Tag: openai

Open AI Sets Investment Round Record; Microsoft Sunsets HoloLens 2; iOS Privacy Change May Screw New Social Apps; Threads-More Time to Edit Posts

October 2nd, 2024

OpenAI has wrapped up its latest venture capital round, raising $6.6 billion dollars…that’s the biggest venture capital round of all time. Techcrunch.com reports that now OpenAI is valued at $157 billion. Total VC funds including this latest blast of cash brings OpenAI’s total raised to $17.9 billion. OpenAI has asked investors to avoid backing rival startups in AI like Anthropic and xAI. Trying to get investors to not hedge their bets seems like a fool’s errand. Elon Musk’s xAI raised over $6 billion, and is now valued at $24 billion…a long ways from OpenAI’s valuation. Anthropic has raised some $9.7 billion.

Mixed reality headsets are all still too expensive, too heavy, and not quite good enough…save for Apple’s ridiculously expensive Vision Pro. Now, according to macrumors.com, Microsoft is dropping the HoloLens2 headsets. They will sell off the remaining stock and then that’s it. Microsoft will support security updates until the end of 2027, then support will end all together too. Right now, there are no rumors of a new HoloLens headset. My take is that Facebook is on the right track…until you can get things miniaturized enough to fit into a pair of Buddy Holly thick glasses, instead of a big headset…and price said glasses at the price point of a top smartphone or less…mixed reality vision gadgets will stay very much a niche item.

A change in iOS 18 intended to provide better privacy for users may really take a toll on new social apps. 9to5mac.com says contact sharing is more restrictive than ever under iOS 18. Up to now, apps like Instagram or WhatsApp would request access to your contact and you could either grant that access or deny it. Personally, I always deny…I think it is not cool to share your contacts…many of whom are friends in real life…with an app you are on, so that company can pester them to join up. iOS 18 makes matters a lot more granular than before. If an app requests access to your contacts post-update, you can select exactly which contacts you’re okay sharing….if any. This change will make it harder than ever for new social platforms to grow, compared to giants like Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, or TikTok. I look it this way….it’s like if you buy a car, and they ask you to write down all your friends who might be interested in buying one from that dealer, too…or a credit card that offers you a little cash for referring your friends and family. Go get your own prospects, you lazy bum new social apps!

Meta’s Threads platform has been slow of late at adding features, but has just bowed a nifty one. Theverge.com notes that you will now have 15 minutes to edit posts on Threads…up from 5 minutes. This does mean, however, if you have the fediverse switched on, you won’t see your post on other platforms like Mastodon for 15 minutes. Even though tripling time to edit, 15 minutes is a bit miserly compared to other platforms. X, for example, gives you up to an hour if you have a paid subscriptions. Mastodon lets you edit your posts at any time after they are published for free. Another feature add…Threads will now show you who follows you and likes your posts from other fediverse servers like Mastodon.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
OpenAI Offering GPT-4o Mini-Cheaper, Stripped Down Version; Meta Has Looked at Investing Billions in Eyewear Giant; Amazon Partners with Better Business Bureau Over Fake Review Brokers; Apple Says It Didn’t Use YouTube Subtitles for its AI

July 18th, 2024

OpenAI has rolled out a stripped-down version of the ChatGPT-4o large language model. Dubbed GPT-4o Mini, it is claimed to have better accuracy than GPT-4 on tasks, and costs substantially less than GPT-3.5 Turbo. Zdnet.com reports that OpenAI is claiming that the new AI model is “the most cost-efficient small model in the market.” It is worth noting that there aren’t any parameters defining large or small models, so this may just be puffing. At any rate, GPT-4o Mini is priced at 15 cents per million input tokens and 60 cents per million output tokens…vastly more affordable than the previous models and 60% cheaper than GPT-3.5 Turbo. The model only offers text and image support right now, with audio and video expected to be added at a later date. Its training data is current through October 2023.

Meta has looked at investing billions in eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica. According to theverge.com, the blast of cash would be in furtherance of Meta’s partnership with the owner of Ray-Ban and numerous other eyewear brands. The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses released last year now support multimodal AI to identify what wearers are seeing. They also sold more in a few months than the previous pair did in two years, according to EssilorLuxottica’s CEO.

