We can't say for sure whether or not AI is secretly plotting world domination – but it does appear that ChatGPT developer OpenAI has designs on replacing Google Assistant as the default helper tool on Android devices.
Some digging by the team at Android Authority has revealed hidden code in the latest version of the ChatGPT app for Android: code that triggers a small pop-up prompt at the bottom of the screen, just like Google Assistant (or Siri on the iPhone).
The thinking is that you wouldn't have to launch ChatGPT for Android to get answers from the AI bot – you could just hold down a shortcut button, or even say “hey ChatGPT”. There also seems to be a new tile in the works for the Quick Settings panel on Android, giving users another way of getting to ChatGPT.
This wouldn't exactly be a hostile coup – Android already allows the default digital assistant app to be switched, to something like Alexa or Bixby – but it's interesting that OpenAI wants to expand the reach of ChatGPT. As always though, plans can change, so it's not certain that we'll see this functionality appear.
Store opening
In other ChatGPT news, the GPT Store that OpenAI promised last year is now scheduled to launch next week, after a delay – as per emails sent out to people signed up to a paid ChatGPT plan. It means users can create their own bespoke versions of ChatGPT and sell them on to other people and businesses.
These GPTs – or generative pre-trained transformers – are built on the same well of training data as ChatGPT, but they can be tweaked to take on specific personalities or accomplish particular tasks. Some rather obvious examples would be a bot that helps with tech support questions, or one that comes up with recipes.
Custom bots can also be loaded up with knowledge from outside OpenAI's vaults – so if you've written a hundred scientific papers on dinosaur fossils, for example, you're able to plug all of this data into a GPT and ask questions about the research. Right now, you need a ChatGPT Plus or Enterprise account to build a bot.
OpenAI is no doubt trying to foster the same kind of innovation and growth that we've seen in smartphone apps, ever since Apple opened the iPhone App Store in 2008. However, at the moment we're still waiting on a lot of details, including how users can get verified, and how sales revenue will be split.
2024 is set to see AI playing an increasingly prominent role in all kinds of tech devices and services, and Google is getting the ball rolling by enhancing Google Assistant with Google Bard features, having launched its AI chatbot last year.
During its Made by Google event in October, Google announced that the new Assistant by Bard would blend elements of both tools to create a generative AI search powerhouse. Its Google Assistant search tool has been integrated across the company’s products since its launch in 2016.
Google’s developments in AI are transforming the way users experience and interact with its repertoire of apps and services, with AI tools available in Gmail, YouTube, and Google Docs, among others. The merging of Google Bard and Google Assistant features marks the next big step in the company’s plan to integrate AI across all its products and services.
While Assistant with Bard doesn’t have a confirmed release date just yet, images and video shared by 9to5Google give us an idea of how it will look and function.
9to5Google suggests that Assistant with Bard will replace Google Assistant altogether across Google and Android devices. If this is true, it’s likely that you’ll access the new AI the same way as you would access Google Assistant; either by commanding “Hey Google”, or long-pressing the power button.
Looking at the images, the Discover page in the Google search app appears to have received a Bard integration in the form of a slider toggle that enables you to easily switch between a standard Google search and the AI chatbot
(Image credit: 9to5Google )
Other images show the pop-up that appears when Assistant by Bard is enabled, allowing you to ask questions by talking, typing, or sharing photos using the three options at the bottom of the screen. Google previewed this design during its October event, at which it launched the Google Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro.
(Image credit: 9to5Google )
Assistant with Bard isn’t yet available to use, but going by the images shared by 9to5Google it appears that the rollout of Google’s next AI development is imminent.
Google is reportedly developing an AI assistant that will analyze personal photos, files, as well as Search results with the goal of telling “your life story”.
