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Google says its secret AI weapon could eventually outsmart ChatGPT
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Google’s DeepMind laboratory is currently developing a new AI system called Gemini with claims it’ll rival, if not surpass, ChatGPT, according to a report from Wired.

In order to surpass ChatGPT, the developers plan on integrating an old “artificial intelligence program called AlphaGo” into the upcoming language learning model (LLM). What’s special about AlphaGo is it's “based on a technique” known as reinforcement learning where the software tackles tough problems through sheer trial and error. As it makes “repeated attempts”, the AI takes feedback it receives from each failure to improve its performance. DeepMind seeks to outfit Google’s future LLM with the ability to plan, or at the very least, solve complex problems.

If you combine that with a generative AI’s ability to grab information from the internet and then reformat it into natural-sounding text, Gemini has the potential to be more intelligent than any other artificial intelligence in the world. At least, that’s the idea. DeepMind co-founder and CEO Demis Hassabis claims that “if done correctly, [Gemini] will be the most beneficial technology for humanity ever”. Bold words.

The AI is deep in development at the moment – “a process that will take a number of months”, according to Hassabis. It will also cost Google a ton of money as the project price tag ranges from tens to hundreds of millions of dollars. For the sake of comparison, ChatGPT cost over $ 100 million to make. 

Analysis: Too good to be true?

Gemini certainly sounds interesting, but at this stage, we’ll remain skeptical. Our chief concern is with AlphaGo itself.

If you don’t know, AlphaGo first came to prominence back in 2016 when it defeated a champion player at the board game Go which is notorious for being incredibly complex and difficult despite its apparent simplicity. The AI was able to win because of the reinforcement learning technique mentioned earlier as it was able to “explore and remember [all] possible moves”. 

As interesting as that is, how does AlphaGo being good at a board game also make it good at solving complex problems or generating content? One set of skills for a specific scenario doesn’t mean it'll all translate well into another field. Plus, is it a good idea to have a generative AI trial and error its way to an answer? AI hallucinations are already a problem. AlphaGo can help Gemini improve faster; we just hope the growing pains aren't made public.

Secondly, Hassabis’ statement of development taking mere months is concerning. When ChatGPT rose to prominence back in early 2023, Google quickly pumped out its own AI-powered chatbot Bard, a move that drew a lot of criticism from employees. Some labeled Bard as “a pathological liar” due to its sheer amount of misinformation. It was even referred to as “worse than useless.” Perhaps it would be a good idea for Google or DeepMind to extend the development cycle from months to years. Train Gemini for a while longer. After all, what’s the rush?

In the meantime, check out TechRadar's recently updated list of the best AI writer for 2023. 

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Apple Vision Pro might be lacking some features at launch, says leak
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Apple's Vision Pro headset hasn't even gone on sale yet, and it might not do for another year yet. But that was never going to stop Apple from working on what will follow it and now a recent report suggests that isn't just one, but two new headsets.

Unfortunately for Vision Pro hopefuls, that same report also suggests that Apple will hold back some visionOS features for when those successors are shared with the public – and worst of all, they're features that were originally penciled in for the Vision Pro's launch instead.

However, Apple appears to have chosen to delay those software features until the next found of hardware is ready, and that, among other things, could be enough to give potential buyers a reason to consider hanging fire – not that we imagine people are lining up to buy this insanely expensive device, even if it does turn out to be the best VR headset ever made.

Two is better than one

Writing in his weekly Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports that  Apple has not one, but two new versions of the Vision Pro headset in development already – one of which will be a lot cheaper. Apple only announced the Vision Pro at WWDC on June 5, but it's already moved some employees from that project and onto teams that are working on what comes next in Apple's AR/VR lineup.

We noted the two new Vision Pro models previously, but the latest report from Gurman suggests that new software features will debut with those updated models, rather than the first headset – even though that one isn't even releasing until 2024.

Gurman says that Apple is working on “The ability to show multiple Mac desktop screens when connected wirelessly to a Vision Pro,” whereas the first Vision Pro will only connect to a single desktop at launch. There's also the suggestion that Apple Fitness Plus will be integrated somehow, allowing headsets wearers to work out while in an AR/VR world.

Finally, Gurman says that Apple also wants to offer “the ability for multiple Vision Pro users in a several-person FaceTime conference to use Personas.” The Vision Pro due to go on sale in the first half of 2024 will only allow one-on-one calls with Apple's haunting 3D avatars.

It's still too early to know when Apple will announce these new headsets of course, nor do we know how much that cheaper model will cost. We can hopefully expect to learn more as the leaks roll out in the coming months.

