Falling in place alongside OpenAI and Google’s stated goals, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, has acknowledged that artificial general intelligence (AGI) is the direction Meta’s research is heading, in an interview with The Verge. Meta recently restructured its AI teams, combining its responsible AI research team with its generative department.

As for what artificial general intelligence is, Zuckerberg can’t really define it: “I don’t have a one-sentence, pithy definition. You can quibble about if general intelligence is akin to human-level intelligence, or is it like human-plus, or is it some far-future super intelligence. But to me, the important part is actually the breadth of it, which is that intelligence has all these different capabilities where you have to be able to reason and have intuition.”

See? Crystal clear. A very simplistic definition of AGI is it refers to machines that can learn and reason across a broad range of domains at the level of the human mind or beyond.

Just in case you don't want to click over to the other sites, Big Zuck update

– Open sourcing will continue
– Currently training LLama 3
– AI + Metaverse
– Will have 350,000 H100s and ~600 H100 equivalents of compute
-Ideal AI formfactor is pic.twitter.com/xJSi7yVzXe

— Alex Volkov (Thursd/AI) (@altryne) January 18, 2024

In the interview, Zuckerberg acknowledges talent as one of the key limiting factors in AI research. “We’ve come to this view that, in order to build the products that we want to build, we need to build for general intelligence. I think that’s important to convey because a lot of the best researchers want to work on the more ambitious problems.”

“We’re used to there being pretty intense talent wars,” he says. “But there are different dynamics here with multiple companies going for the same profile, [and] a lot of VCs and folks throwing money at different projects, making it easy for people to start different things externally.”

One thing that Zuckerberg isn’t worried about losing out on though is computing power. AI development and research take an exceptionally high level of computing power, and Meta is prepared to meet the challenge with over 340,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs. Nvidia has emerged as a leader in AI chips.

“We have built up the capacity to do this at a scale that may be larger than any other individual company,” said Zuckerberg.

As Meta set out to develop Llama 3, Meta hopes to continue its trend of what Zuckerberg calls “responsible open sourcing”. He acknowledges that Llama 2 was not a leading AI model, but wants Llama 3 to be. “Our ambition is to build things that are at the state of the art and eventually the leading models in the industry.”

Featured image credit: Julio Lopez/Pexels

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While Bing’s use of artificial intelligence (AI) has sent usage of the search engine skyrocketing, Google still remains the top dog with the biggest market share in internet search by a huge margin.

Google has been synonymous with search engines for years, so much so that it is now a common verb for looking something up on the internet (‘Google it’). While Microsoft’s Bing has rebranded and redesigned its service several times since its birth in 2009, it’s only the recent integration of AI that has made it hold its head above the parapet.

Powered by OpenAI’s generative AI technology, the new version of Bing stands out from ChatGPT (backed by the same tech) by answering questions in a natural, easy way. Despite US monthly active Bing users more than doubling year-over-year, reaching 4.4 million in actual terms, Microsoft’s search engine still ended 2023 with only 3.4% of the global search market, reports Bloomberg using data from analytics firm StatCounter. That marks an increase of less than one percentage point since the ChatGPT integration announcement.

The bottom line is in the face of huge increases in the number of people using Bing, Google is still holding steady with the biggest market share in search with a whopping 92%. Perhaps 2024 is the year Google delivers on its plans for defending its position too, with fast-tracked plans to integrate AI into its search services.

Google plans to incorporate AI

In May 2023, Google launched an experimental, early version of its signature search engine, known as the “search generative experience” (SGE). Much like Bing’s counterpart, it delivers conversational responses alongside the familiar list of links that Google users are comfortable with. There’s no need to use a separate tool; rather, AI capabilities are being incorporated into the existing search engine.

SGE is still not widely available, initially open to beta testers via manual sign-ups, but Google has confirmed its plans to embed its latest large language model, Gemini, into SGE sometime in 2024.

On Thursday (Jan.18) the search giant announced Samsung’s new flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S24 will benefit from Gemini, following a joint statement from the two companies.

Featured image: Dall-E

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Google has published several new features to its range of services, but only available to those in the EU.

Tech companies around the world are making changes to fall in line with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a bill that aims to make digital markets fairer and open. There are various new obligations that tech companies will need to adhere to, ranging from preventing the removal of pre-installed apps on their systems or stopping the tracking of end users outside of their core platforms without user consent.

Several improvements are on the way to Google services in particular along these lines, as announced in a recent blog. As the changes come into effect, EU Google users may start to some changes in how they look and function.

What changes are coming to Google services in the EU?

The changes are across four main areas: consent for link services, changes to search results, choice screens, and data portability.

At the moment, Google shares user data across certain products and services. In the next few weeks, the platform will present EU users with an additional consent banner to confirm whether this data can continue to be shared. It’s worth noting that if you don’t consent, some features will be limited or unusable but you can change your decision at any time.

For search results, many changes are coming to the results page, from grouping links to comparison sites from across the web to query shortcuts designed to help users find what they need faster. This will be especially applicable when comparing things like hotels or bookable services online, with extra information like price comparisons, images, and star ratings available to see directly from the results page.

According to the DMA, Google will also start to show additional choice screens on Android when setting up a device to make Chrome your default search engine, as well as on iOS for desktop devices.

Finally, EU users will be able to download or transfer a copy of their data from more than 80 Google products and services. This is to meet new requirements from the DMA around moving user data to a third-party app or service.

