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The Art of Living Rehabilitates Prison Inmates

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“Inside every culprit, there is a victim crying for help. When you heal the victim, the culprit disappears.” These words by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar encapsulate the profound philosophy driving the rehabilitation of prison inmates by The Art of Living.
Catalysing Transformation in the Criminal Justice System
The Prison Program, initiated by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in 1990, has been responsible for profound change within the criminal justice system. It addresses the intense stress faced by inmates and prison staff alike, promoting better mental health and more respectful relationships. The programme’s impact is far-reaching, with benefits including reduced depression and anxiety, improved sleep patterns and enhanced mutual understanding among inmates, as well as between correctional personnel and inmates.
In India alone, over 3,50,000 inmates have benefitted from yoga, pranayama, and meditation practices implemented in 100+ prisons. In Tihar Jail alone (Asia’s largest prison), more than 60,000 convicts and 130 prison staff have undergone these transformative programmes, leading to remarkable improvements in their mental and physical well-being.
These initiatives, which began with a focus on holistic rehabilitation, have evolved to include a broad spectrum of activities designed to address both emotional and practical needs. Since 2019, the lives of over 800,000 inmates across 65 countries have been positively impacted through Prison Skill Development Programs; with 6,500 inmates trained across 28 prisons in India alone.
Trio of Transformation: The Three-Step Approach
The rehabilitation programme’s success rests on a three-step approach:

Emotional Healing: At the core of the holistic, outcome-driven programmes are practices that include yoga, pranayama, meditation, the world famous breathwork Sudarshan Kriya and behavioural training. These programmes are conducted regularly, assisting inmates to alleviate accumulated stress from their nervous systems and break free from the cycle of negative emotions such as trauma, guilt, and anger. Participants learn to effectively manage negative emotions.
Vocational training: Providing vocational skills to prison inmates is a crucial step towards their successful reintegration into society. It equips them with the necessary tools and confidence to reenter the job market, ensuring positive contribution to their communities upon release. This approach not only offers inmates a sense of purpose and dignity but also significantly reduces the likelihood of reoffending.
De-stressing prison staff: Tailored programmes support the mental and emotional well-being of prison staff and law enforcement professionals, nurturing a healthier work environment. The unique stressors and challenges faced by individuals in these roles are addressed.

Certification and Job Assistance
In addition to vocational training,  inmates receive certification upon completing their courses, which boosts their workforce readiness significantly. Comprehensive job assistance services are also offered to help them secure employment upon release. This fusion of skill development, certification, and job support encourages inmates to reintegrate into society and build meaningful futures.
The Road Ahead
The mission of the Prison Program is clear: to bring about a holistic rehabilitation in prisoners’ lives and impact the lives of people within the criminal justice system. By turning time into talent, the Prison Program not only transforms the lives of inmates but also brings about a positive change in the criminal justice system. Through a combination of emotional healing and practical skill development, inmates are given the tools to rebuild their lives, reduce reoffending rates, and create a brighter future for themselves and their communities.
The post The Art of Living Rehabilitates Prison Inmates appeared first on HIPTHER Alerts.

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EU’s new AI rules: Industry opposed to revealing guarded trade secrets

