Decart, an Israeli AIcompany that went public today with $21 million in funding from Sequoia Capital and Oren Zeev, has released what it says is the first AI model that can run in an “open world.”
The model, called Oasis, is available for download and trial on the Decart website: It’s a Minecraft-like game that generates end-to-end games on the fly. Trained on Minecraft gameplay videos, Oasis can generate keyboard and mouse movement frames in real time, simulating physics, rules, and graphics. Oasis belongs to an emerging class of generative AI models called “global models.” Many of these models can simulate games, but few can match Oasis’ frame rates.
I tried the demo out of curiosity, but I think it has a long way to go before it can be a truly fun experience. The resolution is fairly low, and Oasis tends to “forget” the layout of a level quickly – I turned my character around only to see the rearranged scene.
Decart has added new features, however, such as the ability to upload images to create custom “worlds.” Future versions of Oasis will reportedly be optimized for Etched’s upcoming AI acceleration chip (the demo currently runs on an Nvidia H100 GPU) and will be able to generate gaming footage at up to 4K.
“These models could even improve modern entertainment platforms by dynamically generating content based on user preferences,” Decart wrote in a blog post. “Or it could be a gaming experience that offers new possibilities for user interaction, such as text and audio… prompts that guide the game.”
I’d like to know more about the copyright issue. Decart doesn’t claim to have a license from Microsoft to use the Minecraft videos for training purposes. (Microsoft owns Minecraft.) Is Oasis essentially creating an unauthorized copy of Minecraft? That’s for the courts to decide.
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OpenAI adds search capabilities to ChatGPT to challenge Google
AI developers’ chatbots can now search and summarize SAN FRANCISCO —AI giant OpenAI has announced a major overhaul of ChatGPT, enabling the chatbot to search the web and provide answers based on what it finds.
The upgrade changes the experience of using the popular chatbot. It puts OpenAI in more direct competition with Google, offering an alternative way to find and use information online.
What it looks like: Some ChatGPT queries will now be answered with the help of web search results. AI-generated text includes links to sources in a gray box at the end of the sentence and in a list of citations at the bottom or right.How it works: Search results are shown only when ChatGPT’s algorithm determines they’re relevant, or when you click the globe icon in the prompt box.You can reply to ChatGPT search results to refine your query.
What’s missing: Product shopping links and ads (at least for now).Who will get it: Initially only available to paid ChatGPT Plus and Team users, but OpenAI says it plans to open it to free users eventually.
Starting Thursday, paid subscribers to ChatGPT will be able to activate a mode that lets the AI tool respond to queries by searching the web for the latest information and summarizing what it finds, rather than providing answers based on potentially outdated data used to create the chatbot.
The search feature is powered by Microsoft’s Bing search engine, an OpenAI backer. It also draws on articles from publishers that have signed deals with the AI developer, such as Wall Street Journal owner News Corp. Google added AI-generated summaries and quotes to its traditional search results this year in response to growing competition from chatbots. Startup Perplexity offers a similar AI-enhanced search engine and has received more than $400 million in funding, according to venture capital research firm Pitchbook.
The changes will make ChatGPT more useful and accurate, OpenAI head of media partnerships Varun Shetty said in an interview. “We think because it’s online, it will increase reliability and reduce illusions.”
In addition to helping users find useful information, chatbots and AI search engines are beginning to fundamentally change the online economy. For more than a decade, Google has been the web’s main gateway, making news outlets, bloggers and other publishers dependent on people clicking on search results to sell advertising or subscription traffic. AI-powered search tools offered by Google, OpenAI and others can summarize web pages and answer questions directly, helping people find information without clicking on other sites. That has raised growing concerns among publishers who fear they are being left behind by tech companies. Some publishers have accused AI developers of unfairly copying and plagiarizing their content to build AI tools that upend their industries. Some news organizations have sued OpenAI, alleging copyright infringement.
ChatGPT’s search overhaul will be a test of how AI search engines can impact publishing.
