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This AI-powered Photoshop rival is the end of photography as we know it

May 22, 2023
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Photoshop has been steadily adding AI-powered tools to its menus in recent years, but an incredible new demo from an independent research team shows where the best photo editors are heading next.

DragGAN may not be a fully-fledged consumer product yet, but the research paper (picked up on Twitter by AI researchers @_akhaliq and @icreatelife) shows the kinds of reality-warping photo manipulation that's going to be possible very soon. This AI-powered tech will again challenge our definition of what a photo actually is.

While we've seen similar photo editing effects before – most notably in Photoshop tools like Perspective Warp – the DragGAN demo takes the idea and user interface to a new level. As the examples below show, DragGAN lets you precisely manipulate photos to change their subject's expressions, body positions and even minor details like reflections.

The results aren't always perfect, but they are impressive – and that's because DragGAN (whose name is a combination of 'drag' and 'generative adversarial network') actually generates new pixels based on the surrounding context and where you place the 'drag' points.

Photoshop's neural filters, particularly those available in the app's beta version, have dabbled in similar effects for a while, for example giving you sliders for 'happy' and 'anger' expressions for tweaking portrait images. DxO software like Photolab also has U Point technology that lets you point at the part of a photo that you'd like to make local adjustments on.

But the power of the DragGAN demo is that it combines both concepts in a pretty user-friendly way, letting you pick the part of a photo you want to change and then completely changing your subject's pose, expression and more with very realistic results.

When a refined version of this technology ultimately lands on smartphones, imperfect photos will be a thing of the past – as will the idea of a photo being a record of a real moment captured in time.

DragGAN also offers more granular controls, too. If you don't want to change the entire photo, you can apply a mask to a particular area – for example, your dog's head – and the algorithm will only affect that selected area. That level of control should also help reduce artifacts and errors.

The research team has also promised that in the near future it plans “to extend point-based editing to 3D generative models.” Until then, expect to see this kind of reality-warping photo editing improve at a rapid pace in some of the best Photoshop alternatives soon.

Analysis: The next Photoshop-style revolution

A woman sitting on a beach in an early version of Photoshop — An early demo of the first version of Photoshop, showing the iconic ‘Jennifer in Paradise’ photo being edited. (Image credit: Adobe)

These AI-powered photo editing tricks have echoes of the first early demos of Photoshop over 35 years ago – and will likely have the same level of impact, both culturally and on the democratization of photo editing.

In 1987, the co-creator of Adobe Photoshop John Knoll took the photo above – one of the most significant of the last century – on a Tahiti beach and used it to demo the incredible tools that would appear in the world's most famous photo editing app.

Now we're seeing some similarly momentous demos of image-manipulating tools, from Google's Magic Eraser and Face Unblur to Photoshop's new Remove Tool, which lets you remove unwanted objects in your snaps.

But this DragGAN demo, while only at the research paper phase, does take the whole concept of 'photo retouching' up a notch. It's reforming, rather than retouching, the contents of our photos, using the original expression or pose simply as a starting point for something completely different.

Photographers may argue that this is more digital art than 'drawing with light' (the phrase that gives photography its name). But just like the original Photoshop, these AI-powered tools will change photography as we know it – whether we want to embrace them or not.

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

May 19, 2023
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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.

ChatGPT Screenshot — (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.

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

May 19, 2023
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Windows 11’s next major update, known as 23H2, may not be all that ‘major’ after all if clues floated by the rumor mill pan out.

A regular source of Microsoft-related leakage on Twitter, PhantomOfEarth, pointed out that a new internal build of Windows 11 (version 22631.1825) comes with an enablement package (KB5027397). Prompting the leaker to ask the question: “Could 23H2 be a servicing style/enablement package update after all?”

Were you expecting 22625? Say hello to this new ‘build’ instead, still using an enablement package 👀 pic.twitter.com/0f9PZcDIvmMay 18, 2023

What does that mean? If you recall, Microsoft has used enablement package updates in the past, where the new features are essentially preloaded to the OS before the release of the update. The upgrade itself is then triggered by the flick of a switch (the enablement package is that switch).

