ICFAI Business School Begins Admissions for IBSAT 2026; First Registration Deadline Set for December 1

HYDERABAD, India, Nov. 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — ICFAI Business School (IBS) has opened applications for the ICFAI Business School Aptitude Test (IBSAT 2026), the entrance exam for its two-year, full-time MBA and PGPM programs across nine campuses nationwide. Candidates can apply for admission to IBS campuses in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Dehradun, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune.

The registration deadline for the initial exam phase is December 1, 2026, with testing scheduled to begin on December 5 and 6.

To accommodate applicants, IBS is offering a multi-stage exam format held across four weekend cycles throughout December. The remote-proctored exam allows candidates to take the test from home during two daily time slots: 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM and 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM. Results for each weekend cycle will be published on the following Monday.

IBS is also continuing its Rs10 crore merit scholarship scheme for the upcoming academic year. A Rs 2 lakh scholarship will be awarded to 500 top-performing candidates based on their scores in IBSAT or other recognized national entrance exams.

The IBSAT 2026 is a 140-minute, remote online test consisting of 140 multiple-choice questions across four sections: Quantitative Aptitude, Verbal Ability, Reading Comprehension, and Data Interpretation. There is no negative marking. In addition to IBSAT, IBS accepts scores from CAT, XAT, NMAT by GMAC, and GMAT, and a single application form covers all nine campuses. Since the test is remote-proctored, candidates can take it from home without traveling to a test center.

Shortlisted applicants will proceed to the final selection process in February 2027, which features micro-presentations and personal interviews. Candidates can read experiences shared by previous applicants from the 2026 selection process here.

For over 30 years, IBS institutions have consistently delivered a placement rate of more than 90%, enabling alumni to secure strong roles in the corporate world. Today, the network includes nearly 79,000 alumni, with 40% holding senior management positions and 10% working in international roles. Explore the 2026 placement success stories here.

Online registration is open at ibsat.org. Physical application forms are also available at IBS Information Offices.

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ExpertCrowd and HUD Collaborate to Advance AI Training and Evaluation, Release SWE Benchmark

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — ExpertCrowd, Toptal‘s platform for training and improving AI models and systems, today announced a collaboration with HUD, a Y Combinator-backed startup that provides tools for building AI training data through its DataVendor™ marketplace. Together, the teams released ExpertCrowd-SWE, a software engineering benchmark that evaluates the performance of frontier-grade LLMs and coding agents.

As AI systems take on increasingly complex work, measuring their capabilities requires tasks that reflect professional practice and grading criteria that capture what successful execution actually means. This collaboration brings together ExpertCrowd’s expert-led task development and HUD’s infrastructure for running complex RL environments.

ExpertCrowd and HUD co-developed ExpertCrowd-SWE, bringing together engineers from Toptal’s global network of highly skilled domain experts with HUD’s experience collaborating with frontier research teams. After Toptal’s experts authored tasks and grading rubrics, HUD’s infrastructure hosted task-run environments and verified the benchmarks against internal quality assurance pipelines. HUD and Toptal’s AI research teams, composed of more than a dozen PhDs and researchers with educational or professional experience at Harvard, EPFL, the University of Liège, DeepMind, Qwen, and ByteDance, reviewed and assessed the methodology and results to build one of the most robust software engineering benchmarks in the industry.

“ExpertCrowd puts practitioners at the center of defining the work AI systems should perform and judging how well they perform it. By combining that specialized expertise with HUD’s testing infrastructure, we’re advancing what AI systems can achieve and setting a higher standard for real-world performance,” said Taso Du Val, founder and CEO of Toptal.

ExpertCrowd-SWE is the first release of an ongoing Toptal-HUD collaboration, with additional initiatives in development and further announcements coming soon. Building on this foundation, ExpertCrowd and HUD will bring more specialized human expertise into the tasks, environments, and evaluations that support the next generation of AI.

“We built HUD’s infrastructure to give research teams the tools to create realistic RL training environments, run evaluations across AI models, and inspect model performance. ExpertCrowd put that infrastructure to work, bringing the professional expertise to translate complex, real-world workflows into rigorous tasks, reference outputs, and evaluation frameworks that test the limits of today’s leading AI models,” said Jay Ram, founder and CEO of HUD.