Queries that trigger the web search feature will deliver AI-generated paragraphs of text followed by links to websites that summarize the content.
ChatGPT’s paying users will use the new search feature during and in the days following the Nov. 5 presidential election, a period when disinformation researchers say the web will be rife with lies and political falsehoods. The AI’s search tool will direct queries related to the election results to sources such as the Associated Press and Reuters. “We are trying to prioritize and promote the highest quality and authoritative sources we can,” Shetty said.
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Arc Search AI mobile browser confirmed to be launching Android app soon
The artificial intelligence (AI ) mobile browser Arc Search is coming to Android, the company confirmed on Saturday. The browser made its debut early this year and has gained popularity for its AI features such as Browse for Me, where AI reads multiple web pages to display relevant information, AI summaries, and more. In May, the company released a Call Arc feature that offers two-way communication where users can verbally ask queries and the AI responds.
Arc Search confirms it is developing an Android appIn response to a post by a user on Threads who asked if the app is developing an Android version, the official Threads account of Arc Search said that an Android app is coming soon. This is the first time the company behind the app has officially confirmed that it is developing an Android app.
Arc Search was launched on the App Store by the Browser Company in January 2024. Later, the platform was expanded to Mac devices and a version for Windows was launched. However, the browser is still not available on Android. The browser has several unique features such as the Browse for Me mode where, upon receiving a search query,AI browses relevant web pages to find information in an easy-to-read format. It also comes with features like AI summarization, auto-archiving, ad blocking, private browsing mode, safe tags, reading mode, and more.
The company is also regularly adding new features to the app. Since its launch, the Arc Search browser has gained a “Share Browsing Me” mode and a “Call Arc” feature. The latter is a hands-free feature where users can talk to the app and the AI then answers the query. Notably, Arc Search uses the OpenAI API, along with several other AI models, to power the AI features in the browser. For now, the company has not revealed if there will be any Android-specific features. There is no word yet on when the browser will debut on the Android operating system.
Samsung will completely replace the Settings app with AI
The system will anticipate the user’s needs in advance by analyzing interactions in real time, helping the user make changes quickly without having to go into the app.
While this may sound a bit futuristic, almost all smartphone manufacturers have been moving in this direction over the past few years. For example, when the camera sees a document instead of a landscape or a person, it will choose a completely different type of image processing. The on-device AI can recognize the type of content you are trying to capture and make changes for you.
Currently, there are several AI features implemented in different apps and UI skins that are designed to make your life easier. Speaking of Samsung, they aim to further enhance the user experience by integrating AI more deeply in their OneUI skin, and the latest development is in line with their core strategy.
Samsung BixbySmartphones have long been equipped with AI voice assistants, but the functionality is still limited. The smart assistant can only assist with relatively simple tasks (such as setting an alarm) and lacks key control over the device. Will the latest development provide an improved AI system that can handle more complex tasks on its own? Only time will tell.
Some existing AI features in Galaxy devicesSamsung’s Galaxy AI already offers some useful features, including easier photo editing, interacting with people who speak different languages, and more. The company’s improved “ProVisual Engine” helps the camera hardware deliver clearer and more stable photos, even in low-light conditions.
On the other hand, the company’s AI note-taking assistant features make note-taking and information access easier than ever before.
While these AI-based features can save time, they are still limited to certain apps or areas of the user interface. However, Samsung’s continued development could increase their accessibility, significantly improving the overall user experience.
3 benefits of AI real-time support for improving customer experience
Today, the need for exceptional business-consumer interactions has never been greater: 80% of customers say their experience with a company is as important as the product or service. But the public’s definition of excellence has also risen.
If companies hope to meet customer expectations for excellent service, they must get customer service issues resolved within an hour. According to the 2024 HubSpot State of Customer Service report, 21% of customers expect their issues to be resolved immediately, while 23% expect them to be resolved within an hour.
