Latest news with #Sastry
Time of India
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Experts: Focus on Tummidihatti over Medigadda repairs
Hyderabad: Irrigation experts and intellectuals have urged the Telangana govt to prioritise the Tummidihatti project instead of spending vast sums on repairing the Medigadda barrage, where multiple piers in block 7 have sunk and others have developed cracks. Speaking at a round table discussion titled 'NDSA Final Report–Future of Kaleshwaram Project ,' organised by the Telangana Jala Sadhana Samithi on Thursday, participants described the Kaleshwaram project as one of the most corrupt in the country's history. Irrigation expert PG Sastry, presenting an analysis of the Kaleshwaram project and the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) report, highlighted that constructing barrages on sand beds poses significant engineering challenges compared to rocky terrain. He said that the Medigadda, Annaram, and Sundilla barrages were all built on sand beds — an inherently unstable foundation for large-scale water storage. "These barrages were designed to hold only 2.5 to 3 tmcft of water, but the previous govt stored far more—16 tmcft in Medigadda, 12 tmcft in Annaram, and 8 tmcft in Sundilla. When such large volumes are stored, the structure functions more like a dam than a barrage. This excessive storage caused serious damage to the spillways and foundation," Sastry explained. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like [Click Here] - 2025 Top Trending Search - Local network access Esseps Learn More Undo Jala Sadhana Samithi convenor Nainala Govardhan accused the previous BRS govt of compromising the project under the guise of redesign. He called it one of the biggest scams in independent India and recommended that the govt divert funds towards the Tummidihatti project instead of attempting to salvage Medigadda. Former judge of high court, Justice Chandra Kumar, questioned why no action had been taken against those responsible, even after the NDSA submitted its final report on the Medigadda and other barrages.
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, acquires a generative AI video startup
Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, has acquired Hotshot, a startup working on AI-powered video generation tools along the lines of OpenAI's Sora. Aakash Sastry, Hotshot's CEO and co-founder, announced the news in a post on X on Monday. "Over the past 2 years we've built 3 video foundation models as a small team — Hotshot-XL, Hotshot Act One, and Hotshot," Sastry wrote. "Training these models has given us a look into how global education, entertainment, communication, and productivity are about to change in the coming years. We're excited to continue scaling these efforts on the largest cluster in the world, Colossus, as a part of xAI!" Hotshot, which is based in San Francisco, was founded several years ago by Sastry and John Mullan. The startup initially focused on developing AI-powered photo creation and editing tools, but eventually pivoted in favor of text-to-video AI models. Hotshot managed to attract investments from VCs including Lachy Groom, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, and SV Angel prior to its exit. The company never publicly disclosed the size of its funding rounds. xAI's acquisition of Hotshot could indicate that the former plans to build its own video generation models to compete with the likes of Sora, Google's Veo 2, and others. Musk has previously hinted that xAI is developing video-generating models to add to its Grok chatbot platform. During a live stream in January, Musk said that he expects a "Grok Video" model to be released "in a few months." Hotshot said on its site that it began sunsetting new video creation on March 14. Existing customers will have until March 30 to download videos they've created using the platform, the company added. It wasn't immediately clear whether the entire Hotshot staff would be joining xAI. Sastry declined to comment. Sign in to access your portfolio