About ExpertCrowd

ExpertCrowd is Toptal’s platform for training and improving AI models and systems through RLHF, RL data generation, data labeling, and model evaluation. It is powered by Toptal’s global talent network, with more than 30,000 specialized domain experts across 140+ countries, including more than 2,000 AI and big data specialists, 12,000 professionals with advanced degrees, and 1,000 PhD-level AI specialists, available on demand. For more information, please visit ExpertCrowd.com.

About HUD

HUD is a platform for building reinforcement learning environments, used by startups, Fortune 500 companies, and frontier labs. It provides infrastructure for training models, evaluating AI agents, and creating the post-training data that aligns AI to organizations’ work. HUD’s mission is to build reliable, fair, and open infrastructure for AI data with the goal of making data valuable for the people who create it and trustworthy for the labs that train on it. DataVendor™ is HUD’s marketplace, which allows AI labs to license training and evaluation data directly from the companies that created it. For more information, please visit HUD.ai.

Contact

Luiz Baia

SVP of Marketing Strategy

luiz.baia@toptal.com

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/expertcrowd-and-hud-collaborate-to-advance-ai-training-and-evaluation-release-swe-benchmark-302931733.html

ExpertCrowd and HUD Collaborate to Advance AI Training and Evaluation, Release SWE Benchmark

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — ExpertCrowd, Toptal‘s platform for training and improving AI models and systems, today announced a collaboration with HUD, a Y Combinator-backed startup that provides tools for building AI training data through its DataVendor™ marketplace. Together, the teams released ExpertCrowd-SWE, a software engineering benchmark that evaluates the performance of frontier-grade LLMs and coding agents.

As AI systems take on increasingly complex work, measuring their capabilities requires tasks that reflect professional practice and grading criteria that capture what successful execution actually means. This collaboration brings together ExpertCrowd’s expert-led task development and HUD’s infrastructure for running complex RL environments.

ExpertCrowd and HUD co-developed ExpertCrowd-SWE, bringing together engineers from Toptal’s global network of highly skilled domain experts with HUD’s experience collaborating with frontier research teams. After Toptal’s experts authored tasks and grading rubrics, HUD’s infrastructure hosted task-run environments and verified the benchmarks against internal quality assurance pipelines. HUD and Toptal’s AI research teams, composed of more than a dozen PhDs and researchers with educational or professional experience at Harvard, EPFL, the University of Liège, DeepMind, Qwen, and ByteDance, reviewed and assessed the methodology and results to build one of the most robust software engineering benchmarks in the industry.

“ExpertCrowd puts practitioners at the center of defining the work AI systems should perform and judging how well they perform it. By combining that specialized expertise with HUD’s testing infrastructure, we’re advancing what AI systems can achieve and setting a higher standard for real-world performance,” said Taso Du Val, founder and CEO of Toptal.

ExpertCrowd-SWE is the first release of an ongoing Toptal-HUD collaboration, with additional initiatives in development and further announcements coming soon. Building on this foundation, ExpertCrowd and HUD will bring more specialized human expertise into the tasks, environments, and evaluations that support the next generation of AI.

“We built HUD’s infrastructure to give research teams the tools to create realistic RL training environments, run evaluations across AI models, and inspect model performance. ExpertCrowd put that infrastructure to work, bringing the professional expertise to translate complex, real-world workflows into rigorous tasks, reference outputs, and evaluation frameworks that test the limits of today’s leading AI models,” said Jay Ram, founder and CEO of HUD.

About ExpertCrowd

ExpertCrowd is Toptal’s platform for training and improving AI models and systems through RLHF, RL data generation, data labeling, and model evaluation. It is powered by Toptal’s global talent network, with more than 30,000 specialized domain experts across 140+ countries, including more than 2,000 AI and big data specialists, 12,000 professionals with advanced degrees, and 1,000 PhD-level AI specialists, available on demand. For more information, please visit ExpertCrowd.com.

About HUD

HUD is a platform for building reinforcement learning environments, used by startups, Fortune 500 companies, and frontier labs. It provides infrastructure for training models, evaluating AI agents, and creating the post-training data that aligns AI to organizations’ work. HUD’s mission is to build reliable, fair, and open infrastructure for AI data with the goal of making data valuable for the people who create it and trustworthy for the labs that train on it. DataVendor™ is HUD’s marketplace, which allows AI labs to license training and evaluation data directly from the companies that created it. For more information, please visit HUD.ai.

Contact

Luiz Baia

SVP of Marketing Strategy

luiz.baia@toptal.com

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/expertcrowd-and-hud-collaborate-to-advance-ai-training-and-evaluation-release-swe-benchmark-302931733.html

Algolia Powers Orange with AI Agents for Billing Support: NYSE Content Update

NYSE issues a pre-market daily advisory direct from the trading floor.

