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Posts tagged "won’t"

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Report: OpenAI’s GPT App store won’t arrive this year
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The hits keep on coming at OpenAI. After dismissing CEO and Co-Founder Sam Altman, inviting him back, and reinstating him as CEO just a few days ago, the ChatGPT developer is apparently pulling back, at least temporarily, on its plans for a GPT Store.

Earlier this month during the first OpenAI Dev Day, Altman introduced the concept of “GPTs”, basically custom versions of the ChatGPT generative AI model. These bespoke versions would use custom data and therefore do what you wanted them to do. They'd be less generally smart, like the current ChatGPT that turned 1 this week, and much more specifically smart to your needs. Perhaps the most exciting part of this announcement was that you'd be able to post and buy these custom GPTs in an online GPT Store.

Now, Axios is reporting based on a developer memo it obtained that OpenAI is pressing pause on the GPT Store launch at least until early 2024. In the memo, according to the report, OpenAI wrote, “While we had expected to release it this month, a few unexpected things have been keeping us busy!“

That comment, if real, might be a nod toward the tumult that consumed OpenAI over the last two weeks.

A new beginning

Of course, all that is in the past now. On November 29, Altman posted a message on the company blog praising his team and even holding out an olive branch to former board member and computer scientist Ilya Sutskever who may have promoted the fire drill that prompted Altman's removal.

“I love and respect Ilya, I think he's a guiding light of the field and a gem of a human being. I harbor zero ill will towards him,” wrote Altman on Wednesday.

Perhaps notably, Altman made no mention of “GPTs” or the GPT store in his post. Instead, he focused significant attention on AI safety, writing the company has three immediate priorities and listing this as the first: “Advancing our research plan and further investing in our full-stack safety efforts, which have always been critical to our work.”

There's no indication in the reported memo that OpenAI is pausing GPTs work or really any part of its march toward Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), of which Altman writes, “One of the most important things for the team that builds AGI safely is the ability to handle stressful and uncertain situations, and maintain good judgment throughout.”

Assuming this pause memo is real, the delay to early 2024 is just a matter of a few months. Knowing OpenAI and the rapid development pace of ChatGPT and the large language model (LLM) powering it, the delay could shrink to weeks.

All told, it's back to AI business for OpenAI.

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Windows 11’s new features won’t be for everyone – but they’re seriously cool for those who’ll use them
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Windows 11 is close to getting some smart additions for those who use a stylus, and other improvements besides, as seen in a new preview build.

This is preview build 22635.2776 (also known as KB5032292) which has been pushed out to the Beta channel, the last avenue of testing before Release Preview (the final step before new features come to the finished version of Windows 11).

The big step forward here is for Windows Ink, with the ability to write directly in some text boxes in Windows 11 coming to a lot more people. In other words, rather than typing in text for a search, for example, you can directly scribble your search terms into the box.

This ability was available for the US, but is now coming with support for a bunch of new regions – that includes English (Australia), English and French (Canada), English (India), and English (United Kingdom), plus many more (check out the blog post for the full list).

Windows 11 stylus writing in menus

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Windows Ink is being further bolstered by a greater level of accuracy for its recognition technology, as well as some new gesture controls. There are now gestures to select, join, or split words, to delete a word, and to insert a new line.

The Task Manager has also been tinkered with in this beta release, with Microsoft noting that it has improved process grouping in the panel that lists your running processes.

Also rolling out in this preview are notifications for Microsoft accounts on the home page of the Settings app. We’ve seen these in the past, and they’re prompts to remind you about the status of your account, and tasks you might want to finish off (though we should note we’ve not been keen on the way this has been handled in the Start menu).

Analysis: Supercharging that stylus

This is an important update for those who use a stylus, then, outside of the US, as a lot more territories across the globe are now being covered with support for writing directly in menus. This is an excellent time-saving feature for those using their convertible laptop as a tablet, for example, and it’s something Microsoft is set to develop more going forward.

Indeed, we’ve been told in the past that the eventual aim is that you’ll be able to use your stylus to write anywhere in Windows 11, which is a very cool concept.

Improved process grouping in Task Manager should be a useful little change, too, if you’re one of the Windows users who takes an interest in diving into this area of the interface. Task Manager can be a useful tool for troubleshooting what’s slowing down your PC, for example, if it seems to have hit a sticky patch.

We don’t know how the change will work yet, but more intelligent grouping of related processes should enable better visibility into what’s happening under the hood at any given time with your Windows 11 system.