Featured image: PhotoMIX Company; Pexels

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With pivotal elections approaching in 2024 across major democracies, OpenAI has outlined its strategy for safeguarding its powerful large language and image models from being weaponized.

The artificial intelligence (AI) lab behind hugely popular generative AI products ChatGPT and DALL-E has over 180 million users and it continues to grow rapidly. The tools available on OpenAI’s GPT Store include software with the potential to be used nefariously to influence election campaigns. Synthetic media like AI-generated images, videos and audio can erode public trust and go viral via social platforms.

So with great power comes great responsibility and on Monday (Jan.15) the company outlined in a blog post how it would tackle the multitude of elections happening this year across the world.

Preventing abuse of OpenAI’s systems

A core focus is preemptively hardening AI systems against exploitation by bad actors through extensive testing, gathering user feedback during development, and encoding guardrails right into the foundation of models. Specifically for DALL-E, the image generator, rigid policies decline any image generation requests involving real people – including political candidates.

“We work to anticipate and prevent relevant abuse—such as misleading ‘deepfakes’, scaled influence operations, or chatbots impersonating candidates,” wrote OpenAI.

Strict usage rules also prohibit ChatGPT applications for propaganda, voter suppression tactics, or political impersonation bots.

Snapshot of how we’re preparing for 2024’s worldwide elections:

• Working to prevent abuse, including misleading deepfakes
• Providing transparency on AI-generated content
• Improving access to authoritative voting informationhttps://t.co/qsysYy5l0L

— OpenAI (@OpenAI) January 15, 2024

Humans brought into the fold

Here’s something you don’t read every day: humans are going to replace AI. Well, specifically, they will be used by OpenAI as fact-checkers through new transparency features that trace an AI creation back to its origins.  Digital watermarking and fingerprinting will verify DALL-E images, while news links and citations will appear more visibly within ChatGPT search responses. This expands on their previous partnership with Axel Springer, enabling ChatGPT to summarize select news content from the media publisher’s outlets.

The world’s flagship AI company hopes voters will benefit directly from OpenAI’s collaboration with nonpartisan voting agencies like the USA’s National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS). Furthermore, in the US, chatbot querying about any practical aspects of the nation’s voting process will surface official registration and polling details from CanIVote.org to cut through misinformation clutter.

Few would argue against any of these measures. The reality, however, is that as these tools exist there will always be some attempts by bad actors to abuse them for electoral purposes.

OpenAI is at least positioning itself to dynamically respond to the challenges it faces during election cycles.  Collaboration across Big Tech and with governments may be one of the only sustainable paths forward to tackle AI fakes and propaganda.

Featured Image: Unsplash

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There is currently an issue affecting some YouTube users which causes huge slowdowns when trying to view content, and there is no consensus on the cause. People believe this could be due to ad blockers for YouTube being cracked down by Google.

In November, 9to5Google began reporting on this issue, and although speculation began with the idea that it was an issue with Firefox, designed to force users to use the Google-owned Chrome browser, the most popular theory became one that suggested ad blockers were the cause.

A post on Reddit seemed to show this being the case, with the user showing the slow load speeds, then disabling their ad blocker and having speeds return to normal. Users also reported problems with turning a video into full-screen or theatre mode.

Youtube started slowing video buffer with adblock enabled
byu/NightMean inyoutube

YouTube seemingly confirmed this in a statement they made to 9to5Google: “Ads are a vital lifeline for our creators that help them run and grow their businesses. That’s why the use of ad blockers violates YouTube’s Terms of Service. We’ve been urging users for some time to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium for an ad-free experience. In the past week, users using ad blockers may have experienced suboptimal viewing, which included delays in loading, regardless of the browser they are using. Users who have uninstalled their ad blockers may still experience a temporary delay in loading, and should try refreshing their browser.”

However, as Ars Technica pointed out, the slow buffering experienced by some users might be due to a bug in one of the most popular ad blockers, Adblock Plus. Adblock Plus recently posted a bug report about “performance issues” and said it should be fixed in the next version. Developers of a different ad blocker, uBlock Origin, said the issue only affected Adblock Plus users.

What are the ad blockers for YouTube?

Although record numbers of users are uninstalling their ad blockers, it remains unclear whether this is the right course of action or not. Most of the most popular ad blockers are working hard to get around YouTube’s crackdown. Here are the most popular ad blockers for YouTube:

• uBlock Origin (free and open source, supports most popular browsers)
• AdBlocker Ultimate ($2.49 per month billed annually, claims to work on a system level to overcome new ad technology)
• AdGuard ($2 per month, billed annually, works similarly to AdBlocker Ultimate)
  

Featured image credit: Freestock/Pexels

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A group of scientists from Stanford University have designed an affordable robot with the ability to carry out intricate tasks autonomously by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI). Known as Mobile ALOHA, the robot was constructed using readily available components and 3D-printed hardware, with costs amounting to $32,000. The Mobile ALOHA project aims to revolutionize the robotics industry by providing a low-cost yet highly efficient solution for various applications, including manufacturing, healthcare, and research. By utilizing advanced AI algorithms and computer vision, the robot demonstrates exceptional precision and adaptability, proving that sophisticated robotic systems can be achieved without breaking the bank.

