AI Awkwafina Is Ready to Answer Questions, Deepak Chopra Reads You a Story

Given the hoopla round generative AI, you would possibly assume most individuals are utilizing chatbots day by day to get solutions, write emails and dream up new concepts that empower humanity. But it seems a majority of parents have not even used the preferred chatbot, based on the Pew Research Center, which stated earlier this yr that solely a few fourth of Americans had even tried OpenAI’s ChatGPT.  

That’s why AI makers Meta, OpenAI and ElevenLabs all introduced new voice additions to their instruments final week. They’re betting that you will be extra interested by their chatbots in the event that they discuss again to you utilizing a well-known, notable, or distinctive voice like Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa. 

Meta introduced that it is licensed voices for its Meta AI chatbot from actors Awkwafina, Dame Judi Dench, John Cena, Keegan Michael Key and Kristen Bell to reply questions, “explain something you’re curious about” or let you know a joke. “Voice is going to be a way more natural way of interacting with AI than text,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated. 

ElevenLabs, a software for turning textual content into audio (together with cloning your individual voice based mostly on a small pattern), added New Age writer Deepak Chopra’s voice (hear right here) to the checklist of iconic voices in its free Reader App. Chopra joins a listing of “legendary stars” added in July, together with Judy Garland, James Dean, Burt Reynolds and Sir Laurence Olivier, whose voices are used to learn aloud books, articles, PDFs and different textual content. The app presents lots of of voices, in 32 languages.

And after hitting pause on its AI Voices in May, when actor Scarlett Johansson accused the corporate of copying her distinctive tones for one among its audio personalities, OpenAI introduced an replace that provides 5 new voices (for a complete of 9) with improved accents. They’re a part of the Advanced Voice Mode characteristic obtainable to ChatGPT Plus and Team subscribers (plans begin at $20 a month). 

“It can also say ‘Sorry I’m late’ in over 50 languages,” OpenAI stated in an X publish saying the extra voices. 

Given the controversy over Voice Mode, perhaps simply find out how to say “Sorry” in 50 languages would’ve been sufficient.

Here are the opposite doings in AI price your consideration.

AI can now beat ‘I’m not a robotic’ captcha assessments 

Online providers utilizing captcha puzzles — you already know: Pick out all of the photographs with bicycles to point out us that you are a human — will now must rethink how they’re going to go about verifying that whoever’s asking for entry is not truly a bot.

That’s as a result of researchers in Switzerland had been capable of prepare an AI mannequin to “solve Google’s reCAPTCHA v2 image challenge,” ZDNet editor Radhika Rakjumar reported. “The researchers trained the model — named YOLO for ‘You Only Look Once’ — on images of the usual reCAPTCHA fodder, meaning mostly road vehicles, traffic lights, and other related environmental objects.” 

Their Sept. 13 report, posted on Cornell University’s Computer Science web site, is named, merely, Breaking reCAPTCHAv2. Though no AI (or human) is ideal, the AI mannequin was capable of trick the picture identification quiz typically. 

Will captcha assessments go away? Not essentially. But they might get tougher, which Rakjumar notes would not be nice for “existing accessibility concerns for the visually impaired.” Google could also be experimenting with different methods to cease spam, together with content material scrapers and different malicious actors utilizing AI bots — and people strategies may embody fingerprint or retinal scans to show you are not a robotic. 

OpenAI, Jony Ive engaged on an AI {hardware} something-or-other

OpenAI got here up within the information lots final week, proving that generally issues occur in threes.

First, CEO Sam Altman confirmed in an interview with Axios that the AI {hardware} mission he is engaged on with Jony Ive, Apple’s well-known former design chief, is not a cellphone. That got here after Ive confirmed in a Sept. 21 New York Times interview that he was working with Altman and OpenAI.

So what’s he engaged on? A wearable? (Altman was an investor within the failed Humane AI pin.) Glasses? An AI umbrella? Altman did not say, however he did word that no matter it’s, “It’s a long way away.” 

Second, Altman acquired some buzz for writing (perhaps? Or perhaps he used ChatGPT?) a weblog publish known as The Intelligence Age. In it, the AI startup chief who’s hoping to make billions by convincing everybody they need to be utilizing his chatbot, touted his optimistic view of AI. He predicted, “Our children will have virtual tutors who can provide personalized instruction in any subject, in any language, and at whatever pace they need” and, “AI models will soon serve as autonomous personal assistants who carry out specific tasks on our behalf like coordinating medical care.”

He additionally thinks, “We will have a superintelligence in a few thousand days (!)” — or not. “It may take longer,” he added. I suppose ChatGPT could not forecast after we’ll see a synthetic normal intelligence.

Altman additionally opined that, “We will be able to do things that would have seemed like magic to our grandparents.” (Who needs to inform him that our grandparents are already amazed by computer systems, Venmo, and the flexibility to video chat with their grandchildren internationally on a smartphone?)

The third bit of reports was a shock to even Altman — that OpenAI CTO Mira Murati determined to resign. Murati, who joined OpenAI six and a half years in the past, stated in an X publish that she needs “to create the time and space to do my own exploration.” 

Industry observers famous that Murati’s exit comes after different prime executives have resigned, with some citing security considerations over the tempo of OpenAI’s improvement. Altman can be reportedly working with buyers to determine find out how to remodel the nonprofit right into a for-profit firm and lift the capital he must develop and fend off rivals together with Google, Meta and xAI. 

Also price figuring out…

Microsoft’s want for vitality to energy its laptop servers — and its AI software program — could also be prompting it to purchase the nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island that was the positioning of the worst nuclear accident in US historical past. The plant can be again in service by 2028.

Forget wedding ceremony vows. If you are searching for a sensible use for ChatGPT, think about using the chatbot to barter month-to-month utility payments and random charges. CNET’s Amanda Smith explains how.

Meta made a number of different AI-related bulletins at its AR/VR developer convention, together with an experiment with integrating customized AI content material into your Instagram and Facebook feeds. Katelyn Chedraoui, who opinions AI picture turbines for CNET, calls the experiment “a terrible idea.”

If you’d moderately not wait nonetheless lengthy for Jony Ive and OpenAI to present you your futuristic-gadget repair, examine in with CNET’s Scott Stein for his tackle Meta’s up to date Ray-Ban glasses, which provide new AI options together with stay translation and digicam recognition of QR codes.