Tech Bytes-Oct. 10, 2023
Director Claims AI Is Nothing to Worry About
The new film "The Creator" features a war where humanity is pitted against AI. A former special forces unit is enlisted to track and eliminate the Creator, the mysterious mind behind the advanced AI. The plot reflects broader societal unease about the rapid advancements in AI technology, which director Gareth Edwards said he doesn't share.
"I think the chances of it going wrong are so slim compared to all the advantages we're going to end up having," Edwards said in a video interview.
Google Bard's New Ability to Search Gmail Will Make It More Useful
Google' Bard AI chatbot is getting a lot more personal.
The chatbot has expanded its capabilities beyond just sourcing answers from the web. It can now search through your Gmail, Docs, and Drive to assist you in finding the information you need.
"What previously required sifting through numerous emails or documents can now be done simply by interacting with Bard," Samanyou Garg, CEO of the generative AI company Writesonic, said in an interview. "This feature can aid users in various tasks, whether creating summaries from complex documents stored in Drive, extracting specific information from numerous emails in Gmail, or even providing real-time updates from Maps or Flights."
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The New AirPods Can Stay in Your Ears All Day
Apple's latest iOS 17 uses algorithms to automatically lower the music volume during conversations or permit essential ambient noises through the headphones. The new software means you won't have to keep removing AirPods for daily activities. It's part of a growing wave of devices that use advanced techniques, including artificial intelligence (AI), to reduce noise.
"Noise cancellation can be performed with relatively simple models, such as taking a snapshot of background noise and inverting it throughout the audio being cleaned to cancel it out," Emil Winebrand, the CEO of the generative AI audio company Insoundz, said in an interview. "However, these processes tend to be crude and can add unpleasant artifacts to the remaining audio. Using AI deep learning techniques combined with a very good set of data to train the AI results in noise removal with much more pleasing and musical results."
Why the Meta Quest 3 Could Be the Best Headset for Most Users
If you're in the market for a new virtual reality (VR) headset, you might want to consider the new Meta Quest 3 over Apple's upcoming Vision Pro.
Starting at $499, the Meta Quest 3 is far less expensive than Apple's $3499 headset. Despite the lower price, it offers enhanced features, including a more robust Qualcomm chip, improved screens, and a 'passthrough' ability for augmented reality (AR), which is also a new feature that is anticipated to be one of the main attractions of Apple's Vision Pro.
"Quest 3 opens up a brand new headset AR experience to consumers in a way we haven't seen before," Tom Emrich, the Director of Product, AR Platforms at Niantic, said in an interview. "To date, available AR headsets have mostly been focused on the enterprise. With Quest 3's color passthrough capability at $499, developers now have a real opportunity to create head-worn augmented reality content for a meaningful audience."