Training the AI-driven robot

The researchers trained the AI-driven robot to accomplish various tasks, such as preparing shrimp, tidying up spills, and managing elevators — all without human input. This autonomous robot utilizes advanced machine-learning algorithms, allowing it to adapt and improve its performance over time. Additionally, the AI system powering the robot is designed to understand and predict human behavior, ultimately leading to seamless and efficient collaboration with human workers in everyday environments.

To help Mobile ALOHA learn tasks swiftly, the team employed a “co-training” strategy, which blends new and old data. This technique enabled the robot to acquire skills quickly — instead of relying on thousands or millions of instances. By combining previously learned information with new data, Mobile ALOHA can constantly adapt and improve its efficiency in executing tasks. This co-training approach reduces the need for extensive training data sets, making it more practical for real-world applications where rapid learning is crucial.

Tackling complex issues with affordable robotics

The work conducted by the Stanford team on Mobile ALOHA highlights that cost-effective robotic hardware can tackle complex issues. Incorporating affordable components and cutting-edge algorithms, the researchers have demonstrated the potential of these innovative robotic systems in addressing real-world challenges. As technology advances, the accessibility and applications of cost-effective robots will inevitably expand, offering impactful and sustainable solutions across various industries.

The Mobile ALOHA project presents an innovative approach to creating affordable and adaptable robotic systems using AI algorithms. With a focus on co-training, efficient learning, and improving grasping and maneuvering abilities, this research has the potential to transform various industries and applications. As the team continues developing the robot and incorporating more advanced techniques, we expect to see even more practical and cost-effective robotic solutions.

Featured Image Credit: Pavel Danilyuk; Pexels

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Apple has made the rare move to cut prices of its iPhone 15 models in China by around 5%.

As reported by Reuters, the promotion on its Chinese website, which is being dubbed a ‘Lunar New Year Event,’ will last between January 18 and January 21 and comes after reports of a 30% drop in sales in China in the first week of 2024.

The US tech giant is under pressure to increase sales globally, particularly in China as competition from the likes of Huawei begins to regain market share in the region. It is the first time Apple has offered discounted prices in any of their markets for many years, while online retailers in the country have been cutting prices of iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro models by as much as 16% since the turn of the year.

When the California-based company launched its iPhone 15 range in September last year, it surprised many by not raising prices. This is believed to be in response to an ongoing reluctance amongst iPhone users to upgrade their handsets as regularly as they used to. However, it appears that hasn’t had a positive effect on sales as Apple continues to see declining sales.

Senior vice president of market research business Canalys, Nicole Peng, told Reuters: “It is clear that Huawei is making a comeback.

“Some Chinese consumers may return to using Huawei as driven by patriotism.

Another blow for Apple in China?

While Apple is masking this as a holiday sale in China, it is hard not to see this as an attempt to arrest the slide of sales in the region to claw back lost market share to growing competitors.

It saw its share of the global smartphone market drop to 17.7% in the final quarter of 2023, which is well below its peak of 24.1% just 12 months earlier.

Canalys now expects Apple sales in 2024 to remain flat globally, while its decline in China will remain.

This also comes as Apple’s standing as the world’s most valuable company was put at risk last week as Microsoft’s market cap grew to within £100 billion of the tech giant.

Featured Image: Photo by Amanz on Unsplash

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In a bid to capture some of the demand springing up in the USA, LG Electronics has opened its first electric vehicle (EV) charger factory in Texas, and America – its first outside of South Korea.

LG’s CEO William Cho stated last year that ‘electrification’ is a primary driver for growth for the South Korean company. The expansion into the American EV market will allow them to tap into a rising demand and help them reach their goal of $79 billion in sales by 2030.

“By establishing our EV charger production factory in Texas, we will be able to actively respond to the rapidly growing demand for EV infrastructure in the U.S.,” said Jang Ik-hwan, president of the LG Business Solutions Company, in a press release.

What do we know about LG’s new Texas factory?

The new site in Fort Worth is 5,500 square meters and has an annual capacity allowing it to churn out more than 10,000 EV chargers. It has begun production of 11kW chargers and will start assembling 175kW fast chargers shortly. By the end of 2024LG also expects to be producing 350kW ultra-fast chargers in the facility.

In 2021, President Joe Biden announced plans to have at least 500,000 public EV chargers by 2030. LG stated that they believe they are “strategically and philosophically aligned with several of the energy and environmental goals set out in the U.S. government’s Inflation Reduction Act.”

The electronics giant has opened its new factory in Texas for several reasons, describing the move as “strategic”. There are existing facilities in the state, and it “boasts excellent logistics and transportation networks”. It is also already home to multiple major automobile operations – Toyota, GM, and Tesla all have vehicle assembly plants in Texas.

With companies such as Amazon expanding their EV fleets and consumer buzz over upcoming electric vehicles, this seems like a forward-looking move by LG, who are already well regarded in the EV space for their batteries.

Featured image credit: LG Electronics

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As gamers we all want a cool-looking gaming space we can call our own, but what does that look like? A nice gaming chair? An adjustable gaming desk like one from Flexispot? Copious amounts of LEDs and lighting solutions like the ones from Nanoleaf? But how do we stand out from the crowd – especially if you want to become a streamer or just want your friends to see you have something they can’t?

3D print things yourself that’s how. There are an absolute ton of 3D printable models out there, some free, some paid for and if you have a 3D printer, or are thinking of getting one, you can set to work creating your own bespoke gaming artwork for your room.

Which 3D printer?

