Archives May 2026

news

Spotify and Universal Music Group Announce Landmark Licensing Agreements for Fan-made Covers and Remixes

Neel Achary 0 Comment

Groundbreaking responsible AI tool to launch as paid add-on for Spotify Premium users 

Santa Monica and Stockholm, May 21, 2026 – Spotify and Universal Music Group (UMG) today announced landmark recorded music and music publishing licensing agreements enabling Spotify to launch a new tool allowing fans to create covers and remixes of their favorite songs from participating artists and songwriters. 

This groundbreaking tool will be powered by generative AI technology that will open up additional revenue streams and new ways to drive discovery. It introduces a creation model where artists and songwriters can directly share in the value generated through AI-driven licensed covers and remixes on the Spotify platform. 

The new tool will launch as a paid add-on for Spotify Premium users and create an additional source of income for artists and songwriters, on top of what they already earn on Spotify. 

“Solving hard problems for music is what Spotify does, and fan-made covers and remixes are next. What we’re building is grounded in consent, credit, and compensation for the artists and songwriters that take part. Through each technological transformation, we have worked together with Sir Lucian and his team to evolve the music ecosystem into a richer, more beneficial experience for fans and a more rewarding outcome for artists and songwriters,” said Alex Norström, Co-CEO, Spotify. 

“The most valuable innovations in the music business always bring artists and fans closer together. That principle is at the heart of this pioneering AI-enabled superfan initiative, which is designed to support human artistry, deepen fan relationships, and create additional revenue opportunities for artists and songwriters. Building on our long track record of leading the industry through technology changes, and collaborating with Alex, Gustav, Daniel and the team at Spotify, this initiative is firmly artist-centric, rooted in responsible AI, and will drive growth for the entire ecosystem,” said Sir Lucian Grainge, Chairman and CEO, Universal Music Group.

technology

Kore.ai Launches Artemis, the New Generation of the Kore.ai Agent Platform for Building, Governing, and Optimizing Enterprise AI

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Agent Blueprint Language™ (ABL) compounds returns and compresses agent delivery from months to days 

SAN MATEO, Calif., May 21, 2026 — Kore.ai, the global leader in agentic platforms and applications, today launched the new-generation Kore.ai Agent Platform Artemis edition, the AI-programmable, AI-native foundation that builds, governs, and optimizes the agents, systems, and workflows running across the enterprise. The platform launches initially on Microsoft Azure, with broader cloud availability to follow. 

The new-generation Agent Platform enables enterprises to deploy production-ready multiagent AI systems in days instead of months, with governance, observability, and operational control enforced before any agent goes live. Three core innovations make the platform fundamentally AI-native: 

Agent Blueprint Language™ (ABL): ABL is a compiled, declarative language that standardizes how AI agents, systems, and workflows are defined, validated, and governed. Six built-in orchestration patterns (supervisor, delegation, handoff, fan-out, escalation, and agent-to-agent federation) enable resilient, production-grade multiagent systems at scale. 

Arch™: Kore.ai’s AI agent architect translates business objectives into production-ready ABL, supports the full agent lifecycle, designs the underlying agent topology, and continuously refines agents using real-world production traces. 

Dual-Brain Architecture: Two cognitive engines (combining agentic reasoning and deterministic flows) operate in parallel through shared memory, authored in a unified language and governed by a single runtime. 

The platform operates independently of the model, keeping AI systems predictable, auditable, and scalable from experimentation to production-grade operations. 

“Enterprise AI is entering its third wave, where governance, observability, and trust define success at scale,” said Raj Koneru, CEO and Founder, Kore.ai. “The Kore.ai Agent Platform reflects this shift by bringing an AI-native architecture to market that enables enterprises to build, manage, and optimize multiagent systems with confidence. This level of depth comes from a decade of delivering AI experiences in complex, regulated environments, where scale, compliance, and reliability are non-negotiable.” 

The Business Case: AI Building, Governing, and Optimizing AI 

ABL and Arch put AI in charge of every stage of the agent lifecycle: 

  • AI building AI. Arch generates production-ready agents from plain-language objectives, writes them in ABL, and validates them before deployment. Agents that once required months of bespoke engineering now ship in days as compiled, reviewable blueprints.
  • AI governing AI. Every decision, path, and outcome is logged, traced, and analyzed by AI in real-time. Deterministic constraints and flow controls are enforced by the platform itself, not left to the agent.
  • AI optimizing AI. The platform learns from production signals and recommends specific improvements as reviewable optimizations, with human oversight built in. 

“To scale AI with confidence, enterprises need a standardized agent building system and the enforcement of robust governance,” said Vaibhav Bansal, Vice President at Everest Group. “Kore.ai’s strong investments in advancing agentic AI capabilities and governance, combined with a consistent focus on delivering measurable business outcomes, have positioned Kore.ai as a Leader in the Agentic AI Products PEAK Matrix® Assessment 2026.” 