This news comes from CNBC which saw documents revealing that the tech giant recently held an “internal summit” where company execs and employees presented Project Ellman. According to the piece, the AI will offer a “bird’s–eye view” of someone’s life by grabbing files from your Google Account, and utilizing written biographies and adjacent content to understand context. This process includes sifting through the information files to pinpoint important moments. The Google employees claimed Project Ellman could deduce the day a user was born, who their parents are, and if they have any siblings.
It doesn’t stop there because apparently, it's able to highlight chapters in your life like the years you spent at college or living in a certain city. Ellman can even learn your eating habits. If, for example, you upload a bunch of photos of pizza and pasta, the AI can infer that perhaps you’re a big fan of Italian food. The tech isn’t restricted to one person either as it can identify friends and family, plus social events you’ve been to.
Based on the report’s description alone, Project Ellman sounds very reminiscent of Memories on Google Photos, although on a much wider scale.
Personal chatbot
CNBC states the presentation continued with demonstrating Ellman Chat, which was described as ChatGPT, but with the ability to “answer previously impossible questions”. Judging by the examples given, the questions aren’t necessarily impossible; just tricky especially if you're a forgetful person. For instance, you can ask the chatbot the last time your brother visited or for suggestions on a location you can move to based on the pictures you upload.
Then we get to what may be one of Project Ellman’s secret purposes. By analyzing the screenshots users upload, the tech can make all sorts of predictions – from products you might buy, what interests you may have, plus future travel plans. The presenters also pitched the idea that it can learn what websites you frequent.
Project Ellman may know you better than you know yourself.
Analysis: All about you
We don’t think we have to tell you just how creepy all this sounds. We’re talking about an AI diving deep into your files, scrounging for every bit of data it can grab. Where is all that information going?
Gemini, Google's new large language model (LLM) is implied to be the model that’ll power Project Ellman because it’s multimodal, or in other words, it can accept multiple forms of inputs besides text. Generative AIs need a constant stream of content to stay up to date. It seems like Google might be pole-vaulting over privacy boundaries, seeking more data to feed Gemini and keep it growing.
Granted, there’s no guarantee Ellman will ever see the light of day. A Google spokesperson told CNBC this is all an “early internal exploration”. If there are plans for a release, developers will take the time to ensure it’s helpful to people while keeping user privacy at the forefront.
We urge you to take this statement with a grain of salt. Despite their supposed best efforts, the company has a storied history when it comes to privacy issues. The company gets into a lot of trouble for it. Just look at the Wikipedia page on the topic; it’s huge.
Hopefully, this is all overblown and the tech giant doesn’t launch a digital vacuum cleaner sucking up everything.
If you're looking for ways to start protecting your data, check out TechRadar's list of the best ad blockers for 2023.
As part of a recent beta, WhatsApp is giving select mobile users access to Meta’s new AI-powered chat rooms.
If you don’t remember, Meta announced during its Connect 2023 event that it was working on an “in-app assistant” for several of its platforms. The tech functions similarly to Bing Chat as you can ask it questions or engage “in some light conversation” with it. What’s more, the company revealed you can also give the AI a unique personality with each one based on a famous celebrity. For example, the Dungeon Master persona will guide you through a choose-your-own-adventure game and will have a video feed of rapper Snoop Dogg. It won't, however, imitate his speech patterns or mannerisms. It's solely the AI that Meta developed.
We don’t know when this WhatsApp feature will officially launch. WABetaInfo reports, however, that both iOS and Android users can try out a beta version of the tech. The former was recently released while the latter has been available since November 17. On top of introducing the in-app assistant, the update places the AI-powered conversations right on the Chats tab for quick access.
How to use WhatsApp's new AI assistant
Android owners who are interested must first join the Google Play Beta Program and install the WhatsApp Beta app on their devices. For iPhone users, we would normally direct people to join the TestFlight Beta Program. Unfortunately, the WhatsApp Beta on iOS is closed. It hasn’t had an open slot for the past two and a half years, at the time of this writing.