For this project, we are going to use the new Bambu Lab A1 which recently came out at the end of last year. With its multi-material AMS Lite add it can print in multiple colors on the same print easily, which, while you can do on other printers, the AMS makes it so much easier.

Having said that, in the main, we are going to print our models in a single color and attempt to paint them to a standard that looks half-decent. Because of this, we can print them in any old filament we have lying around that we maybe don’t use that much.

Another reason we are using the A1 here is because, right now, we don’t want to tinker and play around with settings. For the most part, the A1 just works out of the box. Many other 3D printers need fine-tuning and tweaking to get the best out of them, even keeping a watchful eye to make sure nothing goes wrong. Unless you are unlucky the A1 should let you print and return later when it’s done (although it is good practice to regularly check on what’s happening, just in case.)

Our model here is this excellent chibi version of classic gaming hero Duke Nukem from 3DXM. Because we are going to paint him, we are just going to use some green filament we don’t mind using up.

Popping the model into Bambu Studio – the slicer software that comes with all Bambu Labs printers, sizing it to the size you want for your desk or shelf, adding supports, and slicing it ready to print should take only a minute or so.

From there you can send it over wi-fi to the A1, choose the color you want to print in if you have the AMS Lite, hit print, and sit back. This Duke Nukem took around five hours to print at 100% but had we pushed the printer into Sport or even Ludicrous mode it would have been much faster.

If you are new to 3D printing you should know that any part of the model that hangs suspended in mid-air will need supports while it prints. Your A1’s nozzle can’t just make things appear in mid-air. This means that this support material is a) a waste of filament and b) needs to be removed when the print is complete. It should be a case of just pulling it off, but it can be sharp and you can cut yourself so maybe pop on a pair of gardening gloves or even washing up gloves for a little protection. Having said that you haven’t lived until you have got your blood all over that nice model printed in white filament that you just spent nine hours printing.

As you can see from the picture the supports pulled away nicely, leaving a great-looking model., even if at this stage he looks a bit like the Hulk because of the color.

At this stage, you can choose to lightly sand him down to smooth out the lines between the layers and remove any anomalies from the printing process. For this feature, we didn’t bother but you can spend as long on this section as you like until you are happy.

With the print of the model complete and the A1 having performed admirably we set it going on our next model for our room, a free Jigglypuff Pokemon from Makerworld. While this is printing in just over two and a half hours we can hit our Duke Nukem with a couple of coats of white primer to ready it for painting. We used Army Painter Matt White but any light primer will do. We specifically use white because we are going to paint him with Army Painter Speedpaints 2.0 which works best on a white primer.

Because of the green filament used, we ended up needing three light coats of primer to cover out the green completely

After letting Duke dry we took him over to the workbench and used a base coating brush for the most part to apply speedpaints for a (very, apologies) down-and-dirty paint job so you can see what is possible in around half an hour. Obviously, you can spend much more time on your painting if you like.

By now you can see the Pokemon Jigglypuff was complete and the Bambu Lab A1 did a fantastic job and came up with a really smooth ball shape. There was a small amount of stringing for no obvious reason but you can remove that by hitting it with a lighter for a second or two to burn it away. Now, you can just paint it and have a print of something else going while you do.

By the end of a day of printing, you could have a shelf full of really great models from about half a roll of filament (which will cost about $22.

Is the Bambu Lab A1 the best 3D printer for beginners?

On this project, we just wanted great-looking models as part of our Games Room redesign. We didn’t just want to go out and buy the same Funko Pops everybody has so we needed a frustration-free method of getting our game characters out. Because the A1 rarely seems to have issues – at least in our experience – you can set a model going and head off out if you need to.

If you have more experience with a more hobbyist rather than beginner printer you might be able to do the same, but if you are new to the 3D printing maker space then the ability to just get out of the printer what you expected is a boon.

The A1 is not a large format printer and the size of models and busts you can print might be a hindrance. We will be looking at the impressive Elegoo Neptune 4 Max soon, which is a helmet-class printer that needs a little more attention to get great results, but if you want to print a lifesize version of the guy from Fortnite for the corner of your room, you will need to up the size of your printer.

Bambu Lab A1 settings for Bambu Studio

If you want higher quality prints you should change your layer height from 0.2 down to something like 0.12 or even 0.08. This will give you finer detail but will take significantly longer to print.

You could also invest in a 0.2mm nozzle to swap out the base 0.4mm that comes with the A1. They only cost about $15 from Bambu Labs, can be swapped in seconds unlike other printers, and it is always good to have in your printing arsenal.

Hopefully, you have been inspired to make some of your own game room decorations or even to pick up a 3D printer for the first time. We will be bringing you more features to help you level up your gaming space in the future.

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Pixar, a subsidiary of Disney, is the latest in a long line of firms facing layoffs in 2024, reports TechCrunch. Initial reports suggested that the layoffs could be as much as 20% of Pixar’s workforce, but Pixar has since denied that it will be that many.

The scope of the layoffs and the number of staff who will be affected is being decided based on production schedules and future films that have already been greenlit.

According to insiders, Pixar was required to hire additional staff to bolster its workforce on streaming content for Disney+. As these shows complete production, the studio has more staff than necessary and cuts are inevitable. Disney’s streaming division is yet to turn a profit, despite multiple new Pixar releases being straight-to-streaming.

Disney CEO Bob Iger told investors during a recent earnings call that Disney+ is expected to become profitable by Q4 2024. Iger put this down to restructuring, which “enabled tremendous efficiencies.”