Customer service agents must find a way to respond to an average of 17,630 support requests per month — about 100 tickets per hour for a standard 9-5 employee. AI chatbot support eases the burden by automating low-complexity tickets, analyzing customer sentiment, and generating personalized responses, all under the supervision of experienced customer service agents. Assisting agents with typing: Large language models (LLMs) enable predictive typing and automated response generation. These chatbots can understand written and audio content and suggest appropriate answers for agents to review, accept, or edit.
Self-service options: AIcan instantly answer frequently asked questions (FAQs) and guide customers through troubleshooting steps, enabling them to independently resolve issues at any time of the day.
By investing in LLM and developing service bot capabilities, companies can speed up response times, increase satisfaction, and improve the user journey.
Tailored customer experienceUsing AI in live chat allows you to personalize interactions with your customers and provide more consistent, quality service.
Let’s say a disgruntled customer leaves a message or types a frustrated message to a customer service representative: My package didn’t arrive again. LLM, fine-tuned with sentiment analysis tools, can identify the tone of the message by identifying capitalization and the use of negative adverbs. Within seconds, they can flag an automated verification to investigate previous interactions with the customer and their loyalty to the brand, and make an executive decision to offer an apology, a replacement courier, or a discount.
Based on the context of the message, AI can provide a customized solution to the customer’s inquiry and adjust its language and tone to match the customer’s preferences and communication style.
Customer service agents can also program the chatbot to reply to pending messages immediately and rate the severity of the sentiment based on internal values. For example, if a customer has multiple issues, a high severity level might trigger the bot to connect the customer directly to an agent.
Anticipate Customer NeedsThe more agents know about customers, the better and more proactive support they can provide. AI helps agents extract insights from every conversation, and the more customers interact with chatbots, the better the company can meet their needs.
Imagine an online customer browsing through several pairs of jeans and adding one to their cart, but not yet checking out. Based on this behavior, the chatbot can predict the customer’s potential needs and provide proactive assistance, such as, “Looking for the perfect top to pair with these jeans? Check out our new arrivals!” or, “Need help finding the right size? Our size chart can help!” If the customer has purchased similar items in the past, the chatbot can better match items to their style and even pair new items with previous purchases. If a customer responds with, “Hey, I like the blue ones, do you have more like this?” these preferences can be saved for future interactions.
By leveraging AI to better understand customers’ needs, companies can improve response accuracy, take on more complex tasks, and even anticipate customers’ needs before they ask.
Customer service teams are challenged to process a high volume of orders every hour while maintaining patience and high-quality service. AI-powered real-time support provides a much-needed solution by automating routine tasks, improving agent efficiency, and providing data-driven insights. Agents freed from monotonous duties can prioritize delivering high-quality customer interactions. Additionally, as AI capabilities expand and data collection grows, the potential for hyper-personalized and predictive customer service becomes increasingly feasible.
OPPO Reno12 5G: From GenAI features to top-notch specs, it’s got it all in a well-designed package
OPPO has an unrivalled reputation in the Indian smartphone market and has continuously pushed the envelope when it comes to innovation. With the latest launch of the OPPO Reno12 5G, the brand has further expanded its horizons by adding new-age GenAI features to the device. These features make the Reno12 5G a perfect everyday AI companion.
The OPPO Reno12 5G is the most solid smartphone in the Reno series, taking the entire user experience to the next level with OPPO’s GenAI features, making it the perfect daily driver. We used the OPPO Reno12 5G as our primary smartphone and at the end of our testing, we were quite impressed with it. At first glance, we liked the echo of the original rectangular camera island in the Reno style on the back panel. The Reno12 5G continues the tradition of the Reno series by offering the best camera innovations in the market with a powerful triple camera and advanced software innovations.
AI Eraser 2.0 As if the camera system of the OPPO Reno12 5G wasn’t powerful enough, the brand has also equipped this smartphone with GenAI features. We loved the flexibility of AI Eraser 2.0, which can remove unwanted people from photos, and AI Best Face, which can automatically open closed eyes in group photos. There is also an AI Studio, which allows you to create stylized and themed avatars and invite your friends to AI group photos, no matter which brand of phone you use.
