Sara Hooker’s India visit goes viral as she compares US fruits with India’s flavorful produce, sparking debate online. Photos: X.
Sara Hooker, CEO of Adaption Labs and a veteran of Cohere, Google Brain, and DeepMind, was on a visit to India for the AI Impact India Summit 2026. Hooker posted a photo of her hotel breakfast, reflecting on how fruits available in the United States often feel “sanitized” compared to the rich flavors she experienced in India.
Thousands of users agreed with her post and shared their own experiences. Many pointed to differences in agricultural and supply-chain practices, noting that American produce is often harvested unripe for long-distance shipping, then treated with gases, wax coatings, and refrigeration to preserve shelf life. In contrast, Indian local markets frequently sell tree-ripened heirloom varieties grown closer to where they are consumed.
While some US fruits involve genetically modified crops, experts participating in the discussion emphasized that taste differences are more strongly linked to breeding priorities, particularly durability and transport efficiency, rather than flavor. Several users encouraged Hooker to return to India during mango season.
Before her fruit-related post went viral, Hooker had already shared glimpses of her Delhi visit that drew attention online. One such moment was her surprise at seeing a Bata store in the city.
Posting a photo of the outlet, she wrote, “I grew up with Bata shoes in Eswatini and in Mozambique. Had no idea it was such a universal brand.”
The mention of her childhood in Eswatini and Mozambique prompted a wave of responses from Indian users who associated the brand with their own school memories.
One user replied, “We grew up with Bata shoes, all my school shoes were Bata.” Hooker responded, “All my school shoes were bata.”
Hooker is the co-founder and CEO of Adaption, an AI startup headquartered in San Francisco. She also leads Cohere Labs, the research arm of Cohere. Her earlier career includes work at Google Brain, where she contributed to machine learning research.
Her work focuses on improving the efficiency, safety, and reliability of large language models, with particular emphasis on fairness, interpretability, robustness, and model efficiency at scale. She also studies algorithmic bias in machine learning systems.
Hooker serves on the machine learning advisory research board of Kaggle and is a member of the World Economic Forum council on the Future of Artificial Intelligence.
In 2025, Hooker co-founded Adaption, a company focused on developing AI systems capable of continuous real-time learning and efficient adaptation. Prior to this, she was Vice President of Research at Cohere, where she led the company’s research division, Cohere For AI.
During her tenure, she launched the Cohere For AI Scholars Program aimed at supporting emerging researchers in artificial intelligence.
Zubair Amin is a Senior Journalist at NewsX with over seven years of experience in reporting and editorial work. He has written for leading national and international publications, including Foreign Policy Magazine, Al Jazeera, The Economic Times, The Indian Express, The Wire, Article 14, Mongabay, News9, among others. His primary focus is on international affairs, with a strong interest in US politics and policy. He also writes on West Asia, Indian polity, and constitutional issues. Zubair tweets at zubaiyr.amin
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