NEW YORK, Nov. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) provides a daily pre-market update directly from the NYSE Trading Floor. Access today’s NYSE Pre-market update for market insights before trading begins. 

Ashley Mastronardi delivers the pre-market update on November 6th

• Algolia announced it’s providing AI solutions for Orange Group.
  • Orange Group is introducing AI agents into billing and account support across its B2B and B2C operations in more than 26 countries.
  • Orange will deploy Algolia’s Agent Studio to put AI agents into regulated customer support conversations.
  • Algolia CEO Stephen Lynch will join NYSE Live to explain why governance makes this all possible.
• Exceptional Capital released the third edition of the Exceptional 100.
  • The list highlights engineers, researchers, and product builders across the tech ecosystem.
  • Managing Partner Andrew Van Nest will join NYSE Live to discuss how the list helps find the leaders of tomorrow.
• American Savings Bank says it’s bringing the ‘Aloha Spirit’ to the NYSE.
  • CEO + President Ann Teranishi will discuss her company’s biggest accomplishments since going public earlier this year.
  • Shares of ASBH are up double digits since beginning trade in September.

Opening Bell

American Savings Bank (NYSE: ASBH) celebrates its NYSE listing

Closing Bell

The Aspen Institute rings the Closing Bell

For market insights, IPO activity, and today’s opening bell, download the NYSE TV App and check out the NYSE YouTube: TV.NYSE.com and YouTube.com/@NYSEofficial

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SILVERSEA MARKS HISTORIC OPENING OF THE CORMORANT AT 55 SOUTH, THE SOUTHERNMOST HOTEL ON EARTH, OFFERING A NEW GATEWAY TO ANTARCTICA

Silversea celebrates the opening of the 150-room hotel in Puerto Williams, Chile, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony featuring performances by local children and artists  

MIAMI, Nov. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Silversea, the leading experiential luxury and expedition travel brand, has officially opened The Cormorant at 55 South, a new 150-room hotel in Puerto Williams, Chile, the southernmost city on Earth. Marking a historic moment for the brand and a first-of-its-kind venture for Silversea and Royal Caribbean Group, the hotel opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on November 5, featuring Silversea executive leadership, Chilean national and regional authorities, and members of the local community. Developed in partnership with a consortium of Chilean investors, the hotel reflects the region it calls home while acting as the new gateway to Silversea’s Antarctica Fly Cruise program. Every guest on the Antarctica Fly Cruise expedition will now arrive in Puerto Williams on a Silversea-branded charter flight and stay at The Cormorant, before continuing their journey to the Last Continent.

“Today marks a defining moment for Silversea,” said Bert Hernandez, president, Silversea. “We opened The Cormorant at 55 South to make the journey to Antarctica easier and more comfortable for our guests. Now the expedition begins here, in a hotel designed around Puerto Williams, with the same service our guests expect while on board our ships. Silversea has always been about going further, and this is another example of how we are continuing to invest in the guest experience.”

A FIRST FOR SILVERSEA AT THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF THE WORLD

The Cormorant carries on the leadership Silversea established in 2008, when it pioneered luxury expedition cruising, from the ship to the shore. Staffed by a team trained through The Silversea Way, Silversea’s service culture, the hotel brings the brand’s personalized service to the first welcome in Puerto Williams, and it was built to the standard guests expect on board. Built using modular construction, each of the 150 rooms were built in Mendoza, Argentina, and transported across the Andes and Patagonia to its place at 55 degrees south.

Its architecture and interiors draw on the landscape, local traditions, and regional materials, and that sense of place extends through the experience. Three large-scale works by Chilean artists bring the landscape, geology, and ecology of the far south into the hotel, while food and beverage begin with the destination itself and are built around local ingredients.

THE START OF THE ANTARCTICA FLY CRUISE JOURNEY

Guests on an Antarctica Fly Cruise expedition fly non-stop from Silversea’s private terminal in Santiago to Puerto Williams on Silversea-branded charter flights and stay at The Cormorant before and after their voyage. Inside, the design moves guests from water and darkness toward warmth, wood, and fire.

Each space is designed to bring the region to life, making the destination the very heart of the experience.

• Latitude 55: Rooted in Chilean flavors, regional ingredients, and local culinary traditions – like the asado – The Cormorant’s restaurant, Latitude 55, brings Chilean Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, and Puerto Williams to the table. Menus start with what grows, grazes, and swims in the region, and dinner is served family-style, with large platters at the center of the table.