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You can now talk to ChatGPT like Siri for free, but it won’t reveal OpenAI’s secrets
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ChatGPT has conveniently distracted us from OpenAI's boardroom drama, which has just seen Sam Altman return to the company as CEO, by making its Voice chat feature available to all free users.

The AI chatbot got its impressively conversational voice powers in September, but this feature was limited to the paid Plus and Enterprise tiers. But now OpenAI, which is looking for a shiny object to take eyes away from its recent meltdown, has made 'ChatGPT with voice' available to all users.

To use it, you just need the latest version of ChatGPT's iOS or Android app. Tap on the headphones icon at the bottom of the screen and you can start quizzing the chatbot about anything you like – as long as your question isn't about recent events, like OpenAI's CEO merry-go-round.

That's because the GPT-3.5 model that's available to free users has only been trained on data going up to January 2022. So when you ask it, for example, 'Why was Sam Altman fired from OpenAI?', it answers that there are “no public reports or indications” of this happening. How convenient.

Still, if you're looking for a voice assistant that's a bit chattier and more knowledgeable than the likes of Apple's Siri, then the ChatGPT voice function is a fun new tool (assuming the service hasn't gone down, like it did at around 2pm PT / 10pm GMT yesterday).

You can choose from five different voices and your chats (but not the audio clips) are saved just like your text-based conversations. It'll also auto-detect languages, though you can also choose this in the Settings menu.

 A Siri replacement?

A phone on a pink background showing ChatGPT's voice feature

(Image credit: Future)

Given it's now possible to use ChatGPT with Siri, the arrival of voice powers on the chatbot's free version is a potentially big deal. That's particularly the case for owners of the iPhone 15 Pro, who can map ChatGPT to the new Action button (by going to Settings > Action Button > Shortcut).

Siri and ChatGPT still have notable differences though. For example, Siri is deeply integrated with the iPhone, allowing it to perform actions like setting timers and controlling your phone's volume.

But ChatGPT's depth of knowledge and more conversational style is arguably better when it comes to general knowledge questions – as long as you're aware of its propensity to hallucinate.

It's certainly a fun, free feature to play with and will no doubt take some of the attention off OpenAI's Succession-like boardroom tussles, which could ultimately have a big impact on how the AI chatbot tussle plays out in 2024.

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The latest Windows 11 update won’t install for some users, and tanks gaming performance even if it does
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Windows 11 users are experiencing issues with the update KB5031455, with some systems not installing the update, others encountering installation problems and some seeing error messages as well as gaming issues if the update does install successfully. 

According to Windows Latest, several users have complained to the site about the Windows 11 update, stating the installation would “run and fail, then reboot, run and fail again.”

Another user commented on problems with gaming performance after the update, saying that the build “broke a few games.” According to the user, some games available from Epic Games Store, such as Fortnite and Horizon Zero Dawn, crashed and refused to start. More comments like these have been left on the Windows Latest site. 

This is not the first time a string of issues has been presented due to preview updates.  KB5030310, a preview update for those using Windows 11 22H2, caused issues with File Explorer that led to buggy behaviour and slower run times.

If you’ve yet to install the KB5031455  update, we recommend you hold off a bit longer until these issues are addressed by Microsoft. But, if you’re feeling brave and want to go ahead anyway, you’ll need to go to Settings, then to Windows Update, and select ‘Check for Updates’. Once your device finds the new optional update, click the ‘Download and install’ button.

It’s worth bearing in mind that Windows Latest has tested the update on its own machines and noted the same problems listed above, so once again, we recommend you proceed with caution if you plan to install the update.

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Windows 11’s Microsoft Store gets slightly less annoying – but I still won’t use it
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The Microsoft Store has received a new update that allows it to launch much faster. Users that are using version 22309 of the store should see a noticeable difference in launch times – although I personally don’t think a meager launch time revamp is enough to draw users to the store. 

Independent developer Daniel (@kid_jenius on X/Twitter) noticed the change and noted that the launch time has apparently dropped from seven seconds to two seconds. Of course, that’s no guarantee that your results will be exactly the same, but it seems the app is certainly quicker than before. 

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If you’d like to update your Microsoft Store to version 22309, you’ll ironically have to use… Microsoft Store. If you’re brave enough you’ll open the store, when it eventually loads, select the library icon on the lower left corner, select the option that says ‘get updates’, and select the available updates. 

