ChatGPT shows off impressive voice mode in new demo – and it could be a taste of the new Siri

ChatGPT's highly anticipated new Voice mode has just starred again in new demo that shows off its acting skills – and the video could be a taste of what we can expect from the reported new deal between Apple and OpenAI.

The ChatGPT app already has a Voice mode, but OpenAI showed off a much more impressive version during the launch of its new GPT-4o model in May. Unfortunately, that was then overshadowed by OpenAI's very public spat with Scarlett Johansson over the similarity of ChatGPT's Sky voice to her own in the movie Her. But OpenAI is hyping up the new mode again in the clip below.

The video shows someone writing a story and getting ChatGPT to effectively do improv drama, providing voices for a “majestic lion” and a mouse. Beyond the expressiveness of the voices, what's notable is how easy it is to interrupt the ChatGPT voice for a better conversational flow, and also the lack of latency.     

OpenAI says the new mode will “be rolling out in the coming weeks” and that's a pretty big deal. Not least because, as Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has again reported, Apple is expected to announce a new partnership with OpenAI at WWDC 2024 on June 10.   

Exactly how OpenAI's tech is going to be baked into iOS 18 remains to be seen, but Gurman's report states that Apple will be “infusing its Siri digital assistant with AI”. That means some of its off-device powers could tap into ChatGPT – and if it's anything like OpenAI's new demo, that would be a huge step forward from today's Siri.

Voice assistants finally grow up?

Siri's reported AI overhaul will likely be one of the bigger stories of WWDC 2024. According to Dag Kittlaus, who co-founded and ran Siri before Apple acquired it in 2010, the deal with OpenAI will likely be a “short- to medium-term relationship” while Apple plays catch up. But it's still a major surprise.

It's possible that Siri's AI improvements will be restricted to more minor, on-device functions, with Apple instead using its OpenAI partnership solely for text-based queries. After all, from iOS 15 onwards, Apple switched Siri's audio processing to being on-device by default, which meant you could use it without an internet connection.

But Bloomberg's Gurman claims that Apple has “forged a partnership to integrate OpenAI’s ChatGPT into the iPhone’s operating system”. If so, it's possible that one unlikely move could be followed by another, with Siri leaning on ChatGPT for off-device queries and a more conversational flow. It's already been possible to use ChatGPT with Siri for a while now using Apple's Shortcuts.

It wouldn't be the first time that Apple has integrated third-party software into iOS. Back on the original iPhone, Apple made a pre-installed YouTube app which was later removed once Google had made its own version. Gurman's sources noted that by outsourcing an AI chatbot, “Apple can distance itself from the technology itself, including its occasional inaccuracies and hallucinations.”

We're certainly looking forward to seeing how Apple weaves OpenAI's tech into iOS –and potentially Siri – at WWDC 2024.

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Could ChromeOS eventually run on your Android phone? Google’s demo of exactly that is an exciting hint for the future

A recent report has revealed that Google held a private demonstration that showed off a tailored version of ChromeOS, its operating system (OS) for Chromebooks, running on an Android device. Of course, Android is the operating system for Google's smartphones and tablets, while ChromeOS was developed for its line of Chromebook laptops and Chromebox desktop computers.

Unnamed sources spoke with Android Authority and shared that Google hosted a demo of a specially built Chromium OS (an open source version of ChromeOS hosted and developed by Google), given the codename ‘ferrochrome,’ showing this off to other companies. 

The custom build was run in a virtual machine (think of this as a digital emulation of a device) on a Pixel 8, and while this Android smartphone was used as the hardware, its screen wasn't. The OS was projected to an external display, made possible by a recent development for the Pixel 8 that enables it to connect to an external display.

A recent report has revealed that Google held a private demonstration that showed off a tailored version of ChromeOS, its operating system  for es it possible to run a secure and private execution environment for highly sensitive code. The AVF was developed for other purposes, but this demonstration showed that it could also be used to run other operating systems. 

Close up of the Samsung Galaxy S20

(Image credit: Future / James ide)

What this means for Android users, for now

This demonstration is evidence that Google has the capability to run ChromeOS in Android, but there's no word, or remote hint, even, from Google that it has any plans to merge these two platforms. It also doesn't mean that the average Android device user will be able to swap over to ChromeOS, or that Google is planning to ship a version of its Pixel devices with ChromeOS either. 

In short, don’t read much into this yet, but it’s significant that this can be done, and possibly telling that Google is toying with the idea in some way.

As time has gone on, Google has developed Android and ChromeOS to be more synergistic, notably giving ChromeOS the capability to run Android apps natively. In the past, you may recall Google even attempted to make a hybrid of Android and ChromeOS, with the codename Andromeda. However, work on that was shelved as the two operating systems were already seeing substantial success separately. 