Worry not because we have access to the AI assistant on Android and we’ll show you what it’s like. Upon launching WhatsApp, tap the green Chat icon in the lower right corner, then select New AI chat.
(Image credit: Future)
On the following page, you will see every single persona currently available. We’ll select the base Meta AI for now. There, it’ll suggest some topics of discussion to start things off like what are the most popular shows on Netflix? The assistant will respond by giving recommendations while also linking to its source. You can see in the image below it got the information from TechRadar’s list of the best Netflix shows. From here, you can continue the conversation however you like.
(Image credit: Future)
How to try out WhatsApp's AI personas
If you want a specific personality, you can choose from a variety across different categories like Sports, Pop culture, and Advice. In this example, we’ll choose the Dungeon Master mentioned earlier. It’ll provide content suggestions at the start such as creating a playable character in the story. Each persona comes with a celebrity or actor emoting in real-time. You can move the feed around to the four corners of the screen, but you can’t get rid of it. It’s a permanent fixture.
(Image credit: Future)
Once you’re done, you can find the AI conversations in the main Chat tab on your WhatsApp account on mobile. Or you can even continue conversing with the personas on WhatsApp for desktop. Each one can be found in the left-hand menu with the rest of your chat rooms.
(Image credit: Future)
Keep in mind you cannot create an assistant on a desktop. The update is strictly for mobile only although it does invertedly reveal this feature will be available outside of smartphones in some form. It’s unknown at this time if this patch is widely available. WABetaInfo does claim Meta has plans to expand the AI personas “to a wider audience in the future”, but doesn’t provide any further details.
TweakTown reports that that Cocreator’s been known about in the Windows-sphere since test versions of the feature were released through the Canary and Dev channels in September, two release channels of the Windows Insider Program which allows users to sign up to it to preview potential Windows versions and features to give feedback before they are widely released. After these releases, a version was released via the Beta channel (a third Windows Insider release channel) and, just last week, a Cocreator version made its way through the Release Preview channel (the fourth and final release Windows Insider channel that sees features before they’re integrated into upgrades for all users).
Cocreator is powered by Dall-E, like Bing Image Creator, and works in a similar way. You give Cocreator a description of what you’d like to see composed, select the art style if you have one in mind, and Cocreator will try to create it.
TweakTown calls the results “impressive” and other early reactions to the new tool are positive, partly due, no doubt, to it utilizing the latest version of OpenAI’s Dall-E.
One of the first demonstration opportunities was spotted and posted by X (formerly Twitter) user PhantomOfEarth, who found a new 'first run' tutorial to take you through using Paint Cocreator for the first time in Windows version 11.2309.28.0 (in Canary and Dev).
(Image credit: TechRadar)
Latest Paint app update in WIP Canary/Dev (11.2309.28.0) adds a new first run experience for Paint Cocreator. https://t.co/pjmpcKa4iA pic.twitter.com/X1I8aaHT4HOctober 24, 2023
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How to try Paint Cocreator for yourself
Cocreator is still being tested it seems, and to be able to try it, Microsoft asks you to sign up to the waitlist in the Cocreator side panel – and once approved, you should receive an email. Microsoft doesn’t elaborate what panel this is, but Nerds Chalk writes that you can alternatively get Paint Cocreator by first being in the Windows Insider Program (to which you’ll have to sign up to if you’re not) and install the latest Canary or Dev build. Then you should be able to update your Paint app through the Microsoft Store > Library.
Whichever route you take, Cocreator is still being tested and the version you’ll see will be a preview one, prone to possible changes and developments. That said, with Cocreator being spotted in the Release Preview channel, it should appear soon in a Windows 11 update. The new Paint has already been something of a favorite among its fans, and this development will definitely make it a better-equipped creator playground. It’s already seen a major revamp with the addition of a layers feature and now Cocreator.