• Bar Sur: The hotel’s social center serves teas and small bites by day and Chilean wines and spirits in the evening, with a wine list that tours Chile from north to south. Calafate, a deep indigo native berry, anchors the cocktails alongside Chilean Pisco, a national spirit, in flavors that are tart, herbal, and warm, with a hint of smoke that echoes the asado fire. Other experiences include a guided Pisco journey led by the Bar Sur team and wine tastings led by the hotel’s sommelier.

• Fireplace: Inspired by the regional tradition of fire as a place for hospitality and storytelling, the Fireplace offers plush seating and expansive windows overlooking the Patagonian landscape.

• Art and Design: Three large-scale works by Chilean artists anchor the interiors: Navarino, a steel sculpture by Paola Vezzani suspended in the main lobby; Dientes de Navarino, a bar mural by Cata Flaño; and La Memoria de las Piedras, an installation of seventy handcrafted ceramic stones by Javier Canales.

• Outdoor Experiences: Guests can kayak the sheltered waters of the Beagle Channel, hike the shoreline trails of Seno Lauta, and explore the landscape on horseback, with plenty of chances to spot cormorants, dolphin gulls, and upland geese along the way.

OPENING DAY: A CEREMONY SHAPED BY PUERTO WILLIAMS

The grand opening of The Cormorant drew on the music, history, and community of Chile’s far south.

Los Chamames de la Patagonia, a folk ensemble founded in Punta Arenas in 2015, performed a Patagonian chamamé with children from the local Grupo Folklorico. The musical tradition has Guaraní roots in northeastern Argentina and traveled south with seasonal workers, shepherds, and families. Local schoolchildren sang the Chilean national anthem, accompanied by young musicians.

The ribbon, featuring natural junco fibers handwoven by local artisans, featured a chain of interconnected circles that symbolize the connections between people, cultures, and territories, and a meeting point between Patagonia, its communities, and travelers from around the world. Specially designed links allowed the hotel’s leaders and Chilean authorities to cut it together while the woven circles remained intact.

STARTING WITH 29 ANTARCTICA FLY CRUISE VOYAGES

The Cormorant represents a long-term investment in how Silversea delivers the Antarctica experience.

Through March 2027, Silver Endeavour, Silver Wind, and Silver Cloud will operate 40 voyages, including 29 Antarctica Fly Cruise voyages, each featuring a stay at The Cormorant at 55 South. The season’s itineraries range from six to 21 nights and extend beyond the Antarctic Peninsula to South Georgia and the Falkland Islands.

For more information on The Cormorant at 55 South and Silversea’s Antarctica Fly Cruise program, visit: https://www.silversea.com/the-cormorant-at-55-south.html

Find additional assets in our digital press kit: https://royalcaribbeangrouppresscenter.com/silversea/dpk/cormorant

About Silversea

Silversea is the leading experiential luxury and expedition travel brand, offering guests immersive experiences on all seven continents, personalized service, and an innovative culinary offering aboard its 12 intimate ocean and expedition ships. Silversea’s itineraries encompass an unparalleled range of destinations worldwide, from the Mediterranean and the Caribbean to the Galápagos, both Polar Regions, and hundreds of fascinating places in between. Set to strengthen its destination leadership starting in 2026, the brand is developing the southernmost hotel on Earth, The Cormorant at 55 South, in Puerto Williams, Chile – offering guests a uniquely seamless journey to Antarctica. Silversea brings its like-minded guests closer to their destination in uncompromised comfort, championing the joy of travel, an enriching spirit of discovery, and an enduring commitment to Silversea’s signature “To Finding More” promise. Silversea is owned and operated by global cruise company Royal Caribbean Group (NYSE: RCL). For more information, visit www.silversea.com. Media can stay up to date by visiting the brand’s press center.

Silversea, Otium, S.A.L.T., The Cormorant at 55 South, To Finding More, and the various ship names are registered trademarks of Silversea Cruises LLC.

About Royal Caribbean Group

Royal Caribbean Group is a leading global vacation company spanning cruise, one-of-a-kind destinations, and land-based vacation experiences. The company operates 71 ships sailing to more than 1,000 destinations across all seven continents through its three wholly owned brands – Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises, and Silversea – and a 50% joint venture interest in TUI Cruises, which operates the Mein Schiff and Hapag-Lloyd brands.

