Technology giant Google announced its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Bard in the European Union (EU), Brazil and other countries Thursday to challenge the ChatGPT, which triggered an ‘AI race’ after its launch by the Microsoft-backed OpenAI.
Google revealed Bard in February but delayed its release in the EU as the bloc plans to regulate AI citing concerns about the rapidly growing technology.
The US colossus has raced to catch up with rival Microsoft, which has rushed to integrate ChatGPT-like powers in various products, including the Bing search engine.
Bard is “now available in most of the world, and in the most widely spoken languages,” Bard’s product lead Jack Krawczyk and vice president Amarnag Subramanya wrote in a blog.
“As part of our bold and responsible approach to AI, we’ve proactively engaged with experts, policymakers and privacy regulators on this expansion,” they said.
The company said it would incorporate user feedback and take steps to protect people´s privacy and data as it broadens access to Bard.
The AI tool can now be used in over 40 languages including Arabic, Chinese, German, Hindi and Spanish. It was previously available in three languages — English, Japanese and Korean.
Google also announced new features, including receiving audio responses from Bard or answers in five different styles: simple, long, short, professional or casual.
Another new feature allows users to upload photos that Bard can analyse for information.
The rise of AI has raised both excitement and concerns about its potential to improve or replace tasks done by humans.
AI tools have shown in recent months the ability to generate essays, create realistic images, mimic the voices of famous singers and even pass medical exams, among a slew of uses.
Common worries include the possibility that chatbots could flood the web with disinformation, that biased algorithms will churn out racist material, or that AI-powered automation could lay waste to entire industries.
Dangers of AI
Experts including the founder of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, Sam Altman warned about the potential existential risks the technology poses to humanity.
Altman and dozens of other specialists signed a statement in May urging global leaders to reduce “the risk of extinction” from AI.
But the warnings have not stopped the rapid development of AI.
Tesla and Twitter owner Elon Musk, who has issued his own warnings about the risks, launched an AI company named xAI Wednesday.
The xAI website said Musk would run the company separately from his other companies, but the technology developed would benefit those businesses, including Twitter.
Last month, the European Parliament backed a draft law that will be the basis for the world´s first comprehensive rules for AI.
It includes specific provisions for generative AI systems, such as ChatGPT and Dall-E, capable of producing text, images and other media.
The parliament and the EU’s member states will negotiate on the regulation before it is approved and the bloc wants to strike a deal by the end of the year.
The rules stipulate that AI-generated content must be declared as such and bans some AI including real-time facial recognition systems.
The New York-based cybersecurity firm Wiz has discovered a cache of sensitive data from the Chinese artificial intelligence business DeepSeek that was mistakenly exposed to the public internet.
In a blog post released on Wednesday, Wiz reported that examinations of DeepSeek’s infrastructure revealed that the company had inadvertently exposed over a million lines of unencrypted data. The materials were digital software keys and chat logs that seemingly documented prompts transmitted from consumers to the company’s complimentary AI assistant.
The chief technical officer of Wiz stated that DeepSeek promptly safeguarded the data following the notice from his organisation.
“It was removed in under an hour,” stated Ami Luttwak. “However, this was exceedingly easy to locate, leading us to believe we are not the sole discoverers.”
DeepSeek did not promptly respond to a request for comment.
DeepSeek’s rapid success after the introduction of its AI helper has exhilarated China and incited concern in America. The Chinese company’s evident capacity to rival OpenAI’s skills at a significantly reduced cost has raised concerns regarding the viability of the business models and profit margins of U.S. AI behemoths like Nvidia and Microsoft.
By Monday, it surpassed the U.S. competitor ChatGPT in downloads from Apple’s App Store, prompting a worldwide decline in technology stocks.
WhatsApp has initiated testing of a bulk channel administration feature on iOS for select beta users, enabling the simultaneous selection of many channels, hence enhancing the efficiency of managing following channels.
This essential update enables users to perform bulk activities, including muting many channels simultaneously, designating them as read, and altering notifications. If the chosen channels are muted, users will now have the option to activate notifications. Users can swiftly silence unmuted channels in one action.
Additionally, this feature enables users to unfollow many channels simultaneously, thereby optimizing the process of decluttering their channel list. This change is particularly beneficial for users that oversee numerous subscriptions, as reported by WABetaInfo.
Previously, users were required to manage each channel individually, rendering tasks such as muting or designating channels as read laborious and time-consuming.
The functionality provides enhanced flexibility and control over channel subscriptions, enabling users to efficiently manage notifications. The solution streamlines laborious operations for consumers who subscribe to numerous channels, hence enhancing their entire experience.
Accessibility The bulk management feature is presently accessible exclusively to a limited number of beta testers who installed the latest WhatsApp beta for iOS using the TestFlight application. WhatsApp, owned by Meta, plans to expand the feature’s availability to a larger user base in the next weeks.
This update demonstrates WhatsApp’s dedication to enhancing user experience by offering a clear and efficient method for managing channels and notifications.
Even after two weeks, the global submarine cable AAA-1 problem that was discovered on January 2 near Qatar has not been fixed, causing sluggish internet connection in several Pakistani towns.
According to a representative for Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), the issue has affected customers’ capacity to effectively access social media applications and browse the online. Even with initiatives to fix the problem, social networking sites still lag during busy times.
Internet traffic has been redirected via alternate channels to lessen the impact, and more capacity has been set up to stabilize the service.
The PTCL representative promised that “Internet service across the country is operating normally, and there will be no issues with web browsing,” noting that social media applications’ lag is common during