From cinema to streaming and back to cinema

‘Elemental’, Pixar’s most recent film, was considered to be a box-office flop, bringing in just $29.5 million during its opening weekend. However, it went on to be successful and profitable, making its mark as the most-watched film on Disney+ during the quarter it was released.

Analysts believe that the release of several huge Pixar movies (such as ‘Soul’ and ‘Turning Red’) on Disney+ instead of in cinemas has “trained audiences to expect big, hot Pixar content at home.” Speaking to TechCrunch, Brandon Katz of Parrot Analytics continued, “Retraining the audience to re-embrace the theatrical experience and prioritize that…takes time.”

As well as this consumer habit shift, Katz mentioned the other changes undergoing audience behavior, which include a move away from sequels. In the 2010s, pre-established IPs were popular with audiences, requiring lower effort marking and coming with pre-established buy-in from fans. Now though, franchise fatigue is plaguing audiences.

The race to streaming profitability will be a driving force for companies in 2024, with mergers and buyouts abound. However, a spate of layoffs has plagued the tech industry and does not look to be stopping. It is a tumultuous time as a whole and staff everywhere will be uneasy at the continued job cuts.

Earlier today (Jan.12), the communication platform Discord released plans to lay off 170 staff.

Featured image credit: Disney/Pixar

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ByteDance, the company behind TikTok, has released a new artificial intelligence tool called MagicVideo-V2 that significantly pushes boundaries in text-to-video generation.

MagicVideo-V2 leverages state-of-the-art AI to produce high-quality video content from text inputs. In human evaluations comparing videos created by MagicVideo-V2 and other leading text-to-video generators like Pika 1.0 and Stable Diffusion-XT, ByteDance’s new tool noticeably outperformed competitors.

According to the project’s GitHub page, it combines a “text-to-image model, video motion generator, reference image embedding module and frame interpolation module into an end-to-end video generation pipeline.”

The MagicVideo-V2 model starts off by creating a 1024×1024 image that depicts the inputted text. That still image is then animated, enhanced, and refined. Finally, the interpolation module lengthens the animation to 94 frames. This creates a richly animated output.

ByteDance just announced MagicVideo-V2

Multi-Stage High-Aesthetic Video Generation

paper page: https://t.co/OczWLXhIrx

The growing demand for high-fidelity video generation from textual descriptions has catalyzed significant research in this field. In this work, we introduce… pic.twitter.com/kxik2HA7h5

— AK (@_akhaliq) January 10, 2024

That’s the science but in practical terms how might MagicVideo-V2 be used?

In theory, it could streamline video creation for social media influencers and marketers, help drastically increase video production for media organizations or create animated clips for education and entertainment.

There have been huge advances in video generation AI

The rate at which generative AI is improving is high and shows no signs of slowing down. Stability AI, the company behind Stable Diffusion, recently began experimenting with 3D model generation and also launched a subscription pricing model. Runway, an AI video startup in New York, released a huge update to its flagship AI-filmmaking tool in September last year.

With its domination of the short-form video entertainment market through TikTok and Douyin (a Chinese video-sharing platform), ByteDance is in a position to maximize the value of MagicVideo-V2.

Mid last year it also launched an AI-powered music generator named Ripple. The opportunity for users to create incredibly intricate videos and add generated audio using these tools puts TikTok in front of its competitors in video-focused social media and it will be a challenge for others to keep up if their innovations continue.

Featured image credit: MagicVideo-V2

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Walmart has unveiled a range of innovative technology features that could transform shopping in future years.

The US multinational retail giant has embraced artificial intelligence (AI) to introduce what it believes will enhance the consumer experience. Specifically, they have utilized generative AI and augmented reality (AR) to present the new features with iOS users already able to access some of the new technology that was showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2024).

That is the case for the “GenAI-powered search experience” which was demonstrated in the form of a football watch party. This search feature would allow consumers to find relevant products that are being featured or advertised around the game.

Another new service was “Walmart InHome Replenishment”. It is designed to bring together the power of AI and Walmart’s existing replenishment capability to ensure customers’ online shopping baskets are filled up with the items they need when they need them.

The last of the trio to be presented was an Augmented Reality function named “Shop with Friends” which is designed to allow users to share and collaborate with friends online, on outfits they have created for a social form of shopping.

At Walmart's booth, you can experience everything from making logistics more efficient to improving customer experience, using technologies such as #AR and #AI

HT @ntv_rd#CES2024@Nicochan33 @EvanKirstel @JimHarris @jblefevre60 @pascal_bornet @FrRonconi… pic.twitter.com/LOnXUyNaru

— Dev Khanna #CES2024 (@CurieuxExplorer) January 11, 2024

Walmart AI will ‘serve customers better than ever’

Doug McMillon, President and CEO of Walmart Inc. was brimming with confidence regarding the opportunities presented by new technology, to further the company’s mission to serve its people.

“We build technology to serve people and not the other way around,” he stated.

McMillon continued, “Walmart’s purpose is to help people live better, and today, more than ever, advances in technology make it feel like anything is possible. People, our customers, and associates, come first and we’ll put technology to work to serve them better than ever.”

Walmart also outlined it would be extending its drone delivery service to up to 1.8 million additional homes in the Dallas, Fort Worth metro area.