Amazon is teaming up with the Better Business Bureau to fight fake review brokers…starting off with a lawsuit against a firm called ReviewServiceUSA.com. Geekwire.com says the suit claims that Review Services allegedly facilitates the selling of fake positive reviews for products on Amazon listings or Better Business Bureau profile pages. Amazon said it blocked more than 250 million suspected fake reviews in 2023.

We had reported yesterday that Apple was among some firms that used its OpenELM model to train AI on YouTube Subtitles. Now, 9to5mac.com reports that Apple says that’s not true. Cupertino claims that the subtitles were only used for research purposes, and that the YouTube subtitles were not used to power Apple Intelligence. Apple has said that Apple Intelligence models were trained “on licensed data, including data selected to enhance specific features, as well as publicly available data collected by our web-crawler.” Apple also stated that it has no plans to build new versions of the OpenELM model.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Google In Talks to Acquire Cloud Security Firm Wiz; AT&T Paid Hackers $370,000; OpenAI Whistleblowers-NDA Blocked Security Complaints; Meta Lifts Restrictions on Trump Facebook & Instagram Accounts

July 15th, 2024

Google, through parent Alphabet, may be about to make its largest acquisition ever. According to techcrunch.com, Alphabet is quite a ways along into talks to acquire cloud security company Wiz for $23 billion. Wiz offers an all-in-one approach to cloud security, ingesting data from Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and other cloud platforms, then scanning it all for security risk factors. Wiz was founded just 4 years ago by 4 former Microsoft employees. No comment on the possible acquisition by either Alphabet or Wiz at the moment.

It has been widely reported since Friday that a hacker stole call records for tens of millions of AT&T customers. Now, according to wired.com, the telco has paid the hackers some $370,000 to delete the data and provide video demonstrating proof of deletion. The hacker, who is part of the notorious ShinyHunters hacking group that has stolen data from a number of victims through unsecured Snowflake cloud storage accounts, tells WIRED that AT&T paid the ransom in May. He provided the address for the cryptocurrency wallet that sent the currency to him, as well as the address that received it. AT&T has not commented so far.

Whistleblowers at OpenAI have fired off a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission, calling for the Commission to take ‘swift and aggressive steps’ to enforce the rules they say OpenAI has violated. Engadget.com says the employees allege that they were made to sign ‘illegally restrictive’ agreements preventing them from speaking out on the potential harms of the company’s technology. They claim the employee agreements “failed to exempt disclosures of securities violations to the SEC.” The SEC has apparently responded, but no details have been released yet.

Meta has taken restrictions off former President Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts. Engadget.com reports that the former president was banned for a time from Meta platforms after January 6, 2021 and the attack on the Capitol. That suspension was lifted in January 2023, but restrictions remained. Now, those final guardrails are gone, with Trump just subject to the same standard as every other user.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
New Anthropic AI Claims to Best ChatGPT; Amazon Drops Plastic Air Pillows for Recycled Paper in Most Packaging; Apple Intelligence Plans for China Unclear; Cleaning Up Cow Burps to Help Slow Global Warming

June 20th, 2024

OpenAI rival Anthropic has released its latest generative AI model named Claude 3.5 Sonnet. Anthropic claims that its model is better than OpenAI’s latest ChatGPT or the models of Google and Microsoft. Techcrunch.com reports that while this appears to be true, Claude 3.5 Sonnet just barely beats OpenAI’s GPT-4o on the benchmark test they ran. Anthropic claims their model better understands nuanced and complex instructions, in addition to concepts like humor. Like other AI, however, it is still notoriously unfunny. It really is a sizable jump from the previous Anthropic model, but techcrunch.com says not as big a leap as OpenAI made going from GPT-3 to GPT-4. Most observers think we will see some large improvements in generative AI yet this year…which will hopefully avoid issues like the fellow at a McDonald’s who ordered some nuggets and the chatbot put in over 200 orders of them! Thankfully, there was human intervention!

In a move that could have a substantial effect on better recycling, Amazon has announced that they have eliminated 95% of the inflated plastic pillows used to cushion all the goodies that are shipped to us. According to geekwire.com, Amazon claims this is “largest plastic packaging reduction effort in North America and will avoid nearly 15 billion plastic air pillows annually.” On a personal note, I’m delighted. It’s not only better to use recycled paper for the environment, but no more deflating those stupid plastic pillows to put them in the garbage. As a bonus, my cat loves the paper almost more than the boxes it comes in. It has been estimated by environmental nonprofit Oceana that Amazon produced 208 million pounds of plastic packaging in 2022…enough to circle the globe over 200 times!

