AI

xAI has released Grok-2 and Grok-2 mini beta AI LLMs on X with the enterprise API arriving later this month. Grok-2 ranked among the four most powerful large-language models on the LMSYS leaderboard and among the top six across a range of standardized AI benchmarks.

This is a more compact variant of the existing RTX 2000 ADA featuring the same 2816 CUDA cores and 16 GB VRAM, but with only a single-slot cooling solution, no power connector and 50 W TGP.

Singapore-based Haivivi has just launched the BubblePal, an LLM-based interactive toy children can converse with, capable of answering questions, telling stories and supposedly even providing emotional support. It is a roughly orange-sized orb with a built-in light that can be hung as a pendant around a stuffed toy, and offers parents customisation and monitoring options via a mobile app.

TikTok owner ByteDance has released Jimeng AI, a competitor to OpenAI's Sora, as an app for Chinese mobile devices. At this time, the app is live in the Apple App Store, as well as on Google Play for select Android devices in mainland China.

Opera has released its AI-powered Opera One browser for iPhones. The iOS app was in beta for a couple of weeks, and the stable release comes with a redesigned UI, free VPN, and built-in ad blocker. All these make it stand as a solid alternative to Safari.

DeepMind's table tennis robot challenges human players, winning 13 out of 29 matches. The AI-powered system executes various shots and adapts to opponents' movements. While formidable against beginners and intermediate players, the robot still faces limitations against advanced players and extreme spin shots.

Apple's Vision lineup explores new frontiers in mixed reality technology. Plans include a more affordable headset, next-gen Vision Pro, and smart glasses without displays. Despite challenges, Apple remains committed to advancing its mixed reality lineup.

MOOV claims that its Ring stands out on the wearables market with the ability to track blood pressure and skin temperature as well as heart-rate and blood oxygen levels. It is also touted to assess sleep and stress for the user, to get up to 7 days of battery life and to come finished in high-end materials and an unusually wide range of colors.

The recently introduced GPT-4o for ChatGPT has been praised for its human-like interactions. However, this has caused OpenAI to be concerned about the users forming emotional connections with it. The company says it will now monitor and adjust the chatbot to prevent people from developing feelings for it.

It has been apparent for years that customers are keeping their smartphones longer and longer before buying a new one, which is why Apple is working successfully on increasing its own subscription revenue. Apple Intelligence may cost iPhone users up to $20 per month in the future, according to one analyst.

The conceivable savings equivalent to the consumption of a large industrialized country. This gigantic leap in efficiency is made possible by a completely redesigned data processing system.

OpenAI introduced DALL-E 3 in September last year, and it became one of the standout features for the ChatGPT Plus subscribers. The company has now made it available to the free users. However, there's a limit of two images per day.

The Humane Ai Pin is likely to go down in history as one of the biggest failures of 2024. The AI gadget is not only far from its sales target of 100,000 units, but more Ai Pins were returned than sold between May and August.

Samsung Electronics has passed Nvidia's rigorous testing for its 8-layer HBM3E memory chips. This achievement will push Samsung ahead in the rapidly growing HBM (high-bandwidth memory) market, where AI applications are fueling demand. Overcoming previous challenges related to heat and power consumption, Samsung's latest HBM3E chips are likely to compete with rival SK hynix.

A new teardown of Google app beta version 15.31.29.29 revealed that the company is working on new launch animations for its Gemini AI assistant. Resembling Apple's iOS 18.1 beta Siri animations, Google's design has a slightly different appearance effect, and a different color. One animation highlights the Gemini pop-up with a glowing border, while the other creates a full-screen wave emerging from the pop-up.

Volkswagen touts its new ID.3 GTX range as the most "sporty" electric vehicles (EVs) of their series, with a 240 kilowatt (kW) output in the top-end Performance variant. It is rated to go from 0 to ~60 miles per hour (mph) in less than six seconds and to charge at up to 185kW via DC. The GTX Performance is available to pre-order in Europe alongside its vanilla GTX sibling from now.

Internal Nvidia Slack communications obtained by 404 Media revealed that the company's staff working on the Cosmos video foundation model has so far compiled 38.5 million hours of video from various sources, primarily YouTube. Employees highlighted possible copyright concerns, but the execs higher up apparently gave an "umbrella approval" to go ahead and scrape content.

The Samsung Galaxy A35 5G and Galaxy A55 5G will receive five years worth of updates. With One UI 6.1.1, Samsung intends to make these updates worthwhile for users, as the patch will make Galaxy AI available on a mid-range smartphone for the first time.

Huawei has introduced the Nova Flip as a new clamshell-style smartphone that starts for less than its spiritual predecessor the Pocket S. Nevertheless, it has been presented as an ultra-thin foldable (when open) with an AI-enhanced 50MP rear camera that can be ordered in vegan leather with up to 1TB of internal storage.

OpenAI is said to have a powerful fingerprinting tool, which can supposedly detect ai-generated text with nearly 100% accuracy. However, internal arguments within are said to be keeping the company from deploying it for two years, reportedly due to concerns about the paying members and non-native English speakers.

In a wide-ranging interview spanning more than 8 hours, Elon Musk and the Neuralink team talk about the BCI implant human trials and enhancing the human mind so that AI doesn't become 'bored' with it.