If you can’t see an available update your device may have automatically installed it already.

And then what?

So, you may be sitting here reading this and thinking ‘who cares?’ (harsh but fair) or a more polite ‘so what?’, and honestly? You’d be justified. Obviously, this is a move from Microsoft to start hammering out the kinks in the app, but not many people actually use it. 

For as long as I can remember, I’ve downloaded all my apps and software directly from the internet rather than subjecting myself to the frustrating horror that is the Microsoft Store. It’s always been laggy, clunky, and slow.

Microsoft has struggled to entice users to the store, and while it is making small steps to make the experience better, most Windows users are more accustomed to going straight to the app's site and downloading directly. 

At this point, I don’t think there’s anything Microsoft can do (barring a complete teardown and redesign, which we’re likely not seeing soon) to lure me into its buggy storefront. I appreciate the effort, but it’s too little too late. 

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Windows 11 remains an unloved OS – but why won’t people upgrade?
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Windows 11 is still struggling to attract folks to upgrade, going by the latest stats on the desktop OS market from a major analyst firm.

TechSpot noticed the new figures for last month from StatCounter, one of the main outfits that keeps tabs on Windows versions and their relative levels of adoption.

So, on the cusp of two years after its release (technically, it was released two years ago, but the adoption figures are for September 2023), Windows 11 now holds a 23.6% market share.

For almost two years of existence, that’s not a very impressive inroad carved into the desktop OS world. What makes it worse is that the needle has barely moved for Windows 11 since April 2023, when it was at 23.1%.

In other words, over the past five months, Windows 11 has managed to gain 0.5%, which is a pretty poor show. Half a percent in almost half a year…

Windows 10 still holds a 71.6% share of the desktop market, with Windows 7 having dwindled away to 3.3% of diehards at this point.

Analysis: Why might people be avoiding Windows 11?

If we draw a comparison to what Windows 10 managed to reach in just under two years of its life, that was 36.6%, a good deal more than Windows 11 has achieved now. Indeed, at the two-and-a-half-year point, Windows 10 overtook Windows 7 – and clearly Windows 11 taking the desktop OS top spot isn’t going to happen in six months’ time.

Why is Windows 11 struggling so much compared to its predecessor? There are a few likely reasons, but a primary one is that it makes life more difficult in terms of upgrading.

New system requirements for Windows 11, most notably TPM (security) and ruling out older generations of processors, have left many folks with somewhat older PCs unable to upgrade even if they wanted to. At least not without modifying or upgrading hardware, which many PC owners aren’t keen on doing, frankly, especially not to get access to an operating system which isn’t all that different to Windows 10 at its heart.

That’s another major issue here. Yes, Windows 11 does make a good number of changes, but under the hood, deep down, it remains much the same OS as Windows 10 in many ways. So, there isn’t as much of a drive to upgrade in that respect.

Except maybe for gamers, who do get some interesting goodies with Windows 11 – and there’ll be more important stuff to come, certainly when DirectStorage gets wider support on the PC gaming scene – and that’s reflected in the current Steam stats for Windows 11. Those show Windows 11 securing a 37.4% market share with gamers on Steam, which is a good deal higher than StatCounter observes with everyday PC users.

Coincidentally, that level is about where Windows 11 should be for non-gaming users, if it had managed the same pace of adoption as Windows 10.

Other reasons folks may give Windows 11 a swerve include adverts sneaking into the OS more, privacy issues bound up in that, and some odd design decisions with the interface (like removing the ‘never combine’ taskbar option, though that choice has now been corrected). A steady stream of bug reports popping up and weirdly persistent problems like sluggish SSDs probably don’t help, either.

At any rate, it looks like Windows 11 adoption is going to continue to be a sluggish affair for Microsoft, and perhaps the only factor that’ll really speed it up is when the end of support starts to come into view for Windows 10. (That support deadline is October 2025, incidentally, so still two years away).

Via PC Gamer

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Panic over: Windows 10 users won’t be left out in the cold with Wi-Fi 7 after all
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We’ve been hearing a lot about Wi-Fi 7, the next-gen wireless standard, of late, and one of the bits of chatter was worrying – namely that Windows 10 users may not get the benefit of these faster wireless speeds. Fortunately, we can now put paid to any notion that Windows 10 users will be left out in the cold.

This episode started a month ago when a leaked Intel document appeared on X (formerly Twitter), courtesy of one of the regular hardware leakers on that platform, and it omitted any mention of Windows 10 support for Wi-Fi 7. It listed support for Windows 11, Linux, and ChromeOS, but that was it.