The Group is expanding its portfolio of private destinations through its Perfect Day and Royal Beach Club collections, and the company will enter river cruising in 2027 with Celebrity River Cruises. Powered by innovative brands, advanced technology, and an industry-leading loyalty program, the company has built a connected vacation ecosystem, turning the vacation of a lifetime into a lifetime of vacations. 

Named to the Fortune World’s Most Admired Companies 2026 list and to Forbes’ 2026 Best American Companies lists, Royal Caribbean Group is guided by its mission to deliver the best vacations responsibly. For more information, visit royalcaribbeangroup.com.

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Aon and funds managed by Blackstone launch Cortina, a new Lloyd’s syndicate offering efficient, long-term capital to reinsurance clients

• Participating Aon clients benefit from the efficient structure through a client dividend
• Operating within Lloyd’s, with QBE as Managing Agent, Cortina is expected to begin underwriting from 1 January 2027

DUBLIN, Nov. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Aon plc (NYSE: AON), a leading global professional services firm, and funds managed by Blackstone (NYSE: BX), the world’s largest alternative asset manager, today announced the launch of Cortina syndicate 1956, a new Lloyd’s syndicate that will provide dedicated, multi-year reinsurance capacity, broaden the capital available to clients and support the continued growth and resilience of the reinsurance marketplace.

Cortina received Lloyd’s Council’s “in principle” approval on 16 October 2026 and is continuing to work with Lloyd’s to complete the necessary “Making It Happen” actions in advance of granting of permission to underwrite from 1 January 2027. 

Cortina’s efficient operating model will bring long-term institutional capital into the market and pass that efficiency on to cedents. Clients will benefit from the economic efficiencies of Cortina’s structure via a dividend based on Cortina’s share of their reinsurance programs. The syndicate will offer following capacity on all eligible treaties, subject to a defined framework, providing clients with a stable source of capacity across renewal cycles. For participating clients, Cortina will write three percent of eligible property catastrophe excess-of-loss treaties and five percent of all other eligible treaties arranged by Aon.

Cortina will complement traditional reinsurers through a conventional “lead/follow” approach. The syndicate follows the terms and claims decisions set by the lead reinsurer(s) on each placement, so that underwriting expertise stays at the center of every program. Cortina provides clients with the financial security of a Lloyd’s syndicate (A+ financial strength rating) and one of the market’s largest and most experienced Managing Agents, QBE, which will be responsible for the syndicate’s underwriting and governance. Cortina intends to begin underwriting from 1 January 2027, subject to final Lloyd’s approval.

“As risks grow in scale and complexity, clients are looking for effective risk transfer solutions that consider all forms of available capital,” said Greg Case, President and CEO, Aon. “Cortina is bringing additional, long-term capital through Blackstone together with QBE’s expertise and the strength of Lloyd’s to expand the market’s capacity to take risk, help close protection gaps and enable greater resilience, investment and growth.”

“The partnership with Aon and QBE will broaden the pools of capital available to the reinsurance market, expanding capacity and strengthening resilience across market cycles,” said Jon Gray, President and Chief Operating Officer, Blackstone. “We remain strong supporters of continued innovation at Lloyd’s and are long-term investors in the sector. This partnership will help meet clients’ evolving needs while supporting the market’s long-term growth.”

“Cortina is a first-of-its-kind model for reinsurance capacity at Lloyd’s,” said Jason Harris, QBE International CEO. “As managing agent, we bring deep, specialist underwriting expertise and our leading Lloyd’s capability to a syndicate that combines long-term institutional capital with stable, disciplined reinsurance capacity. It also gives us the opportunity to further grow our business through an innovative model. For QBE Re, the strategy remains unchanged: a continued focus on building long-term partnerships.”

“Lloyd’s takes pride in being a market of firsts and in being the most capital-efficient marketplace in the world to connect capital to insurance risk,” said Patrick Tiernan, Chief Executive, Lloyd’s. “By structuring this transaction at Lloyd’s, we see the marriage of new long-term capital through our London Bridge 2 framework, with the highest underwriting and oversight standards to create long term value for clients, investors and the marketplace. This is total innovation in action.”  

About Aon

Aon plc (NYSE: AON) exists to shape decisions for the better — to protect and enrich the lives of people around the world. Through actionable analytic insight, globally integrated Risk Capital and Human Capital expertise, and locally relevant solutions, our colleagues provide clients in over 120 countries with the clarity and confidence to make better risk and people decisions that help protect and grow their businesses.

