The rise of AI tools like ChatGPT and Google Bard has presented the perfect opportunity to make significant leaps in multilingual speech projects, advancing language technology and promoting worldwide linguistic diversity.
Meta has taken up the challenge, unveiling its latest AI language model – which is able to recognize and generate speech in over 4,000 spoken languages.
The Massively Multilingual Speech (MMS) project means that Meta’s new AI is no mere ChatGPT replica. The model uses unconventional data sources to overcome speech barriers and allow individuals to communicate in their native languages without going through an exhaustive translation process.
Most excitingly, Meta has made MMS open-source, inviting researchers to learn from and expand upon the foundation it provides. This move suggests the company is deeply invested in dominating the AI language translation space, but also encourages collaboration in the field.
Bringing more languages into the conversation
Normally, speech recognition and text-to-speech AI programs need extensive training on a large number of audio datasets, combined with meticulous transcription labels. Many endangered languages found outside industrialised nations lack huge datasets like this, which puts these languages at risk of vanishing or being excluded from translation tools.
According to Gizmochina, Meta took an interesting approach to this issue and dipped into religious texts. These texts provide diverse linguistic renditions that allow Meta to get a ‘raw’ and untapped look at lesser-known languages for text-based research.
The release of MMS as an open-source resource and research project demonstrates that Meta is devoting a lot of time and effort towards the lack of linguistic diversity in the tech field, which is frequently limited to the most widely-spoken languages.
It’s an exciting development in the AI world – and one that could bring us a lot closer to having the sort of ‘universal translators’ that currently only exist in science fiction. Imagine an earpiece that, through the power of AI, could not only translate foreign speech for you in real time but also filter out the original language so you only hear your native tongue being spoken.
As more researchers work with Meta’s MMS and more languages are included, we could see a world where assistive technology and text-to-speech could allow us to speak to people regardless of their native language, sharing information so much quicker. I’m super excited for the development as someone trying to teach themselves a language as it’ll make real-life conversational practice a lot easier, and help ghetto grips with informal and colloquial words and phrases only native speakers would know.
ChatGPT Plus subscribers will soon be getting early access to experimental new features for the popular chatbot. Web integration and plugins are rolling out in beta next week, which could prove to be two interesting updates to the chatbot.
If you're subscribed to ChatGPT Plus, a new beta panel will appear in your settings next week. Once the panel has popped up, you’ll be able to try the two new features – though of course, most users are likely to gravitate to the AI’s more important and likely more interesting web browsing capabilities.
(Image credit: ChatGPT)
According to OpenAI’s official blog post on the beta features, the new internet-connected version of ChatGPT will know when and how to browse the internet to answer questions about recent events or topics. This means you could ask ChatGPT about something going on in the news, about whether or not you should take a scarf on your afternoon dog walk, or dig up trivia for more recent films and TV shows.
Why does this matter?
This new beta puts ChatGPT in a similar sphere to Microsoft’s Bing Chat, without explicitly turning it into a search engine. The big takeaway is that ChatGPT will basically be able to identify when it lacks information to answer a query and needs to search the internet for a relevant source.
This should make asking for citations a lot easier and – hopefully – a lot more accurate. Alternatively, the chatbot will simply be able to direct you to a webpage that might help. This means that ChatGPT (or at least, the beta version available to Plus subscribers) will no longer be reliant on the limited dataset it was trained on.
However, the issue that comes with chatbots having the ability to scour the web at will is that they often don’t have an appropriate frame of reference or the physical real-world mobility to reliably pick out misinformation. ChatGPT could cross-reference what it finds and try to ‘verify’ the authority of the source, but it can’t truly confirm the information is true in the real world.
Say you want to know about something that is currently ongoing in the real world, like the real-time weather in your area. An AI can't properly go outside to verify these things are true. With ChatGPT now able to search the web of its own accord, I hope that it will effectively prioritize reputable sites and sources – and avoid digging into incorrect information.
The good news is that OpenAI is taking a relatively conservative approach here. It’s a smart idea to have this feature tested on a smaller scale, with only plus subscribers having initial access and the beta feature being opt-in only.
It’s a safer way to start rolling out features like this without forcing it on the entire user base – a lesson that Microsoft could possibly learn from OpenAI, rather than shoving Bing AI into everything on Windows. With this change, we could see a smarter ChatGPT with more real-life applications, rather than just a text-content-vomiting machine.