It's a bit disappointing that Apple will apparently be holding back some features – it's particularly odd to be hearing about it now, when the first iteration of the headset is still more than six months away from release. We'd imagine there probably is enough time for Apple to implement those features, in fact, which makes the whole thing all the more disheartening.

In other words, we're probably going to hold off on dropping $ 3,499 on the Vision Pro next year – at least, unless Apple confirms these features will be backward-compatible when they finally do arrive.

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Meta says its new speech-generating AI tool is too dangerous to release
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Meta has unveiled a new AI tool, dubbed ‘Voicebox’, which it claims represents a breakthrough in AI-powered speech generation. However, the company won’t be unleashing it on the public just yet – because doing so could be disastrous.

Voicebox is currently able to produce audio clips of speech in six languages (all of which are European of origin), and – according to a blog post from Meta – is the first AI model of its kind capable of completing tasks beyond what it was ‘specifically trained to accomplish’. Meta claims that Voicebox handily outperforms competing speech-generation AIs in virtually every area.

So what exactly is it capable of? Well, for starters, it can spew out reasonably accurate text-to-speech replications of a person’s voice using a sample audio file as short as two seconds, a seemingly innocuous ability that holds a huge amount of destructive potential in the wrong hands.

The dubious power of AI

Even setting aside the dodgy stuff that creeps on the internet have been doing with ChatGPT and other AI tools (Voicebox certainly sounds like it could be a boon for anyone making fake revenge porn), this is the sort of technology that could quite literally start a war.

After all, most major public figures, including politicians, have plenty of audio recordings floating around the internet. It wouldn’t be hard to collate some speech clips of an incumbent political leader and use Voicebox to produce a startlingly realistic replication of their voice – something that could then be used for nefarious purposes.

Mark Zuckerberg

Big Zuck (sorry, ‘Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’) has been investing heavily in AI development at Meta for years now. (Image credit: Facebook)

Such tools exist already, of course, but they’re less convincing; you may have seen amusing videos on social media featuring the likes of Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and Barack Obama supposedly playing Fortnite together. It’s good for a laugh, but the audio is hardly convincing. It mimics the mannerisms of each presidential gamer enough that they’re recognizable, but not so well that anyone with a brain would actually believe it’s them.

Meta clearly believes its new tool is good enough to fool at least the majority of people, though – since it’s explicitly not releasing Voicebox to the public, but instead publishing a research paper and detailing a classifier tool that can identify Voicebox-generated speech from real human speech. Meta describes the classifier as “highly effective” – though notably not perfectly effective.

Speaking machines

Of course, while Meta is keen to stress that it recognizes the “potential for misuse and unintended harm” surrounding tools like Voicebox, it’s important not to lose sight of the potential benefits AI speech generation could have in the future.

Voicebox – befitting its name – could provide far more naturalistic speech to people who are mute or otherwise unable to communicate, removing some of the barriers to interaction caused by the existing text-to-speech ‘robot voice’ made famous by physicist Stephen Hawking. It could also perform real-time translation, bringing us one step closer to the sort of ‘universal translator’ devices that currently exist only in science fiction.

Instagram app logo on iOS

Instagram – which is owned by Meta – could prove to be a successful home for Voicebox, improving and translating videos for a wider audience. (Image credit: Shutterstock)

There are other applications too; smaller, but no less useful. Meta explains in its blog post that Voicebox can be used to edit and improve recorded speech. If you’ve recorded some audio but you mispronounced a word or were interrupted by background noise, Voicebox can isolate the offending segment and ‘re-record’ a snippet of speech using your voice. Impressive, and only slightly terrifying.

In any case, it’s good to see Meta taking a serious, considered approach here. Microsoft’s frantic eagerness to shove Bing AI into everything has landed it in hot water more than once, and OpenAI unleashing ChatGPT on the world has led to all sorts of weirdness over the past year. We’re in an AI gold rush, and these tools are making their way into every part of our lives.

A little caution, patience, and respect for the magnitude of this technology is a welcome sight – although I doubt Meta will sit on Voicebox for too long, since the shareholders will no doubt be wondering how much money it can make them…

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Are you backing up your photos? This survey says most of us aren’t
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Not enough of us are backing up our photos and videos – that’s the message from Mixbook following its survey on the photography habits of Americans. 

While there’s no shortage of photo cloud storage and cloud backup services, the popular online photo printing service revealed just 35% of surveyed respondents regularly backup the photos on their camera roll. 

