America’s ‘nicest judge’ Frank Caprio, who drew huge online audience with his kindness, dies at 88
Rhode Island: Frank Caprio, the Rhode Island judge whose compassionate courtroom manner made him a global sensation, passed away on August 20 at the age of 88.
His death after “a long and courageous battle with pancreatic cancer” was announced through a statement on his Instagram account.
Widely known as “America’s Nicest Judge,” Caprio rose to international prominence through the television show Caught in Providence, which aired from 2000 and became an internet phenomenon years later. Clips of his empathetic judgments, often laced with humor, warmth, and kindness, attracted millions of viewers on social media, earning him a devoted following worldwide.
Born on November 24, 1936, Caprio served as a municipal judge in Providence from 1985 until his retirement in 2023. His courtroom became a symbol of compassion in justice. His most popular videos have been those where he calls children to the bench to help pass judgement on their parents.
“Beloved for his compassion, humility, and unwavering belief in the goodness of people, Judge Caprio touched the lives of millions through his work in the courtroom and beyond,” his family wrote in their tribute. “His warmth, humor, and kindness left an indelible mark on all who knew him.”
With nearly 3.5 million followers on his personal Instagram account and over 16 million on the show’s official page, he used his platform to highlight systemic issues such as the lack of equal access to the judicial system. In one video, he remarked, “The phrase, ‘With liberty and justice for all’ represents the idea that justice should be accessible to everyone. However, it is not.”
Even in the final years of his life, Caprio remained an advocate for fairness. Reflecting on his approach to the bench, he said in 2017: “I hope that people will take away that the institutions of government can function very well by exercising kindness, fairness, and compassion in their deliberations. We live in a very contentious society. I would hope that people will see that we can dispense justice without being oppressive.”
On social media platformX, Gov. Dan McKee called Caprio a “Rhode Island treasure” and ordered that flags in the state be flown at half-mast in his honor.
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Ambani, Adani pledge USD 210 bn for India's AI push
New Delhi (PTI): Conglomerates run by billionaires Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani committed USD 210 billion investment to creating infrastructure that will help India emerge as an AI development hub.
At the India AI Impact Summit, Ambani announced a Rs 10 lakh crore (about USD 110 billion) investment in artificial intelligence over the next seven years in gigawatt-scale AI-ready data centres in Jamnagar, leveraging up to 10 GW of green power surplus, and a nationwide edge-compute layer integrated with telecom and digital operator Jio's networks to deliver low-latency AI across India.
"Our resolve is clear: make intelligence as ubiquitous as connectivity," he said. "When compute becomes infrastructure, innovation will become inevitable."
Adani, on the other hand, unveiled a USD 100-billion investment to develop renewable-energy-powered, hyperscale AI-ready data centres by 2035 -- one of the world's largest integrated energy-compute commitments.
The initiative is expected to catalyse an additional USD 150 billion across server manufacturing, cloud platforms, and supporting industries, creating a projected USD 250 billion AI infrastructure ecosystem in India.
India must architect its own artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure rather than rely on imports, Adani Group executive director Jeet Adani said on Thursday, warning that AI will redefine national sovereignty.
Other major investments announced at the Summit included USD 50 billion commitment by Microsoft by the end of the decade to expand artificial intelligence access across the Global South. "India, not surprisingly, is one of the largest," its vice chair and president, Brad Smith, said.
The firm had unveiled USD 17.5 billion investment in AI investments in India last year.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced a new subsea cable initiative to boost AI connectivity between India, the US and other locations, alongside partnerships for cloud infrastructure platform support to over 20 million public servants across 800 districts.
Yotta Data Services, backed by a real estate group headed by Niranjan Hiranandani, announced over USD 2 billion spend on Nvidia's latest chips in an artificial intelligence computing hub it is setting up just outside the national capital.
While Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) signed up ChatGPT parent OpenAI as its first customer for its data centre unit under the global AI infrastructure initiative Stargate, infrastructure major Larsen & Toubro announced a proposed venture with Nvidia to build AI-ready data centre infrastructure, advanced computing platforms, and ecosystem enablement required to support large-scale AI workloads.