What This Means for Today’s CIO, CISO, and CFO 

The Kore.ai Agent Platform changes what enterprise AI delivers, what it costs, and what it can be trusted to do: 

  • For the CIO, AI becomes manageable and accelerated. The platform consolidates fragmented third-party and home-grown agents into one foundation and accelerates delivery from quarters to days across every department and business unit.
  • For the CISO, AI behavior becomes predictable. Governance is enforced at the platform layer, outside the model’s control. Every agent action and policy decision is logged, timestamped, and traceable to a specific regulatory control.
  • For the CFO, AI investment compounds. Arch, ABL, and the runtime are shared infrastructure across every agent, so the marginal cost of the Nth agent approaches the cost of authoring its blueprint. Every model upgrade improves every agent already running.

Microsoft Azure: Initial Launch Partner 

The Kore.ai Agent Platform launches initially on Microsoft Azure and is built natively on the Microsoft Azure stack across compute, identity, AI, and security. For Global 2000 enterprises already standardized on the Microsoft stack, the platform integrates with Microsoft Foundry, Microsoft Agent 365, Entra ID, and the Microsoft Graph API, and powers a native Microsoft Teams channel through the Azure Bot Framework. Kore.ai is also a launch partner for Agent 365. 

“Enterprises are moving agentic AI from experimentation to operations, and that shift requires a foundation built for production. The Kore.ai Agent Platform integrates with Microsoft Foundry and Microsoft Agent 365, giving customers a governed environment to build, deploy, and operate AI agents with the identity, security, and observability that Microsoft customers expect,” said Stephen Boyle, CVP, Enterprise Partner Solutions, Microsoft. 

Customers Say 

“We’ve had early visibility into the Kore.ai Agent Platform, and the architectural rigor stands out. Compiled blueprints, governance in a separate deterministic layer, and one language for every agent are the design choices enterprise AI has been missing.” – Keyur Parikh, Head of Workplace Technology Strategies and Services, Vanguard 

“The question every enterprise is asking is how to move AI from pilot to production without creating compliance exposure. What stood out about Kore is that governance is architectural, not an afterthought. That is what it takes to get AI approved for the work that actually matters.” – Arunkumar Ramakrishnan, Director of Enterprise Technology, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts

Built for the Global 2000 

The platform meets enterprise security, compliance, and deployment requirements from day one: SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, PCI DSS certified; FedRAMP Moderate Authorized; HIPAA-aligned; HiTrust and GDPR compliant. Real-time PII tokenization, tenant isolation, and immutable audit trails apply to every agent action. Customers deploy in public cloud, sovereign regions, private cloud, or on-premises, with data residency by region. The platform supports 40+ voice and digital channels and 300+ integrations across Microsoft A365, Salesforce, HubSpot, Jira, GitHub, and core banking, healthcare, retail, and telecom systems. 

For more than a decade, Kore.ai has been one of the world’s leading providers and pioneers of AI-native enterprise software, enabling 500+ Global 2000 organizations to run mission-critical business workflows, including some of the largest names in banking, healthcare, insurance, retail, and global service operations.

health

SimonMed leads largest global study of AI in X-ray, analyzing 258,373 exams across 26 countries

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SCOTTSDALE, AZ. May 21, 2026 — A landmark, peer-reviewed global study representing the largest published evaluation of artificial intelligence in X-ray imaging has been published in Radiography, analyzing 258,373 X-rays from 100 medical centers across 26 countries and five continents. The study was led by Dr. Sean Raj, Chief Medical Officer and Chief Innovation Officer at SimonMed, who served as senior author.

SimonMed, one of the largest outpatient imaging providers in the United States, contributed U.S. clinical data and played a central role in the study’s design, execution, and analysis, reinforcing its leadership in the clinical validation of artificial intelligence in radiology. 

The study evaluated all four components of the Rayvolve® AI Suite as a unified clinical platform under real-world conditions, with no exclusions based on image quality or acquisition protocol. The system demonstrated high diagnostic performance across multiple use cases, including musculoskeletal trauma, chest imaging, automated measurements, and bone age assessment. AZtrauma achieved an AUC of 98.3% (sensitivity: 97.4%, specificity: 96.4%) across 195,706 musculoskeletal examinations. AZchest demonstrated an AUC of 97.8% (sensitivity: 96.7%, specificity: 87.9%) across 61,418 chest radiographs covering six pathology categories. AZmeasure and AZboneage delivered measurement precision within 1.83 degrees for angles, 1.1 mm for lengths, and a bone age estimation error of approximately six months.

Performance remained consistent across pathologies, anatomies, patient demographics, and global care settings, with all 258,373 images processed without a single technical failure, highlighting both the robustness and scalability of AI in real-world clinical environments.

SimonMed’s contribution to the study builds on a partnership that has deepened since 2023, when SimonMed selected AZmed as its AI partner for X-ray diagnostics following an independent evaluation across its outpatient network. That initial deployment demonstrated a 6x reduction in turnaround time for fracture cases and 98.5% sensitivity across SimonMed centers. SimonMed subsequently provided the clinical data that supported AZmed’s 2024 FDA 510(k) clearance for pediatric fracture detection. The inclusion of SimonMed’s U.S. imaging data in this 26-country study extends the collaboration from operational deployment and regulatory contribution to large-scale, independently published clinical evidence. 

“Validating a complete AI suite at this scale, across 100 centers in 26 countries, establishes a new standard for clinical evidence in radiology AI,” said Julien Vidal, CEO of AZmed. “SimonMed’s contribution at every stage of this journey, from early U.S. deployment through FDA clearance and now the largest published X-ray AI study, reflects the kind of clinical partnership that advances the entire field.” 