Sony has released a limited-edition Aibo robotic dog in a two-tone kinako color. The light brown and white-colored Aibo also has two new eye colors – bright auburn and glossy dark brown – that can be changed using the My Aibo app. A kinako-colored collar is also included until supplies run out.

Chinese memory maker CXMT has reportedly begun mass-producing HBM2 memory, a crucial component for AI and HPC processors. This sudden development puts CXMT ahead of schedule in the race for technological self-sufficiency. However, challenges remain as global competitors are already moving towards more advanced memory technologies.

Apple Intelligence is yet to be available to general users, but developers already have access. Some have started showing off its capabilities, and according to a video shared by AppleLeaker on X, Apple's offering seems to have more potential than Samsung's Galaxy AI. It proofread and rewrote almost 15 thousand characters in under 2 minutes.

With a new and easy-to-use expansion board, the Raspberry Pi 5 now not only has the option of installing an NPU for the acceleration of AI applications, but also an M.2 2280 slot for SSDs.

aiOla has launched Whisper-Medusa, an open-source AI model designed to improve automatic speech recognition. Combining OpenAI's Whisper with aiOla's technology, Whisper-Medusa claims to operate 50% faster than Whisper itself. This model supports over 100 languages and transforms unstructured speech data into actionable insights, showing future promise in industries such as aviation, logistics, and healthcare.

A research team from POSTECH and Korea University has demonstrated that Electrochemical Random Access Memory (ECRAM) devices can bump up AI computational performance. Published in Science Advances, their study shows that ECRAM, with its three-terminal structure and low power operation, outperforms traditional memory in AI applications. The team's successful implementation of a 64×64 array of ECRAM devices and the application of the Tiki-Taka algorithm shows promise for future applications.

Yum! Brands will expand the rollout of its Voice AI for faster, more accurate drive-thru orders to more Taco Bell locations this year. The AI relieves human staff from the mundane task of order taking so they can focus on delivering hot, fresh food quickly. The system also allows for a reduced staff count to help increase restaurant profitability.

Paraplegic Kevin Piette has walked with the Olympics 2024 torch while wearing the Wandercraft Atalante X exoskeleton. The 36-year-old exoskeleton pilot had an accident 11 years ago that left him unable to use his legs. Piette is an exoskeleton pilot working at Wandercraft to help develop assistive technologies for the disabled.

Particle has introduced a brand-new SBC, the Tachyon. It's powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon QCM6490, which packs eight cores, an Adreno 634 GPU, and a 6th generation NPU with up to 12 TOPs of AI performance. The single-board computer also has support for WiFi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, and 5G.

An AI collar that listens in around the clock and expresses its thoughts freely - Friend is designed to combat loneliness and accompany users in everyday life. Instead of answering questions or controlling smart home devices, Friend is intended to primarily offer emotional support.

CheckMag Turing, the GPU generation that delivered upscaling and ray tracing, has now all but fallen into obscurity as compared to its still widely used Pascal and Ampere brethren. The desktop RTX 2070 may have been middling at best even at launch, but its laptop counterpart fully deserves a bit of a spotlight. Let's try and look into how it managed to remain relevant for much longer than some expected.

Realme has introduced the Watch S2 as its first wearable with an on-board AI assistant. It is also touted to get up to 20 days of normal use peer charging, and also offers health and fitness tracking features. Its stainless steel case is rated for advanced water- and dust-proofing, and comes in a range of colors with varied strap options.

Realme purports to bring dual 50MP main rear cameras to the masses in the form of its new flagship for the premium mid-range Android smartphone market today (July 30, 2024). The 13 Pro+ also offers a brighter, less curved display and faster charging compared to its predecessor - then again, its more affordable Pro sibling is the one with the most significant internal upgrades.

Zoom has announced Zoom Workplace with Zoom AI Companion for more productive online meetings and document collaboration. AI features include automated meeting summaries, event content generation, clip descriptions, and virtual background creation.

Researchers have developed an AI-powered method to reconstruct images displayed on a computer screen by intercepting electromagnetic radiation emitted from the HDMI cable. Hackers could remotely capture sensitive information, such as passwords or financial data. While the average user is unlikely to be targeted, organizations handling sensitive information should be aware of this and take necessary measures if needed.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says not all Apple Intelligence features will launch together. In particular, the enhanced Siri could take a while to arrive due to stability issues.

Hallucinations notwithstanding, the de facto leader of the AI industry is keen to enter the search market. The SearchGPT prototype will only be available to a few thousand beta testers at launch, although the end-goal here is to eventually integrate with ChatGPT.

Google's AI assistant, Gemini, may get new abilities with the integration of new extensions. As per a new APK teardown of the v15.29.34.29 beta update, these tools will allow Gemini to interact with various Google services and devices. Key extensions include Google Home, Phone, and Utilities, enabling users to control smart home devices, make calls, and manage phone settings directly through Gemini.

As a sequel to multimodal AI on Ray Ban Meta smart glasses, owners of Quest 3 in the US and Canada will soon be able to use Meta AI while in-headset. Meta will be deprecating the existing voice commands on Horizon OS since Meta AI with Vision will be able to handle voice commands as well as visual input from Passthrough.

DeepL has launched an improved AI for higher-quality language translations across 33 languages. Unlike other large language models for chatbots, DeepL’s model is made with proprietary data for more accurate language translations. Traditional Chinese has been added for the chipmaking industry.