The report also showed just how fleeting some photography is. Of those surveyed, 80% said they have pictures or videos on their phone that they haven't looked at since the day they took them. 

Gathering digital dust

We’re all taking more and more pictures and videos. High-resolution camera phones and a steady stream of photo editors and video editing apps have made it easier than ever before. Yet so much media is left gathering digital dust.  

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> Google wants to help provide faster AI photo editing for all

> The best laptops for photo editing tested

> Security experts found a major bug in Google Cloud

Mixbook calls it “phlushing”, which is probably the ugliest word to be written this week. It’s the act of taking photos, then flushing them down the memory hole like they didn’t happen. Moments captured in time, and never seen again. It all sounds suspiciously like the time before everyone had a camera in their pocket. 

The data revealed users stored an average 3,139 pictures and videos on their phones. But 55% of respondents admitted not looking at their camera roll in the last year. And despite the best cloud storage providers storing years’-worth of media, users said they rarely went back to those taken more than twelve months ago. The same number confessed to feeling overwhelmed by how many photos and videos were stored on their device. Perhaps a problem easier ignored – at least until the likes of Apple iCloud and Google One come knocking for a storage space subscription. 

What actually happens to all those photos and videos? In 50% of cases, nothing at all. A further 30% share them with family and friends, while 17% post to social media. In a sign of the times, just 3% print them, online or with a photo printer. 

But the real concern is that 65% who are not regularly securely storing media – especially with so many ways to backup photos – whether they’re “phlushing” those images or not.  

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Amazon says even AI isn’t powerful enough to stop fake reviews
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Amazon has renewed its war on fake reviews by developing new AI-powered tools to help tackle the problem, but the retail giant admits they aren't enough to solve the issue on their own.

In a new blog post, Dharmesh Mehta, who's Amazon's VP of Worldwide Selling Partner Services, writes “we must work together to stop the fake review brokers that are the source of most fake reviews”, calling on “private sector, consumer groups, and governments” to work together to stop the brokers.

What are these so-called 'fake review brokers'? Amazon says the brokers have become an industry in recent years, and have “evolved in an attempt to evade detection”. They work by approaching average consumers though websites, social media or encrypted messaging services and getting to them write fake reviews “in exchange for money, free products, or other incentives”.

Amazon says it's using increasingly sophisticated AI tools and machine learning to stem the tide. These fraud-detection programs apparently analyze thousands of data points, including sign-in activity and review history, to help spot fake reviews. The figures involved are pretty staggering; Amazon says that last year it blocked over 200 million suspected fake reviews in 2022, and sued over 10,000 Facebook group administrators. 

But Amazon's financial might and its increasingly sophisticated AI tools seemingly aren't enough to stop fake reviews. The retail giant says that because much of the misconduct happens outside of Amazon’s store “it can be more challenging to detect, prevent, and enforce these bad actors if we are acting alone”.

A hand holding an iPhone showing Amazon reviews

(Image credit: Amazon)

So Amazon has made a three-point plan to get some extra help. Firstly, it wants there to be more cross-industry sharing about fake review brokers and their various tactics and techniques. Secondly, it wants governments and regulators to use their authority more to take action against bad actors. 

And lastly, in a veiled nudge at Meta and other social media giants, it's asked that “all sites that could be used to facilitate this illicit activity should have robust notice and takedown processes”. Amazon wants to work with “these companies” (read Facebook, WhatsApp, Signal and more) to help improve their detection methods.

Whether or not these three steps are realistic remains to be seen, but the message from Amazon is clear – it doesn't think it can stem the tide of fake reviews on its own, and that's a problem for all of us. Until that improves, it's more important than ever to follow advice on how to spot fake Amazon reviews during Prime Day and other big shopping events.

How to spot fake Amazon reviews

A laptop screen on an orange background showing an Amazon review in the website ReviewMeta

Sites like ReviewMeta (above) can help you weed out suspicious reviews from an Amazon product’s rating (Image credit: Future)

We've been highlighting the problem of fake Amazon reviews for over a decade, and it's clear that the issue has become a game of whack-a-mole – while Amazon's tools have improved, the retail giant admits that the “tactics of fake review brokers have also evolved in an attempt to try to evade detection”.

This is a big problem for the average online shopper – in the UK, the consumer group Which? says that around one in seven reviews are fake. And that means you can be misled into buying poor-quality products.

Mehta's blog post is a reminder than even the world's biggest tech giants, and the latest AI technology, aren't powerful enough to stop fake reviews. And that means we all need to be increasingly savvy when shopping online.