To think, Microsoft was ready to send the basic (but much-loved) Paint into retirement a few years ago, but it might prove to be one of the most successful apps that draws users to Windows yet. I have many fond memories of playing around in Paint when I was a kid, and with its pack of new features, maybe it’ll ignite the imaginations of children and adults alike today.
At the same time as launching the Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro and Pixel Watch 2 last week, Google also unveiled its new AI-powered Assistant with Bard tool – and now we've got a better idea of which phones might be getting the app first.
The team at 9to5Google has dug into the latest Google app for Android to look for references to Assistant with Bard, and based on hidden code that's been uncovered, it looks as though the Pixel 8 and Samsung Galaxy S24 phones will be first in line.
With the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro shipping tomorrow, it seems likely that users of these phones will be able to try Assistant with Bard before anyone else – and Google intimated as much when it announced the AI bot. The Samsung Galaxy S24 isn't due to launch until January or February next year.
However, Google has also gone on record as saying Assistant with Bard will be available to “select testers” to begin with, before more people get it over the “next few months”. In other words, even if you've got a Pixel 8, you might be waiting a while.
Coming soon
After Pixel 8 and Galaxy S24 owners have had a good play around with everything that Assistant with Bard has to offer, 9to5Google suggests that the Pixel 6, Pixel 7, and Galaxy S23 handsets will be the next to receive the upgrade.
Some example queries have also been found in the Google app code, including “help explain in a kid-friendly way why rainbows appear” and “give me some ideas to surprise my concert-loving friend on their birthday”.
Those lines will be familiar to anyone who's already played around with the generative AI in Google Bard: like ChatGPT, it can write poetry, reports, emails, and much more, as well as coming up with ideas and explaining difficult topics.
Assistant with Bard adds all that to what we already have in Google Assistant: answering questions, controlling smart lights, finding out what the weather's doing, and so on. It could soon be the most powerful Google app on your phone.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen talk of effectively killing off the Cortana app. BleepingComputer reports about another Canary channel preview release that had the Cortana app and support for it removed earlier this year. The future of Cortana was originally announced back in June, when Microsoft first set out its plans to end support for the standalone app.
At the time, Microsoft wrote that support for Cortana would also eventually end for a range of Microsoft products including Teams mobile, the Teams display, and Teams Rooms, as well as ending voice assistance for Outlook mobile and Microsoft 365 mobile, in the later half of this year.
This is a big step for Microsoft which committed a lot of time and resources to Cortana, integrating it deeply into the Windows operating system and tailoring it to work with a number of Microsoft apps and products. It was, however, long expected that it may end up getting culled after Microsoft put out an announcement on its official support blog two years ago that support for the Cortana mobile app would end.
(Image credit: Microsoft)
The new kid on the block, Copilot
Cortana’s exit is happening to make way for Microsoft’s new central focus, its AI-equipped assistant named Copilot, which was announced at this year’s Build conference. Users were able to try Copilot after the Windows 11 22H2 update was released on September 26. Microsoft’s CVP, Yusuf Mehdi, stated that “Copilot will uniquely incorporate the context and intelligence of the web, your work data, and what you are doing in the moment,” and emphasized that Microsoft was prioritizing privacy and security.
After an optional update (or eventually I assume a mandatory update), Copilot will be turned on by default, with users being able to configure settings with Microsoft’s Intune policy or Group Policy (for groups and organizations). This was clarified by Harjit Dhaliwal, a Product Marketing Manager at Microsoft, in a Microsoft enterprise blog post.
As well as Copilot, Microsoft has told users how they can utilize its AI-powered search engine Bing Search and enable voice assistance capabilities through Voice access in Windows 11.
Cortana’s demise isn’t too surprising, as the voice assistant got a very mixed reception and saw a lot of criticism. Microsoft appears to want to have another try, and is clearly hoping that the AI-powered Copilot will fare better. Although Copilot has taken somewhat wobbly first steps, it’s innovative and has plenty of potential.