Follow Aon on LinkedIn, X, Facebook and Instagram. Stay up-to-date by visiting Aon’s newsroom and sign up for news alerts here.

About Blackstone

Blackstone is the world’s largest alternative asset manager. Blackstone seeks to deliver compelling returns for institutional and individual investors by strengthening the companies in which the firm invests. Blackstone’s nearly $1.4 trillion in assets under management include global investment strategies focused on real estate, private equity, credit, infrastructure, life sciences, growth equity, secondaries and hedge funds. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com.

Follow @blackstone on LinkedIn, X (Twitter), and Instagram. 

About QBE

QBE International is a global risk partner specialising in commercial insurance and reinsurance, helping businesses grow with confidence in an increasingly uncertain risk environment. We bring together a broad product range spanning sectors including marine, energy, aviation, property, casualty, financial lines and portfolio solutions, as well as new economy sectors such as data centers, renewables and cyber. Behind every policy is a team that combines specialist underwriting, claims and risk expertise to serve clients globally.

QBE International is part of QBE Insurance Group, one of the world’s leading international insurers and reinsurers and Standard & Poor’s AA- rated. Listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, QBE’s gross written premium for the year ended 31 December 2025 was US$24.0 billion.

Media Contacts

Aon

mediainquiries@aon.com

Toll-free (U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico): +1 833 751 8114

International: +1 312 381 3024

Blackstone

Matt Thomas

Matthew.Thomas@Blackstone.com

 +44 7350 445003

QBE

Alexis Burris +44 203 465 3921 alexis.burris@qbe.com

Georgie Hall +44 7890 647 808 georgie.hall@qbe.com 

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ExpertCrowd and HUD Collaborate to Advance AI Training and Evaluation, Release SWE Benchmark

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — ExpertCrowd, Toptal‘s platform for training and improving AI models and systems, today announced a collaboration with HUD, a Y Combinator-backed startup that provides tools for building AI training data through its DataVendor™ marketplace. Together, the teams released ExpertCrowd-SWE, a software engineering benchmark that evaluates the performance of frontier-grade LLMs and coding agents.

As AI systems take on increasingly complex work, measuring their capabilities requires tasks that reflect professional practice and grading criteria that capture what successful execution actually means. This collaboration brings together ExpertCrowd’s expert-led task development and HUD’s infrastructure for running complex RL environments.

ExpertCrowd and HUD co-developed ExpertCrowd-SWE, bringing together engineers from Toptal’s global network of highly skilled domain experts with HUD’s experience collaborating with frontier research teams. After Toptal’s experts authored tasks and grading rubrics, HUD’s infrastructure hosted task-run environments and verified the benchmarks against internal quality assurance pipelines. HUD and Toptal’s AI research teams, composed of more than a dozen PhDs and researchers with educational or professional experience at Harvard, EPFL, the University of Liège, DeepMind, Qwen, and ByteDance, reviewed and assessed the methodology and results to build one of the most robust software engineering benchmarks in the industry.

“ExpertCrowd puts practitioners at the center of defining the work AI systems should perform and judging how well they perform it. By combining that specialized expertise with HUD’s testing infrastructure, we’re advancing what AI systems can achieve and setting a higher standard for real-world performance,” said Taso Du Val, founder and CEO of Toptal.

ExpertCrowd-SWE is the first release of an ongoing Toptal-HUD collaboration, with additional initiatives in development and further announcements coming soon. Building on this foundation, ExpertCrowd and HUD will bring more specialized human expertise into the tasks, environments, and evaluations that support the next generation of AI.

“We built HUD’s infrastructure to give research teams the tools to create realistic RL training environments, run evaluations across AI models, and inspect model performance. ExpertCrowd put that infrastructure to work, bringing the professional expertise to translate complex, real-world workflows into rigorous tasks, reference outputs, and evaluation frameworks that test the limits of today’s leading AI models,” said Jay Ram, founder and CEO of HUD.

About ExpertCrowd

ExpertCrowd is Toptal’s platform for training and improving AI models and systems through RLHF, RL data generation, data labeling, and model evaluation. It is powered by Toptal’s global talent network, with more than 30,000 specialized domain experts across 140+ countries, including more than 2,000 AI and big data specialists, 12,000 professionals with advanced degrees, and 1,000 PhD-level AI specialists, available on demand. For more information, please visit ExpertCrowd.com.

