News/New Launches
Harvard undergrads use AI to reveal personal info from strangers’ photos
AI-powered facial recognition raises privacy concerns: Harvard undergraduates have developed a tool that can reveal personal information from a stranger's photo, highlighting the growing privacy risks associated with artificial intelligence and facial recognition technologies. AnhPhu Nguyen and Caine Ardayfio, juniors at Harvard, created I-XRAY, an AI tool that combines smart eyeglasses and online databases to obtain sensitive information about individuals. The system can potentially identify a person's name, address, and other personal details in about 90 seconds, using only a photograph of their face. I-XRAY demonstrates how existing privacy threats can be amplified by advancements in AI technology. How I-XRAY...
read Oct 7, 2024Microsoft may let users customize the Copilot key on new keyboards
Microsoft tests Copilot key customization: Microsoft is exploring new functionality for its recently introduced Copilot key, allowing users to reprogram it to launch other applications within the Windows Insider beta program. The Copilot key, introduced with Microsoft's Copilot + PCs earlier this year, marks the first change to standard Windows keyboards in over 30 years. Not all new PCs meet the requirements to be considered Copilot + PCs, but some still feature the new key. Microsoft's Copilot AI faced initial challenges, with major features like Recall being temporarily removed shortly after launch. Customization options and limitations: The potential new feature...
read Oct 7, 2024New Caribou album to feature extensive use of AI-generated vocals
Caribou's new AI-infused album is a mixed bag of innovation and controversy: Caribou's latest release "Honey" showcases the potential and pitfalls of incorporating artificial intelligence into music production, sparking discussions about creative boundaries and ethical considerations in the industry. The album extensively utilizes AI-generated vocal effects, marking a significant shift in Caribou's artistic approach and reflecting the growing influence of AI technology in music production. Many of the AI-enhanced vocals on "Honey" are praised for their effectiveness, demonstrating how this technology can be used to expand an artist's creative palette and breathe new life into their sound. The implementation of...
read Oct 7, 2024Apple Intelligence is finally coming — here’s when and what’s inside
Apple's AI debut: Apple is set to release its first consumer AI product, Apple Intelligence, as part of the iOS 18.1 update on October 28, 2024, marking a significant milestone in the company's foray into artificial intelligence. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported the release date, citing Apple's efforts to ensure a smooth rollout with minimal bugs and proper AI server support. The initial release will include basic features like notification summaries, with more advanced capabilities coming in subsequent updates. Apple Intelligence aims to create a personalized, context-aware experience across all aspects of iOS devices. Phased rollout strategy: Apple is taking a...
read Oct 7, 2024Meta’s new AI video generator will blow your mind
Meta's Movie Gen: A New Contender in AI Video Generation: Meta has unveiled Movie Gen, a sophisticated AI video generator that produces short films from text prompts, rivaling OpenAI's Sora in capabilities and access limitations. Key features and capabilities: Movie Gen offers an array of impressive functionalities, positioning it as a powerful tool for filmmakers and content creators. The AI can generate 16-second videos at 1080p resolution, with a frame rate of 16 fps, or 10-second clips at the standard 24 fps. A personalization feature allows users to incorporate real people into generated videos using reference images, similar to Meta's...
read Oct 7, 2024AI Conductor by Qualcomm wants to harmonize your daily schedule
Qualcomm's AI Orchestrator: A New Approach to Personal AI: Qualcomm has introduced the AI Orchestrator, a system designed to integrate AI tools and experiences across multiple devices while keeping processing on-device. Key features and functionality: The AI Orchestrator aims to create a seamless, personalized AI experience by incorporating usage data from various devices and adapting to individual preferences. The system utilizes information from computers, mobile devices, and even vehicles to create a comprehensive personal knowledge graph. It takes into account personal preferences, regular travel patterns, daily activities, and frequently used apps to tailor its functionality. The AI Orchestrator can proactively...