As our in-depth guide to spotting fake Amazon reviews highlights, there are some simple red flags to look out for in product reviewers, including “overly promotional language, repeated reviews, and reviews for an entirely different product”. 

But there are also handy third-party tools like ReviewMeta and FakeSpot (which was recently bought by the Firefox owner Mozilla) that can help you use AI to detect fake reviews and scams. These allow you paste in Amazon product URLs to get an analysis of the reviews or use Chrome extensions for a quick check.

While Amazon's three-point call-out for outside help is understandable, recent history suggests that progress is going to be slow – which means we'll all need to remain on guard when doing our online shopping, particularly during big events like Amazon Prime Day 2023.

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Microsoft says it’s curtains for Cortana in Windows 11 (and 10) – but that’s no surprise
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Microsoft has announced that it’s killing off Cortana, at least in Windows, where the assistant will be dropped in the not-so-distant future.

Windows Central reported on Microsoft’s revelation that the Cortana app will no longer be supported in Windows late in 2023 (as tipped by @Perbylund on Twitter).

However, the aged assistant will still remain in other Microsoft services, including various bits of Microsoft Teams and Outlook mobile, so Cortana hasn’t entirely been binned.

As for Windows 11, though, you won’t be needing Cortana anyway, because as Microsoft reminds us, the operating system already has elements in place to replace the digital assistant.

For voice controls, there’s now a comprehensive Voice Access feature which Microsoft has been beavering away honing considerably of late.

And for queries and assistance, naturally there’s the new Bing AI (ChatGPT-powered bot) on tap, plus there’s something bigger in the pipeline – Copilot.

In case you missed it (somehow), Microsoft recently revealed it’s bringing Copilot to Windows 11 to sit at the heart of the operating system, offering help with whatever you’re doing.

Analysis: An inevitable move from Microsoft

While Copilot isn’t here yet, the AI will be far more extensive in terms of its scope than Cortana. When it comes to assistance with doing stuff in Windows 11, it’ll not just tell you about useful features for any given task, but offer to automatically enable them if needed. Copilot can also summarize a Word document, for example, Bing AI-style, and its far more wide-ranging skills and utility make Cortana irrelevant as a result.

Just on that basis, it’s no surprise to see Microsoft giving Cortana the elbow from Windows. Indeed, with Cortana getting cut off late in 2023, that perhaps is a further suggestion that this is when Copilot will step up to be incorporated in Windows 11 – perhaps with the 23H2 update? We know Copilot will be in Windows 11 preview builds this month (or at least that’s what Microsoft has told us), so it seems everything is all lining up.

Although there’s always a chance that Copilot is such a big feature addition, Microsoft may want to save it for next-gen Windows (Windows 12, maybe) which is set to arrive next year (rumor has it).

Whatever the case, Cortana is not exactly going to be missed outside a niche of users, at least in Windows, anyway. As a digital assistant, rather than being an all-rounder, Microsoft had already angled Cortana more to business-related use (hence Cortana remaining in Teams and so forth after being ditched from Windows). So, none of this is a shock, and it just makes sense for Microsoft to eject Cortana with Copilot now incoming for Windows 11.

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If you’re still using Internet Explorer, just please stop now, Microsoft says
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Microsoft has once again urged users to stop using its outdated Internet Explorer browser as the software limps closer to its retirement.

The company has again reminded users that Internet Explorer 11 is being retired from Windows 10 in June 2022, with Microsoft Edge taking its place.

It seems that some users may be a touch unwilling to make the jump, however, with Microsoft forced to emphasise that the days of Internet Explorer really are numbered.

The future is Edge

“As previously announced, the future of Internet Explorer on Windows is in Microsoft Edge,” Microsoft stated in a company announcement.

“The Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) desktop application will be retired on June 15, 2022, for certain versions of Windows 10. This means that the IE11 desktop application will no longer be supported and afterward will redirect to Microsoft Edge if a user tries to access it.”

The company did highlight that any particularly nostalgia-driven users can still use Internet Explorer mode (IE mode) within Microsoft Edge for the time being. IE mode aims to support legacy websites and applications within Microsoft Edge until they can be ported over to the new software.

Read more

> Microsoft Edge is about to give you an excellent new way to procrastinate

> Internet Explorer might not be entirely dead just yet

> Microsoft 365 update will make sure no one is at a disadvantage

Microsoft first announced plans to retire support for Internet Explorer 11 across Windows 10 and Microsoft 365 back in August 2020, and since then has been gradually stripping back services for the software.