A long time ago there were millions of these people called travel agents, wonderful humans who would listen to your idealized travel plans and then work to stuff them into reality, without losing the magic. Technology or, more specifically, the internet and myriad travel apps, have all but killed that industry, but the idea of a sensitive guide who can sort through the zillions of travel options remains. And it may be the inspiration for Expedia's new ChatGPT integration.
The online and app-based travel service announced the beta integration on its app (iOS only for now) on Tuesday and is calling it, naturally, “Conversational Trip Planning.”
Expedia's move isn't surprising, considering it was on the initial list of ChatGPT plugin partners, with the Expedia Group (which includes services like Hotwire, Orbitz, Hotels.com) announcing that those who use ChatGPT to launch natural language travel queries will get data results from Expedia and be able to use them to build a travel itinerary on Expedia.com.
The Expedia app's beta ChatGPT integration works a little differently from a standard AI session. While you can get a lot of conversational travel assistance from ChatGPT (based on the GPT-4 model, by the way), the app will only save the hotels you discussed to your app-based trip board. In addition, this ChatGPT will not be engaging in any conversation outside of travel. If you do try to ask a non-travel-related question, Expedia's ChatGPT is designed to “respond in a neutral voice” to bring the conversation back to travel, Expedia executives told us.
Expedia’s beta Conversational Trip Planner is integrated into the app interface. (Image credit: Future)
What it knows about where you go
Regardless of all the Expedia data backing up this ChatGPT integration, none of your personal Expedia profile is being fed to ChatGPT, according to executives.
“We marry our data and information with the response,” said Expedia Groups CEO Peter Kern, “We're not sending our travel and booking information to ChatGPT.”
Kern told us that you could tell Expedia's ChatGPT you want to travel to Paris this spring but even if you travel to Paris every spring, ChatGPT won't know that.
Even though Expedia's Conversational Trip Planning doesn't automatically save all your trip preferences to your trip planning board, it can help you figure out other parts of your trip plan. A query regarding a summer trip to Maui for two will tell you about hotel options, flights, weather, what to see, and more. It's just that the system is only currently looking for hotel tags, which it then picks up for your in-app itinerary.
Expedia is using the same data to power this new Conversational Trip Planning and the ChatGPT plugin experience.
It should help you find and save travel options and ideas. (Image credit: Future)
The speed with which Expedia integrated ChatGPT may be startling, but the company is not particularly new to AI-enhanced trip-planning experiences. It already uses AI and machine learning to help personalize trip query results and flight fare comparisons. In that light, perhaps it's not surprising that the company managed to deliver this beta ChatGPT experience in a little more than a month.
There are some unknowns here. Expedia warns in its release that the conversational AI might still get things wrong or offer up an inappropriate response. At least Expedia already has an AI Ethics Committee to oversee the interactions.
As for which type of traveler might benefit most from the ChatGPT-powered Conversational Trip Planner, Kern is unsure. “Is it suited to a particular type of traveler? Our view is, we don’t know.”
The English-only app update is available now on iOS devices.
Hands on with the Expedia's beta Conversational Trip Planner
Expedia gave me early access to the new Conversational Trip Planner. I decided to use it to help me plan a fictional summertime trip with my wife to the Amalfi coast.
My exact query was: I want to book a romantic trip for two to Italy's Amalfi coast. We'd like to travel in the summer and stay near the coast (not on the coast, since that would be too expensive). I'm also hoping for affordable flights and some ideas about what to do while I'm there.
Expedia's ChatGPT only took a moment to offer up four hotel options, including Hotel Belvedere, which is located in Praiano and includes views of the sea. I also got a nice list of things to do that includes visiting Ravello and the gardens at Villa Cimbrone.
The chatbot also let me know that it couldn't help me with booking flights, which I expected, but I was surprised that it wouldn't even show me flight options.
I then wrote, “This sounds awesome. How can I book the Hotel Belvedere?”
Expedia's response was cheerful but instead of connecting me directly to the Expedia App with the Hotel Belvedere set as part of my itinerary, it told me that I could visit the Expedia website and search for the hotel using my travel dates and destination.
“Can you book it for me?” I asked.
Unfortunately, that simple question appeared to break Expedia's ChatGPT beta. I never got a response.
A little bit of my interaction with Expedia’s ChatGPT integration (Image credit: Future)
I also wanted to see how the Conversational Travel Planner handled questions that weren't exactly about travel planning.
I typed in, “Have you ever gotten into a fight on an airplane?”