“This study represents a defining moment for AI in medical imaging,” said Dr. Sean Raj, Chief Medical Officer and Chief Innovation Officer at SimonMed. “We are proud to have led a global effort that not only validates AI performance at an unprecedented scale, but also reinforces the importance of rigorous, real-world clinical evidence. We are committed to continue our founding mission – to deliver high quality, accessible care at scale while measurably improving diagnostic quality for our radiologists and the patients they serve.” 

The study is available in Radiography.

health

The Growing Role of Water Testing Labs in Ensuring Safe and Sustainable Water Quality

Neel Achary 0 Comment

With increasing concerns over water pollution, industrial contamination, and public health risks, the role of water testing laboratories has become more important than ever. Water quality testing helps identify harmful contaminants, assess safety standards, and ensure that water is suitable for drinking, industrial use, agriculture, and environmental applications. As urbanization and industrial activities continue to expand, regular water monitoring has become a crucial step in protecting both human health and natural ecosystems.

Choosing  the best water testing lab  is essential for accurate analysis and reliable results. Professional laboratories use advanced scientific techniques to test critical parameters such as pH, turbidity, heavy metals, microbial contamination, total dissolved solids (TDS), and chemical pollutants. These services help industries, households, and regulatory bodies make informed decisions about water safety while ensuring compliance with environmental and public health standards.

The Growing Role of Water Testing Labs in Ensuring Safe and Sustainable Water Quality

Water testing laboratories play a vital role in detecting contaminants at an early stage, preventing potential health hazards before they escalate. Contaminated water can contain harmful substances such as lead, arsenic, pesticides, bacteria, viruses, and industrial chemicals that may lead to serious diseases and long-term health complications. Through routine testing and laboratory-based analysis, these risks can be identified and controlled effectively.

In industrial sectors, water testing labs support quality control, wastewater treatment monitoring, and regulatory compliance. Industries rely on laboratory analysis to maintain process efficiency, prevent environmental pollution, and meet discharge standards set by authorities. Similarly, municipal bodies use water testing services to ensure safe drinking water distribution and maintain public sanitation systems.

Modern water testing laboratories also use advanced technologies such as ICP-MS, GC-MS, microbiological analysis, and real-time monitoring systems to provide highly accurate and timely results. These scientific methods improve contamination detection and help create data-driven water management strategies.

As water quality challenges continue to grow worldwide, water testing laboratories remain a critical pillar of public health, environmental protection, and sustainable resource management. Their role in ensuring safe water access, preventing contamination, and supporting regulatory compliance makes them indispensable in building a healthier and more sustainable future.

technology

Enterprise AI is burning tokens without context and teams are paying the price

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PALO ALTO, Calif. May 21, 2026 – DevRev, an AI-native enterprise software company transforming how teams and customers collaborate, today announced the newest release of Computer, by DevRev, its AI teammate for enterprise teams. The release addresses the three biggest failures of modern enterprise AI: models that have no memory of a business, insights that disappear the moment they leave a user’s screen, and AI that answers questions but can’t safely take action.
 
The rest of the industry has responded to these failures by focusing on selling speed – working faster, producing more outputs, increasing token use – resulting in organizations running world-class models on ineffective infrastructure. The Upwork Research Institute states that 96% of C-suite leaders expect AI to boost worker productivity, but 77% of employees report AI has increased their workload. Focusing on metrics like speed and token volume – “token maxxing” – without clarity distracts from progress, and advocating for applying more compute to inadequate contextual data only produces more noise.The result: knowledge workers lose hours a day hunting for information across disconnected systems, and the people meant to benefit from AI are left holding the bill for its failures.
 
Computer is built on a different philosophy: delivering both speed and clarity. This solves the context problem through “shared memory,” a curated, living picture of an organization’s data, how the organization works, and how its people interact. Shared memory is the architectural foundation that enables:
  • Precision: answers sourced from real business data, cited and referenced so teams can stand behind them. 
  • Efficiency: trusted answers at lower cost, lower token usage, no analyst required, full context on the first response. 
  • Safety: nothing goes out before a human approves it, with full audit trails and the ability to undo any agent action. 
 
When AI has this context, it stops guessing and starts acting like a trusted member of the team. Reliable performance builds trust; trust unlocks action. That progression – from trusted answers to safe actions – is what makes multiplayer collaboration between humans and AI possible across every function.
 
“Every AI company is selling speed, which is fueling the next enterprise crisis. This will be the latest form of workplace burnout if we don’t do something about it,” said Dheeraj Pandey, Co-founder and CEO at DevRev. “Speed without the right context is just faster noise, noise that overloads humans in the loop, and eventually breaks them. Computer is built on a different philosophy: work softer. Give AI the enterprise memory and shared context it needs to perform reliably, and then let it take action. Only then will your people have the confidence that the AI they use is performing the tasks they need it to, more accurately and with less handholding.”
 
What is new in the newest release of Computer
The evolution of shared memory at every level ensures that every Computer session now builds on the last. At the individual level, Computer learns how each person works, picking up where they left off with each new session. At the team level, the skills and AI agents one person develops become available to everyone. At the organizational level, institutional knowledge stays in the system permanently. When a top-performing rep leaves, their account knowledge does not leave with them.
 
