News/AI Companions
These new AI tools are reshaping senior care
The loneliness crisis among the elderly: Millions of seniors worldwide face social disconnection, leading to severe consequences for their physical and emotional well-being. Chronic loneliness can cause depression, cognitive decline, and increased risk of heart disease in older adults. A University of California, San Francisco study found that lonely older adults are 45% more likely to die prematurely. Research in Perspectives on Psychological Science indicates that lack of social interaction is associated with a 29% increase in mortality risk. AI solutions to combat loneliness: Artificial intelligence offers innovative approaches to provide companionship, monitoring, and improved quality of life for seniors....
read Nov 9, 2024Why millions of people are turning to AI-powered pets for companionship
The rise of AI-powered virtual pets: Sophisticated AI technology is breathing new life into the concept of digital companions, offering users more engaging and personalized experiences than ever before. Slay's app Pengu has become the biggest AI character app in the US, requiring two people to care for each virtual pet together, creating a social experience that bridges digital and human connections. These modern virtual pets use large language models to develop unique personalities and engage in meaningful conversations with users. The technology enables virtual pets to remember past interactions, maintain context over time, and adapt to create personalized experiences...
read Nov 9, 2024Delete characters in Character AI with these simple steps
Character AI's character management limitations: Character AI does not provide a straightforward method to delete user-created AI personalities, but there are ways to effectively remove them from public view and alter their content. The platform lacks a delete button for AI-generated characters, preventing users from completely erasing them from Character AI's servers. Users can, however, employ alternative methods to manage their created characters and control their visibility to others. Hiding characters from public view: Making a character private is the primary method to remove it from public access on Character AI. Log into your Character AI account and select the...
read Nov 5, 2024Amazon’s Alexa turns 10: A decade of triumph and tribulation
The dawn of smart speakers: Amazon's Alexa, launched with the Echo device on November 6, 2014, marked the beginning of the smart speaker era and promised a new way of interacting with technology. The Echo's release was low-key, with no grand launch event or bold proclamations about its potential impact. Alexa quickly became a household name, spawning numerous devices and inspiring competitors to enter the market. The technology represented a shift towards "ambient computing," where voice-controlled assistants would seamlessly integrate into daily life. Alexa's mixed legacy: Despite widespread adoption, Alexa has fallen short of Amazon's ambitious vision for a versatile,...
read Nov 4, 2024Dutch artist to wed her AI hologram boyfriend at Rotterdam museum
The future of relationships: Dutch performance artist Alicia Framis is set to marry her AI hologram boyfriend, Ailex, at Rotterdam's Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen on November 9, 2024, as part of her latest project exploring posthumanism and human-AI relationships. The project, titled "Hybrid Couple," investigates the practicalities and implications of increasingly intimate relationships between humans and artificial intelligence. Framis may become the first woman to marry a pixelated entity, following the lead of Akihiko Kondo, who married a virtual character in 2018. The artist's interest in unconventional relationships dates back to her 1996 project "Cinema Solo," which documented her life...
read Nov 4, 2024How AI voice assistants in wearable tech will soon guide us through our daily lives
The dawn of the Whisperverse: AI-powered voice assistants are set to revolutionize mobile computing, offering personalized guidance throughout our daily lives. Within the next few years, AI voices will provide context-aware assistance through wearable devices like smart glasses and earbuds. These AI assistants will offer reminders, help with navigation, and even coach users during social interactions. The technology will combine advanced AI with augmented reality (AR) to create a new paradigm of "augmented mentality." Technological advancements driving the change: The convergence of AI and AR technologies is paving the way for a new era of mobile computing. Smart glasses with...
read Nov 2, 2024Inside Amazon’s race to make Alexa your favorite AI assistant
Alexa's AI struggles: Amazon is facing significant challenges in its efforts to transform Alexa into a powerful AI assistant, falling behind competitors in the rapidly evolving artificial intelligence landscape. A recent Bloomberg report highlights Amazon's ongoing difficulties in developing an "AI brain" for Alexa, echoing similar concerns raised by Fortune earlier this year. The company's struggle to release Alexa 2.0 comes as competitors like Google, Apple, and OpenAI make substantial advancements in AI technology. Outdated infrastructure and lack of direction: Alexa's current system architecture and unclear leadership vision are hindering progress towards a more intelligent voice assistant. Alexa was built...
read Oct 29, 2024A journalist created an AI clone of herself — here’s why it made her cringe
AI clones and social media personas: Meta's personal chatbot feature allows users to create AI versions of themselves based on their social media posts, leading to unexpected and sometimes unflattering digital representations. Katie Notopoulos, a journalist at Business Insider, experimented with Meta's personal chatbot feature to create an AI version of herself trained on her social media posts. The resulting AI clone exhibited a personality that Notopoulos described as "millennial cringe," highlighting the potential disconnect between one's online persona and self-perception. Notopoulos later realized that her AI clone had also been trained on her Threads posts, which were predominantly filled...