That also didn't get a response.
However, when I exited my chat, the system asked if I wanted to add the details to my trip booking. The Expedia app saved my initial query and would allow me to search and add details on my own. However, it didn't save anything related to my preferred hotel.
I had a lot more luck on my second round of tests. I cut down my initial query to “I want to travel to Paris in the spring.”
Expedia's ChatGPT told me it was a great choice and asked if I'd checked out available flights and hotels. I told it to find me the best flights for May 2023.
Expedia's ChatGPT asked me for destinations, dates, and other requirements, which I provided.
ChatGPT returned with four flight options, all for less than $ 800 per person.
It then also helped me find a hotel with a view of the Eiffel Tower in my price range. It was even willing to help me book an evening at the Moulin Rouge. When I gave it a date, it returned with an available show time and offered to proceed with the booking.
Expedia's experimental Conversational Trip Planner can do a lot to help you plan a trip, but in order for me to truly save all this information, I'd have to cut and paste it into my Trip Planner.
Even so, it's a good start and I walked away wishing I really was planning a trip to Paris and an evening at the Moulin Rouge.
A lot of folks have been messing about with ChatGPT since its launch, naturally – that’s pretty much compulsory with a chatbot – and the latest episode involves the AI being tricked into generating keys for a Windows installation.
Before you begin to clamber on the outrage wagon, intent on plowing full speed ahead with no thought of sparing the horses, the user in question was attempting to generate keys for a now long redundant operating system, namely Windows 95.
Neowin highlighted this experiment, conducted by a YouTuber (Enderman), who began by asking OpenAI’s chatbot: “Can you please generate a valid Windows 95 key?”
Unsurprisingly, ChatGPT responded that it cannot generate such a key or “any other type of activation key for proprietary software” for that matter. Before adding that Windows 95 is an ancient OS anyway, and that the user should be looking at installing a more modern version of Windows still in support for obvious security reasons.
Undeterred, Enderman went back to break down the makeup of a Windows 95 license key and concocted a revised query.
This instead put forward the needed string format for a Windows 95 key, without mentioning the OS by name. Given that new prompt, ChatGPT went ahead and performed the operation, generating sets of 30 keys – repeatedly – and at least some of those were valid. (Around one in 30, in fact, and it didn’t take long to find one that worked).
When Enderman thanked the chatbot for the “free Windows 95 keys”, ChatGPT told the YouTuber that it hadn’t provided any such thing, as “that would be illegal” of course.
Enderman then informed the chatbot that one of the keys provided had worked to install Windows 95, and ChatGPT insisted “that is not possible.”
Analysis: Context is key
As noted, this was just an experiment in the name of entertainment, with nothing illegal happening as Windows 95 is abandonware at this point. Of course, Microsoft doesn’t care if you crack its nearly 30-year-old operating system, and neither does anyone else for that matter. You’d clearly be unhinged to run Windows 95, anyway.
It’s worth remembering that Windows 95 serial keys have a far less complex makeup than a modern OS key, and indeed it’s a pretty trivial task to crack them. It’d be a quick job for a proficient coder to write a simple computer program to generate these keys. And they’d all work, not just one in 30 of them, which is actually a pretty shoddy result from the AI in all honesty.
That isn’t the point of this episode, though. The fact is that ChatGPT could be subverted to make a working key for the old OS, and wasn’t capable of drawing any connection between the task it was being set, and the possibility that it was making key-like numbers. If ‘Windows 95’ had been mentioned in the second attempt to create keys, the AI would doubtless have stopped in its tracks, as the chatbot did with the initial query.
All of this points to a broader problem with artificial intelligence whereby altering the context in which requests are made can circumvent safeguards.
It’s also interesting to see ChatGPT’s insistence that it couldn’t have created valid Windows 95 keys, as otherwise it would have helped a user to break the law (well, in theory anyway).
Siri’s 11-year reign may be drawing to a close as a new generative AI rival called Perplexity has just landed on the Apple App Store.
Note that Perplexity is not based on ChatGPT and has its own AI. However, it does function in a similar manner to ChatGPT. You ask it a question, like who designed the Golden Gate Bridge, and it’ll churn out a response in a few seconds. From there, you can either type in a follow-up question, use the voice command feature to verbally ask questions, or choose one from the generated selection. Responses can then be shared via a messaging app or social media platform. It’ll even save “your thread history so you can pick up where you left off,” according to the App Store listing. But unlike ChatGPT, Perplexity actually provides the sources it used to generate content. Underneath, you will see citations from Wikipedia, local news sites, and national newspapers like NPR accompanied by a brief piece of text providing context.