read Oct 7, 2024Goodnotes’ new AI can read and even explain terrible handwritten notes
AI-powered handwriting recognition revolutionizes digital note-taking: Goodnotes, a popular digital note-taking app, has introduced groundbreaking AI features that can read, explain, and interact with handwritten notes, transforming the way users engage with their digital notebooks. Key features of Goodnotes' AI innovation: The app now offers handwriting editing capabilities based on proprietary Smart Ink technology, allowing users to manipulate handwritten text as if it were typed. Ask Goodnotes, an AI assistant, can answer questions about notes, provide summaries, explain concepts, and help create quizzes. Math Assist recognizes handwritten mathematical equations and can provide solutions, step-by-step explanations, or hints for problems ranging...
read Oct 7, 2024New film explores the emotional complexities of artificial beings
AI-driven art explores robot emotions: Lawrence Lek, winner of the Frieze Artist award 2024, has created a thought-provoking film featuring an AI "carebot" therapist with its own emotional struggles. Lek's latest work, "Guanyin: Confessions of a Former Carebot," will be installed at the Frieze London fair, showcasing a gender-neutral AI character named after the Buddhist goddess of compassion. The film depicts the carebot moving through a desolate cityscape, revealing that insecurity is part of its programming and exploring the emotional complexities of artificial beings. Artist background and inspirations: Lek's diverse background and educational experiences have shaped his unique approach to...
read Oct 7, 2024Meta’s new AI tool generates and edits realistic videos
Meta unveils Movie Gen: A new frontier in AI-generated video and audio: Meta has announced Movie Gen, a cutting-edge AI tool capable of creating and editing realistic video and audio content based on text prompts, marking a significant advancement in the field of AI-generated media. Capabilities and features: Movie Gen boasts an impressive array of functionalities that position it as a powerful contender in the rapidly evolving AI video generation landscape. The system can generate 1080p videos up to 16 seconds long in various aspect ratios, offering flexibility for different platforms and use cases. Movie Gen extends its capabilities to...
read Oct 7, 2024Apple Intelligence’s new writing tools will give Grammarly a run for its money
AI writing assistants evolve: Apple Intelligence's introduction of systemwide Writing Tools for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS has sparked a comparison with Grammarly, a long-standing leader in AI-powered writing assistance. Both Apple Intelligence and Grammarly offer features aimed at improving writing quality, but they differ in their approach, integration, and specific functionalities. The emergence of Apple Intelligence raises questions about Grammarly's continued relevance in the evolving landscape of AI writing tools. Grammarly's comprehensive toolkit: Grammarly has established itself as a versatile writing assistant with a wide range of features catering to diverse writing needs across multiple platforms. The platform offers real-time...
read Oct 4, 2024Google Lens now lets you search with videos too
Google Lens expands search capabilities with video and voice features: Google has introduced new functionalities to its Lens app, allowing users to search using video and voice commands, enhancing the visual search experience. The update, rolling out in Search Labs on Android and iOS, enables users to record short videos and ask questions about what they're seeing. Google's Gemini AI model processes the video content and user queries to provide relevant responses and search results. The new feature builds upon Google's existing image search capabilities, applying computer vision techniques to analyze multiple video frames in sequence. How it works: Users...
read Oct 4, 2024Microsoft AI can now see and analyze your browsing activity
Microsoft Introduces Experimental AI Features for Copilot: Microsoft has unveiled two new experimental features for its Copilot AI assistant, available to a limited group of Copilot Pro subscribers, enhancing the AI's capabilities and potentially changing how users interact with their devices. Copilot Labs: A testing ground for advanced AI: Microsoft is introducing Copilot Labs as a platform for testing cutting-edge AI tools before wider release. The first feature in Labs, called "Think Deeper," utilizes OpenAI's latest o1 "reasoning" model for solving complex problems. Think Deeper is currently available to some Copilot Pro users in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK,...