Before this release, AI insight disappeared the moment it left one person’s screen. Now the introduction of Multiplayer AI lets teams share a live Computer session where everyone sees the full context and continues the analysis together. Colleagues can question, build on, and correct reasoning in real time. In a 2025 study, KPMG and University of Melbourne reported that 57% of employees admit to using AI in non-transparent ways, including avoiding revealing when they have used AI tools to complete their work. Teams rarely benefit from one another’s AI work. Multiplayer AI changes the unit of attribution from “what I did with AI” to “what we did with AI, together.”
 
Earlier versions of Computer answered questions and took single-step actions. The addition of the new desktop app shifts Computer from a question-answering tool to a content-producing system. From the in-app canvas, any user can generate complete, fully branded and formatted work artifacts grounded in real business data: competitive slide decks, QBR reports, structured dashboards, knowledge base articles, and multi-step workflows; these outputs are available in a variety of file formats, including PPT, HTML PDF, DOCX, and more. Skills and outputs built in the Canvas are saved at the user, team, or organization level and become reusable across the business.
 
Agent Studio gives any team the ability to build, test in a sandbox environment, and deploy AI agents that take action across connected systems. Every action runs under individual user permissions, not a shared account. Every step is traceable, auditable, and reversible: if an agent makes a mistake, it can be rolled back.
 
Key capabilities at a glance
  • Shared Memory: personal, team, and organizational memory that compounds over time
  • Trusted Answers: intent-aware search and consistent data answers. Same question, same answer, every time. Computer doesn’t guess – it knows, and it shows its work.
  • Safe Actions: governed, auditable actions across your systems. Computer acts on your behalf with guardrails, so teams move faster without risk.
  • Multiplayer AI: shared live sessions for human-to-human, human-to-AI, and team-wide collaboration
  • Skills – reusable workflows that any team can build, share, and deploy. One person’s expertise becomes everyone’s capability. Agent Studio allows users to build and deploy AI agents with sandboxed testing, full audit trails, and rollback
 
Additional capabilities:
  • Text2SQL: analytical queries across structured data in plain language, no data analyst required
  • Connectors: Gmail, Outlook, Slack, Notion, Google Drive, Jira, Microsoft OneDrive, SharePoint, and any MCP-compatible tool
  • Usage-based pricing: that scales with adoption and not headcount
 
With the newest release of Computer, the above capabilities are all generally available today.
 
Results from customers in production
More than 250 organizations have Computer live in production, with over 1,000 users onboarded since launched in September 2025. Customers include BILL, HDFC Bank, and FAME, spanning financial services, aviation, retail, and technology.
 
The results Computer, by DevRev’s customers are reporting speak for themselves. Customers Pebl and Uniphore are resolving 85% of support tickets without any human involvement. BILL has achieved around $5M in operational savings. India’s largest airline went from kickoff to production in 14 days and selected Computer over Salesforce Agentforce in a head-to-head evaluation. A retail loyalty customer is saving $1.2M annually, with sales reps reclaiming six hours a week and the team reporting a 30% productivity boost. And FAME is saving users more than 10 hours a week, resolving tickets approximately 40% faster, and accelerating specific workflows by up to 75%.
 
“Customer experience is a top priority for us, and AI presented a real opportunity to set a new standard while reducing cost,” said Steve Januario, CIO at BILL. “With DevRev, we’re seeing how agentic AI can actually reduce support costs and help customers get the answers they need faster, without compromising on quality.”
 
Availability
  • Across web, mobile, and desktop. Use Computer from any device.
  • Inside the DevRev system of record apps. Existing DevRev customers can access Computer directly within their current workflow without switching surfaces.
 
Resources
Visit devrev.ai to learn more about the enterprise offering, book a demo, or start a free trial of Computer. 
 
Usage-based pricing with plan and billing management are available at https://devrev.ai/pricing
health

Manipal Hospital Bhubaneswar Strengthens Robotic Orthopedic Care with 1000 Knee Replacement Successes

Neel Achary 0 Comment
Bhubaneswar, 21 May 2026: Manipal Hospital Bhubaneswar has achieved a remarkable milestone in advanced Robotic orthopaedic care with Dr. Sunil Kumar Dash, Senior Consultant & Director – Orthopaedics, successfully completing 1000 robotic-assisted knee replacement surgeries. The achievement reflects the hospital’s continued commitment to delivering precision-driven and technology-enabled healthcare to patients across Odisha and neighboring states.
 
Robotic-assisted knee replacement surgery is an advanced procedure that enhances surgical precision through technology-guided planning and personalized treatment based on each patient’s anatomy. Offering benefits such as improved alignment, reduced pain, faster recovery, and enhanced mobility, it has significantly helped patients suffering from severe arthritis and chronic knee conditions. At Manipal Hospital Bhubaneswar, the robotic knee replacement surgery has achieved a success rate of over 99%, with growing adoption of bilateral procedures, reflecting the expertise of the orthopedic team and enabling patients to return to daily life with greater comfort and confidence.
 