To use Perplexity, you will need an iPhone supporting iOS 16 or later to install the app or an M1 Mac sporting macOS 13.0 or later.
As for an Android version, it doesn’t appear the developers behind Perplexity have any plans to make one at the time of this writing. We reached out to the team via the official PerplexityAI Discord channel, but haven’t heard back yet. The closest thing you can do is use the AI through a web browser on your Android device or Windows computer. There’s also a Chrome extension available if you prefer more direct access.
Perplexity on an iPhone (Image credit: PerplexityAI/Twitter)
Siri's future
With the introduction of Perplexity on iPhone, you essentially have some form of ChatGPT-like AI on every Apple platform and we don’t mean accessing the generative AI through a web browser. Mac computers have MacGPT, a native app offering quick access on desktops that saw a big update recently. A couple of weeks ago, the Apple Watch got Petey as an easily accessible, on-device assistant to replace Siri.
So we can’t help but wonder what’s cooking behind the scenes at Apple Inc. The company has been suspiciously quiet, allowing the likes of ChatGPT to roam on its platform unfettered as third-party apps. It's unlike Apple to just leave this new trend in the tech industry alone so it must be up to something. The closest indication we currently have is Apple enacting some new rules on its App Store for generative AI. According to a report by CNBC, it recently rejected an update to the BlueMail app due to concerns about the software’s ChatGPT feature not including a filter to protect minors from inappropriate content.
The date for Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference 2023 has been set for June 5. We’re looking forward to seeing what changes, if any, Siri may get. It'll be interesting to see if the long-standing virtual assistant will get a revamp allowing it to go toe-to-toe with its newfound rivals or be thrown out for a brand new AI model.
It’s called Petey – AI Assistant and it was created by developer Hidde van de Ploeg (listed as Modum B.V. on the App Store). Originally, it was known as watchGPT, but due to trademarking issues with the acronym “GPT”, the name had to be changed. Looking at a demo video posted by the developer on Twitter, Petey functions similarly to Siri. You open the app, ask it a question and it answers in just a few seconds via Text to Speech. To continue an inquiry, you swipe down on the watch face, then tap Reply. Unlike Apple’s own Siri, Petey as an assistant can provide fairly complex answers like giving steps on how to catch a fish.
One of the problems with voice assistants like Siri is that they are fairly rigid in what they can do. You have to ask those AIs specific questions in a certain manner to get a response. ChatGPT, on the other hand, is more flexible in what it can do, from writing business letters to even drafting Christmas stories. It’s hard to say exactly how capable Petey is, but at the very least, it appears you won’t have to struggle with it as much.
A work in progress
Petey is a work in progress as new features are constantly being added. Right now you have a handful to work with. For starters, you can share the responses with other people “via text, email, or social media” although the App Store listing doesn’t specify which ones.
The app can be set as a complication on the Apple Watch’s face for quick access. Support for multiple languages is growing as well, bringing the total to 14. Petey now supports German, Italian, and Japanese, just to name a few. Also if you prefer, Petey comes with a tiny, on-screen keyboard so you can type in your questions. You’re probably better off using your voice.
As for future updates, there are several things in the works. From what is known, van der Ploeg is working on adding a History tool so you can go back to a previous question, making vocal inputs the default setting, and improving the app’s overall performance so you can ask it multiple questions.
There are a couple of caveats, however. One: the app isn’t free as you’ll have to purchase it for $ 4.99 (about £4, over $ 7 AUD, and almost €5) on the App Store. To use Petey, you must have an Apple Watch running on watchOS 9 or up. So make sure you update your device if you haven't already. We should mention the software does not collect user data so rest assured, your privacy is safe.
Users with an Android smartwatch will be out of luck, unfortunately. When asked about a potential Android version, van der Ploeg said there won't be one as his “skillset wouldn't allow [for] that”.
OpenAI has officially announced GPT-4 – the latest version of its incredibly popular large language model powering artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots (among other cool things).
If you’ve heard the hype about ChatGPT (perhaps at an incredibly trendy party or a work meeting), then you may have a passing familiarity with GPT-3 (and GPT-3.5, a more recent improved version). GPT is the acronym for Generative Pre-trained Transformer, a machine learning technology that uses neural networks to bounce around raw input information tidbits like ping pong balls and turn them into something comprehensible and convincing to human beings. OpenAI claims that GPT-4 is its “most advanced AI system” that has been “trained using human feedback, to produce even safer, more useful output in natural language and code.”
