Month: March 2023
Fitbit’s attempt to disappear the button proved why they matter
It’s easy to see why gadget makers are so fixated on touchscreens. Swiping is intuitive. It enables sleek lines for a futuristic aesthetic. It’s the easiest way to banish bezels and maximize screen real estate. So I understood why Fitbit was chuffed when it introduced the inductive button on the…
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The Morning After: Midjourney shutters free trials of its AI image generator due to ‘extraordinary’ abuse
It’s a day of reality catching up with the chatbot boom. In the last 24 hours alone, we’ve had hoaxes, FTC complaints and… ads. Hooray. We’ll get into how Microsoft is bringing ads to its Bing chatbot – bound to happen – while OpenAI may have to halt ChatGPT releases…
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Virgin Orbit to cease all operations and lay off 85 percent of its workforce
Virgin Orbit, the satellite-launching subsidiary of Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, has announced that it will lay off 85 percent of its workforce and is ceasing operations “for the foreseeable future.” The company, which aimed to provide a more affordable option for launching small satellites into orbit, had been struggling to…
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Google CEO Sundar Pichai promises Bard AI chatbot upgrades soon: ‘We clearly have more capable models’
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has responded to criticism of the company’s experimental AI chatbot Bard, promising that Google will be upgrading Bard soon. “We clearly have more capable models,” Pichai said in an interview on The New York Times’ Hard Fork podcast. “Pretty soon, perhaps as this [podcast] goes live,…
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Google AI will soon write the emails I can’t be bothered to send – and I can’t wait
Google has now begun public testing of its generative AI features in Gmail and Docs for consumer, enterprise, and education users in the United States. The small group that has been invited by Google had to sign up in advance, with the choice to leave the program at any time.…
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Microsoft’s ad plan for Windows 11 is its worst idea since Windows 8 – but all is not lost
Microsoft’s leaked plans to add even more ads into the Windows 11 Start menu has not gone down well, and the less-than-positive reaction could hopefully make the company think twice about implementing the change. As we reported on March 29, Microsoft has added ‘notifications for Microsoft accounts’ into a new…
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