About HUD

HUD is a platform for building reinforcement learning environments, used by startups, Fortune 500 companies, and frontier labs. It provides infrastructure for training models, evaluating AI agents, and creating the post-training data that aligns AI to organizations’ work. HUD’s mission is to build reliable, fair, and open infrastructure for AI data with the goal of making data valuable for the people who create it and trustworthy for the labs that train on it. DataVendor™ is HUD’s marketplace, which allows AI labs to license training and evaluation data directly from the companies that created it. For more information, please visit HUD.ai.

Contact

Luiz Baia

SVP of Marketing Strategy

luiz.baia@toptal.com

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/expertcrowd-and-hud-collaborate-to-advance-ai-training-and-evaluation-release-swe-benchmark-302931733.html

Beko’s FlexiStart helps households run appliances when electricity is cheaper

New HomeWhiz feature schedules appliance cycles for lower-cost hours, helping households reduce electricity costs while supporting more flexible demand on the grid.

ISTANBUL, Nov. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Beko announces FlexiStart, a new feature powered by its HomeWhiz app that enables connected home appliances to run when electricity is cheaper. Available from January 2027, with energy provider integration starting in Germany and Türkiye, FlexiStart gives households a simple way to pay less for electricity by moving part of their use away from peak hours.

Ahead of its rollout, Beko will showcase FlexiStart at COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye (9–20 November 2026), as an example of how connected appliances can help households shift their electricity use in response to prices, the kind of demand flexibility that energy systems increasingly need as the share of renewable energy grows.

Electricity is not priced the same all day as prices fluctuate with the balance between supply and demand. They tend to fall when demand is low or supply is plentiful and rise in the morning and especially the evening as demand climbs. FlexiStart puts that gap to work. For households on dynamic or time-of-use tariffs, that difference shows up directly on their bill.

HomeWhiz looks at the day’s prices and suggests the best time to run the chosen program. One tap confirms it, and the appliance runs the same operation cycle during a lower-cost period.

FlexiStart works in two ways. Where Beko partners with an energy provider, the provider’s tariff prices flow into HomeWhiz automatically, so every time interval recommendation is based on up-to-date prices. Users can also enter the cheaper hours of their own tariff, and FlexiStart schedules operation cycles within them.

The feature will be available on washing machines, dishwashers and tumble dryers, with plans to add refrigerators and air conditioners for later in 2027.

Two new energy provider partnerships in Germany and Türkiye are planned to go live at launch, giving their customers time interval recommendations based on their own tariff automatically. The partnerships connect what households pay for electricity with how their appliances use it: customers can benefit from lower-cost periods, while providers gain more flexible demand to support grid balancing. Both follow an earlier pilot in the Netherlands, and Beko plans to extend partnerships to further markets in phases. 

As the share of variable renewable electricity grows, power systems need more demand optimisation that can shift across the day. The EU Code of Conduct on Energy Smart Appliances (ESA) sets out how appliances provide this flexibility, with brands committing to make them work with home energy management systems from any brand through a common standard. Beko is a founding signatory of the Code, and FlexiStart puts the same idea into practice in everyday homes.

“A small shift in when households turn their appliances on can add up to real flexibility for the grid, and lower bills for the families who make it happen,” said Ragıp Balcıoğlu, Global Chief Marketing Officer, Beko. “FlexiStart makes that shift simple. Bringing it to COP31 is our way of showing that the energy transition happens in homes as well as in power stations.”

About Beko

Beko is an international home appliance company with a strong global presence, operating through subsidiaries in more than 55 countries with a workforce of around 45,000 employees and production facilities spanning multiple regions—including Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Beko has 22 brands owned or used with a limited license (Arçelik, Beko, Whirlpool*, Grundig, Hotpoint, Arctic, Ariston*, Leisure, Indesit, Blomberg, Defy, Dawlance, Hitachi*, Voltas Beko, Singer*, ElektraBregenz, Flavel, Bauknecht, Privileg, Altus, Ignis, Polar). Beko is the largest white goods company in Europe with its market share (based on volumes) and reached a consolidated turnover of 10.7 billion Euros in 2025. Beko’s 28 R&D and Design Centers & Offices across the globe are home to over 2,000 R&D employees and hold more than 4,500 international registered patent applications to date. The company has achieved the highest score in the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) in the DHP Household Durables industry for the seventh consecutive year (based on the results dated 16 October 2025).** The company has been recognized as the 89th most sustainable company on TIME Magazine and Statista’s 2026 list of the World’s Most Sustainable Companies and has been the sector leader for three consecutive years. Beko’s vision is ‘Respecting the World, Respected Worldwide.’   

www.bekocorporate.com   

*Licensee limited to certain jurisdictions.  