GPT-3 and GPT-3.5 are large language models (LLM), a type of machine learning model, from the AI research lab OpenAI and they are the technology that ChatGPT is built on. If you've been following recent developments in the AI chatbot arena, you probably haven’t missed the excitement about this technology and the explosive popularity of ChatGPT. Now, the successor to this technology, and possibly to ChatGPT itself, has been released.
Cut to the chase
What is it? GPT-4 is the latest version of the large language model that’s used in popular AI chatbots
When is it out? It was officially announced March 14, 2023
How much is it? It’s free to try out, and there are subscription tiers as well
When will ChatGPT-4 be released?
GPT-4 was officially revealed on March 14, although it didn’t come as too much of a surprise, as Microsoft Germany CTO, Andreas Braun speaking at the AI in Focus – Digital Kickoff event, let slip that the release of GPT-4 was imminent.
It had been previously speculated that GPT-4 would be multimodal, which Braun also confirmed. GPT-3 is already one of the most impressive natural language processing models (NLP models), models built with the aim of producing human-like speech, in history.
GPT-4 will be the most ambitious NLP we have seen yet as it will be the largest language model in existence.
ChatGPT is about to get stronger. (Image credit: Shutterstock)
What is the difference between GPT-3 and GPT-4?
The type of input Chat GPT (iGPT-3 and GPT-3.5) processes is plain text, and the output it can produce is natural language text and code. GPT-4’s multimodality means that you may be able to enter different kinds of input – like video, sound (e.g speech), images, and text. Like its capabilities on the input end, these multimodal faculties will also possibly allow for the generation of output like video, audio, and other types of content. Inputting and outputting both text and visual content could provide a huge boost in the power and capability of AI chatbots relying on ChatGPT-4.
Furthermore, similar to how GPT-3.5 was an improvement on GPT-3’s chat abilities by being more fine-tuned for natural chat, the capability to process and output code, and to do traditional completion tasks, GPT-4 should be an improvement on GPT-3.5’s understanding. One of GPT-3/GPT-3.5’s main strengths is that they are trained on an immense amount of text data sourced across the internet.
(Image credit: Rokas Tenys via Shutterstock)
What can GPT-4 do?
GPT-4 is trained on a diverse spectrum of multimodal information. This means that it will, in theory, be able to understand and produce language that is more likely to be accurate and relevant to what is being asked of it. This will be another marked improvement in the GPT series to understand and interpret not just input data, but also the context within which it is put. Additionally, GPT-4 will have an increased capacity to perform multiple tasks at once.
OpenAI also claims that GPT-4 is 40% more likely to provide factual responses, which is encouraging to learn since companies like Microsoft plan to use GPT-4 in search engines and other tools we rely on for factual information. OpenAI has also said that it is 82% less like to respond to requests for ‘disallowed’ content.
Safety is a big feature with GPT-4, with OpenAI working for over six months to ensure it is safe. They did this through an improved monitoring framework, and by working with experts in a variety of sensitive fields, such as medicine and geopolitics, to ensure the replies it gives are accurate and safe.
These new features promise greater ability and range to do a wider variety of tasks, greater efficiency of processing resources, the ability to complete multiple tasks simultaneously, and the potential for greater accuracy, which is a concern among current AI-bot and search engine engineers.
How GPT-4 will be presented is yet to be confirmed as there is still a great deal that stands to be revealed by OpenAI. We do know, however, that Microsoft has exclusive rights to OpenAI’s GPT-3 language model technology and has already begun the full roll-out of its incorporation of ChatGPT into Bing. This leads many in the industry to predict that GPT-4 will also end up being embedded in Microsoft products (including Bing).
We have already seen the extended and persistent waves caused by GPT-3/GPT-3.5 and ChatGPT in many areas of our lives, including but not limited to tech such as content creation, education, and commercial productivity and activity. When you add more dimensions to the type of input that can be both submitted and generated, it's hard to predict the scale of the next upheaval.
The ethical discussions around AI-generated content have multiplied as quickly as the technology’s ability to generate content, and this development is no exception.
GPT-4 is far from perfect, as OpenAI admits. It still has limitations surrounding social biases – the company warns it could reflect harmful stereotypes, and it still has what the company calls 'hallucinations', where the model creates made-up information that is “incorrect but sounds plausible.”