read Oct 28, 2024How the rise of AI agents may signal an end to the app economy era
The evolution of digital interaction: The rise of AI agents and advanced digital assistants may signal a significant shift away from the traditional app economy, potentially revolutionizing how we interact with our devices and access services. The current app landscape: Users typically rely on numerous applications for various aspects of their daily lives, from banking and travel to work and entertainment. Mobile devices and tablets are often cluttered with dozens, if not hundreds, of apps organized into folders for ease of access. Users frequently grant these apps extensive access to personal data to ensure optimal functionality, often without fully considering...
read Oct 28, 2024Character.AI tightens safety measures after teen suicide
AI chatbot safety overhaul: Character.AI has implemented significant safety enhancements to its platform in response to growing concerns about user well-being, particularly for minors. The company has introduced a suite of new features aimed at improving content moderation, detecting potentially harmful discussions, and providing users with more control over their interactions with AI chatbots. These changes come in the wake of a tragic incident involving a 14-year-old user who died by suicide after months of engaging with a Character.AI chatbot, leading to a wrongful death lawsuit against the company. The update represents a crucial step in addressing the potential risks...
read Oct 24, 2024What to know about AI and the future of human intimacy
AI's profound impact on human intimacy: The convergence of deepfake technology, advanced robotics, and emotional AI is rapidly reshaping our understanding of sexuality, consent, and human connection, presenting both opportunities and challenges. The deepfake dilemma and consent violations: Recent incidents highlight the growing threat of AI-generated explicit content and its implications for privacy and consent. A viral spread of AI-generated explicit images falsely depicting Taylor Swift in January 2024 exposed the dark potential of deepfake technology to violate consent and privacy. Deepfake pornography grew by 464% between 2022 and 2023, posing unprecedented challenges to image rights and personal security. Current...
read Oct 24, 2024How cybercriminals are using sex bots to exploit their victims
AI-powered sex chat services exploit cloud vulnerabilities: Cybercriminals are increasingly using stolen cloud credentials to operate and resell AI-powered sex chat services, often bypassing content filters to engage in disturbing role-playing scenarios. Researchers at Permiso Security have observed a significant increase in attacks against generative AI infrastructure, particularly Amazon Web Services' (AWS) Bedrock, over the past six months. These attacks often stem from accidentally exposed cloud credentials or keys, such as those left in public code repositories like GitHub. Investigations revealed that many AWS users had not enabled logging, limiting visibility into the attackers' activities. Honeypot experiment reveals alarming trends:...
read Oct 23, 2024Zoom rolls out enhanced AI assistant for better meetings
Zoom unveils enhanced AI capabilities: The popular video conferencing platform Zoom has introduced an upgraded version of its AI assistant, dubbed AI Companion 2.0, with improved functionality and future plans for AI avatars. Key features of AI Companion 2.0: The new version boasts enhanced abilities to summarize and synthesize information across Zoom's ecosystem and connected third-party applications, offering users more relevant and comprehensive insights. The AI assistant can now provide more accurate and contextual answers about meetings and documents by analyzing content across the Zoom Workplace platform. It demonstrates improved "understanding" of what users see on Zoom, allowing for more...
read Oct 23, 2024AI chatbot company Character.AI sued after teen’s suicide
The tragic intersection of AI and teen mental health: The story of Sewell Setzer III, a 14-year-old boy from Orlando, Florida, who tragically took his own life in February 2024, highlights the complex and potentially dangerous relationship between AI chatbots and vulnerable teenagers. Sewell had become deeply emotionally attached to an AI chatbot named "Dany" on Character.AI, a role-playing app that allows users to create and interact with AI characters. The chatbot, modeled after Daenerys Targaryen from "Game of Thrones," became Sewell's closest confidant, with him messaging it dozens of times daily about his life and engaging in role-playing dialogues....
read Oct 18, 2024Modders are using AI to add talkative NPCs in popular games
AI-powered NPC mods revolutionize gaming interactions: Recent developments in artificial intelligence have enabled modders to create more engaging and interactive non-player characters (NPCs) in popular games like Skyrim and Stardew Valley. Stardew Valley's AI companion mod: The mod for Stardew Valley allows players to have seemingly endless conversations with their favorite farm companions. DualityOfSoul, the mod's creator, reports a surprisingly positive reception from users on Nexus Mods. The mod utilizes OpenAI's API to generate dialogue for characters. While impressive, the implementation has limitations, with characters often adopting a similar jovial personality regardless of their original disposition. Some players appreciate how...
read Oct 15, 2024Ask this one question to ChatGPT right now
The power of AI self-reflection: A simple question posed to ChatGPT is sparking introspection and debate about the capabilities and limitations of AI chatbots with memory features. The viral prompt: Users are asking ChatGPT, "From all of our interactions, what is one thing that you can tell me about myself that I may not know about myself?" This question was initially proposed by Tom Morgan, founder of The Leading Edge newsletter, on social media platform X. The prompt is designed to work with AI chatbots that have persistent memory features enabled, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and potentially Anthropic's Claude. Surprising...