Not only that, this smartphone can also enhance facial details in group photos of up to 10 people. The AI Clear Face option uses an on-device AI model to identify faces in group photos and enhance facial details, highlights, etc. every time. We love the flexibility of being able to hand the phone to anyone for a group photo and come up with amazing photos. Say goodbye to blurry photos you get when you ask strangers to take photos for you.
We also love the ability to generate custom and themed pictures from the images we clicked on the Reno12 5G. Users can generate their own themed versions using AI Studio. Moreover, you can also send an invite link to your friends to generate a group AI photo. The best part is that the AI Studio link can be used on any brand of phone, which makes it accessible to all your contacts.
We loved the photos taken with the OPPO Reno12 5G’s main camera, they were detailed, sharp, and crisp. This game-changing camera configuration combines the Sony LYT600 with All-Pixel Omnidirectional PDAF and OIS. Photos taken by the Reno12 5G in daylight were sharp and crisp, with good dynamic range.
OPPO offers the Reno12 5G in colors like Sunset Peach, Matte Brown, and Starry Silver. We love the sophisticated look of the Matte Brown with its rich cocoa hue, which looks classy and fingerprint-resistant. The Sunset Peach color uses a graphic LCD process for a stunning effect. In contrast, the Starry Silver utilizes OPPO’s fluid ripple texture to mimic liquid on a smooth surface. Whichever colorway you choose, it’ll catch the eye as soon as you pull the phone out of your pocket. RAM Vita, on the other hand, optimizes background apps for faster app launch and switching. ROM Vita is designed to compress lesser-used apps and manage duplicate files to free up storage space.
Charge faster, last longerOPPO Reno12 battery
We’re happy to report that the battery life of the Reno12 5G reflects all these optimizations and efficiency features well. OPPO has equipped the Reno12 5G with a Reno12 battery with a capacity of up to 5,000mAh and optimized the cathode and anode structures. In addition, OPPO’s machine learning-based AI smart charging function adapts to your charging needs to keep the battery healthy for more than four years.
Reno12 5G has been upgraded based on the previous generation 67W SUPERVOOC™ fast charging technology. The new product supports 80W SUPERVOOC TM fast charging technology, which can charge the battery from 1% to 100% in just 46 minutes. Just plug in the power for 15 minutes to meet a whole day of light use, the effect is impressive.
OPPO Reno12 5G: The new generation of AI companion you deserve
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The era of AI photo editing has arrived, and it’s every man for himself
We’re about to learn how comfortable we are in the age of AI photos—and it’s happening soon. I effortlessly snapped this couple vaping on a beach towel. They were right there in the background of one of my vacation photos, really ruining the mood. Google Pixel’s Magic Editor feature captured them with just a few taps, and you know what? I’m fine with that. But what’s hard to accept is that there are boundaries.
The vacation photos I took with my iPhone and edited with my Pixel-8-Pro are exactly what Google’s generative AI editing features are designed for. We went to the beach on Lake Michigan to watch the sunset, and I took a cute photo of my child sitting on my husband’s shoulders. It’s a moment you want to freeze and save in a jar for a lifetime.
Except for a few little guys in the background. Three taps in the Magic Editor and they were gone. But while I was there, I started thinking about what else I could change about the scene. What about a few cars in the parking lot behind them? What about the trash cans in the distance? Maybe I could emphasize the glow of the setting sun a little more?
I fiddled with the AI tools and discovered that, yes, I could do all of those things. But after all these modifications, can I still call these photos of our vacation? Or have I fallen into the “this is a memory, not a photo” trap? At this point I got a little uneasy and simply exited the app.