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The Rabbit R1 launched to much excitement at CES24 with a pre-order that sold out its first two 10,000-unit batches in just a day. Priced at just $199, the palm-sized device was offering a lot for just a small investment. However, scalpers have sensed an opportunity, and just hours after the pre-order sold out, R1s started appearing on eBay for as much as $750.

The second batch of 10,000 rabbit r1 devices is sold out! Pre-orders for the third batch are available now at https://t.co/R3sOtVVQTx

Expected delivery date is May – June 2024. pic.twitter.com/PHLOFdyauX

— rabbit inc. (@rabbit_hmi) January 12, 2024

Prices for an aftermarket R1 vary, but the cheapest available on eBay will still set you back $300. The two most expensive offerings, $750 and $500, are listed by the same user who is testing the water. One listing had 10 bids already, pushing the price to an eyewatering $690.

The company’s founder and CEO Jesse Lyu took to X to discourage people from scalping the devices online.

hell no. don’t do this. pic.twitter.com/xMpmGEJrMR

— Jesse Lyu (@jessechenglyu) January 12, 2024

What is the Rabbit R1?

The Rabbit R1 is a handheld device powered by Rabbit’s new artificial intelligence model, the Large Action Model (LAM). This allows the device to learn how to use a variety of apps, from Uber to Amazon.  Humans have trained the LAM on how to operate the apps and can build on this knowledge and understanding, applying these techniques to other apps.

A key feature of the R1 is that users can ‘teach’ it how to perform tasks. One of the demos Rabbit CEO Jesse Lyu gave at CES24 had him scanning a fridge. “This is what I got in the fridge, can you make me a nice dish that’s low in calories?” he asked the device. After a brief pause, the R1 suggested a green garden omelet and provided a recipe.

In essence, it’s a smart device which doesn’t need apps.

The device is small and relatively inexpensive (if you avoid the scalpers on eBay), promising to do a lot for its users. The first batch is due to ship in March so we won’t be waiting too long to see if it can live up to the hype.

Featured image: Rabbit

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India data center providers are purchasing tens of thousands of advanced Nvidia GPUs (graphics processing unit) in a bid to turbocharge growth in the country’s artificial intelligence (AI) sector.

The Indian GPU sales come after the trillion-dollar chipmaker lost a significant chunk of its business in China due to recent US export controls on leading-edge semiconductors to its rival superpower. Nvidia expected over $5 billion in high-end data center GPU sales to China in 2023-2024 before the restrictions bit. Although it developed export-compliant chips, Chinese companies were reportedly unhappy with the downgraded offerings. 

The Silicon Valley giant is confident worldwide demand for its products will offset any losses in the Far East. Investors and analysts will be watching Nvidia’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings report next month to see how true this is.

Nvidia hopeful India GPU sales can plug China shortfall

In an interview with Reuters,  Mumbai-based Yotta announced one of its largest procurement deals, saying it plans to deploy 32,000 Nvidia H100 and H200 GPUs by 2025 worth about $1 billion. Roughly 16,000 of those GPUs will come online this July at Yotta’s new AI-focused data center in Gujarat opening in March.

Yotta CEO Sunil Gupta said India’s machine learning market could reach $14 billion annually by 2030, but only by leveraging advanced infrastructure like Nvidia’s accelerators.

“India’s AI ambition is just not possible unless this infra[structure] comes to India”, Gupta sai.d

Other Indian firms striking GPU deals with Nvidia include massive conglomerate Reliance Industries and Tata Group. Reliance will utilize Nvidia’s newest GH200 “superchips” to train AI models on India’s many local languages and dialects. Tata is constructing an AI supercomputer centered on the GH200 for pioneering cloud services.

Nvidia’s dominance is being challenged

Nvidia has a dominant position when it comes GPUs used for AI systems. They are the big player all others must beat.

The company is estimated to control anywhere from 70-90% market share currently, far ahead of rivals AMD and Intel. Nvidia’s specialized Tensor Core GPUs are so far unmatched at accelerating the intense mathematical workloads required to train and run deep-learning AI models. Top cloud providers like AWS and Microsoft Azure as well as server manufacturers rely extensively on Nvidia chips to power their AI offerings.

However, the industry wants supply chain diversity and if AMD produces a chip close to the performance of Nvidia’s cutting-edge H100, it may capture a significant market share.

With the sector growing rapidly, AMD’s push into AI semiconductors pits it to disrupt Nvidia’s dominance. Top cloud providers and server manufacturers will be keen for an alternative GPU supplier.

India, the world’s most populous nation, with a surging tech industry, presents immense opportunities as AI expands across finance, healthcare, agriculture, infrastructure and other economic sectors.

Featured Image: Canva free 

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Android users may soon see the comeback of lock screen widgets, a functionality removed from the operating system with Android 5.0 Lollipop. Signs within the most recent Android 14 QPR2 beta point to the possibility of reviving lock screen widget support in Android 15. However, it is uncertain if third-party widgets will also be included. This exciting return not only allows users to access quick information without unlocking their devices but also offers the opportunity for a personalized lock screen experience. Google has yet to make official announcements regarding this feature; however, the discovery is sparking interest among app developers and Android enthusiasts eager for customization.

Widgets in the mobile industry

For a long time, widgets have been a cherished component of the Android system, providing customization and accessible information at a glance. As Apple has recently incorporated widgets into the iPhone lock screen, it has been widely speculated that Android will respond in kind. The addition of widgets to the iPhone has undoubtedly raised the bar for the level of personalization and convenience that users expect from their devices. With this new development, Android developers are expected to strive to enhance and refine their widget offerings to remain competitive and cater to consumer preferences.