It makes sense for the generative AI engine Google Bard to add some of its smarts to the Google Assistant tool that's been setting alarms and looking up facts on the web for years – and that's exactly what Google has just announced at its Made by Google 2023 event.
Assistant with Bard is described as “a step towards a more personal assistant” by Google exec Sissie Hsiao, and it builds on the recently added integrations between Bard and other Google products like Gmail and Google Drive.
So, for example, you could ask Assistant with Bard to highlight the most important emails you've had this week for you, or get the tool to write a social media post for you, to accompany a photo of your very cute puppy.
Another demo Google ran through was checking where a party was (based on a Gmail invite), finding out how long it would take to get there (via Google Maps), and then sending a text offering to travel there with a specific friend.
Personalization and reasoning
“[Assistant with Bard] combines Bard's generative and reasoning capabilities with Assistant’s personalized help,” writes Hsiao. “You can interact with it through text, voice or images – and it can even help take actions for you.”
So you get all the creativity of Bard, plus the functionality of Google Assistant, plus the personalization offered by the integrations with other Google products. It's a pretty comprehensive package, and it's going to be available on Android and iOS over the next few months.
It looks as though some features will be exclusive to Android, because of Assistant's deeper hooks into apps and settings on that platform. Google has also emphasized that the product will be “built with your privacy in mind” and have individual privacy settings – so we'll wait and see what that means.
Generative AI was a big part of the multiple announcements at the Made by Google 2023 event today, from photo editing tricks on the Google Pixel 8 Pro to clearer voice calling on the Google Pixel Buds Pro. You can catch up on everything that happened on our Google Pixel 8 liveblog.
Microsoft has recently introduced its newest major addition to Windows 11, an AI assistant named Windows Copilot. So far, it's seen a lukewarm reception due to bugs, and now users have noticed something else – Microsoft is putting ads into Copilot’s Bing Chat function.
As you might have guessed, many users aren’t happy about this. Copilot is still under development and available as an optional update feature, and I would speculate that users who were excited by its introduction are hoping to see improvements and changes rather than advertisements.
Windows Latest reports that Microsoft has added ads that show up when users make certain queries in Copilot, giving the example of “compare Amazon Prime with Netflix.” This apparently prompts Copilot to show you an ad for Amazon Prime within its interface. Oh boy.
This is possible because Copilot’s Bing Chat makes use of Microsoft Edge’s WebView2, a program that enables developers to render web content for apps within the browser. In recent times, Microsoft has seemingly followed Google’s lead and integrated ads more and more into its own platforms and programs. This isn’t even entirely unacceptable to users who use Bing, either.
Many users are okay with ads in Bing and its applications in exchange for being able to use powerful AI tools like ChatGPT equipped with GPT-4 (the latest version of the tech powering ChatGPT – OpenAI’s own website only allows access to GPT-3 for free, although this might change soon) and DALL-E via Bing Image Creator. This doesn’t automatically extend to tolerating ads within Windows Copilot, however, especially with it being more deeply built into the Windows 11 interface.
(Image credit: Shutterstock / SergioVas)
Windows Copilot: currently a work in progress
Windows Latest calls the current version of Copilot “boring and slow” (ouch) and many users are hoping that big changes are still to come. Users hope for developments like plugin support and being able to use Copilot in more Microsoft apps, like using it for tasks within Microsoft Office.
Microsoft promoted Copilot as its state-of-the-art AI assistant product, integrating Bing Chat and the latest developments to ChatGPT from its collaboration with OpenAI. The initial reveal looked very promising and advertised Copilot as a pretty intelligent assistant, allowing it an understanding of context (such as what apps are open on your screen when you submit a query). So far, these kinds of promises look like they’re yet to be fulfilled, as apparently Copilot can’t open apps from your voice or text input just yet.