What this means is that the update is a very straightforward and quick one, but also, that it won’t come with a huge number of changes.

So, the tentative conclusion at this point is that the 23H2 update landing later this year may not be all that extensive in terms of what it does and the new features introduced.

Analysis: A low-key year for Windows 11?

This idea is backed up by the fact that we’ve not really heard much about 23H2, and Microsoft has stayed pretty quiet on the subject – which would make sense if there wasn’t much to shout about.

Most of the talk of late has been about ‘Moment 3’ – a (non-annual) feature update that should contain a fair few changes. However, as we’ve seen in preview builds, there are quite a number of minor tweaks and embellishments, but nothing that jumps out in the category of juicy additions.

Of course, we don’t know for sure that 23H2 is going to be an enablement affair, and more minor in terms of the typical scope of Microsoft’s annual releases – so let’s not jump to conclusions just yet, as mentioned.

Still, it’s difficult to get too excited about the near future for Windows 11, when with a somewhat uneventful ‘Moment’ coming imminently, and maybe 23H2 lacking any potent additions, well, it all feels rather dull on the innovation front.

Is the biggest thing that’s going to happen the File Explorer revamp with built-in photo gallery? Well, that’s certainly something, and at least we can hope that Microsoft manages to make some of the other important tweaks to the interface we’d like to see implemented, which have been spotted in testing (or behind the scenes in preview). Like that ‘never combine’ option for the taskbar, for starters.

If there is something else hefty in the pipeline for 23H2, it’s well hidden, and with all the leakers constantly digging into Windows 11’s preview code, it’d be quite an achievement for Microsoft to keep something sizeable under wraps (with the second half of the year being almost upon us now).

Via Ghacks

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

April 3, 2023
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As the weather warms up, people will naturally begin planning their next vacation. Google, in response, is adding four new features across several platforms on smartphones in an effort to help users find good travel deals and build an itinerary.

Arguably the most impactful addition, Google Flights is getting a new price guarantee badge to indicate the current price of a ticket is the lowest it will be for that day. That price point will be monitored “every day until departure, and if it does go down,” Google states it will pay you back the difference via Google Pay. The badge is part of a new pilot program so its reach will be limited. It’ll only show information on flights departing from the United States.

Google Search, on the other hand, is getting a new Stories-like feature for hotel listings where you can swipe through a series of images to give you an idea of what to expect. User reviews and the location’s website will be present on-screen for more information alongside a booking button. The third Search feature adds prices for local tourist attractions and tour companies with an accompanying booking link. Famous locations in particular will have suggestions underneath the listing “for related experiences”, almost like a mini “city-wide tour”.

And finally, Google Maps will be getting a Recents tab for desktop displaying recently searched locales on the left-hand menu. You can then place everything in a new list to be saved for the future or to be shared with friends. Recents will be available “globally starting next week” with no word on a mobile version yet. That same Maps post does mention other notable travel tools, but it’s all stuff we’ve seen before like Immersive View and the AR-based Live View

Availability

The Google Search update is currently rolling out to mobile with some already online. We were able to try out the hotel Stories slideshow, but neither the flight guarantee badge nor tourist attraction prices were available at the time of this writing. Additionally, we asked Google if the company has plans to expand its badge pilot program to other countries and flights arriving in the US. This story will be updated at a later time if we hear back.

Before you go on vacation, there are a couple of other tools we recommend you become familiar with. Google recently launched extreme heat alerts to Search to let people know of upcoming heat waves and what to do to stay cool. There's also the tracking tool on Maps allowing users to share their location with friends in case they get lost.

You can learn more about this tracking feature and more by checking out TechRadar’s list of the 10 things you didn’t know Google Maps could do.

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

April 3, 2023
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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.

Until then, be sure to check out TechRadar’s list of the best virtual assistants for 2023.

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

March 10, 2023
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ChatGPT 4 is coming as early as next week and will likely go with a new and potentially dreadful feature: video.