Case Study_ Manipal Hospital Bhubaneswar Strengthens Robotic Orthopedic Care with 1000 Knee Replacement Successes

 

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Sunil Kumar Dash, Senior Consultant & Director – Orthopaedics, Manipal Hospital Bhubaneshwar said, “Completing 1000 robotic knee replacement surgeries is a proud milestone for our entire orthopedic team. Robotic-assisted technology allows us to achieve greater precision and personalized surgical planning, which ultimately benefits patients through better functional outcomes and faster recovery. This achievement reflects the immense trust patients have placed in us over the years, and we remain committed to delivering advanced orthopedic care with compassion and excellence.”
 
This milestone further strengthens Manipal Hospital Bhubaneswar’s position as a preferred destination for advanced orthopedic care in Eastern India, attracting patients from Odisha and neighboring states such as Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and West Bengal. Backed by advanced robotic systems, experienced specialists, and comprehensive rehabilitation support, the hospital continues to deliver patient-centric care and help individuals regain active lifestyles.
 
Congratulating the orthopedic team on the achievement, Dr Saktimaya Mohapatra, Cluster Director (South East), Manipal Hospitals said, “This milestone is a testament to our commitment to bringing world-class healthcare technology and advanced surgical expertise closer to the people of Odisha. Completing 1000 robotic knee replacement surgeries reflects the clinical excellence, dedication, and trust that define our healthcare services. We congratulate Dr. Sunil Dash and the entire orthopedic team for this remarkable accomplishment.”
business

Merck Announces First Patient Dosed in Phase 3 Study for Investigational Antibody-Drug Conjugate in Colorectal Cancer

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Business Wire India

 

  • Precemtabart tocentecan (Precem-TcT) is investigated as a potential first-in-class anti-CEACAM5 ADC, for the treatment of metastatic CRC (mCRC)
  • CEACAM5 is overexpressed in the majority of colorectal tumors (~90%), and requires no patient selection
  • Significant unmet need remains for clinically meaningful innovation in colorectal cancer (CRC), the second leading cause of cancer death worldwide

 

Not intended for Canada-, UK- or US-based media

 

Merck, a leading science and technology company, today announced that the first patient has been dosed in the Phase 3 PROCEADE®-CRC-03 trial (NCT07549412). The study is evaluating precemtabart tocentecan (Precem‑TcT), a potential first‑in‑class investigational anti‑CEACAM5 antibody‑drug conjugate (ADC), for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).

 

“Leveraging our novel payload‑linker technology, Precem‑TcT is the first CEACAM5‑targeted ADC in clinical studies with an exatecan payload, rationally designed for stability and enhanced cancer cell killing activity,” said David Weinreich, MD, MBA, Global Head of R&D and Chief Medical Officer for the Healthcare business of Merck. “The Phase 3 study and the enrollment of the first patient with Precem-TcT build on the Company’s more than 20 years of expertise in colorectal cancer, and highlight our commitment to advancing differentiated ADCs for heavily pretreated patients with limited treatment options.”

 

 

The PROCEADE®-CRC-03 study assesses the efficacy and safety of Precem-TcT, alone or with bevacizumab, in patients with mCRC who are intolerant- or refractory-to, or progressed after, systemic therapies. The PROCEADE®-CRC-03 study will be conducted in approximately 165 sites in 20 countries and will recruit approximately 1,020 patients with mCRC.

 

 

In Phase 1 (PROCEADE®-CRC-01; NCT05464030), Precem-TcT as monotherapy or in combination showed predictable and manageable safety in more than 100 patients with heavily pretreated mCRC. At the recommended dose for Phase 3 development (2.8 mg/kg Q3W; n=29), confirmed objective response rate (cORR) was 20.7% (95% CI: 8.0, 39.7), median PFS was 6.9 months (95% CI: 4.4, 9.5) and median OS was not reached (95% CI: 8.7, NE) after a median follow-up of 13.1 months.

 

 

“The PROCEADE®-CRC-03 Phase 3 study is designed to address significant unmet needs for patients with metastatic colon cancer whose disease has progressed after standard therapies,” said Kanwal P.S. Raghav, MBSS, MD, Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston. “The data from the phase 1 study suggested a manageable safety profile for Precem-TcT and encouraging early tumor response in the patients with heavily pre-treated metastatic colorectal cancer. CEACAM5 is largely absent from healthy tissues and is overexpressed in nearly all mCRC cases, supporting a non-selective, universal patient approach, and represents a promising therapeutic target in this setting.”

 

 

Globally, CRC is the third-most commonly diagnosed malignancy and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths.1 Merck chose mCRC as the first indication to assess the efficacy and safety of Precem-TcT because ~90% of colorectal cancers overexpress CEACAM5,2 and there is a high unmet clinical need in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer, especially among those who progressed on several previous therapies.3,4,5 Patients with advanced colorectal cancer typically face a challenging prognosis, with few options available for those whose disease continues to progress after three or more lines of therapy. Additionally, with progression, response to treatment and prognosis become increasingly worse over time.

 

 

Advancing the Future of Cancer Care

 

 

At Merck, we strive every day to improve the futures of people living with cancer. Building on our 350-year global heritage as pharma pioneers, we are focusing our most promising science to target cancer’s deepest vulnerabilities, pursuing differentiated molecules to strike cancer at its core. By developing new therapies that can help advance cancer care, we are determined to create a world where more cancer patients will become cancer survivors. Learn more at www.merckgroup.com.