Things are about to get even weirder. The Pixel 9 series, launching on August 22, will come with a whole new level of generative AI tools that will let you “reimagine” entire sections of a photo. You’ll be able to use AI to add objects and scenery to images with text prompts, or bring everyone into a group photo by merging two different frames. Not only can you tweak the background and lighting of your vacation photos; you can change the location entirely. Cleaning up a few parked cars is nothing compared to what’s going to happen a few days later. Like me, not everyone is on board with this move. In fact, some are running in the opposite direction as fast as they can. iPhone camera app maker Halide just released a new mode called Process Zero that skips AI and multi-frame processing, turning the clock back to the early days of phone cameras, before computational photography. Gen Z is driving a retro digital camera renaissance, seeking a rougher, lo-fi aesthetic that modern phone camera apps, optimized to enhance shadows, increase saturation, and brighten faces, can’t offer.
Personally, I’d rather stick with native camera apps that maximize every pixel. But it’s a powerful response to current data-intensive technology, not unlike the backlash to Google’s recent Summer Olympics gaffe. The company released an ad in which a father used Gemini to help his daughter write a fan letter to her track star idol. It offended many people who thought writing such a letter was the point. Google eventually pulled the ad.
Imperfections are sometimes the point
The thing is, imperfections are sometimes the point. Writing a heartfelt letter that’s word for word is what matters. Smoothing out the edges dehumanizes the final product. I think Gen Z’s preference for choppy, “dumb” digital cameras reflects a similar impulse. When everything looks too good, it feels less personal.
Just like digital processing, we will all find our own ways to use generative AI photo editing, as these tools are certainly not going away anytime soon. For certain types of photos, I think I do like the option to remove distractions from the background. But I don’t need every photo to look polished enough to be printed on a Christmas card, just as I wouldn’t write a letter to a friend like a college application essay. Sometimes, a little grit is perfect.
An Important AI Sales Conversation
(By Loyd Ford) Last week, I talked with a very smart Sales Manager/Market Manager who is looking for work right now. He called to check in, but our conversation rapidly evolved to talking about the power and fear of artificial intelligence and sales.
By now you’ve heard it all. “AI will replace us all.” AIcan do your work.” “AI is too complicated for me to learn it.” “AI is so scary it makes me go into lockdown.” “AI can’t be better than me.”
He asked a few questions and then said, “I’m amazed at what I am learning about artificial intelligence that already makes me more valuable on the market for radio today. Learning these skills will allow me to explode my positive impact on sales teams and revenue at a much higher and faster pace than before.”
Of course, I shared with him aspects of new artificial intelligence tools that can allow local radio groups to launch tangible creative ideas that can help sellers create more productive cold calling by showing advertisers proof of something they want and “can’t unhear.” That creates more buying.
That’s when he talked about what he has learned about speed now available to sellers and sales managers because of AI in creating sales opportunities, presentations, data, and rapid influence.
Finally, he said, “People fear being replaced by AI, but the truth is more like this. You are less likely to be replaced by artificial intelligence than almost anyone thinks, but we are all more vulnerable to being replaced by someone who is using AI to become much more productive than you are now.”
Let’s be direct. In a world where radio groups and local owners need leadership that knows more about new technologies like artificial intelligence and how to use it to create more productivity, don’t you want to know the person I talked to this week about this who is looking for a job? It’s just a phone call.
There are a lot of different ways to increase your sales. But please let me point out what my friend looking for a job is really saying and why this should be a big part of your focus now.
Money isn’t real. It’s only important when you don’t have any. Sales come and go, but your time is essentially most valuable. Learn how to use AI to increase your sales by destroying how much time it takes you to do things AI can do in just minutes. Or less.
And time is money. But you already know that.
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How AI is fuelling uncertainty for game developers
“I’m very aware that I could wake up tomorrow and my job could be gone,” says Jess Hyland.
