AI Research

The start-ups working on cheap innovation

Published

1 month ago

May 26, 2025

Devina Gupta

Business reporter

Mansukh Prajapati Mansukh Prajapati with clay pottery in the background — An earthquake changed the life of Mansukh Prajapati

For Mansukh Prajapati, childhood in the western Indian city of Morbi began before sunrise, with a six-mile walk to collect clay for their family business.

“My father was a potter,” he recalls.

Often he would wake up to the rhythmic sound of his father at work at his potter’s wheel.

“My mother and I would get up at four in the morning and walk for miles every day to get clay.”

Used for storing water, clay pots were a common item in Indian households in the 1970s.

But the income from making pots was meagre and the profession also came with social stigma.

“Nobody wanted to their daughter married in a potter’s family,” Mr Prajapati says. “They feared she will be burdened with endless labour.”

Aged 31, a natural disaster marked the turning point for Mr Prajapati.

The devastating earthquake that hit Gujarat in 2001 destroyed his family home and left a pile of smashed clay pots in the courtyard.

“A local reporter wrote that ‘the poor people’s fridge is broken’,” Mr Prajapati says.

“Clay pots keep water cool in the summer, so they are just like a fridge. The thought got stuck in my head. So, I decided to make a fridge out of clay that doesn’t need electricity.”

With no formal training, Mr Prajapati started experimenting with designs and materials.

“I first tried to make it like the modern fridge and even added a water tank, but nothing worked’, he says.

“At one point I had $22,000 (£17,000) in loans and had to sell my house and small workshop. But I knew I had to keep going.”

It took four years of tinkering to come up with a design that worked – a small clay cabinet with a water talk on the top and storage shelves below.

As water trickles through the cabinet’s porous clay walls, it naturally cools the interior.

Mr Prajapati says it can keep fruit and vegetables fresh for at least five days – no electricity needed.

He named it MittiCool or the clay that stays cool.

At $95 its affordable and now sold through 300 stores in India and exported to countries including the UK, Kenya, and UAE.

“Fridges are a dream for many poor families,” Mr Prajapati says. “And such dreams should be within reach.”

The affordable MittiCool fridge is made from clay

MittiCool A MittiCool clay fridge - not much bigger than a microwave oven, with decorative patterns on the side. — The affordable MittiCool fridge is made from clay

Mr Prajapati’s innovation is part of a growing wave of grassroots entrepreneurship in India, driven by necessity.

Prof Anil Gupta who runs the Honeybee Network, a platform for supporting such ventures, call these “frugal innovations”.

“It is a mindset,” says Prof Gupta.

“Frugal innovation is about making solutions affordable, accessible, and available. Many of these innovators don’t have formal education but are solving real world problems.”

It’s difficult to put a number on such businesses, as there has never been an in-depth study.

Prof Gupta says such start-ups are crucial because they provide jobs in rural areas and start a cycle of economic change.

For example, Mr Prajapati now employs 150 people in his workshop and has branched out into cookware, clay water filters and is experimenting with homes made of clay.

Botanist turned entrepreneur Bijayshanti Tongbram shows the fibres in lotus stems

Bijayshanti Tongbram Bijayshanti Tongbram shows the fibres in a lotus stem — Botanist turned entrepreneur Bijayshanti Tongbram shows the fibres in lotus stems

Another start-up that’s hoping for similar success, is run by Bijayshanti Tongbram in the northeastern state of Manipur.

She lives in Thanga village which is home to one of India’s largest freshwater lakes, Loktak.

Here lotus flowers bloom in abundance.

“People in my village use the petals of lotus flowers for religious offerings. But their stems often go to waste and that’s what I wanted to change and thought of doing something sustainable,” she says.

A botanist by profession, Ms Tongbram developed a way to extract silk-like fibres from the lotus stems and now leads a team of 30 women in her village who spin the threads into a yarn and weaves them into unique scarves and garments.

“It takes two months, and 9,000 lotus stems to make one scarf,” she says.

Ms Tongbram pays the women $80 a month.

“This isn’t just about fashion. I am giving women in my village a chance to do something other than fishing and earn money,” she says.

Like many small business owners, she wants to scale-up and find new markets, perhaps overseas.