This might not be what Copilot is for, compared to its predecessor Cortana, which could help open up apps and folders. It’s supposed to be more than an administrative assistant, and has many AI functionalities yet to be added. In its current form, it takes up a small amount of disk space and is an optional install. If you do install it and wish to turn it off, you can do so using the Group Policy editor.
(Image credit: Unsplash)
Will users be able to remove ads in Copilot?
That said, you can’t simply turn off ads within Copilot if you want to continue using it, meaning that if you want to use Copilot, you'll have to tolerate ads. Bing Chat and Microsoft’s big bet on OpenAI and ChatGPT is arguably its biggest challenge to Google’s dominance in a while. It wants to convince as many people as possible to try the newly AI-charged Bing Search, and maybe even consider replacing Google Search with it. It’s not cheap to run an AI-powered search engine, though, and as long as Google Search still reigns supreme, ads are a way to generate revenue while Microsoft continues to experiment.
Bing Chat does see some demand and even popularity among experts and enthusiasts in the AI community, especially those who want to try out GPT-4 and DALL-E for free. Most users understand that ads are an everyday part of our lives, especially online; a small price to pay to be able to use services and apps.
However, ads are also annoying and sometimes disruptive, and Microsoft has a lot of work to do in finding a balance between including ads to recoup its massive investments and not pushing away users with ad-based irritation – especially since the latter would mean that they don’t see the ads in the first place, thus potentially losing Microsoft its revenue.
For me personally, if Copilot means there could be ads surfacing in the deeper levels of Windows 11, like in my local file browser or right in the search bar on my taskbar, I’ll probably be reluctant to use it. If it keeps ads to more internet-centered apps and programs like Edge (or extensions on other browsers like Google Chrome), I’ll be more likely to try it and continue using it. The ball’s now in Microsoft’s court to hear user feedback and hopefully try something different with Copilot’s ads.
Today at Microsoft's “special event”, Yusef Mehdi, the tech company’s head of consumer marketing presented a huge next step in its AI evolution – Copilot.
It has previously announced Microsoft 365 Copilot, an intelligent assistant that worked across a range of its suite of productivity apps like Word and Excel.
At the event, Microsoft explained how Copilot is going to help you with almost everything that you use Windows or Microsoft products for. This new versatile Copilot will be put into action September 26 to all devices that receive the next Windows 11 update. For desktop, you can get this today and start trying it out for yourself. This means Copilot will be on all kinds of devices – PCs, laptops, and tablets.
Microsoft is aiming to integrate Copilot into Windows in such a way that feels natural and intuitive to use. It will be a standalone app, as well as function as an assistant in a wide assortment of other Windows apps to assist you with all kinds of tasks. This includes popular programs like Paint, Snipping Tool, Photos, and more where you can copy and paste right into the program and get to work on it right away.
It will also help you figure out what to do with text, whether it can help revise or summarise it.
One particularly interesting addition to Microsoft’s available apps which Mehdi talked about is Windows Ink Anywhere which will allow you to handwrite a math problem into a text field or take a photo of it, and help you solve it.
Also, if you connect your phone to your Windows device and give it permission to access your phone, Copilot will use that connection to inform its output.
Copilot and Bing, both with built-in AI
Microsoft’s flagship search engine, Bing, which has seen the integration of ChatGPT tech is also going to work in cooperation with Copilot, for example to help you shop online. You can take a picture and the two tools will help you quickly identify where you can buy it. Bing Image Creator, the AI image generator that anyone can access with a Microsoft account for free, is being upgraded to the DALL-E 3 model. When you ask Bing (and I assume Bing Chat, eventually) a question, the answers you get will be more personalized using your chat history.
I think Copilot is going to have to prove itself – Microsoft spent a long time focusing on it during its presentation and it's not a physically flashy product, but it promises a lot. If it's as powerful and as useful as Microsoft says, that could be what makes it the next standard that we measure all AI assistants against (like Word was for text editors or Google is for search now). Time will tell.
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