Android customization trends

As Android has progressively integrated more customization features, such as lock screen shortcuts and various clock styles, it seems that Google might continue to enhance user experience by focusing on lock screen personalization. The latest beta reveals two separate development approaches being considered. Firstly, the company could explore a more widget-based approach, enabling users to add quick-access tools and information on their lock screen. Secondly, Google might experiment with advanced theme customization options, potentially allowing users to change colors, fonts, and other elements to create a more personalized look.

The lock screen interface overlaps with the widgets, implying that the feature is still being adjusted. It is unclear whether this overlapping issue will be resolved in the next update or if developers need more time to fine-tune the features. Until then, users might experience minor inconveniences but can still expect improvements and enhancements in future updates.

Featured Image Credit: Lisa Fotios; Pexels

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Sophie Alcorn, a renowned Certified Specialist Attorney in Immigration and Nationality Law based in Silicon Valley, California, addresses the questions raised by a consulting firm called “Hopeful HR” about the updates to the PERM process for 2024. A permanent labor certification issued by the Department of Labor (DOL) allows employers to hire foreign workers on a permanent basis in the United States. The firm, which mainly serves tech startups, is seeking information on the most recent changes in the PERM process. In her response, Alcorn provides a comprehensive overview of the amended PERM process, detailing how it affects explicitly tech startups and the steps they need to follow for successful applications. She emphasizes the importance of staying up-to-date with the latest regulations and guidelines to ensure smooth processing and avoid potential penalties resulting from non-compliance.

Role of Immigration Attorneys

Alcorn starts by extending New Year greetings to the firm and expresses her enthusiasm for the forthcoming year concerning immigration policy shifts. She highlights the necessity of discussing the intricate PERM process, timeframes, potential risks, and alternative solutions with an immigration attorney, depending on a company’s hiring scenario and an employee’s immigration status. In light of recent changes, Alcorn emphasizes the importance of staying up-to-date and prepared to adapt to new policies and requirements that may affect businesses and employees alike. Furthermore, she encourages employers to remain vigilant and to actively communicate with their immigration attorneys to ensure a smooth and compliant hiring process for foreign talent.

Current State of PERM

To provide background, Alcorn describes the current state of PERM. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) grants PERM labor certification as the initial step for businesses sponsoring present or potential employees for an advanced degree or exceptional ability green cards or green cards for professional workers. The primary objective of the PERM process is to safeguard wages for American workers and ensure that any eligible and available U.S. workers have access to the job before a green card is issued to the candidate. To achieve this objective, employers must demonstrate that they have conducted a thorough recruitment process, notifying and considering U.S. workers for the available position. This process includes ensuring that the employer’s requirements for the job are fair and unbiased, allowing domestic workers to apply and be given due consideration before offering the position to a foreign national.

General Requirements for Employers

There are general requirements for employers to follow in the PERM process:
1. Obtain a prevailing wage determination from the DOL.
2. Test the labor market by advertising the job and recruiting U.S. workers.
3. Document and evaluate the responses received from potential candidates during the recruitment process, ensuring a fair and transparent selection procedure.
4. Complete and submit ETA Form 9089, which provides information about the job duties, requirements, offered wage, and the employer’s recruitment efforts, to the DOL for review and approval.
5. Submit a labor certification application (ETA Form 9089) to the DOL.
6. After receiving approval, the employer must file a Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker, with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
7. Upon approval of Form I-140, the foreign worker can proceed with submitting their application for an adjustment of status (Form I-485) or consular processing.
8. It is crucial to accurately complete these forms and provide all required documents to prevent delays or complications in obtaining permanent residency for the foreign worker.

Featured Image Credit: Aathif Aarifeen; Pexels

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The Asus Zenbook Duo debuted at CES 2024, wowing attendees with its inventive design and a surprisingly budget-friendly price of $1,400. The newest model features a 14-inch auxiliary display that enhances the primary screen, positioning it as a remarkable dual-screen device that has garnered significant interest during the event. As a result of the unique design and competitive pricing, this device has piqued the interest of gamers and productivity enthusiasts alike. The Zenbook Duo also boasts impressive technical specifications to match its stunning visuals, ensuring a superior user experience for those who invest in this cutting-edge machine.

Dual-screen design for enhanced multitasking

Equipped with two 14-inch 3K OLED screens, the Zenbook Duo delivers exceptional multitasking abilities, allowing users to operate several applications simultaneously. Nevertheless, there have been some questions regarding the device’s battery life due to the requirements of the two screens, each with 120Hz refresh rates and 500 nits of maximum brightness. Despite these concerns, the Zenbook Duo has been designed with an energy-efficient framework to extend its battery life while retaining its powerful performance. Users can also customize the display settings to balance screen brightness and battery longevity, ensuring the device remains a reliable choice for both professional and casual users.

With its revolutionary dual-display design and robust Intel Core Ultra processor, the Asus Zenbook Duo is anticipated to be among the most sought-after products at CES 2024. The innovative ScreenPad Plus feature, which acts as a secondary touchscreen display, provides users with added functionality and seamless multitasking capabilities. Its ergonomic hinge design also ensures a comfortable and efficient user experience, making the Asus Zenbook Duo an ideal choice for professional and casual users.

