversations. The service offers WhatsApp and voice-based AI features to automate business processes, including customer support, bookings and lead qualification.
According to the company, the per-conversation cost ranges from ₹3 to ₹5, nearly half the cost of a human agent. “Early adopters are already seeing up to 80% of their repetitive customer support queries resolved automatically, along with a 20-25% increase in lead-to-sale conversions,” Ahshad Jussawalla, CEO of Haptik, said.
The AI agents meet enterprise-grade compliance and security standards, support 22 Indian languages and are aimed at businesses such as small clinics, e
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Apple is preparing to launch an AI-based web search service next year, stepping up competition with OpenAI and Perplexity AI, Bloomberg reported. The system, internally known as World Knowledge Answers, will be integrated with Siri and could later expand to Safari and Spotlight.
The new feature, described by Apple executives as an answer engine, is expected to arrive next Spring as part of a broader Siri overhaul. “The work we’ve done on this end-to-end revamp of Siri has given us the results we needed,” Craig Federighi, head of software engineering at Apple, reportedly told employees in a recent all-hands meeting.
The update will enable Siri to handle more complex queries by tapping LLMs. Apple is testing models from Google and Anthropic, while continuing to use its own Apple Foundation Models for on-device search.
According to Bloomberg, Apple has leaned towards Google’s Gemini for summarisation, citing more favourable financial terms after Anthropic sought over $1.5 billion annually for its Claude model.
The overhaul, internally codenamed Linwood and LLM Siri, will allow the assistant to summarise web results using text, images, videos and local information. Apple is also working on a visual redesign of Siri and a health-focused AI agent, slated for release in 2026.
The initiative comes as Apple maintains its $20 billion-a-year search arrangement with Google. A US judge this week ruled the deal can continue with minor adjustments, easing investor concerns.
Google’s market cap rose by about $228 billion on September 4, closing at a record high of $2.79 trillion.
However, Apple’s SVP of services, Eddy Cue, recently testified that Google searches from Apple devices have declined for the first time in two decades, noting the rise of “formidable competitors” in AI-powered search.
While Apple explored acquisitions of startups such as Perplexity and Mistral, it has opted to develop its own system. Bloomberg reported that Perplexity’s technology was seriously evaluated, but the company is no longer pursuing a deal.
Despite the push, Apple’s AI division has faced attrition. Key members of its Foundation Models team, including founder Ruoming Pang, have left for rivals like Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic.
The post Apple Plans AI Search Tool Powered by Google Gemini, Leaves Perplexity Out appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.
Short-video learning platform Seekho has raised $28 million in a Series B funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Goodwater Capital and existing investors Lightspeed India and Elevation Capital, the company announced in a LinkedIn post.
Founded as a mobile-first edtech startup, Seekho offers more than 10,000 bite-sized learning videos in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. Its platform focuses on making knowledge accessible through short, regional-language videos that cover skills for work and everyday digital literacy.
The company said the new funding will support its push into AI-powered personalisation and international expansion.
“With this funding, we’re leveraging AI to craft personalised learning journeys for every user and building a global learning brand that is Made in India,” Seekho said in a statement.
Elluminate Capital acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Seekho for the round.
Founded in 2020 by Choudhary, Keertay Agarwal and Yash Banwani, Bengaluru-based Seekho runs a short-video learning platform offering vernacular content across career, business and self-improvement categories. The company says it has 25 million monthly active users, with usage growing 60% each quarter.
“Learning should be relevant, bite-sized, and accessible in the palm of your hand. With Bessemer joining us, we’re excited to build a category-defining product that puts ‘Edutainment on Tap’ for the next 500 million Indians,” said Rohit Choudhary, founder of Seekho.
Seekho attributed its subscription growth to increasing consumer readiness to pay for digital content and wider adoption of UPI autopay. The company estimates it can capture a substantial share of India’s $2.5 billion subscription market.
For FY24, Seekho reported revenue of ₹11.5 crore and a loss of ₹4.6 crore. Financial results for FY25 are yet to be disclosed.
The post Indian AI Startup Seekho Raises $28 Mn in Series B Led by Bessemer Venture Partners appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.
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