“Funding is the biggest challenge,” she says.

Fibres can be extracted from lotus stems to make a yarn

Bijayshanti Tongbram A pile of yarn made from lotus — Fibres can be extracted from lotus stems to make a yarn

Prof Gupta from the Honeybee network agrees.

“There are government schemes and small grants, but rural entrepreneurs often don’t know how to access them.

“Even venture capitalists who are looking at IT innovations rarely invest in these kinds of start-ups because of high transaction costs,” he says.

Nevertheless, innovators continue to spring up.

In Karanataka’s Vijaynagar, Girish Badragond is working on a device to help blind and partially-sighted farmers.

His device, described as a smart farming stick, uses soil sensors and weather data to guide its users about the crop conditions and harvests through audio messages and vibrations.

“There are so many blind people in India who want to farm but they can’t trust others to guide them. This will help them become independent and empower them,” says Mr Badragond.

He has sourced mechanical parts from different shops and is hoping to gain support for commercialising his project soon. For now, he is doing rounds of government exhibitions.

“It’s a prototype but I am hopeful that people will support me to change lives of others,” he says.

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AI Research

New AI model for researchers can make complex research 30% faster: GreyB launched Slate Prism Model

Published

33 minutes ago

July 8, 2025

The Manila Times

Florida, July 08, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Slate, a leading innovation discovery platform developed by GreyB, has announced the launch of “Prism”, a new structured research module to solve complex, constraint-based R&D challenges. Slate Prism breaks down your query, scans thousands of patents and papers, and delivers evidence-backed insights on what works, what doesn’t, and why. It goes beyond simple search results to deliver in-depth analysis of solutions.

In today’s research landscape overwhelmed by information overload, Slate Prism empowers users to cut through the noise and quickly grasp the core of any subject. It is designed to support researchers working on technical problems that involve multiple interdependent constraints, such as improving product performance without compromising regulatory compliance or reducing costs while preserving core functionality.

“In research and development, the most critical questions are often not binary. They involve trade-offs across efficacy, safety, stability, or compatibility,” said Anmol Saini, Head of the Product at GreyB. “Slate Prism is created to support deep, multi-constraint reasoning that researchers perform. It’s like having a team of expert researchers at your fingertips, capable of synthesizing complex topics into clear, actionable insights, saving users invaluable time and effort.”

Traditional methods force researchers to break down complex questions into isolated sub-queries, run multiple individual searches, and manually compare findings to find overlaps over extended periods. Even existing AI tools struggle with handling full, multi-layered questions, pushing researchers to simplify their approach. Slate Prism reduces the need for manual cross-referencing by allowing users to explore layered, constraint-heavy queries in one go.

Key capabilities of Slate Prism include:

Targeted Search: It breaks down complex technical research questions into structured components based on constraints.Evidence Gathering: Retrieves and integrates insights from a multitude of sources, including patents, research papers, and technical documents.Contextual Analysis: Slate Prism analyzes the relationships between different constraints of the query, providing solutions from both supporting and contrasting studies, which helps in identifying trade-offs, edge cases, and knowledge gaps.Comprehensive Synthesis: It provides evidence-backed solutions, explaining their context and providing researchers a clearer understanding to support decision-making.Source Citation: All generated insights are meticulously linked back to their original studies for further exploration, ensuring transparency and reliability.Dynamic Exploration: Enables researchers to delve deeper into specific solutions and explore related technical literature in more detail with ease. In initial exclusive testing with the first few clients across industries such as cosmetics, F&B, packaging, pharmaceuticals, automotive, and healthcare, Slate Prism demonstrated significant time-saving and accuracy improvements. Early users reported a 30% reduction in the time required to make key decisions, while 45% of respondents noted an increase in decision-making accuracy when utilizing the platform.

As the demand for innovative, AI-powered solutions in R&D grows, Slate leads the way in tackling the emerging challenges faced by researchers. By focusing on multi-constraint reasoning, Slate Prism is aligning with the increasing reliance on AI to solve the toughest challenges in R&D.

With the addition of Prism, Slate continues its focus on supporting research workflows that require not only access to information but also tools that assist in interpretation and decision-making.