 

 

About Precemtabart tocentecan (M9140)

 

 

Precemtabart tocentecan is an investigational anti-CEACAM5 antibody-drug conjugate (ADC). Leveraging the company’s novel linker-payload technology, precemtabart tocentecan is the first CEACAM5 ADC with an exatecan payload, a potent topoisomerase inhibitor (TOP1i), which has been rationally designed for stability in circulation and superior cancer cell killing activity. Beyond the direct effect on the target cell, precemtabart tocentecan has been shown in preclinical research to induce tumor cell death through a bystander effect in which exatecan permeates the cell membrane to neighboring cells, inducing apoptosis (cell death). This bystander effect within the tumor microenvironment may enhance efficacy. Precemtabart tocentecan is currently being evaluated across tumor types with CEACAM5 expression and a high unmet need, including metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC), gastric cancer (GC), non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).

 

 

About Colorectal Cancer

 

 

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is cancer of the colon or rectum, which often arises from benign polyps that eventually turn cancerous. It is the third most common diagnosed malignancy, and the second leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide with approximately 1 in 10 cancer deaths attributed to CRC. Despite new therapies, 5-year survival of stage 4 CRC is <20%. The global burden of CRC has substantially increased over time and is expected to increase by 60% to more than 2.2 million new cases and 1.1 million deaths by 2030.1

 

 

About Merck

 

 

Merck, a leading science and technology company, operates across life science, healthcare and electronics. More than 62,000 employees work to make a positive difference to millions of people’s lives every day by creating more joyful and sustainable ways to live. From providing products and services that accelerate drug development and manufacturing as well as discovering unique ways to treat the most challenging diseases to enabling the intelligence of devices – the company is everywhere. In 2025, Merck generated sales of € 21.1 billion in 65 countries.

 

 

Scientific exploration and responsible entrepreneurship have been key to Merck’s technological and scientific advances. This is how Merck has thrived since its founding in 1668. The founding family remains the majority owner of the publicly listed company. Merck holds the global rights to the Merck name and brand. The only exceptions are the United States and Canada, where the business sectors of Merck operate as MilliporeSigma in life science, EMD Serono in healthcare, and EMD Electronics in electronics.

 

 

All Merck press releases are distributed by e-mail at the same time they become available on the Merck website. Please go to www.merckgroup.com/subscribe to register online, change your selection or discontinue this service.

 

 

1

World Health Organization Colorectal cancer: Key facts. Accessed 8 May 2026. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/colorectal-cancer.

2

Kopetz S BV, et al. M9140, a novel anti-CEACAM5 antibody–drug conjugate with a potent topoisomerase 1 inhibitor payload (exatecan): preclinical data and results from a phase 1 dose-escalation study in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (PROCEADE-CRC-01). Nature Medicine. 2025.

3

Biller LH, Schrag D. Diagnosis and Treatment of Metastatic Colorectal Cancer: A Review. JAMA. 2021;325(7):669-685. doi:10.1001/jama.2021.0106.

4

Xie Y-H, Chen Y-X, Fang J-Y. Comprehensive review of targeted therapy for colorectal cancer. Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy. 2020/03/20 2020;5(1):22. doi:10.1038/s41392-020-0116-z.

5

Martínez-Lago N, Chucla TC, De Castro BA, et al. Efficacy, safety and prognostic factors in patients with refractory metastatic colorectal cancer treated with trifluridine/tipiracil plus bevacizumab in a real-world setting. Scientific Reports. 2022/08/26 2022;12(1):14612. doi:10.1038/s41598-022-18871-9.

 

 

 

 

 

 

business

The Live Moment Effect: Genius Sports and MediaScience Study Finds Specific Moments in Live Sports Can Double Unaided Brand Recall

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Business Wire India

 

Genius Sports Limited (NYSE: GENI), a global leader in real-time sports data, today released new biometric research conducted with MediaScience showing that ads delivered immediately after emotionally heightened moments in live sports can double unaided brand recall.

 

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260521475265/en/

 

 

The Live Moment Effect report from Genius Sports and MediaScience.

The Live Moment Effect report from Genius Sports and MediaScience.

 

 

The study, The Live Moment Effect, finds that advertising effectiveness is significantly influenced by a viewer’s emotional state immediately before an ad is shown. In controlled biometric testing, ads shown after high-intensity sporting moments, such as near-scoring plays or crucial momentum shifts, delivered approximately double the unaided brand recall of baseline conditions.

 

The Moment Before the Ad Matters

 

 

The research challenges long-held assumptions about media value, showing that not all impressions are equal.

 

 

Live sports remain one of the last entertainment formats with large-scale audiences. According to Sports Business Journal, sports accounted for 96 of the top 100 most-watched U.S. telecasts of 2025. But scale alone does not make every impression equally valuable. Fans’ attention rises and falls with the action, making the moments immediately after high-intensity plays especially powerful for advertisers. Cutting through requires knowing when those moments occur and being ready to reach the right fans in real time with messaging tailored to the moment.