It was a big reveal at WWDC as Apple finally previewed its AI called Apple Intelligence. One thing that is still up in the air though is how they will bring the feature to China. As we reported, Apple will use ChatGPT for their most intense AI queries…and ChatGPT is not approved by the government in China. Now, 9to5mac.com says Apple is talking with Baidu, Alibaba, and another AI group to fill the gap. Another question is how Apple will be able to operate its Private Cloud Compute in China. Samsung has reportedly worked with Baidu, but hasn’t been happy with their AI performance. The net is, Apple Intelligence may debut this fall in the US and elsewhere, but for now…it looks like China will have to wait.

As has been known for a while, livestock cause about 14.5% of greenhouse gasses…more than all the cars and trucks in the world combined. While it’s funny to say ‘cow burps,’ it remains a serious problem. Cattle provide us with both meat and milk…and that isn’t something most folks are willing to do without…to say nothing about the livelihood of farmers and stockmen who raise the beasts. Well arstechnica.com is reporting a way that could help reduce methane emissions from livestock by over 30%. It’s a synthetic feed additive that absorbs some of the hydrogen produced in the rumen of the livestock before methanogens can use it. It is already approved in the US and Canada. Other additives like red algae are also being looked at…that one can reduce emissions by up to 90%..BUT…it is toxic, and it’s not clear that alterations to get rid of the toxicity are safe in the long term. Still, the approved additive knocking down gasses by 30% is a really good start. It all makes me feel less guilty about grilling those steaks on the 4th of July!

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Apple & Open AI-No Payments For ChatGPT on Apple; YouTube Further Tightens Screws on Ad Blocking; UK Startup Has Rare-Earth Free Magnet for EVs; WhatsApp Will Support 32 Person Video Calls

June 13th, 2024

It has come out in legal filings that Apple has been collecting a stupendous amount of cash from Google-reportedly about $20 billion- to keep Google’s search as the default on Apple products. There has been speculation about how much Apple might be paying OpenAI to run ChatGPT on the latest iPhones and Macs. It turns out that Apple is paying zero. Appleinsider.com reports that OpenAI is doing it for the exposure to the billions of Apple users…for now. The reverse is true also…OpenAI isn’t paying Apple a dime, either. This deal could change in the future, and in fact Apple is still talking with Google about using their AI at some point. Apple Intelligence, the Apple branding for their AI, will run on device with iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, and on Macs running M1 chips or better. For more complex queries, limited info will go to Apple Cloud Compute…Apple’s super private and secure system. Queries that exceed what can be done there will then go to ChatGPT…but only after being authorized by the user. OpenAI claims it isn’t collecting any data from Apple Users.

YouTube has been relentless in their efforts to make it harder and harder to block ads. According to androidpolice.com, the latest move is a move by YouTube to server-side ad injection. This complicates ad delivery and delivery speed, but will make it tougher for now for ad blocker makers to help users skip ads. For YouTube, it also complicates things, as ad info will have to be sent to Premium members, so their client app can skip the ads. Expect ad blockers to figure out a way to take advantage of this to try again to block ads for non-premium members. This is not unlike the almost perpetual race between speed radar makers and radar detector makers that have played cat and mouse for decades. If the new system…being trialed right now… proves to cause too much lag time or hassle, YouTube may lose premium subscribers over it.

A startup in the United Kingdom has used AI to uncover a new way of making rare earth-free magnets for EVs. Thenextweb.com says Materials Nexus out of London had an algorithm analyze over 100 million combinations of materials to come up with a viable rare earth-free magnet. The reason this is a biggie is that we will eventually run out of rare earths like dysprosium and neodymium. also, a lot of them are mined in China, which makes the supply insecure should the Chinese decide to cut off exports. The substances are crucial for the magnets in the electric motors that power electric vehicles, among other uses…including microchips and superconductors.