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New regulations in the European Union (EU) are set to compel companies to increase transparency regarding the data they use to train artificial intelligence (AI) systems, potentially unveiling closely guarded industry practices, reports the Times of India.
Since OpenAI, supported by Microsoft, introduced ChatGPT to the public 18 months ago, there has been a surge in public interest and investment in generative AI. This technology enables rapid generation of text, images, and audio content.
As the AI industry expands, concerns have emerged regarding how companies source data for training their models, particularly whether using content from popular books and movies without creators’ consent constitutes a breach of copyright.
The EU’s new AI Act, phased in over the next two years, mandates stricter regulations while allowing time for businesses to adjust to new requirements. Nevertheless, the practical implementation of these rules remains uncertain, notes the report.
Mandating “detailed summaries”
A contentious provision of the AI Act requires organizations deploying general-purpose AI models like ChatGPT to provide “detailed summaries” of the training data. The newly established AI Office plans to release a template for these summaries by early 2025 after consulting stakeholders. However, AI companies oppose disclosing their training data, arguing it as a trade secret that could unfairly benefit competitors if made public, the report reveals.
In the past year, major tech firms including Google, OpenAI, and Stability AI have faced lawsuits alleging unauthorized use of content for AI training. Despite US President Joe Biden’s executive orders addressing AI security risks, legal challenges regarding copyright remain largely untested, the report adds.
Backlash against OpenAI
Amid heightened scrutiny, tech companies have struck content-licensing deals with media outlets and websites. OpenAI, for instance, has partnered with the Financial Times and The Atlantic, while Google has collaborated with NewsCorp and Reddit.
Despite these efforts, OpenAI drew criticism in March when Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati declined to confirm whether YouTube videos were used to train its video-generating tool, Sora, citing potential violations of company terms and conditions.
Source: business-standard.com
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Picsart teams up with Getty to take on Adobe’s ‘commercially-safe’ AI

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Picsart and Getty Images are joining forces to develop an AI image generator exclusively trained on Getty’s licensed stock content.
According to Picsart, their AI lab is constructing a bespoke model from the ground up to power this tool. It aims to provide the platform’s paying subscribers with the ability to generate images that come with full commercial rights. This initiative seeks to address persistent concerns about potential copyright violations associated with AI-generated content. The Picsart / Getty Images generator is slated for launch later this year and will be accessible through Picsart’s API services.
This collaboration bears similarities to Adobe’s Firefly AI model, initially introduced as a prompt-based image generation tool within Photoshop last year. Adobe has since expanded its integration across various Creative Cloud applications. Adobe’s model also emphasizes commercial safety by training on stock images from Adobe’s own library, along with openly licensed or out-of-copyright content. However, questions remain about the integrity of the training data and user trust in Adobe’s approach.
Getty Images has previously ventured into commercially-focused AI products through partnerships with Bria AI and Runway, and by teaming up with Nvidia to introduce “Generative AI by Getty Images,” leveraging its extensive catalog of licensed images. Adobe’s widespread integration of the Firefly model into popular applications like Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom, and Express may pose a challenge for Picsart’s new offering in terms of attracting creatives away from Adobe’s established ecosystem.
Source: theverge.com
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Microsoft to delay release of Recall AI feature on security concerns

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On June 13, Microsoft announced that it will postpone the rollout of its AI-powered feature “Recall” with new computers next week due to privacy concerns. Instead, the tech giant plans to offer Recall for preview to a smaller group later, following feedback and additional testing.
Recall is designed to track various activities from web browsing to voice chats, compiling a searchable history stored on the user’s computer. This allows users to easily retrieve past actions, even months later.
Originally slated for broad availability on June 18 for Copilot+ PC users, Recall will now undergo a preview phase exclusively within Microsoft’s Windows Insider Program (WIP) in the coming weeks. This decision, as stated in a blog post by the Redmond, Washington-based company, underscores their commitment to ensuring a trusted, secure, and reliable experience for all customers.
Copilot+ PCs, introduced in May, feature advanced AI capabilities aimed at enhancing user interactions and productivity. The WIP, a platform for software testing, enables enthusiasts to preview upcoming Windows operating system features.
Microsoft intends to incorporate feedback from the WIP community before extending the Recall preview to all Copilot+ PC users in the near future.
Following the feature’s announcement, concerns over privacy were swiftly voiced on social media, with some users fearing potential surveillance implications. Elon Musk, prominent technologist and billionaire, likened Recall to a scenario from the dystopian series “Black Mirror,” highlighting societal apprehensions about the impact of advanced technologies.
Source: reuters.com

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