 

 

Key findings include:

 

 

  • Emotional intensity immediately before an ad significantly increases memory encoding and recall
  • The 60 seconds following a high-impact moment represent the peak window for advertising effectiveness
  • Emotional context can have a greater influence on recall than the ad creative itself in real time.

 

A Shift from Buying Media to Activating Moments

 

The findings point to a fundamental shift in how sports media should be planned and valued. The Live Moment Effect research shows that recall is concentrated around moments of peak emotion. As a result, aligning ad delivery and ad messaging with real-time game context can significantly improve campaign outcomes.

 

 

Genius Sports is applying these insights through the Genius Sports Moment Engine, which uses official game data and real-time signals to identify and activate around high-impact moments as they occur. By enabling brands to align campaigns with peak attention windows, the Genius Sports Moment Engine allows advertisers to improve outcomes by optimizing timing rather than increasing volume.

 

 

“The sports advertising playbook is being rewritten around the moments when fans are most emotionally engaged,” said Josh Linforth, Chief Revenue Officer at Genius Sports. “Brands should be present across the full fan journey — pre-game, in-game and post-game — because every stage of the sports experience creates an opportunity to connect. Within that always-on presence, this research shows that certain moments carry extra impact. When a momentum shift, near score or decisive play changes how fans are feeling and focusing, the message should change with it. Genius Sports Moment Engine uses official game data and real-time signals to help advertisers identify those high-impact windows as they happen and tailor campaigns accordingly across every screen.”

 

 

“Our research continues to reinforce a principle we’ve observed across the media landscape: context matters,” said Phillip Lomax, Chief Revenue Officer at MediaScience. “In live sports, emotionally heightened moments prime audiences differently, changing their cognitive and emotional state before an ad is even delivered. When an advertisement aligns with that moment, the context and the creative converge to strengthen memory encoding and significantly amplify recall. That creates a meaningful opportunity for brands to improve performance through real-time, moment-based activation rather than simply increasing media volume.”

 

 

The research analyzed viewer response to advertising across varying levels of emotional intensity during live sports, measuring attention, cognitive engagement, and brand recall in controlled environments. Access the full study here.

 

 

About Genius Sports

 

 

Genius Sports is the official data, technology and broadcast partner that powers the global sports, betting and media ecosystem. As the operating system of modern sport, our technology is used in over 150 countries worldwide, creating highly immersive products that enrich fan experiences across the entire sports industry.

 

 

We are the trusted partner to over 1,000 sports organizations, including many of the world’s largest leagues, teams, sportsbooks, brands and broadcasters, such as the NFL, English Premier League, NCAA, DraftKings, FanDuel, bet365, Coca-Cola, EA Sports, CBS, NBC and ESPN.

 

 

Genius Sports is uniquely positioned through AI, computer vision and big data to power the future of sports fan experiences. From delivering augmented broadcasts and enhanced highlights, to automated officiating tools, immersive betting solutions and personalized marketing activations, we connect the entire sports value chain from the rights holder all the way through to the fan.

 

 

About MediaScience

 

 

MediaScience is the industry leader in media and advertising innovation research, trusted by major networks and platforms including Disney, NBCUniversal, Google and most other national TV networks and social media platforms. The company’s work at the intersection of science and creativity continues to redefine how stories are told, measured, and experienced in the modern media landscape.

 

 

 

 

 

business

Baszucki Group Funds Oxford University Clinical Trial of Ketogenic Therapy for Early Psychosis

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Business Wire India

 

Baszucki Group today announced a £1.17 million grant to support a randomized controlled trial at the University of Oxford assessing the feasibility, safety, and efficacy of a ketogenic diet for patients at clinical high risk of psychosis (CHR-P). Researchers will test this nutritional therapy’s ability to improve patients’ mental and physical health. This project builds on a growing body of research suggesting the potential of metabolic therapies in treating serious mental illness.

 

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260521877110/en/

 

 

Baszucki Group Funds £1.17 Million for University of Oxford Trial of Ketogenic Therapy for Early Psychosis

Baszucki Group Funds £1.17 Million for University of Oxford Trial of Ketogenic Therapy for Early Psychosis

 

 

Psychotic disorders carry a massive personal burden and are associated with a lower life expectancy. Psychosis does not develop immediately, but typically emerges following a period of early, subtle symptoms. Individuals in this stage, classified as CHR-P, represent a critical pre-symptomatic stage offering a window for preventive treatment. However, while diagnostic tools for detecting CHR-P are well-developed, treatment options remain limited. Currently, there is no specific, indicated treatment to reduce the rate of transition to full psychosis in CHR-P patients, underlining an urgent need for developing novel interventions.

 

This randomized controlled trial (RCT) will assign 50 CHR-P patients (aged 14-35) to either a 12-week modified ketogenic diet or a control diet. Symptom severity will be monitored throughout the trial using the Comprehensive Assessment of At-Risk Mental States (CAARMS) assessment tool, designed specifically to assess symptom severity in young people at high risk of developing psychosis. Participants will receive support from a registered dietitian and will use glucose/ketone meter kits to track adherence to the ketogenic diet. To evaluate efficacy and tolerability, the research team will assess symptom severity, cognitive function, sleep behavior, and physical health. The trial will also follow patients’ health status for up to three years after the intervention via electronic health records to evaluate the longer-term impact.