Its Microsoft 365 deadline passed in August 2021, although some apps may still function via the browser, albeit with users seeing a severely diminished experience.

External tools have also pulled back, with Google Search withdrawing support for Internet Explorer in October 2021, leaving the browser reliant on its own in-house Bing search, with support for Docs, Sheets, Slides and other Google Workspace apps removed in March 2021.

Microsoft Edge continues to perform strongly in the global browser market, with recent figures placing it on the verge of surpassing Apple's Safari offering. 

The latest StatCounter numbers show Microsoft Edge is now used on 9.54% of desktops worldwide, just behind Safari at 9.84% – although both are still far behind runaway market leader Google Chrome on 65.38%.

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

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If you’re still using Internet Explorer, just please stop now, Microsoft says
  • No Comments

Microsoft has once again urged users to stop using its outdated Internet Explorer browser as the software limps closer to its retirement.

The company has again reminded users that Internet Explorer 11 is being retired from Windows 10 in June 2022, with Microsoft Edge taking its place.

It seems that some users may be a touch unwilling to make the jump, however, with Microsoft forced to emphasise that the days of Internet Explorer really are numbered.

The future is Edge

“As previously announced, the future of Internet Explorer on Windows is in Microsoft Edge,” Microsoft stated in a company announcement.

“The Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) desktop application will be retired on June 15, 2022, for certain versions of Windows 10. This means that the IE11 desktop application will no longer be supported and afterward will redirect to Microsoft Edge if a user tries to access it.”

The company did highlight that any particularly nostalgia-driven users can still use Internet Explorer mode (IE mode) within Microsoft Edge for the time being. IE mode aims to support legacy websites and applications within Microsoft Edge until they can be ported over to the new software.

Read more

> Microsoft Edge is about to give you an excellent new way to procrastinate

> Internet Explorer might not be entirely dead just yet

> Microsoft 365 update will make sure no one is at a disadvantage

Microsoft first announced plans to retire support for Internet Explorer 11 across Windows 10 and Microsoft 365 back in August 2020, and since then has been gradually stripping back services for the software.

Its Microsoft 365 deadline passed in August 2021, although some apps may still function via the browser, albeit with users seeing a severely diminished experience.

External tools have also pulled back, with Google Search withdrawing support for Internet Explorer in October 2021, leaving the browser reliant on its own in-house Bing search, with support for Docs, Sheets, Slides and other Google Workspace apps removed in March 2021.

Microsoft Edge continues to perform strongly in the global browser market, with recent figures placing it on the verge of surpassing Apple's Safari offering. 

The latest StatCounter numbers show Microsoft Edge is now used on 9.54% of desktops worldwide, just behind Safari at 9.84% – although both are still far behind runaway market leader Google Chrome on 65.38%.

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

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Zoom says it’s not going anywhere just yet
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Video calling giant Zoom says it is looking at a shift in focus as it looks to evolve and move with the changing work environment.

The video conferencing company has revealed its latest quarterly results at the end of its FY 2022, showing another strong performance even as workers around the world return to the office, but its weaker outlook for the year ahead did raise some eyebrows.

Overall, Zoom saw Q4 FY2022 revenues of $ 1.07 billion, up 21% year on year, with total revenues for the whole of its FY2022 of just over $ 4 billion, up 55% year over year, with net income of $ 1.37 billion.

Zoom future

In order to stay successful going forward, Zoom says it is now looking to set its sights on larger, enterprise customers.

“In fiscal year 2022, we delivered strong results…along with increased profitability and operating cash flow growth as our global customer base continued to grow and find new use cases for our broadening communications platform,” said Zoom founder and CEO, Eric S. Yuan. 

“Looking forward, we are addressing a large opportunity as we expect customers will continue to transform how they work and engage with their customers. It is apparent that businesses want a full communications platform that is integrated, secure, and easy to use. We are proud to lead the charge of the digital transformation for communications.”

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>This new Zoom feature could save you from an embarrassing blunder

>Zoom on Mac may be recording you even when you're not using it

>DocuSign and Zoom want to finish off face-to-face document signings for good

After seeing a huge rate of growth during the pandemic, many have questioned how Zoom can stay relevant and profitable as the return to the office continues.

However the company has remained bullish, saying it can play an important role in the post-pandemic world through helping facilitate and encourage hybrid working as employees look to split their time between the office and a more comfortable home environment.

It has also been testing the waters in several new areas and industries, including the launch of Zoom Contact Center, a customer service platform that lets companies quickly interact with customers.

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