WhatsApp is rolling out an update that…among other things…will allow up to 32 people on a video call. TechCrunch.com reports that they are also adding to the screen sharing they introduced last year with shared audio also available. Previously, you could have 32 on mobile, but now you can have 32 participants on Windows and Macs, too…can you say getting into Zoom’s britches a bit more? Meta has also introduced Meta Low Bitrate codec for WhatsApp to improve call reliability where a user has lousy network connectivity or is using an old device.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
OpenAI Board Learned of ChatGPT from Twitter; Apple Looks to Black Box AI Cloud Data for Users; Founder Calls for ‘Memetech’

May 29th, 2024

I had originally done a story about a company starting with G, and how there was a large leak about their search algorithm, but after an hour of checking, they hadn’t ok’ed the video…a subtile way of censoring it looks like. Anyway, you will have to check elsewhere for that info. Sorry.

After all the drama of the OpenAI board canning CEO Sam Altman, then hiring him back, more trickles out about what was going on. With ChatGPT being hyped as the biggest thing since fire or electricity, it turns out OpenAI was kind of a snake pit. According to arstechnica.com, in an interview with ‘The Ted AI Show,’ former OpenAI board member Helen Toner said that the OpenAI board was unaware of the existence of ChatGPT until they saw it on Twitter. She went on to share that many at OpenAI were afraid to cross Sam…partially in fear that the company would fall apart. Toner’s main argument is that OpenAI hasn’t been able to police itself despite claims to the contrary. “The OpenAI saga shows that trying to do good and regulating yourself isn’t enough,” she said. This doesn’t bode well for the so-called ’Safety Committee’ formed at OpenAI being able to police anything.

Although rumors have Apple doing a good deal of their AI right on the latest iPhones in order to keep your data secure, it is expected that at least some information crunching will be done in the cloud. The Information says that Apple plans to process AI applications in a virtual ‘black box’ in the cloud…one that even their employees will be unable to access. This is probably pretty accurate info, as it comes from 4 former Apple employees who worked on the project of integrating AI into Siri. Apple has been working secretly on AI for 3 years, but are still considered to be playing catch up with Google, OpenAI, and Microsoft.

Oh, here’s what we need….better and easier to modify and send memes. As a heavy user of memes, even I have to be skeptical. That said, Alex Taub, a founder of a number of tech startups says it’s time to disrupt the meme ‘industry.’ Techcrunch.com reports that Taub notes that memes are a key component of our online communications. He also says of course it isn’t a necessary thing….but goes on to say that neither are smart refrigerators! Taub says most people that use memes have a meme folder…yep, have a huge one myself. He forsees a program to catalog your memes so you can pull and send an appropriate one to a friend or post it in a good moment. Not just one to talk, Taub has launched Meme Depot…which will be a comprehensive archive of any meme imaginable! Right now he is funding Meme Depot from his past ventures, but expects if it takes off he will make some money from it either by subscription or ads…just like most of the rest of the internet sites do.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Google Prohibiting Sites & Apps that Generate Deepfake Porn; ChatGPT Search Engine Rumored Imminent; Threads Now Lets You Control Who Can Quote Your Post; Jack Dorsey No Longer on Bluesky Board

May 6th, 2024

Google is going to prohibit ads promoting websites and apps that generate deepfake porn…starting May 30th. Engadget.com reports that Google has already had strong restrictions in place for ads that feature certain types of sexual content, this update leaves no doubt that promoting “synthetic content that has been altered or generated to be sexually explicit or contain nudity” is in violation of its rules. Advertisers who violate the rules will be suspended without warning. Such deepfake ads are already prohibited in Shopping ads. Hopefully, Google will really police this, and in a manner where it doesn’t end up like whack a mole.

When it comes to the internet and tech companies, people are always scouring every single word and character to try to determine what’s coming…whether a feature or ‘the next big thing.’ Now, according to mashable.com, a post in Y Combinator’s Hacker News community noted a domain name and security certificate for ‘search.chatgpt.com’ has been created. This could mean we are going to see a ChatGPT search engine sooner not later. Google, the 800 pound gorilla of search already is powered by an AI algorithm…but a ChatGPT one from OpenAI could really juice up the competition. It’s conceivable that before long, one could do a Google search, a ChatGPT search, and one with Microsoft Copilot…and I wouldn’t put it past some brilliant hackers out there to come up with a way to synthesize then streamline the results from all three…for a supercharged search like we’ve never experienced!

