
‘Baahubali' team takes a dig at viral Coldplay video
The video from the concert showed frontman Chris Martin unintentionally putting a spotlight on a man and woman, who were seen on the jumbotron, standing draped in each other's arms. The man and woman were soon identified as Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and HR Chief Kristin Cabot, respectively.
His cosy appearance with Kristin Cabot at the Coldplay concert raised questions whether he's having an extramarital affair. Neither Byron nor Cabot appears to have addressed the affair allegations yet.
The social media page of Baahubali posted a picture of Prabhas and Anushka Shetty from the movie. In the still, Prabhas' character, Amarendra Baahubali, is embracing Devasena, essayed by Anushka Shetty.
The Baahubali social media team captioned the post as: 'CEO & HR of Maahishmathi.' The post went viral, with many reacting to the picture.
In the latest development related to the controversy, called 'Coldplay gate', Byron has resigned from his job as CEO of Cincinnati-based Astronomer Inc., according to a statement posted on LinkedIn by the company on Saturday (July 19, 2025).
'Astronomer is committed to the values and culture that have guided us since our founding. Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met,' the company said in its post on LinkedIn.
ALSO READ:Tech company CEO resigns after controversy over video captured at Coldplay concert
Empathy for the pair and their families was mixed with plenty of snarky commentary and countless memes, with the fake statement from the chief executive generating a lot of additional vitriol. And news reports said that the CEO's LinkedIn account was disabled after it was flooded by a wave of comments.

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News18
31 minutes ago
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Film on Mother Teresa by Macedonian director to premiere at Venice Film festival
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Business Standard
an hour ago
- Business Standard
YouTube's AI 'slop' a win for Alphabet as viewers embrace content boom
There's a prevailing wisdom that AI-generated content, or slop as it's colloquially known, should make our skin crawl. AI models tend to generate uncanny faces, mangled hands and fantastical scenarios. Take this YouTube Short video of a baby that finds itself being shimmied up a baggage loader onto a jumbo jet, before donning an aviation headset and flying the plane. It has racked up more than 103 million views. So too have other AI-generated videos which are starting to dominate the platform in much the same way they've proliferated across Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram. Several of YouTube's most popular channels now feature AI-generated content heavily. Earlier this month, YouTube — which could surpass The Walt Disney Co. this year as the world's largest media company by revenue — updated its policies to strike a balance between allowing AI-generated videos to flourish on its platform without spamming it. The new rules cut ad revenue from low-effort, repetitive content. Think channels like this one, this one, this one, this one and many more, often run by the same person uploading dozens of videos a day. Their creators might exploit AI tools like Eleven Labs to create a synthetic voice that reads out a script, scraped from Reddit, over a slideshow of stock images. Some of these videos get hundreds of thousands of views. The video platform's overall approach, however, is that AI-generated content is fine, so long as it's original, provides value to viewers and includes some human input. For now, it seems to be measuring that on a case-by-case basis, which is as good an approach as any with new tech. YouTube is also no stranger to fighting spam. YouTube clearly wants AI content to thrive. Sister company Google has said that later this summer, it will bring its video-generation tool Veo3 to YouTube Shorts, making it even easier to create lifelike AI videos of Storm-Trooper vloggers or biblical characters as influencers. The company says AI will 'unlock creativity' for its creators. But unlocking new forms of profit is more straightforward for Alphabet than it is for creators. Take Ahmet Yiğit, the Istanbul-based creator behind the viral pilot-baby video. Though his channel has racked up hundreds of millions of views, he's only received an estimated $2,600 for his most viral post, with the bulk of his audience coming from countries like India, where ad rates are low. Yiğit says he spends hours on a single scene and juggles a dozen tools, suggesting that even this new generation of AI creators could end up working harder for less, while Alphabet reaps ad revenue from their output. As long as the content machine runs, it doesn't matter whether AI videos are quick and easy or grueling to make — only that they drive views and ads. That's why YouTube is leaning harder into welcoming slop than policing it. While the company does require creators to say if their videos contain AI, the resulting disclaimer is listed in a small-text description that viewers must click through to read, making it tough to spot. That does little to address the growing confusion around what's real and what's synthetic as more YouTubers race to capitalize on AI content. The risk is that as slop floods our feeds and juices YouTube's recommendation algorithms, it'll drown out more thoughtful, human-made work. The earliest big YouTube hits were slices of life like the infamous, 'Charlie Bit My Finger.' What happens when the next wave of viral hits have no bearing on reality, instead offering bizarre, dreamlike sequences of babies dressed as Storm Troopers, or Donald Trump beating up bullies in an alleyway?


NDTV
3 hours ago
- NDTV
Astronomer's Andy Byron, Kristin Cabot's PDA In New Video At Coldplay Concert
A new video from a recent Coldplay concert shows former Astronomer CEO Andy Byron embracing HR chief Kristin Cabot moments before they found themselves on the giant screen at the Gillette Stadium in Boston. Shared by a concertgoer on TikTok, the circulated clip shows Mr Byron wrapping his arms around Ms Cabot's waist at a balcony. The fan, trying to film Coldplay frontman Chris Martin performing, inadvertently caught the couple in the background, according to a report in Page Six. 'POV: Trying to get the best of Coldplay, but you end up getting this viral affair as well,' the user captioned the new video, which has since gained traction online. The footage has Chris Martin in the foreground and the couple in the background. They were seen in the same position as during the 'Jumbotron segment', which catapulted them to global popularity for all the wrong reasons. That moment, broadcast live at the venue, saw Chris Martin himself comment on the couple's PDA. 'Whoa, look at these two,' said Mr Martin, as the camera zeroed in on them. The couple appeared startled, with Ms Cabot shielding her face and Byron quickly ducking away. 'Either they're having an affair or they're just very shy,' Mr Martin joked. The moment quickly went viral, triggering swift fallout. Astronomer initially placed both Andy Byron and Kristin Cabot on leave and launched a formal internal investigation. Days later, Mr Byron stepped down from his post. Now, Ms Cabot has also resigned. In a statement to the BBC, Astronomer confirmed that Ms Cabot was no longer with the company. Astronomer co-founder and chief product officer Pete DeJoy has taken over as interim CEO. Mr Byron's wife, Megan Kerrigan Byron, removed her surname from her social media profiles and deleted her Facebook page after being flooded with comments about her husband's alleged affair. She has reportedly secluded herself in a $2.4 million mansion in Maine. As for Ms Cabot, she separated from her ex-husband, Kenneth Thornby, in 2018, with their divorce finalised in 2022. But according to The New York Post, she now appears to be married to Andrew Cabot, CEO of Massachusetts-based Privateer Rum. Property records reviewed by the outlet show that 52-year-old Cabot, whose maiden name is Stanek, has shared a Rye, New Hampshire, address with Andrew Cabot since at least 2023.