Slate is offering an exclusive 14-day free trial of Prism. To start your trial, visit https://slate.greyb.com/trial/

About Slate

Slate is an innovation discovery platform designed for R&D and innovation teams. It enables faster technology discovery, competitive intelligence, and decision support with advanced AI capabilities for complex problem-solving and in-depth analysis. From R&D labs to boardrooms, Slate empowers teams to find what’s out there and validate it quickly.

CONTACT: Name: Deepak Kumar

Email: [email protected]

Job Title: Marketing and Communications, GreyB

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AI Research

2 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks Even Risk-Averse Investors Can Buy Without Hesitation

Published

1 hour ago

July 8, 2025

Keith Speights

Betting big on the next hot thing can sometimes burn investors. That can be true even when the next hot thing is as exciting and promising as artificial intelligence (AI).

Concerns about being burned might cause some investors to be leery of buying AI stocks. However, this fear could result in them missing out on huge long-term returns. Are there alternatives for investing in AI that aren’t super risky? Absolutely. Here are two AI stocks that even risk-averse investors can buy without hesitation.

Image source: Getty Images.

Two AI titans

If bigger is better, you won’t find many better AI stocks than Amazon (AMZN -0.07%) and Microsoft (MSFT -0.24%). Amazon ranks as the fourth-largest publicly traded company based on market cap, while Microsoft holds the No. 2 spot. And their AI credentials are impeccable.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the global leader in cloud services, with a market share of 29%. Microsoft Azure is in second place with a market share of 22%. Both cloud platforms continue to enjoy strong growth, thanks in large part to organizations rushing to build and deploy AI models in the cloud.

Amazon and Microsoft boast partnerships with other top AI companies as well. Both companies have teamed up with Nvidia. Microsoft’s investments in ChatGPT creator OpenAI are paying off handsomely, and Amazon has invested $8 billion in Anthropic, the developer of the powerful Claude large language model (LLM).

These two AI titans are also benefiting from AI in their internal operations. Amazon is using AI to recommend products to customers on its e-commerce platform, for example, while Microsoft has rolled out OpenAI’s GPT-4 throughout its product lineup.

Why risk-averse investors should like Amazon and Microsoft

Risk-averse investors know what they’re getting with Amazon and Microsoft. Both companies are AI leaders, but they’re also much more.

Amazon and Microsoft offer tremendous financial stability. Amazon generated revenue of nearly $638 billion last year, with profits totaling over $59 billion. Microsoft’s revenue topped $245 billion, with earnings of more than $88 billion.

Each of the companies has a boatload of cash — $94.6 billion for Amazon and $79.6 billion for Microsoft.

We’ve already seen that Amazon and Microsoft dominate the cloud services market. These two companies are also leaders in other areas. Amazon reigns as the 800-pound gorilla of e-commerce with a market share of 37.6%. Microsoft’s Windows commands a 70% market share among desktop operating systems. The company’s Office 365 suite ranks No. 2 in the productivity software market.

Both companies continue to deliver solid growth. Amazon’s revenue increased 9% year over year in its latest quarter, with earnings soaring 64%. Microsoft’s revenue jumped 13% year over year, with profits up 18%.

More importantly, both Amazon and Microsoft have strong growth prospects. Each company is poised to benefit from the ongoing AI tailwind and the shift from on-premises IT to the cloud. Amazon’s e-commerce platform and Microsoft’s software products also have solid growth potential.

Not risk-free

I don’t want to leave the impression that Amazon and Microsoft don’t have any risks, though. There’s no such thing as a risk-free stock.

Both Amazon and Microsoft face significant competition despite their current market dominance, and growth could be derailed by regulators in the U.S. and in Europe. Both stocks also trade at high valuations: Amazon’s forward price-to-earnings ratio is 34.6, while Microsoft’s forward earnings multiple is 33.2. These valuations make them more exposed if they experience a significant business disruption.

However, longtime investors know that the best stocks often command premium valuations. Amazon and Microsoft are two of the best stocks, with lifetime gains of around 227,800% and 123,200%, respectively.

Although Amazon and Microsoft face some risks, I think the pros of both stocks far outweigh the cons. If you’re a risk-averse investor who wants to profit from the AI boom, I can’t think of two better picks.

John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Keith Speights has positions in Amazon and Microsoft. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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