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Opera’s Aria AI assistant’s big upgrade makes images, talks out loud, and summarizes chats

July 1, 2024
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Gaming browser Opera GX has augmented its AI assistant Aria with several new AI tools, including creating images, speaking out loud, summarizing conversations, and linking appropriately for the conversation.Aria’s new ability to generate images from text prompts leverages Google’s Imagen2 model. Users can generate up to 30 images per day, with the option to redo the image creation if unsatisfied. Beyond generating images, Aria has also gained the ability to understand and provide context for images uploaded by users. This allows users to upload an image and ask Aria questions about it.

Chatty Aria

The textual side of things has seen an upgrade as well with the new “Chat Summary” and “Links to Sources” features. As the name suggests, Chat Summary provides a concise recap of the conversation with Aria, helping users quickly review important points. This is particularly useful for lengthy interactions where users need to recall key details without scrolling through entire chat logs.

Meanwhile, the Links to Sources provides you with relevant links about the topics discussed with the AI. The idea is to help you delve deeper into subjects of interest, accessing additional information and verifying the AI’s responses. Such features are designed to make the chat interaction more comprehensive and resourceful.

Opera GX is a browser designed by Opera for gamers. with features like network bandwidth limiters to keep games uninterrupted, Twitch integration, and built-in gaming news feeds. Opera isn’t among the giants of browsers in terms of the number of users like Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox, but it does have a loyal community interested in more niche innovations as well as privacy features. Opera GX tends to be ahead in offering new tools that may eventually become mainstream in any browser. as with these AI interface and content creation features.

This latest update reflects the ongoing evolution of AI in enhancing user experiences across various digital platforms. All of the new Aria features are available to all Opera GX users, now.

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TechRadar – All the latest technology news

July 13, 2023
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Google Bard is saying its first words thanks to a recent update that gives the AI the ability to read out generated responses in over 40 different languages. The newfound language support includes Arabic, Chinese, German, and Spanish.

According to Google, being able to hear text out loud can be helpful in learning the correct pronunciation of words. Activating Bard’s speech tool is pretty simple. All you have to do after entering a prompt is select the sound icon in the upper right-hand corner of a response. In addition to the voice, Google is expanding Bard’s availability to more global regions, most notably Brazil and Europe. It's important to point out the European Union initially forced the tech giant to postpone the chatbot’s launch “over privacy concerns”. But it looks like everything has been squared away with the EU.

Also, users can now adjust the “tone and style of Bard’s responses [across] five different options: simple, long, short, professional, or casual.” Google says this can be helpful in creating marketplace listings for businesses that want to maintain a certain voice. It’s reminiscent of the tone parameters on Microsoft’s SwiftKey app. However, unlike SwiftKey, it doesn’t appear Bard will make any cringe dad jokes if you ask it (shame).

Productivity boost

There is more to the update than just the language features. Google is also introducing some productivity tools. First, users can now finally pin Bard conversations in case they ever want to revisit them at a later time. If the AI gives you some helpful information, you can share the response with friends via shareable links. The chatbot creates a hyperlink that you can send over a messaging app or you can directly post the URL to LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or Reddit.

Google is aware that people use “Bard for coding tasks.” To help these programmers, the company is adding a direct to “export Python code to [the] Replit” platform. Lastly, the chatbot is gaining the “capabilities of Google Lens” meaning you’ll be able to “upload images with prompts” to the AI. Bard will then analyze the photograph before providing the information you seek. This last feature can be found behind the Plus symbol next to the Prompt bar.

The addition of Google Lens to Bard is pretty exciting as the chatbot can now serve as a reverse image search engine of sorts.

Availability

Most of the update is currently online in the 40 different languages mentioned earlier but with a couple of exceptions. The five tones and Google Lens support can only be found in the English version of Bard. There are plans, however, to “expand to new languages soon.”

Although Google Bard managed to finally debut in the European Union, Canada remains absent from the list of countries supporting the chatbot. VPNs fortunately allow Canadians to bypass the block. If this affects you, be sure to check out TechRadar’s list of the best VPN service for Canada in 2023.