Now, as we commented at the time, that didn’t necessarily mean that Windows 10 won’t support Wi-Fi 7, but it was certainly taken as a hint that the older OS may not, somehow.

The good news is that this isn’t the case, and we’ve now had confirmation – albeit an indirect confirmation – from Intel that Windows 10 PCs will be just fine to benefit from Wi-Fi 7.

Neowin reports that Intel has now listed a pair of Wi-Fi 7 modules on its official Ark product database – the Intel Wi-Fi 7 BE200 and Wi-Fi 7 BE202 – both of which are marked down as having Windows 11 and Windows 10 support (along with Linux, though ChromeOS is omitted with these product listings, oddly – again, we wouldn’t read too much into that either).

Analysis: Minor panic over, thankfully

So, if there was any panic for Windows 10 users – and there was a bit, for sure – they can now rest easy that when Wi-Fi 7 comes fully into play, they will be able to enjoy those much, much faster wireless speeds (compared to Wi-Fi 6, it’s in the order of a fivefold speed increase).

When will Wi-Fi 7 actually be usable? Well, it’s still relatively early days yet for the standard, and those first Intel modules won’t be in hardware for some time (and you’ll need not just client devices which support Wi-Fi 7, but of course one of the best wireless routers that does, as well). We’re looking at next year for the new wireless standard to be fully formed and certified, with supporting hardware to rollout following that in 2024.

There’s plenty to look forward to then, no matter what version of Windows you’re running.

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Apple is reportedly working on a ChatGPT rival – but you won’t see it anytime soon
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Of course, Apple is working on its own generative AI, Large Language Model (LLM) and possible ChatGPT rival called, naturally, AppleGPT. Sure, the news is based on a Bloomberg report and Apple is predictably mum on the matter but, seriously, how could the Cupertino tech giant not be working on its own AI?

According to the Bloomberg report, Apple is basing its ultra-secret project on a learning framework known as Ajax, from rival and sometimes friend Google.

The effort to build some sort of chatbot and maybe other generative AI systems has been going on since late last year but, as someone who attended Apple's WWDC 2023 can tell you, Apple made no mention of chatbots of any kind at the June developer's conference.

Privacy roadblock

Apple's hyper-focus on user privacy has, as I see it, somewhat hamstrung its efforts to bring any kind of LLM-based chatbot to consumers. ChatGPT, Google Bard, and Microsoft Bing are all cloud-connected and send queries out to distant servers for rapid interpretation and response (based on the LLM's vast knowledge of how actual humans might respond under similar circumstances).

That, of course, is not the Apple way. Its Apple Silicon A16 Bionic's Neural Network is local. It does Machine Learning on your best iPhone. Sending queries with all those possibly personal details is anathema to Apple's privacy principles.

And yet, Apple clearly cannot afford to stay away from the siren call of generative AI. It is a revolution that is consuming the tech industry and the interests of average consumers and businesses. Even with the intense scrutiny AI development is under and the lawsuits some of it is facing, no one believes AI development is suddenly going to stop or go away. 

Apple has even gone as far as, according to Bloomberg, creating its own chatbot, or AppleGPT. But that's basically a highly limited and internal test and apparently not one that's ever headed to consumer desktops.

What about Siri?

Where does Siri sit in all this? 

Bloomberg claims that the Ajax work has already been used to improve Siri. That may be so, but the only Siri improvement we're getting with iOS 17 (currently in public beta) is the ability to stop starting each voice assistant prompt with “Hey.”

I have no doubt that Apple is hard at work figuring out its place in the LLM AI sphere, but it's also clear from the report that these are early days. There is no overarching strategy, and I doubt the existential question of whether or not Siri could ever host AppleGPT (or whatever it's called) has been answered.

Ultimately, this is confirmation that Apple is just as aware of what's going on around it and with competitors as ever. It will sample and test, develop and test, scrap and develop, and then test some more. I don't expect Apple to tell us anything about this during the expected September launch of the iPhone 15. However, by the time WWDC 2024 rolls around, Apple might be ready to unveil a new platform. Maybe it'll be AppleGPT-kit, AppleLLM-Kit, or even AppleGPT. 

This assumes that Apple can solve its big privacy question. If not, AppleGPT could remain in Skunkworks indefinitely.