To put these claims to the test, Android Authority created its own ‘ferrochrome’ custom ChromeOS that it was able to run using a virtual machine on a Pixel 7 Pro, confirming that it's possible and providing a video of this feat.

For now, then, we can only wait and see if Google is going to explore this any further. But it’s already interesting to see Android Authority demonstrate this is possible, and that the tools to do this already exist if developers want to attempt it themselves. Virtualization is a popular method to run software originally built for another platform, and many modern phones have the hardware specs to facilitate it. It could also be a pathway for Google to improve the desktop mode for the upcoming Android 15, as apparently, the version seen in beta has some way to go. 

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New Rabbit R1 demo promises a world without apps – and a lot more talking to your tech

We’ve already talked about the Rabbit R1 before here on TechRadar: an ambitious little pocket-friendly device that contains an AI-powered personal assistant, capable of doing everything from curating a music playlist to booking you a last-minute flight to Rome. Now, the pint-sized companion tool has been shown demonstrating its note-taking capabilities.

The latest demo comes from Jesse Lyu on X, founder and CEO of Rabbit Inc., and shows how the R1 can be used for note-taking and transcription via some simple voice controls. The video (see the tweet below) shows that note-taking can be started with a short voice command, and ended with a single button press.

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It’s a relatively early tech demo – Lyu notes that it “still need bit of touch” [sic] – but it’s a solid demonstration of Rabbit Inc.’s objectives when it comes to user simplicity. The R1 has very little in terms of a physical interface, and doubles down by having as basic a software interface as possible: there’s no Android-style app grid in sight here, just an AI capable of connecting to web apps to carry out tasks.

Once you’ve recorded your notes, you can either view a full transcription, see an AI-generated summary, or replay the audio recording (the latter of which requires you to access a web portal). The Rabbit R1 is primarily driven by cloud computing, meaning that you’ll need a constant internet connection to get the full experience.

Opinion: A nifty gadget that might not hold up to criticism

As someone who personally spent a lot of time interviewing people and frantically scribbling down notes in my early journo days, I can definitely see the value of a tool like the Rabbit R1. I’m also a sucker for purpose-built hardware, so despite my frequent reservations about AI, I truly like the concept of the R1 as a ‘one-stop shop’ for your AI chatbot needs.

My main issue is that this latest tech demo doesn’t actually do anything I can’t do with my phone. I’ve got a Google Pixel 8, and nowadays I use the Otter.ai app for interview transcriptions and voice notes. It’s not a perfect tool, but it does the job as well as the R1 can right now.

Rabbit r1

The Rabbit R1’s simplicity is part of its appeal – though it does still have a touchscreen. (Image credit: Rabbit)

As much as I love the Rabbit R1’s charming analog design, it’s still going to cost $ 199 (£159 / around AU$ 300) – and I just don’t see the point in spending that money when the phone I’ve already paid for can do all the same tasks. An AI-powered pocket companion sounds like an excellent idea on paper, but when you take a look at the current widespread proliferation of AI tools like Windows Copilot and Google Gemini in our existing tech products, it feels a tad redundant.

The big players such as Google and Microsoft aren’t about to stop cramming AI features into our everyday hardware anytime soon, so dedicated AI gadgets like Rabbit Inc.’s dinky pocket helper will need to work hard to prove themselves. The voice control interface that does away with apps completely is a good starting point, but again, that’s something my Pixel 8 could feasibly do in the future. And yet, as our Editor-in-Chief Lance Ulanoff puts it, I might still end up loving the R1…

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Apple working on a new AI-powered editing tool and you can try out the demo now

Apple says it plans on introducing generative AI features to iPhones later this year. It’s unknown what they are, however, a recently published research paper indicates one of them may be a new type of editing software that can alter images via text prompts.

It’s called MGIE, or MLLM-Guided (multimodal large language model) Image Editing. The tech is the result of a collaboration between Apple and researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara. The paper states MGIE is capable of “Photoshop-style [modifications]” ranging from simple tweaks like cropping to more complex edits such as removing objects from a picture. This is made possible by the MLLM (multimodal large language model), a type of AI capable of processing both “ text and images” at the same time.

VentureBeat in their report explains MLLMs show “remarkable capabilities in cross-model understanding”, although they have not been widely implemented in image editing software despite their supposed efficacy.