Threads is giving more control over who can quote their posts. Engadget.com says if you want to limit quoting your posts, you can limit it to only people you follow…or you can set it so no one can quote your posts at all. The update was announced over the weekend, and Threads is doing it to ‘help keep Threads a more positive place.’ Threads has now climbed past 150 million monthly users. Another recent feature lets users archive posts…either manually or automatically after a selected expiration date.

Jack Dorsey Tweeted over the weekend (not saying post on X, since it was Twitter when Jack ran it) that he is no longer on Bluesky’s board. TechCrunch.com notes that in fact, Jack was the platform’s most prominent backer…he first announced it back in 2019 when he was still CEO at Twitter. Dorsey didn’t elaborate, just replying to a question about him being on the board with a curt “No.”

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
FCC Fines AT&T, Verizon, Sprint & T-Mobile-Sharing Location Data; Meta is Offering Some Creators Thousands; Eight News Publishers Sue OpenAI & Microsoft-Copyright Infringement; DARPA’s Wild Self-Driving Robot Tank

April 30th, 2024

The FCC has whacked the big mobile carriers in the US a combined $200 million for what the Commission says was illegally sharing customer location data without consent. Theverge.com reports that the carriers “sold access to its customers’ location information to ‘aggregators,’ who then resold access to such information to third-party location-based service providers.” The agency says the carriers effectively “attempted to offload” their responsibility to get customers’ consent to share their location data with “downstream recipients.” Even after being made aware of the issue, the FCC claims, the carriers still failed to limit access to the information. T-Mobile got whacked the hardest…with an $80 million fine. AT&T was number two, getting dinged for $57 million, and Verizon was hit for $47 million. Sprint, which merged into T-Mobile after the investigation started, owes $12 million. All the carriers are expected to appeal.

Meta is waving thousands of dollars under the noses of some creators if they go viral on Threads. According to engadget.com, the money is part of a new invitation only bonus program. It is “based on the performance of your Threads posts” or “the number of posts you create.” Meta hasn’t given details about how the bonus program is structured, but so far, it appears that the bonuses are tailored to each individual creator. Meta says it is just testing the payment feature, so we don’t know how much it might be expanded…but a couple of creators have gotten offers of “up to $5,000” for Threads posts or replies with 10,000 views or more. That’s not nearly as high as the $10,000 bonuses Reels creators could once earn on Instagram, but not too shabby, either.

Eight US news publishers have sued Microsoft and openAI, making the claim that the companies are using their copyrighted articles to train generative AI like the ChatGPT series and what Microsoft has recently dubbed Copilot. Cnbc.com says the suit claims the chatbots have been “purloining millions of the publishers’ copyrighted articles without permission and without payment.” Newspapers operated by the companies that have sued include New York Daily News, the Chicago Tribune, the Orlando Sentinel, the Sun Sentinel in Florida, The Mercury News in California, The Denver Post, The Orange County Register in California and the Pioneer Press of Minnesota. The complaint filed states that “The current GPT-4 LLM will output near-verbatim copies of significant portions of the publishers’ works when prompted to do so.” Previously, the New York Times had sued OpenAI over ChatGPT using its copyrighted property without payment. OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman said at the time that the suit was without merit, and that the startup had wanted to pay the Times.

The folks at DARPA, who years ago developed DARPANet…that became the internet…have a wild new project. Bgr.com reports they are testing a self-driving robot tank. The prototype doesn’t have cannons on it, but it is freaky seeing the thing bound over all kinds of difficult terrain at 25 mph with no human input. It has two large, green lighted slits at the front that are status indicators, but look like eyes of some green monster. The tank is part of DARPA’s so-called RACER fleet….based on their RACER heavy platform that can be used for tanks, personnel carriers and other vehicles, including the Manta Ray underwater drone which bowed recently.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
US Offers TSMC over $6 Billion for Arizona Chip Plant; Google Launches Find My Device Network; Apple Officially Allows Retro Game Emulators on App Store; OpenAI Transcribed Over a Million Hours of YouTube Videos

April 8th, 2024

The Biden Administration has offered TSMC up to $6 billion in government funding under a preliminary agreement announced by the government today. Cnbc.com reports that The funding, under the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act, will support Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s more than $65 billion investment in three cutting-edge fabrication plants in Phoenix, according to the nonbinding agreement. The Taiwanese multinational semiconductor company is also eligible for around $5 billion in proposed loans under the CHIPS Act. TSMC Arizona has already created more than 25,000 jobs and attracted 14 semiconductor suppliers to the state. Intel got $8.5 billion in indirect funding and up to $11 billion in loans last month under the CHIPS Act.