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Microsoft seemingly won’t give up pushing Bing AI onto Windows 11 users
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Windows 11 is continually badgering folks to use Microsoft’s Bing AI in test builds of the operating system, it may not come as much of a surprise to hear.

PhantomOfEarth pointed out on Twitter that this is happening in preview versions of Windows 11 – most notably the Beta channel – and as you can see, the pop-up springs from the search box on the taskbar, urging users to launch Bing AI from that part of the interface.

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It's an annoying nag to use the AI, and what’s more, the Twitter leaker notes that there doesn’t appear to be any obvious way of telling Windows 11 that these pop-ups are unwanted.

Or rather, PhantomOfEarth clarifies that there are “two buttons to get it to go away” but that even after using those, it “tends to pop up occasionally with no way to turn it off (afaik)”.

Another Twitter user suggests there may be another way to switch it off under notifications, which PhantomOfEarth says they’ll try, but we didn’t hear anything about that being successful since the tweet at the weekend.

So, the jury’s still out on that, but whatever the case, it looks like this nag isn’t an easy one to rid yourself of – if you can get rid of it at all.

Analysis: This pop-up just doesn’t make a lot of sense

As we already observed, Microsoft trying to push Bing AI is no surprise from a general point of view (the software giant has been working hard to improve the AI, and doubtless wants a lot of eyeballs on it). Indeed, of late, Microsoft has been trying all sorts of angles for recruiting more users to its various services, whether that’s the Bing chatbot, or OneDrive to pick a couple of obvious examples. (OneDrive has recently been promoted via ‘badging’ in the Start menu – basically just ads veiled as suggestions).

What’s a bit odd here is seeing this rather persistent prompt for Bing AI kicking around in the taskbar when Copilot has just been introduced in testing.

As you’re likely aware, Windows Copilot is essentially the Bing AI dropped into the heart of Windows 11 (in a side panel), complete with additional abilities to intelligently adjust Windows settings (there aren’t many of those to begin with, though).

So, with Copilot on the horizon – and due in the 23H2 update, according to some rumors (we’re not convinced it’s at all ready, mind) – why mess around with search box prompts for Bing AI at this point? Especially when the possibly close-to-launch Copilot has full integration into Windows 11.

It doesn’t make a lot of sense to us, particularly when – as you can see from PhantomOfEarth’s reaction in the above tweet – this is annoying testers right now.

We’re hoping, then, that this is a piece of experimentation in test builds that Microsoft will soon do away with. That said, we can’t say the same about the ads already in place with Copilot in testing…

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Apple’s macOS Sonoma update won’t support your legacy Mail plug-ins
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If you plan to upgrade to macOS Sonoma later this year but also happen to make use of legacy Mail plug-ins, you're going to be in for a bad time. That's because the update will remove support for those plug-ins for the first time.

Plug-ins can be used for a variety of things, like bulk email management and automation. They can often be used by businesses and power users and now it appears that they're going to have to consider upgrading to something newer or ditching those plugins and their features altogether.

With Apple now putting the macOS Sonoma update through what is sure to be months of beta tests proper to a September or October launch, there is plenty of time for those decisions to be made. One other option is to just not update yet, but that's less than ideal and no use at all if there are new macOS features that you could make use of.

Legacy Mail

As MacRumors points out, Apple confirmed that it would kill off legacy Mail plug-ins previously, but didn't say when that would happen. The warning was given when macOS Monterey was released in 2021, and there was even a replacement for legacy plug-ins announced at the same time.

That replacement is the MailKit framework and developers have been tying into that ever since. However, there is still a good chance that some legacy plug-ins haven't been updated, leaving their users in a difficult position.

Some developers are already aware that Apple is deprecating legacy Mail plug-ins and are working to get their projects ready for the big day.

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However, while MailKit extensions can be more secure than their legacy counterparts, they don't have the same level of access which could impact the features they offer. As a result, it's also possible that some legacy plug-ins simply won't make the move over to MailKit at all.

Apple announced the macOS Sonoma update during the WWDC event on June 5, but it was far from the only update previewed. The new iOS 17, iPadOS 17, tvOS 17, and watchOS 10 updates were also shown off for the first time — they're all now available in beta and should be ready for the public this September.

That was just the software, too. Apple announced the first non-Intel Mac Pro, an updated Mac Studio, and the first 15-inch MacBook Air during the same event. The biggest announcement was undoubtedly the arrival of the Vision Pro AR/VR headset, however.

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