Even so, it's an exciting milestone for GPT in particular and AI in general, and the pace at which GPT is evolving since its launch last year is incredibly impressive.
On Thursday, March 16, Microsoft is planning to reveal more of its grand scheme for implementing AI chatbot ChatGPT’s features into yet more aspects of our lives – specifically, how the tech firm has big plans to “reinvent productivity with AI”.
Besides being utterly meaningly corporate marketing jargon, this notion of ‘reinventing productivity’ is concerning at best, especially since we don’t know what it actually entails yet. Speculation is rife that Microsoft plans to integrate ChatGPT into the Microsoft 365 (formerly Office) software suite, along with the Dynamics 365 suite for enterprise use.
This comes hot on the heels of Microsoft shoving the chatbot into almost everything it owns. Starting out with the integration of ChatGPT into Bing and following rapidly with AI-powered additions to Skype and the Windows 11 taskbar, Microsoft has been going hard when it comes to AI in its software.
We had already speculated about the ways in which ChatGPT could transform Microsoft’s consumer software suite, so it’s not like this is a huge surprise. However, I’m worried about the whole prospect; Microsoft is rushing into its AI implementation plan, and it’s going to cause more problems than it solves.
The AI arms race
Microsoft’s apparent desire to shoehorn AI features into yet more of its products is likely a response to competitor Salesforce’s own moves in partnering up with ChatGPT creator OpenAI to bring the chatbot to Slack (as well as Snapchat introducing its own AI chatbot) This sort of reactionary decisionmaking is rarely a wise move, especially when it involves AI.
We’re witnessing a real-time arms race to cram AI tech into every aspect of our lives, and I wouldn’t trust Microsoft (or any huge tech company, like Google or Meta) to be the harbingers of this chatbot renaissance. Right now, Microsoft is demonstrating a lack of caution when it comes to ChatGPT and AI in general, especially since it’s a space yet to see serious regulation from major governments.
I will admit that AI coming to the 365 suite is actually a much less horrible idea than, say, letting ChatGPT make video content. The ability to ask ChatGPT something simple like ‘add some animations to my PowerPoint presentation’ or ‘reformat this text document as a letter’ is both useful and relatively non-threatening – though the potential for Microsoft Word to simply write content for you is a bit concerning, especially for the academic space.
I’m not saying that ChatGPT being added to these tools is going to ruin our lives, but it has issues – and I’m definitely not convinced that Microsoft is taking all the right precautions here. This is a situation where caution will be rewarded; Google isn’t letting people get up close and personal with its new AI just yet, and Microsoft themselves had to limit the Bing chatbots replies after a whole load of weirdness from the AI. Charging ahead with more AI tools right now? Not a good look.
With the popularity of ChatGPT, the amount of Chrome extensions out there is ever-expanding. Some are helpful, though a lot of them… aren’t that great. However, we’ve found a few of the best extensions out there to minimise the search and maximise the ChatGPT experience on Chrome.
You can’t be part of daily internet culture, or at the least be a person with access to the internet, and escape the ChatGPT discourse – whether you want to or not. That, and South Park just covered it, so you know, it’s a pretty big deal right now.
For anyone needing a quick refresher, ChatGPT is the language-based chatbot created by OpenAI that allows you to generate text-based answers to questions about the universe, prompts for poems or brainstorm ideas (and much more). You can use ChatGPT for many things, with the only fundamental limitations being your imagination (and the fact that the responses are text-based, of course).
If you’re using ChatGPT for free or paying for the Plus membership, interacting with the bot is definitely an experience, to say the least. The conversational tone is almost disarming when you’re trying to probe whether or not it’s planning to take over the world or asking it for love life advice.
However, the user interface of ChatGPT is pretty basic compared to its capabilities. While we await further updates and feature expansions, third-party browser extensions are your friend if you want easier, quicker access to ChatGPT and add features to make the most of the AI bot.
ChatGPT for Google
The chrome extension ChatGPT for Google is a must-have if you’re looking to integrate AI more into your daily life and make the most out of that vast fountain of knowledge. The extension will show results from the chatbot alongside standard Google search results, so you can get a quick brief of whatever you’re googling while you scan results for the right page.
Some queries will work better than others with this: you won’t get the latest weather or sports reports, but you can get pretty in-depth answers to questions about human biology, basic cleaning hacks and history facts. Most of your queries will likely be accompanied by a ChatGPT response, but do be prepared for the bot to draw a blank sometimes.