At long last, Google has launched its Find My Device network. According to engadget.com, the tech leverages a crowdsourced network of over a billion Android devices to help folks find their lost gadgets. It essentially has the same functionality as Apple’s Find My network and that of the Tile system. The Google one rolls out to US and Canadian users today…and Google says the worldwide release will be coming soon. As with the others, you can use the app to locate your device with a map. The map data will work even if the device is off line.

Apple has finally officially started allowing retro game emulators on the App Store. Engadget.com says updated Apple guidelines now say that retro gaming console emulator apps are welcome and can even offer downloadable games. Apple also reportedly confirmed to developers in an email that they can create and offer emulators on its marketplace. Apple warns developers, however, that they “are responsible for all such software offered in [their] app, including ensuring that such software complies with these Guidelines and all applicable laws.” Clearly, allowing emulators on the App Store doesn’t mean that it’s allowing pirated games, as well.

In the ongoing effort to train its Chat GPT4, OpenAI transcribed over a million hours of YouTube videos! Theverge.com reports that the company knew this was really questionable, but believed it to be fair use. OpenAI president Greg Brockman was personally involved in collecting the videos that were used. Google spokesperson Matt Bryant told The Verge in an email the company has “seen unconfirmed reports” of OpenAI’s activity, adding that “both our robots.txt files and Terms of Service prohibit unauthorized scraping or downloading of YouTube content.” Google has said it also trained its models on ‘some YouTube content,’ but did it into accordance with its agreements with YouTube creators. Apparently, all the Large Language Models are running out of content to scrape. Some data scientists think they may run out by 2028, and will need to train on ‘synthetic’ data…that seems scary.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
ChatGPT-No Account Required; Yahoo Picking Up AI Powered News App; Microsoft Working on Xbox AI Chatbot; Google Must Destroy Browsing Data Collected-Settlement

April 2nd, 2024

In a somewhat surprising move, OpenAI has announced that users will no longer be required to create an account to use ChatGPT, its AI chatbot. Bgr.com reports that the move was announced in a blog post. The company said they will be rolling out the change gradually, but didn’t elaborate on a timeline for when it will be widely accessible without an account. Right now, Open AO says over 100 million people a week in 185 countries use ChatGPT. They aim to expand the number of users dramatically by dropping the account barrier. Keep in mind that you will still need a paid subscription to use the latest and greatest GPT 4, and to save and review your chat history, share chats with others, and use voice chat. This may be OpenAI’s version of a loss leader at the grocery store!

Yahoo is in the process of acquiring Artifact, and AI powered news app started by co-founders of Instagram Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom. According to TechCrunch.com, Systrom and Krieger will work with Yahoo in an advisory capacity through the transition, but Artifact will stop operating as a stand alone app…its tech will be integrated into Yahoo and the Yahoo News app in the next few months. Artifact had said it was starting winding down operations as the market wasn’t big enough to continue further investment. Financial details have not been disclosed.

What would you think of an AI powered Clippy annoyingly trying to assist you on your Xbox? Ok, I made that part up, but Microsoft is actually testing a new AI powered chatbot for Xbox that can be used to automate support tasks. Theverge.com says that the AI uses an ‘embodied AI character’ which animates when responding to Xbox support queries. The chatbot is plugged in to Microsoft’s support documents for the Xbox network and system. The chatbot can reply to questions and even process game refunds from Microsoft’s support site. Wait ‘till people try to argue with the chatbot about a refund or try to escalate to talk to a manager!

Under the settlement of a class action suit from 2020 brought by Google Chrome Incognito users, Google will have to destroy ‘billions of data points’ that it improperly collected. Engadget.com reports that the search giant will also have to update data disclosures and maintain a setting that blocks Chrome’s third party cookies by default for the next 5 years. The suit claimed Google told users their info was private in Incognito mode…all the while it was monitoring their activity. Google had argued that Incognito doesn’t mean ‘invisible,’ and that sites could still see their activity.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.