Public demonstration

The way MGIE works is pretty straightforward. You upload an image to the AI engine and give it clear, concise instructions on the changes you want it to make. VentureBeat says people will need to “provide explicit guidance”. As an example, you can upload a picture of a bright, sunny day and tell MGIE to “make the sky more blue.” It’ll proceed to saturate the color of the sky a bit, but it may not be as vivid as you would like. You’ll have to guide it further to get the results you want. 

MGIE is currently available on GitHub as an open-source project. The researchers are offering “code, data, [pre-trained models]”, as well as a notebook teaching people how to use the AI for editing tasks. There’s also a web demo available to the public on the collaborative tech platform Hugging Face. With access to this demo, we decided to take Apple’s AI out for a spin.

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Cat picture new background on MGIE

(Image credit: Cédric VT/Unsplash/Apple)
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Cat picture lightning background on MGIE

(Image credit: Cédric VT/Unsplash/Apple)
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Cat picture on MGIE

(Image credit: Cédric VT/Unsplash/Apple)

In our test, we uploaded a picture of a cat that we got from Unsplash and then proceeded to instruct MGIE to make several changes. And in our experience, it did okay. In one instance, we told it to change the background from blue to red. However, MGIE instead made the background a darker shade of blue with static-like texturing. On another, we prompted the engine to add a purple background with lightning strikes and it created something much more dynamic.

Inclusion in future iPhones

At the time of this writing, you may experience long queue times while attempting to generate content. If it doesn’t work, the Hugging Face page has a link to the same AI hosted over on Gradio which is the one we used. There doesn't appear to be any difference between the two.

Now the question is: will this technology come out to a future iPhone or iOS 18? Maybe. As alluded to at the beginning, company CEO Tim Cook told investors AI tools are coming to its devices later on in the year but didn’t give any specifics. Personally, we can see MGIE morph into the iPhone version of Google’s Magic Editor; a feature that can completely alter the contents of a picture. If you read the research paper on arXiv, that certainly seems to be the path Apple is taking with its AI.

MGIE is still a work in progress. Outputs are not perfect. One of the sample images shows the kitten turn into a monstrosity. But we do expect all the bugs to be worked out down the line. If you prefer a more hands-on approach, check out TechRadar's guide on the best photo editors for 2024.

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Apple Vision Pro blasts out of mixed reality and into real stores – here’s how to sign up for a demo

It felt almost odd to be standing in the rain outside of Apple's glassy Fifth Avenue flagship store on Groundhog Day and not be wearing my Apple Vision Pro. I'd barely removed the mixed reality headset in my first two days of testing the Vision Pro and the real world felt a bit flat. Until, that is, Apple CEO Tim Cook opened the swinging glass doors and opened the proverbial floodgates to new and soon-to-be-new Apple Vision Pro owners.

It is something of a tradition for Cook to usher in every new product at Apple's Central Park-adjacent location but this moment was different, maybe bigger. It has been almost a decade since Apple launched a new product category (see the Apple Watch) and so expectations were high.

The crowd gathered outside was not what I'd call iPhone size – the miserable weather might have been a factor there – but there were dozens of people somewhat evenly split between media and customers.

A cluster of blue-shirted Apple employees poured out of the store, which featured the giant white outline of a Vision Pro on the storefront, and started clapping and cheering (I'd heard them practicing cheers and getting amped up from inside the store), doing their best to substitute any enthusiasm the crowd might've been lacking. This, too, is tradition and I find it almost endearing but also just a tiny bit cringe-worthy. It's just a gadget – a very expensive one – after all.

At precisely 8AM ET, Cook appeared behind the glass doors (someone had previously double-checked and triple-checked that the doors were not locked so Cook didn't have to bend down and release a latch). He swung open the door and gave a big wave.

Soon customers who had preordered the $ 3,499 (to start) spatial reality computer were filing into the store (many pausing to take a selfie with Cook), while I waited outside, getting drenched and wondering if the Vision Pro is waterproof (it's not).

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Apple Vision Pro store launch

Tim Cook acknowledges the crowd. (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
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Apple Vision Pro store launch

Cook pops out and waves. (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
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Apple Vision Pro store launch

Tim Cook was in his element. (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
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Apple Vision Pro store launch

Waiting for the launch. (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
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Apple Vision Pro store launch

First guy on line. (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Inside the store, which sits below ground level, the floor was packed. Vision Pros were lined up on stands similar to what I'd seen at launch. Below each one was an iPad, describing the experience you were about to have. Some people were seated on wooden benches near the back of the store, wearing Vision Pro headsets and gesturing to control the interfaces.

Oddly, though, not a lot of people were trying Vision Pros, but that was probably because Tim Cook was still in the room.