**The data presented belongs to Arçelik A.Ş., a parent company of Beko.  %

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Retort Pharmaceuticals Refreshes Hercoff for a New Chapter in Accessible Throat Care

The Chennai-based company is building on the product’s legacy with a convenience-led format and plans to expand its retail distribution.

CHENNAI, India, Nov. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — How a healthcare product reaches consumers can be as important as how it is formulated. For Retort Pharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd., this thinking is shaping the next phase of Hercoff, its throat-care brand, as the company refreshes its market positioning and works to expand its availability through retail channels.

With a single-dose sachet format alongside a conventional syrup bottle, Hercoff brings together two practical considerations in everyday product access: convenience and affordability. The renewed brand push reflects Retort Pharmaceuticals’ ambition to develop Hercoff into a recognised household name in throat care.

Reimagining the everyday product experience

Hercoff is available in a 10 ml single-dose sachet and a 100 ml syrup bottle. The sachet format offers an alternative to a conventional bottle, with a defined serving size and a compact presentation designed for convenience.

The company has also developed retail packaging that allows boxes of sachets to function as counter dispensers, offering chemists and general stores a practical way to display the product.

These decisions reflect the brand’s focus on the everyday retail experience, from how a product is presented at the counter to how consumers can purchase it in a convenient format.

Hercoff’s formulation includes ingredients such as vasaka, mulethi, ginger, pippali and pudina. Its product positioning draws on these familiar ingredients while placing emphasis on accessibility and convenience.

From product availability to a wider market presence

Retort Pharmaceuticals is building its distribution network in Tamil Nadu while exploring opportunities to extend Hercoff’s reach into the North-East.

The company’s current efforts include outreach to distributors in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Manipur, with markets such as Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Nagaon, Shillong, Agartala and Imphal among those identified for distribution development.

The objective is to build a wider retail presence through chemists and general stores, creating a foundation for the brand’s longer-term growth.

Rather than treating the current market push as a one-time launch, the company sees distribution development as part of the broader process of establishing Hercoff in the throat-care category.

Building towards a household brand

For Retort Pharmaceuticals, the ambition for Hercoff extends beyond introducing a product or refreshing its packaging. The company wants to build a recognisable household throat-care brand, supported by convenient formats, an accessible price point and growing retail availability.

As it develops the brand’s market presence, the next phase will focus on strengthening distribution and building familiarity with Hercoff among consumers and retail partners.

About Retort Pharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd.

Retort Pharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd., based in Chennai, is part of the Retort Group, a healthcare business with interests in Ayurvedic and allopathic products. The group describes its approach as bringing together Ayurvedic knowledge and modern medicine, with an emphasis on accessible healthcare.

For more information, visit the Retort Group website: https://retort.in/ / Email: admin@retort.in

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Algolia Powers Orange with AI Agents for Billing Support: NYSE Content Update

NYSE issues a pre-market daily advisory direct from the trading floor.

NEW YORK, Nov. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) provides a daily pre-market update directly from the NYSE Trading Floor. Access today’s NYSE Pre-market update for market insights before trading begins. 

Ashley Mastronardi delivers the pre-market update on November 6th

• Algolia announced it’s providing AI solutions for Orange Group.
  • Orange Group is introducing AI agents into billing and account support across its B2B and B2C operations in more than 26 countries.
  • Orange will deploy Algolia’s Agent Studio to put AI agents into regulated customer support conversations.
  • Algolia CEO Stephen Lynch will join NYSE Live to explain why governance makes this all possible.
• Exceptional Capital released the third edition of the Exceptional 100.
  • The list highlights engineers, researchers, and product builders across the tech ecosystem.
  • Managing Partner Andrew Van Nest will join NYSE Live to discuss how the list helps find the leaders of tomorrow.
• American Savings Bank says it’s bringing the ‘Aloha Spirit’ to the NYSE.
  • CEO + President Ann Teranishi will discuss her company’s biggest accomplishments since going public earlier this year.
  • Shares of ASBH are up double digits since beginning trade in September.

Opening Bell

American Savings Bank (NYSE: ASBH) celebrates its NYSE listing

Closing Bell

The Aspen Institute rings the Closing Bell

For market insights, IPO activity, and today’s opening bell, download the NYSE TV App and check out the NYSE YouTube: TV.NYSE.com and YouTube.com/@NYSEofficial

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