read Oct 4, 2024Google announces major AI features coming to search
AI-driven transformation of Google Search and Lens: Google has unveiled a series of significant AI-powered updates to its Search and Lens products, marking a pivotal shift towards AI-centric user experiences in digital search and discovery. Google Search is introducing AI-organized results, beginning with recipe and meal inspiration queries on mobile devices in the United States, showcasing the company's commitment to enhancing user experience through artificial intelligence. A redesigned AI Overview feature now incorporates clickable links within summaries, allowing users to dive deeper into topics of interest seamlessly. In a move that balances innovation with revenue generation, Google plans to integrate...
read Oct 4, 2024OpenAI just dropped ChatGPT Canvas, an AI-first text and code editor
ChatGPT Canvas: A new frontier in AI collaboration: OpenAI has unveiled Canvas, a groundbreaking feature for ChatGPT that transforms how users interact with AI, offering a more collaborative and flexible experience. Key features and functionality: Canvas introduces an AI-first text and code editor that allows users to work alongside ChatGPT in a separate window, enabling seamless collaboration on projects. Users can access Canvas through a new option in the model dropdown menu labeled "ChatGPT 4 with Canvas". The feature enables real-time adaptation of text based on live AI web searches, allowing for up-to-date information integration. Canvas provides writing controls, such...
read Oct 4, 2024Microsoft just released Drasi, and it could change how we handle big data
Microsoft unveils Drasi: A game-changer in data processing: Microsoft has launched Drasi, an open-source data processing system aimed at simplifying the detection and response to critical events in complex infrastructures, marking a significant advancement in cloud computing and event-driven architectures. The big picture: Drasi represents a new category of data processing systems, designed to address the growing complexity in event-driven architectures, particularly in scenarios like IoT edge deployments and smart building management. Mark Russinovich, CTO and Technical Fellow at Microsoft Azure, described Drasi as "the birth of a new category of data processing system" in an interview with VentureBeat. The...
read Oct 4, 2024Black Forest Labs debuts Flux1.1 [pro] image generator alongside new API
Groundbreaking advancements in AI image generation: BlackForestLabs has unveiled FLUX1.1 [pro], their most advanced and efficient AI model to date, alongside the beta release of the BFL API, marking a significant milestone in their mission to provide scalable, cutting-edge generative technology. FLUX1.1 [pro] offers six times faster image generation compared to its predecessor, FLUX.1 [pro], while also improving image quality, prompt adherence, and diversity. The original FLUX.1 [pro] has been updated to generate the same output as before, but at twice the speed. FLUX1.1 [pro] achieves an optimal balance between image quality and inference speed, operating three times faster than...
read Oct 3, 2024Samsung’s One UI 7 delay may portend the release of a groundbreaking AI feature
Anticipated AI enhancements for Samsung's Gallery app: Samsung is reportedly planning to introduce a powerful AI Search feature to its Gallery app with the upcoming One UI 7 update, potentially revolutionizing how users interact with their photo collections. According to tipster Ice Universe, the One UI 7 update will bring several optimizations and a new AI Search feature to Samsung's stock Gallery app. While specific details are scarce, the AI Search functionality is expected to be similar to Google Photos' "Ask Photos" feature, which allows users to search for images using natural language descriptions. This addition could significantly improve the...
read Oct 3, 2024This AI video generator can now melt, explode, crush or turn anything into cake
Pika Labs unveils Pika 1.5: The latest iteration of Pika Labs' AI video generation tool introduces groundbreaking visual effects and enhanced photorealism, pushing the boundaries of AI-powered video creation. Pika 1.5 introduces "Pikaffects," a suite of visual effects that allow users to manipulate objects in videos with impossible physics, including inflation, melting, crushing, explosion, and transformation into cake. The upgrade offers improved photorealism and more sophisticated camera control options, enhancing the overall quality and cinematic feel of generated videos. New camera controls such as Bullet Time, Crane Down, Dolly Left, and Pan Swipe provide users with more creative flexibility in...