Currently, ChatGPT and Microsoft’s updated Bing search engine are powered by ChatGPT 3.5 large language models, which allows them to respond to questions in a human-like way. But both AI implementations have had their fair share of problems so far, so what can we expect, or at least hope to see, with a new version on the horizon?

According to Microsoft Germany’s CTO, Andreas Braun (as reported by Neowin), the company “will introduce GPT 4 next week, where we will have multimodal models that will offer completely different possibilities – for example, videos.” Braun made the comments during an event titled ‘AI in Focus – Digital Kickoff’.

Essentially, AI is definitely not going away anytime soon. In its current state, we can interact with OpenAI's chatbot strictly through text, providing inputs and controls and getting conversational, mostly helpful, answers.

So the idea of having ChatGPT-powered chatbots, like the one in Bing, being able to reply in other mediums other than plain text is certainly exciting – but it also fills me with a bit of dread.

As I mentioned earlier, ChatGPT’s early days were marked with some strange and controversial responses that the chatbots gave to users. The one in Bing, for example, not only gave out incorrect information, but it then argued with the user who pointed out its mistakes, causing Microsoft to hastily intervene and limit the amount of responses it can provide in a single chat (and which Microsoft is only now slowly increasing again).

If we start seeing a similar streak of weirdness with videos, there could be even more concerning repercussions.

Ethics of AI

In a world where AI-generated ‘deepfake’ videos are an increasing concern for many people, especially those who unwittingly find themselves starring in those movies, the idea of ChatGPT dipping its toes into video creation is a bit worrying.

If people could ask ChatGPT to create a video starring a famous person, that celebrity would likely feel violated. While I’m sure many companies using ChatGPT 4, such as Microsoft, will try to limit or ban pornographic or violent requests, the fact that the ChatGPT code is easily available could mean more unscrupulous users could still abuse it.

There’s also the matter of copyright infringement. AI generated art has come under close scrutiny over where it is taking its samples from, and this will likely be the case with videos as well. Content creators, directors and streamers will likely take a dim view of their works being used in AI generated videos, especially if those videos are controversial or harmful.

AI, especially ChatGPT, which only launched a few months ago, is still in its infancy, and while its potential has yet to be fully realised, so too have the moral implications of what it can achieve. So, while Microsoft’s boasts about video coming soon to ChatGPT is impressive and exciting, the company also needs to be careful and make sure both users and original content creators are looked after.

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

March 4, 2023
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The notorious exploit-as-a-service RIG Exploit Kit, targeting users of the positively ancient, vulnerability-ridden web browser Internet Explorer, is still going strong, experts have warned.

Per a report by security research firm Prodaft, installs of the kit are attempting around 2,000 intrusions a day, and succeeding 30% of the time, allowing it to spread infostealers and other forms of malware to users in over 207 countries.

Despite warning against the rise of cybercrime-as-a-service in 2022’s Microsoft Digital Defence Report, and RIG being known to also distribute ransomware, millions of users (mostly in enterprise) just won’t stop using Windows Explorer, having apparently no regard for data privacy.

Update your browser, please God

Internet Explorer has been old news since around 2015, when the now Chromium-based Edge was put into development, and completely depreciated since August 2021.

And in February 2023, Microsoft announced that it’s finally getting around to scrubbing every last bit of it from existence, such an embarrassment it is in this day and age, and making you use Edge anyway (although you can still do a lot better).

We keep writing about it, and we keep getting emails from burgeoning violent criminals swearing at us over why we bother doling out security posture advice for businesses at all. (Hugs and kisses to all our readership, even if they’ve fled an institution. xox)

> Google says North Korea targeted an Internet Explorer zero-day vulnerability

> Microsoft prepares for Internet Explorer’s retirement by making Edge better

> We’ve also listed the best endpoint protection services

But, do you know what, we’re going to do it again: buy new laptops running Windows 11, and enjoy all the advancements in UI that have come on in the last 28 years, you wanton maniac.