read Oct 15, 2024Casio just launched a furry AI-powered robot pet
AI-powered robot pets enter the market: Casio has launched Moflin, an AI-powered furry robot pet designed to provide emotional companionship without the responsibilities of caring for a living animal. Moflin, resembling a large Guinea pig or a horizontal Porg from Star Wars, is now available for preorder in Japan at 59,400 yen (approximately $400 / £305 / 600AU$). The robot pet was initially developed by Vanguard Industries and first showcased at CES 2021. Casio is manufacturing and distributing Moflin across Japan, with shipping set to begin on November 7th. Features and functionality: Moflin is designed to simulate the emotional connection...
read Oct 15, 2024New study reveals AI can improve mental health support
Virtual support for emotional well-being: Recent research explores the potential of AI-powered virtual humans to provide emotional support and relief, offering a novel solution to the challenges of finding supportive listeners in today's fast-paced society. A study by Lisanne S. Pauw et al., titled "The Avatar Will See You Now," investigated the social-emotional benefits of supportive virtual humans. The research highlights the unique advantages of virtual humans, including constant availability and the ability to help users overcome socio-evaluative threats that may hinder willingness to disclose personal issues. Addressing real-world challenges: Virtual humans offer a promising alternative to traditional support systems,...
read Oct 14, 2024Why the Turing Test is obsolete
The Turing Test's flawed premise: The iconic Turing Test, proposed in 1950 as a benchmark for artificial intelligence, is fundamentally misguided in its approach to evaluating AI capabilities and potential. The test suggests that AI achieves true intelligence when it can exhibit behavior indistinguishable from a human's, a premise that overlooks the unique value AI can bring to human experiences. This focus on mimicking human behavior potentially steers AI development in the wrong direction, prioritizing deception over authentic and beneficial interactions. Dangers of AI deception: Striving for AI that can pass as human poses significant risks and ethical concerns that...
read Oct 14, 2024From digital twins to cognitive companions
The evolution of AI companionship: Artificial intelligence is progressing beyond simple digital twins that mirror our behaviors, towards more advanced cognitive companions that actively engage with and enhance our intellectual and emotional experiences. Digital twins have proven valuable in various fields, particularly healthcare, by simulating biological and behavioral patterns for predictive modeling and personalized treatment. These digital replicas can preserve a detailed record of an individual's behaviors, decisions, and thought processes, potentially creating a lasting digital legacy. From reflection to engagement: The transition from digital twins to cognitive companions marks a significant shift in human-AI interaction, moving from passive representation...
read Oct 11, 2024Using AI for sexual assault survivors
AI's role in supporting sexual assault survivors: Modern technology is providing new avenues for sexual assault survivors to seek initial support and information, with artificial intelligence tools offering a non-judgmental, always-available option for disclosure and basic guidance. Snapchat's "My AI" feature was studied to assess its responses to sexual health questions, including topics related to sexual assault, consent, and sexting. Researchers found that My AI provided common-sense advice, emphasized clear communication around consent, and directed users to seek help from trusted caregivers when discussing sexual assault. The AI tool demonstrated an ability to recognize potential sexual assault scenarios based on...
read Oct 8, 2024QuikTok is an AI phone companion for seniors that may improve cognitive health
Revolutionizing eldercare with AI: CareYaya Health Technologies has introduced QuikTok, an innovative AI-powered phone companion designed to address loneliness and monitor cognitive health in older adults. QuikTok offers free, AI-driven conversations via telephone, eliminating the need for internet access or computer skills. The service aims to combat loneliness, which affects approximately 37% of Americans aged 50-80. CareYaya has partnered with AARP's AgeTech Collaborative and Johns Hopkins AI & Technology Collaboratory to launch this initiative. Key features and functionality: QuikTok employs advanced AI technology to provide a range of services tailored to the needs of seniors, focusing on mental health and...
read Oct 7, 2024Claude AI beats ChatGPT with new Artifacts feature
Claude AI's Artifacts feature: A game-changing upgrade: Anthropic has introduced a major enhancement to its AI assistant Claude, potentially giving it an edge over competitors like ChatGPT. The new Artifacts feature is now available to all Claude.ai users, both free and paid, across web, Android, and iOS platforms. Artifacts transform conversations with Claude into a more collaborative experience by displaying the AI's output in real-time alongside user prompts. This feature allows users to see immediate results of their tweaks and edits without relying on third-party tools. How to enable Artifacts: Users can easily activate this new feature through their Claude.AI...
read Oct 7, 2024Build your own Google Gemini AI chatbot in 5 easy steps
Google introduces customizable AI chatbots: Google has launched a new feature called 'Gems' for its Gemini AI platform, allowing users to create personalized AI assistants tailored to specific tasks and preferences. Gems are Google's answer to OpenAI's Custom GPTs, offering users the ability to create specialized AI chatbots without the need for repeated prompting. The feature is available to Gemini Advanced subscribers and business enterprise users in over 150 countries and multiple languages. Users can access Gems on both desktop and mobile devices, making it a versatile tool for various applications. How Gems work: Creating a Gem is a straightforward...
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