The video game artist says the industry she’s spent almost 15 years working in is on “shaky” ground at the moment.A boom in players and profits during the pandemic sparked a flurry of investments, expansions and acquisitions that, in hindsight, now look short-sighted.Gaming remains profitable, but thousands of workers worldwide have lost their jobs, and successful studios have been shut down over the past two years.More closures and cuts are feared.”Everyone knows someone who’s been laid off. There’s lots of worry about the future,” says Jess.Some bosses are talking up the potential of generative AI – the tech behind tools such as ChatGPT – as a potential saviour.Tech giant Nvidia has shown off impressive development tool prototypes, and gaming industry heavyweights such as Electronic Arts and Ubisoft are investing in the tech.It’s claimed AI tools can save development time, free workers up to focus on creativity and provide a more personalized user experience.With budgets at the blockbuster end of the industry spiraling as audience expectations rise with them, it sounds like a perfect solution.But not to everyone.’Jobs are going to change'”The people who are most excited aboutAI enabling creativity aren’t creatives,” says Jess, a member of the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain’s game workers branch. She sits on its artificial intelligence working group.Against the backdrop of widespread layoffs, Jess says the suspicion among workers is that bosses see AI as a path to cutting costs when labor is their biggest expense.Jess says she knows one person who’s lost work due to AI and has heard of it happening to others.There are also dozens of accounts online suggesting that jobs in concept art and other traditionally entry-level roles have been affected.Most firms making AI tools insist they’re not designed to replace humans, and there’s broad agreement that the technology is a long way from being able to do so.Jess says the bigger worry is that “jobs are going to change, but not in a good way”.Rather than creating their own material, says Jess, artists worry they could end up supplementing AI’s efforts, rather than the other way around.Copycat fearsIt’s a view echoed by Chris Knowles, a former senior engine developer at UK gaming firm Jagex, known for its Runescape title.”If you’re going to have to hire actual human artists to fix the output, why not harness their creativity and make something new that connects with players?” he says.Chris, who now runs UK indie studio Sidequest Ninja, says that in his experience smaller developers are generally unenthusiastic about using generativeAI.One of his concerns is around cloned games.Online game stores – where indie developers make most of their sales – are life with imitations of original titles.This is especially true of mobile games, says Chris, and there are studios set up “entirely to churn out clones”.It’s not yet possible to rip off a whole game using AI, he says, but copying assets such as artwork is easily done.”Anything that makes the clone studios’ business model even cheaper and quicker makes the difficult task of running a financially sustainable indie studio even harder,” says Chris.He also points to the huge amounts of electricity required to run generative AI systems as a big concern.Copyright concerns over generative AI – currently the subject of several ongoing legal cases – are one of the biggest barriers to its wider use in gaming right now.Tools are trained on vast quantities of text and pictures scraped from the internet and, like many artists, Jess believes it amounts to “mass copyright infringement”.Some studios are exploring systems trained on internal data, and third parties advertising ethical tools that claim to work off authorized sources are springing up.Even then, the fear is that AI will be used to turn out assets such as artwork and 3D models at scale, and the expectation on workers will be to produce more output.”The more content you can make, the more money you can make,” says Jess.
Some in the industry are more positive about AI.Composer Borislav Slavov, who won a Bafta Games Award for his work on Baldur’s Gate 3, told the BBC he was “excited about what AI could bring to the table for music in the near future”.Speaking at the recent Games Music Festival in London, he said he believed it would enable composers to “explore music directions faster” and push them out of their comfort zones.”This would allow the composers to focus way more on the essence – getting inspired and composing deeply emotional and strong themes,” he said.However, he did agree that AIcould not “replace the human soul and spirit”.While she has serious personal reservations about using the tech to “automate creativity”, Jess says she wouldn’t be against using it to bear the burden of some of the more repetitive admin tasks that are a feature of most projects.
Apple is finally starting to make generative AI a reality.
This month, Apple held its developer conference, called WWDC. It’s an annual event that’s typically used to showcase the company’s most important innovations. Many of this year’s presentations were devoted to artificial intelligence (AI), or what Apple calls “Apple Intelligence.”