And then maybe you won’t have to keep a straight face in front of IT when threat actors known only as “Bean Meme Gang” steal the private medical records of a million people, and we could write about something else.

Here’s our list of the best business VPN services right now

Via BleepingComputer

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

March 4, 2023
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The latest update to popular photo editor Pixelmator Pro gives macOS users another reason to avoid defaulting to Photoshop.

Codenamed Mosaic, version 3.3 of the photo editing app for Mac has introduced a raft of new features – with the Remove Color adjustment taking center-stage. The tool lets users strip out solid colors from images and videos just by selecting the color with an eyedropper tool.

According to the developer, users can adjust how much of a selected color is taken out using three controls: Color Range, Luminance Range, and Intensity sliders. Showcasing its use in a YouTube demonstration, the developer detailed how creatives can use the latest addition to remove a green screen in videos.

What’s new in Pixelmator Pro 3.3?

Remove Color, which apparently deploys “a state-of-the-art texture-aware algorithm”, isn’t the only update to make its way into version 3.3.

The Clarity, Selective Clarity, and Texture adjustments first made their way into the company's mobile photo editing app Pixelmator Photo, and now they are set to join the Photoshop alternative; while Shadows, Highlights, Exposure, and Brightness adjustments have also seen enhancements for creating more natural-looking edited images.

For illustrators and artists, the drawing software sees a significant bump in stroke styles and options for customizing them. Sidecar file support has also been introduced: by attaching a Pixelmator Pro document to images, users can open, edit, and save images in the original file format, while saving any non-destructive edits and layers to Mac or iCloud.

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“Images with sidecar edits look and behave just like regular images. For example, you can easily share such images online or open them in other apps without having to export them first,” the firm explained.

Elsewhere, the graphic design software, which includes logo maker tools and a RAW image editor, received a new Pattern fill style and the ability to use shortcuts when applying LUTs, color adjustments, effects, and auto-color adjustments to videos.

Pixelmator Pro 3.3 is free to all existing users. New users can download it from the App Store by clicking here.

Best Adobe Lightroom alternatives: Top tools for for photo organization, management, and editing

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

April 19, 2022
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Microsoft is readying an update for collaboration platform Teams that will allow admins to change the way meetings are displayed for all attendees.

As explained in a new entry to the company’s product roadmap, meeting hosts will soon be given the option to enable Together Mode for all participants. The update is still under development, but should take effect by the end of May.

Launched in the summer of 2020, Together Mode for Microsoft Teams brings all attendees into a shared virtual background, with the goal of “making it feel like you’re sitting in the same soom with everyone else”.

Together Mode in Microsoft Teams

Although the ambition behind Together Mode is a noble one, the execution leaves plenty to be desired. In this writer’s opinion, the virtual background filled with floating heads only serves to emphasize the fact a meeting is not, in fact, taking place in-person.

While Microsoft’s AI system does a decent enough job of cutting out each person’s home office background, and some people will get on with the feature better than others, there’s an welcome strangeness to the final result.

The idea that meeting hosts should be able to dictate that everyone uses the feature is particularly strange. While there’s something to be said for operating on a level playing field, some users are bound to find the feature more helpful (or unhelpful) than others, which makes a blanket policy counterproductive.

> Why Slack isn't afraid of Microsoft Teams or any other rival

> The best Microsoft Teams goodies will soon be available to us all

> Meet the CEO beating Teams and Zoom at their own game

However, not all of Microsoft’s attempts to introduce variety to the way Teams meetings are displayed have been quite so divisive.

Last year, the company rolled out a series of new presenter modes designed to help Teams users flex their presentation style to the occasion. Standout Mode, for example, seats the presenter’s video feed in front of the slide deck, while Reporter Mode places content above the shoulder in the style of a news broadcast.

The features were an example of the way in which virtual backgrounds and clever positioning of content can legitimately improve the quality of video meetings, delivering on Microsoft’s stated ambition to “help presenters deliver content more professionally and offer meeting participants dynamic experiences”.