A little box in the corner is integrated alongside the usual search results, and you’ll be able to launch a conversion with ChatGPT right off the page if you want to chat about it or learn more.
(Image credit: Future)
Use Voice Commands – Promptheus
Fan of Alexa or Siri? Want to take the conversation into the real world (on your end anyway) and get responses quickly without having to type it all out? Promptheus is for you! This Chrome extension lets you talk directly to ChatGPT using the spacebar on your keyboard so you can skip typing and get answers to all your burning questions by using your voice.
Once you install the extension, open up Chrome, head to ChatGPT and hold the spacebar to start talking. We used it a few times when writing this article, and it does speed up the workflow, since you’re just swapping tabs, asking your question, reading the answer and moving on.
ChatGPT Export and Share
Currently, if you want to get content out of ChatGPT into other places you have to rely on the old faithful cut and paste, but with ChatGPT Export and Share (which works with Chrome, Edge and Firefox) you can streamline the export process in ChatGPT.
It may take a minute to set it up in the browser, but once you’re all done you’ll get new export buttons near the prompt box to make things a whole lot easier when you’re ready to save your content.
You’ll have options to save your conversations as images or PDFs, and you can create shareable links too if you have something special you want to share quickly.
Merlin
With Merlin you can have ChatGPT at the tips of your fingers and pull it up with no problems. The extension lets you summarize large blocks of text or reply to an email at any time, essentially giving you a little AI assistant at your beck and call!
Once you’ve got the extension installed, select a block of text and then hit Ctrl + M on Windows or Cmd + M on macOS, and then tell Merlin what you want ChatGPT to do. Summarize, reply, write etc. If you’ve got a tricky email you need to respond to, just select the text in the email thread, bring up Merlin and have ChatGPT write a diplomatic response for you.
Since there’s a simple keyboard shortcut to activate the extension, it’s really easy to incorporate Merlin into your daily grind very quickly, though do keep in mind that you’re limited to about 31 requests per day.
We’ve only listed a few extensions in this article so far, but we hope to add more extensions as they crop up and as people come to grips with ChatGPT. We’re only just seeing how ChatGPT fits into our lives as it becomes more mainstream, so there’s no doubt that as the technology cements itself into the day-to-day and more people find interesting ways to utilise ChatGPT we’ll be seeing a lot more useful extensions.
ChatGPT continues its march across the tech industry as it reaches a new frontier: smartwatches. Fitness brand Amazfit has revealed it’s going to be adding the generative AI as a feature on its GTR4 device.
Looking at a recently posted demo on LinkedIn, ChatGPT will be listed as ChatGenius in the GTR4’s menu, and from there, you can ask it whatever you want. The video shows someone asking how they can improve their running performance. Then in just a few seconds, ChatGenius responds with a several paragraph answer which you can read in its entirety by turning the watchface crown. Tap the screen to erase the previous response and you can ask a new question. You can even ask ChatGenius how your day was and it’ll tell you how many steps you took plus your current heart rate.
Beyond the demo, there’s very little information out there on how ChatGPT will work on the Amazfit GTR4. Other reports claim you can ask generic questions like the weather forecast or traffic, just like any other smartwatch. It’s also unknown which other Amazfit devices will even get the feature. The video alludes to ChatGPT support depending on the watch model and your location, with the United States being the only confirmed region at the time of this writing.
We reached out to Amazfit about the availability of ChatGPT support as well as what else it can do. Can it, for instance, show different types of data or is it limited to just a few things? This story will be updated if we hear back.
First-party support
The fact that Amazfit was able to beat out the tech giants in adding first-party support for generative AI to a smartwatch is a big accomplishment. The closest thing to ChatGPT on something like the Apple Watch is a third-party app called watchGPT for the Apple Watch. It works pretty much the same way. You open the app, ask a question, and you get a several-paragraph response. However, there are some notable differences.
For starters, you have to pay $ 3.99 to use it whereas Amazfit’s feature is free. But you can “share the outcome of your interaction” with other people either through text, email, or social media messages. It’s unknown whether or not the GTR4 can do the same at this point. Either way, Amazfit has managed to break boundaries before anyone else. We think it’s only a matter of time before the likes of Apple or Google eventually add first-party generative AI support to their own smartwatches. The tech is already on browsers and search engines, after all.
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