While Google and Microsoft have made forays into AI with Gemini and OpenAI, respectively, Apple has so far taken a narrower approach. The AI models deployed on iPhone hardware are relatively weak. AI models are evaluated by their many “parameters,” or variables that are adjusted during the training process. OpenAI’s GPT-4 has more than 1.5 trillion parameters, while Apple’s model has 3 billion.
For queries that require more processing power, users can choose to outsource tasks to ChatGPT via the cloud through an enterprise licensing agreement. The licensing agreement appears to be in exchange for access to OpenAI, not payment. In other words, there’s no superintelligent thinking machine at Apple — at least not yet. As a result, the response to the presentations at the conference was somewhat muted. John Herman in New York wrote that this reflects “Apple’s cautious approach,” perhaps concerned about investing too much in technology that isn’t as advanced as I’ve been hyped. Josh Tyrandziel of The Washington Post described Apple Intelligence as “the first rational theory of AI for the masses,” praising the partnership between the established computing company and the startup OpenAI and its limited scope of application. We should celebrate the fact that Apple has not yet fully entered the AI arms race. Google’s rapid pace of catching up with Microsoft’s AI development is already accelerating the decline of Google’s search tools. However, my impression of WWDC is not very optimistic. In a sense, Apple Intelligence, a small model that will eventually be installed in more than 1 billion iPhones worldwide, is a key step in determining its fate. In other words, once AI enters our personal lives, there is no turning back.
《New Personal Intelligence System》As demonstrated in the presentation, the upcoming iPhone AI can rewrite emails on your behalf, aggregate text messages for active groups, and sort notifications to see which messages appear first, and you can also sort them. Apple CEO Tim Cook described the tool as not just a tool, but a “new personal intelligence system” that acts as a semi-autonomous second brain.
His comments reminded me of Steve Jobs, who declared in 1990 that computers were “intelligent bicycles.”
Apple says its AI tool will be more dynamic and useful than OpenAI’s ChatGPT because it will have access to all your daily information, such as where you travel, what books you read, who you talk to on the phone (ChatGPT, despite its amazing capabilities, still operates in a limited prompt window). “AI tools need to understand the user and be rooted in their personal context, including their daily lives and relationships,” Cook said at WWDC. Apple’s voice assistant Siri, which has been in the iPhone since 2011, can (mostly) understand what you say, set alarms, and check the weather. Meanwhile, Apple Intelligence operates like a turbocharged Siri, more like a ghost inside the machine, controlling the iPhone’s functions.
In the AI community, such tools are called “agents.” With access to all your contacts, messages, and calendars, agents can help you plan your life. Apple gave the example of asking the tool to “play the podcast my wife sent me the other day.” While it would be great to have a machine that can decipher such ambiguous expressions, it also means that your iPhone needs to understand who your wife is and sort out your conversations with her, which I have to think about.
The fact that Apple’s AI is designed to work on the device itself, rather than through the cloud, provides some protection for users’ vulnerable personal data. However, generative AI is still prone to random misunderstandings and “hallucinations.” Hallucination is an AI term that is a euphemism for dramatic errors. AI does not have the ability to determine what is factually accurate or relevant to reality. Cook told The Washington Post in a somewhat uncertain tone that while the tool will never be 100% accurate, “I believe it will be of very high quality.”
It would conceivably take only one freak accident to turn iPhone users away from AI. Another question asked at the conference was “When does my mother land?” If answered incorrectly, it could lead to a huge mistake at the airport pick-up. Even more terrible is the disaster of “reply all.” The AI might misunderstand the word “everyone” and send an email to everyone in your contact list. If you don’t respond to your boss’ message right away, the AI might notice and start hiding it (generative AI is known for affirming your wishes, and they even generate false facts through hallucinations based on fictional sources, such as websites and books).
AI is everywhere in our livesThe Apple event marks a softening of its closed-off attitude toward personal technology. Under Jobs and designer Jonathan Ive, Apple’s position is that its products are perfectly designed and therefore self-sufficient. Apart from the superficial choice of iPhone case color, there is no need for customization, and the operating system and graphical interface are also unified.