The scrum around him was dense, so much so that I noticed some nervous-looking Apple employees trying to gently clear a path and give the Apple leader some air. Cook, ever the gracious southern gentleman, smiled for countless photos with fans. He even signed a few things.

I stepped forward and Cook's eyes caught mine. He smiled broadly and said hello. We shook hands and I congratulated him on a successful launch. Then I gave him my brief assessment of the product: “It's incredible.” He brightened even further, “I know!” he shouted back over the din.

Apple Vision Pro store launch

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
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Apple Vision Pro store launch

They put some of the Vision Pros on stands. (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
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Apple Vision Pro store launch

You cna see people in the back wearing them. (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
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Apple Vision Pro store launch

Tim Cook is surrounded. (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)
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Apple Vision Pro store launch

Hi, Mr. Cook. (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

There wasn't much more to say, really, and I left him to get sucked back into the crowd while I took another look at the Vision Pro sales setup. In the meantime, customers were leaving with large Vision Pro boxes they'd pre-ordered. Thousands of the mixed reality headsets are in stores and arriving at people's homes (in the US only). This will be their first experience with Vision Pro.

The good news is, as I told someone else today, there is no learning curve. The setup is full of hand-holding and using the system generally only requires your gaze and very simple gestures.

There will be comments about the weight and getting the right, comfortable fit on your head, and some may be frustrated with the battery pack and that they have to keep Vision Pro plugged in if they want to use it for more than two hours at a time.

Still, the excitement I saw at the store this morning and in Tim Cook's eyes may be warranted. This is not your father's mixed reality.

Booking your demo

For the next few days, all demos will be first-come-first-serve in the stores. However, if you can wait until after Feb 5, you can book your in-store demo by visiting the Apple Store site, navigating to the Vision Pro section, and selecting “Book a demo.” Apple will guide you to sign in with your Apple ID. You must also be at least 13 years old to go through the experience.

Demos take about 30 minutes. An Apple specialist will guide you through the setup processes, which is fairly straightforward.

You'll choose a store near you, a date, and an available time. If you wear glasses, Apple should be able to take your lenses and do a temporary measurement to give you the right lenses for the demonstration (you'll be buying your own Zeiss inserts if you buy a headset.).

After that, you can go home and figure out how to save up $ 3,500.

@techradar

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That mind-blowing Gemini AI demo was staged, Google admits

Earlier this week, Google unveiled its new Gemini artificial intelligence (AI) model, and it’s safe to say the tool absolutely wowed the tech world. That was in part due to an impressive “hands on” video demo (below) that Google shared, yet it’s now emerged that all was not as it seemed.

According to Bloomberg, Google modified interactions with Gemini in numerous ways in order to create the demonstration. It raises questions over the chatbot’s abilities, as well as how much Google has been able to catch up with rival OpenAI and its own ChatGPT product.

For instance, the video’s YouTube description explains that “for the purposes of this demo, latency has been reduced and Gemini outputs have been shortened for brevity.” In other words, it probably takes a lot longer for Gemini to respond to queries than the demo suggested.

And even those queries have come under scrutiny. It turns out that the demo “wasn’t carried out in real time or in voice,” says the Bloomberg report. Instead, the real demo was constructed from “still image frames from the footage, and prompting via text.” 

This means that Gemini wasn’t responding to real-world prompts quickly in real time – it was simply identifying what was being shown in still images. To portray it as a smooth, flowing conversation (as Google did) feels a little misleading.

A long way to go

That’s not all. Google claimed that Gemini could outdo the rival GPT-4 model in almost every test the two tools took. Yet looking at the numbers, Gemini is only ahead by a few percentage points in many benchmarks – despite GPT-4 being out for almost a year. That suggests Gemini has only just caught up to OpenAI’s product, and things might look very different next year or when GPT-5 ultimately comes out.

It doesn’t take much to find other signs of discontent with Gemini Pro, which is the version currently powering Google Bard. Users on X (formerly Twitter) have shown that it is prone to many of the familiar “hallucinations” that other chatbots have experienced. For instance, one user asked Gemini to tell them a six-letter word in French. Instead, Gemini confidently produced a five-letter word, somewhat confirming the rumors from before Gemini launched that Google’s AI struggled with non-English languages.

Other users have expressed frustration with Gemini’s inability to create accurate code and its reluctance to summarise sensitive news topics. Even simple tasks – such as naming the most recent Oscar winners – resulted in flat-out wrong responses.

This all suggests that, for now, Gemini may fall short of the lofty expectations created by Google’s slick demo, and is a timely reminder not to trust everything you see in a demo video. It also implies that Google still has a long way to go to catch up with OpenAI, despite the enormous resources at the company’s disposal.

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