Secondary display functionality

The secondary display’s functionality further highlights the Zenbook Duo’s versatility as a virtual keyboard, which has been found to offer a surprisingly comfortable typing experience. Additionally, the ScreenPad Plus technology incorporated in this secondary display enhances multitasking capabilities, allowing users to run multiple apps and improve workflow. Its customizable settings and adaptive design cater to diverse user preferences, demonstrating the laptop’s intent to provide a seamless and personalized experience.

Optional accessories and input methods

For those who favor a conventional keyboard, the device has a removable physical keyboard featuring an integrated touchpad. Users can also purchase the Asus Pen 2 stylus for an additional fee, allowing seamless navigation across both displays. The physical keyboard offers a familiar typing experience, while the touchpad ensures precise cursor control, making multitasking a breeze. The Asus Pen 2 stylus enhances the device’s versatility, enabling users to sketch, take notes, or markup documents directly on the touchscreen displays.

The integrated kickstand enables users to position the Zenbook Duo at the ideal angle for various situations, facilitate side-by-side app utilization in a book-like mode, or lay it completely flat for effortless sharing. Its ergonomic design ensures maximum comfort and efficiency while working or engaging in multimedia activities.

Featured Image Credit: Asus website

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ChatGPT has become the flagship product of all generative artificial intelligence (AI) but there’s much more than just that one tool, as evidenced by the newly-launched store.

GPT, which stands for generative pre-trained transformers, can encompass several functions, all powered by AI. Where ChatGPT is quite literally an AI-powered chat, there is a wealth of other tools on offer.

Some of the most popular GPTs, as chosen by OpenAI’s community, include Consensus, which works as an AI research assistant by searching over 200 million academic papers for science-based answers. Another academic-focused GPT, AskYourPDF Research Assistant, takes this one step further by incorporating a chat function to talk through multiple files at once and even generate fresh articles to assist in your research.

Moving over to coding, Grimoire is a popular GPT that can create code for entire websites with a few quick prompts. It works in more than 20 programming languages.

There’s space for creatives too, with VideoGPT by WEED enabling you to create high-quality videos via prompts, Logo Creator (which does what it says on the tin), and OpenAI’s own DALL-E image generator.

How to access the new GPT store

You can easily access the new GPT store by heading to chat.openai.com and clicking ‘Explore GPTs’. From there, the store is set up to cover top daily picks, popular GPTs among the community, and a section for GPTs made by OpenAI themselves.

You can search for the names of GPTs or functions within the navigation bar, or browse through topics like Writing, Productivity, Research & Analysis, Programming, Education, and Lifestyle.

You must be signed up to ChatGPT Plus to use the other GPTs, which are available for $20 a month. Not only does it gain you access to the GPT store but it also guarantees users general access, even during peak times when the free version is at capacity. As new models roll out, premium users get first access and generally experience faster response times across all models.

Featured image: Pexels

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Google laid off hundreds of employees in its latest round of layoffs yesterday to cut costs.

Looking forward, Google intends to focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and has cut tech jobs, in line with a rising number of layoffs across the industry. The key areas experiencing layoffs at the search giant include its core engineering division, those working on the voice-powered Google Assistant, and the hardware division responsible for products like the Pixel phone, Fitbit watches and Nest thermostat, reports the New York Times.

Several hundred people across those three areas were notified their roles had been terminated on Wednesday, January 10, according to sources from within Google.

“We’ve had to make some difficult decisions about the ongoing employment of some Google employees and we regret to inform you that your position is being eliminated,” the company told employees.

Featured image: Photo by PhotoMIX; Dall-E

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Will the use of generative AI in Cybersecurity help countries and nations combat threats in cyber wars? The NSA thinks so. The attackers are chomping at the bit to cause problems to anyone online, and they are ramping up their technology skills to cause harm. Global cybercriminal groups have been on the offensive for years, but Rob Joyce, director of cybersecurity at the US NSA agency, told attendees at the Fordham University event in New York that generative AI is
“absolutely making us better at finding malicious activity,” and he outlined the key benefits of the technology for use within security personnel.

Generative AI tools have been leveraged in a big way. Joyce noted that over the past year, a disproportionate effort has been placed by nefarious individuals to deploy the application of generative AI in the cybercriminal community.  Joyce said that “cybercriminal groups have been leveraging generative AI tools to “turbocharge fraud and scams.”

The NSA continued that “generative AI in cyber security will offer practitioners marked benefits in combating attacks and cracking down on global cyber criminal groups.”

Generative AI in cybersecurity will offer heightened benefits to security

Over the past year, generative AI has enabled bad actors to have the ability to launch a barrage of powerful and personalized social engineered attacks upon the online community at large. Researchers from Darktrace have raised concerns because of the increased AI-supported phishing attacks and have warned that hackers will use technology to fine-tune their techniques and attack and scam users. Rob Joyce, director of cyber security at the US NSA agency, goes on to assure the country that the national security bodies “are harnessing the AI tools to great effect.” He promises cybersecurity experts are getting as much out of generative AI as criminals.

In the cybersecurity conference, Joyce cites examples and use cases to show how to combat the threats of those who hide on the internet to cause harm, all the while posing as safe accounts. AI has long been a misunderstood research field. Still, it is unlikely that generative AI will ever be a “silver bullet” for cybersecurity practitioners, and it is not a super tool that will make an incompetent person competent.”

Featured Image Credit: Cottonbro Studio; Pexels

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