 

 

“We see promise in ketogenic therapy as a non-stigmatizing, accessible intervention for those navigating early signs of psychosis. If effective, the diet could represent a novel tool that will allow us to intervene before psychotic onset,” said study lead Amedeo Minichino, MD DPhil CCT, Associate Professor, Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist, and Wellcome Trust Early Career Fellow at the University of Oxford. “We are hopeful that by studying the critical window that often precedes psychotic onset, we can change the long-term trajectory of mental well-being in our patients.”

 

 

Since the majority of CHR-P patients do not receive antipsychotics, this will offer a unique opportunity to evaluate the clinical outcomes of ketogenic therapy as a stand-alone treatment, as well as to explore the biological mechanisms underlying both the disease and the intervention. New and growing evidence suggests that impaired brain energy metabolism, including mitochondrial dysfunction, may help us identify individuals with CHR-P who are more likely to later develop psychosis. In a subgroup of patients, the trial will measure brain energy directly using blood biomarkers and neuroimaging.

 

 

“This study is an important step forward in understanding the potential of ketogenic therapy on physical and mental health in this highly vulnerable patient group,” said Jan Ellison Baszucki, co-founder and president of Baszucki Group. “This ambitious project represents a rare opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of how ketogenic therapy could fundamentally transform the trajectory of serious mental illness in a largely medication-naive population. We are thrilled to support the research team at Oxford in this first-of-its-kind trial.”

 

 

To learn more about Baszucki Group’s ongoing funded studies, visit the Metabolic Mind website.

 

 

About Baszucki Group

 

 

Launched in 2021 by Roblox founder and Chief Executive Officer David Baszucki and best-selling author Jan Ellison Baszucki, Baszucki Group leverages grantmaking, impact investing, advocacy, storytelling, and community building to drive foundational change in science, medicine, farming, food, and environmental ecosystems. A primary focus of Baszucki Group is supporting initiatives at the intersection of metabolism, psychiatry, and neuroscience with the goal of improving mental health outcomes. To learn more about metabolic approaches to mental disorders and brain health, including ketogenic therapy, visit Metabolic Mind, a nonprofit initiative of Baszucki Group.

 

 

 

 

 

business

Cognite and ABB Collaborate to Integrate Agentic AI into Industrial Applications to Deliver Faster Workflows

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Business Wire India

 

Cognite, the leader in Industrial AI, today announced a collaboration with ABB to assess how advanced industrial AI and data capabilities can be integrated to solve key use cases in the energy sector. By adding an agentic layer to established industrial applications, including ABB Ability™ SafetyInsight™ and ABB Ability™ AlarmInsight™, using the Cognite Industrial AI and Data platform, the collaboration aims to enable “agent-to-agent” orchestration. Leading energy producer Aker BP has signed on as the first customer to implement this new generation of intelligent offerings as part of its strategy to further increase its current production efficiency of 96% and achieve a production growth target of 525,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2028.

 

Transforming Data into Actionable Business Value

 

 

By breaking down traditional data silos and shifting to outcome-based software orchestration, the collaboration aims to deliver significant business value to ABB and Cognite customers, including Aker BP:

 

 

  • Faster Workflows: Agentic orchestration will allow complex processes, such as multi-system risk assessments and alarm rationalization, to be completed an order of magnitude faster than manual coordination
  • Accelerated Analysis and Decision Making: Established applications like ABB Ability SafetyInsight and ABB Ability AlarmInsight can now operate as active agents that autonomously interpret data, reason through logic, and trigger cross-system actions
  • Improved Risk Mitigation: The agentic layer will connect disparate data points in real time, reducing human error and preventing information overload for operators in critical-path environments

 

 

“Our goal at Aker BP is to be a leader in efficient operations, and that requires us to maximize the value of every piece of software in our stack,” said Paula Doyle, Chief Digital Officer at Aker BP. “This agentic framework allows us to scale our digital strategy, moving us closer to our goal of deploying hundreds of agents by 2026, all working in concert to solve complex workflows that were once highly manual.”

 

“ABB is committed to helping our customers transition toward autonomous operations,” added Gino Hernandez, Head of Global Digital Business at ABB’s Energy Industries Division. “By integrating critical industrial applications such as alarm and safety insights with an agent-to-agent orchestration model, customers can prioritize critical interventions, accelerate decision making, and reduce risk to enable safer and more reliable operations.”

 

 

Dr. John Markus Lervik, Founder at Cognite, concluded: “Aker BP is redefining what it means to be an industrial company. By fusing ABB’s domain expertise and industrial applications with Cognite’s Industrial AI innovation, we are moving the energy industry toward a new pattern of operating where systems ‘talk’ to one another to solve its most complex challenges.”

 

 

About Cognite

 

 

Cognite makes AI work for industry. Leading energy, manufacturing, and power & renewables enterprises choose Cognite to deliver secure, trustworthy, and real-time data to transform their asset-heavy operations to be safer, more sustainable, and profitable. Cognite provides a user-friendly, secure, and scalable industrial data & AI platform that makes it easy for all decision-makers, from the field to remote operations centers, to access and understand complex industrial data, collaborate in real-time, and build a better tomorrow. Visit us at www.cognite.com, and follow us on LinkedIn.