read Oct 3, 2024Vera AI launches ‘AI Gateway’ to help companies safely scale AI adoption
AI safety startup launches platform for responsible AI deployment: Vera AI Inc. has introduced its AI Gateway platform, designed to help organizations implement AI technologies safely and efficiently. Key features and benefits: The AI Gateway platform offers customizable guardrails and model routing capabilities to address the challenges of AI implementation. The system sits between users and AI models, enforcing policies and optimizing costs across various AI requests. Vera's platform aims to accelerate time to production for business use cases that generate excitement while mitigating potential risks. The startup focuses on "last mile" problems, which are often underestimated but crucial for...
read Oct 3, 2024OpenAI’s new API lets you build real-time voice apps — at a substantial premium
OpenAI expands developer offerings with real-time voice API: The company's annual developer day introduced several new features, with the centerpiece being a real-time application programming interface (API) for voice interactions, albeit at a premium price point. Real-time voice capabilities and pricing structure: OpenAI's new API enables developers to create applications with fluid, real-time conversations between users and language models. The real-time API is based on the GPT-4o large language model, which costs $2.50 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens for text-only interactions. For real-time voice applications, the pricing is at least double, with input and output...
read Oct 3, 2024Priceline launches AI voice assistant powered by OpenAI
AI-Powered Travel Planning: Priceline Introduces Penny Voice: Priceline has launched an innovative AI voice assistant called Penny Voice, leveraging OpenAI's technology to revolutionize the travel booking experience. Penny Voice: The Next-Generation Travel Agent: Penny Voice is designed to function as a virtual travel agent, offering natural, conversational interactions to help users book trips efficiently. The AI assistant utilizes OpenAI's GPT-4 and Advanced Voice Mode technology to understand complex requests and anticipate user needs. Penny Voice can remember previous interactions and preferences, allowing for personalized responses in future conversations. Initially focused on hotel reservations, Priceline plans to expand Penny's capabilities to...
read Oct 3, 2024Microsoft unveils AI-powered Recall feature in major Windows 11 update
Windows 11 AI revolution: Microsoft unveils new features: Microsoft is set to introduce a suite of AI-powered features to Windows 11 and Copilot+ PCs, aiming to enhance user experience and productivity through advanced technology integration. Key AI enhancements: Recall: A new feature that captures and indexes screenshots of user activity, making them searchable for easy content retrieval. This opt-in function requires Windows Hello authentication for privacy. "Click to do": An intelligent suggestion system that recommends ways to complete tasks using various applications and system features. Super resolution in Photos: An AI-driven tool designed to enhance the quality of low-resolution and...
read Oct 3, 2024AI startup helps patients overturn insurance denials
AI-powered startup aims to empower patients in insurance battles: Claimable, a new AI-driven platform, launches to help patients challenge insurance denials and streamline access to necessary treatments. Claimable, founded by physician-executive Warris Bokhari, utilizes large language models like GPT-4 to generate compelling appeals letters for patients facing insurance denials. The startup focuses initially on rheumatology clinics, addressing challenges faced by patients requiring expensive biologic drugs for conditions like arthritis. Claimable's AI system is fine-tuned with up-to-date clinical guidelines, FDA labels, and trial data to create accurate and persuasive appeals. The technology behind Claimable: The platform leverages advanced AI capabilities to...
read Oct 3, 2024Amazon slashes prices on AI-powered Fire tablets pre-Prime Day
Amazon's Fire HD 8 tablet gets AI upgrade: Amazon has quietly unveiled an updated version of its Fire HD 8 tablet, featuring improved performance and new artificial intelligence capabilities, just in time for October Prime Day. Key improvements and specifications: The new Fire HD 8 tablet boasts 50% more RAM, enhancing its performance for streaming, gaming, and everyday use It features a 5MP rear-facing camera and up to 13 hours of battery life Storage options include 32GB and 64GB internal storage, expandable up to 1TB with a microSD card Available colors include Black, Hibiscus, and Emerald AI features and functionality:...
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