Category: AI

Microsoft filed a patent for an AI backpack straight out of a sci-fi movie

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Microsoft filed a patent for an AI backpack straight out of a sci-fi movie

source: ZDNET.com (contributed by Artemus Founder, Bob Wallace)  |  image: pixabay.com

 

Students and office workers who carry heavy laptops and a plethora of personal items with them every day rely on backpacks to hold their belongings. For those people, there’s good news: Microsoft may soon be infusing backpacks with artifical intelligence (AI) to take a backpack’s function to a new level.

A patent filed by Microsoft that showcases the concept of the AI backpack was filed on May 2, 2023, and published on August 24, 2023, as spotted by MSPowerUser. 

Also: One in four workers fears being considered ‘lazy’ if they use AI tools

The wearable would be able to do much more than your average smartwatch, with advanced capabilities such as scanning an environment, understanding voice commands, and performing contextual tasks. 

What We’ve Been Reading About AI

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What We’ve Been Reading About AI

source: CNN.com (contributed by FAN, Bill Amshey)  |  image: pixabay.com

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The Myth of ‘Open Source’ AI

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The Myth of ‘Open Source’ AI

source: wired.com  |  image: pexels.com

 

A new analysis shows that “open source” AI tools like Llama 2 are still controlled by big tech companies in a number of ways.

CHATGPT MADE IT possible for anyone to play with powerful artificial intelligence, but the inner workings of the world-famous chatbot remain a closely guarded secret.

In recent months, however, efforts to make AI more “open” seem to have gained momentum. In May, someone leaked a model from Meta, called Llama, which gave outsiders access to its underlying code as well as the “weights” that determine how it behaves. Then, this July, Meta chose to make an even more powerful model, called Llama 2, available for anyone to download, modify, and reuse. Meta’s models have since become an extremely popular foundation for many companies, researchers, and hobbyists building tools and applications with ChatGPT-like capabilities.

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Google Flooded the Internet With AI News. Where’s Apple?

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Google Flooded the Internet With AI News. Where’s Apple?

source: cnet.com, contributed by Artemus FAN, Steve Page  |  image: pixabay.com

 

Apple hasn’t publicly entered the generative AI race yet. But there’s a good chance we’ll see the technology baked into its upcoming software.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard the term “generative AI” at least a handful of times now, perhaps thanks to the wildly popular ChatGPT service. The AI-powered chatbot’s success didn’t just shine a spotlight on OpenAI, the creator behind it, but it also catalyzed an AI arms race in the tech industry – a race from which Apple has been noticeably absent.  

Earlier this month, Google made a flurry of AI-related announcements at its annual developer conference, including a new AI-infused version of search and Bard, its AI-powered chatbot, which is being rolled out across the world. It’s not just Google. Before that, Microsoft built generative AI into its suite of long-established productivity apps like Word, PowerPoint and Outlook in a move that’s changing how more than a billion people work. In February, Meta released its own sophisticated AI model, which has many of the same capabilities at ChatGPT and Bard, as open-source software for public use.

But what about Apple? 

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Paralysed man walks again via thought-controlled implants

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Paralysed man walks again via thought-controlled implants

source: yahoo news, contributed by Artemus Founder, Bob Wallace  |  image: pexels.com

 

A paralysed man has regained the ability to walk smoothly using only his thoughts for the first time, researchers said on Wednesday, thanks to two implants that restored communication between brain and spinal cord.

The patient Gert-Jan, who did not want to reveal his surname, said the breakthrough had given him “a freedom that I did not have” before.

The 40-year-old Dutchman has been paralysed in his legs for more than a decade after suffering a spinal cord injury during a bicycle accident.

But using a new system he can now walk “naturally”, take on difficult terrain and even climb stairs, according to a study published in the journal Nature.

The advance is the result of more than a decade of work by a team of researchers in France and Switzerland.

Last year the team showed that a spinal cord implant — which sends electrical pulses to stimulate movement in leg muscles — had allowed three paralysed patients to walk again.

But they needed to press a button to move their legs each time.

Gert-Jan, who also has the spinal implant, said this made it difficult to get into the rhythm of taking a “natural step”.

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AI: The good, the bad and the ugly…

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AI: The good, the bad and the ugly. The team discuss AI’s evolution over the past six months.

source: infosecurity-magazine.com  |  image: pexels.com

 

Since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 the cybersecurity world has been abuzz with talk of AI and its usefulness as well as the threat it poses.

In this episode of the podcast the team discuss how cybersecurity vendors are leveraging AI, what threats AI has brought to the technology landscape and what to be cautious of when using large language models.

Beth Maundrill also sits down with Sergey Shykevich, Threat Intelligence Group Manager at Check Point Research, to dispel some of the myths around threat actors’ use of AI and what Check Point has observed over the past six months. Shykevich also provides his thoughts on the future of AI in cybersecurity. 

 

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Searching for AI Tools? Watch Out…

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Searching for AI Tools? Watch Out for Rogue Sites Distributing RedLine Malware

 

source: thehackernews.com  | image:  pixabay.com

 

Malicious Google Search ads for generative AI services like OpenAI ChatGPT and Midjourney are being used to direct users to sketchy websites as part of a BATLOADER campaign designed to deliver RedLine Stealer malware.

“Both AI services are extremely popular but lack first-party standalone apps (i.e., users interface with ChatGPT via their web interface while Midjourney uses Discord),” eSentire said in an analysis.

“This vacuum has been exploited by threat actors looking to drive AI app-seekers to imposter web pages promoting fake apps.”

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I Cloned Myself With AI. She Fooled My Bank and My Family

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I Cloned Myself With AI. She Fooled My Bank and My Family

source: wsj.com, contributed by Artemus Founder, Bob Wallace  |  image: pexels.com

 
Our columnist replaced herself with AI voice and video to see how humanlike the tech can be. The results were eerie.

The good news about AI Joanna: She never loses her voice, she has outstanding posture and not even a convertible driving 120 mph through a tornado could mess up her hair.

Maybe you’ve played around with chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard, or image generators like Dall-E. If you thought they blurred the line between AI and human intelligence, you ain’t seen—or heard—nothing yet.

Over the past few months, I’ve been testing Synthesia, a tool that creates artificially intelligent avatars from recorded video and audio (aka deepfakes). Type in anything and your video avatar parrots it back.

Since I do a lot of voice and video work, I thought this could make me more productive, and take away some of the drudgery. That’s the AI promise, after all. So I went to a studio and recorded about 30 minutes of video and nearly two hours of audio that Synthesia would use to train my clone. A few weeks later, AI Joanna was ready.

Creating AI Joanna required a recording session and video shoot in a green-screen studio. Kenny Wassus/The Wall Street Journal

Then I attempted the ultimate day off, Ferris Bueller style. Could AI me—paired with ChatGPT-generated text—replace actual me in videos, meetings and phone calls? It was…eye-opening or, dare I say, AI-opening. (Let’s just blame AI Joanna for my worst jokes.)

Eventually AI Joanna might write columns and host my videos. For now, she’s at her best illustrating the double-edged sword of generative-AI voice and video tools.

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Looming AI Catastrophes

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Looming AI catastrophes

source: axios.com, contribution of Artemus FAN, Bill Amshey  |  image: pexels.com

 

The “godfather of AI” quit Google and joined a growing chorus of experts warning that the rush to deploy artificial intelligence could lead to disaster.

  • Why it matters: When some of the smartest people building a technology warn it could turn on humans and shred our institutions, it’s worth listening, Axios global tech correspondent Ryan Heath writes in his debut.

Geoffrey Hinton, a top machine-learning pioneer, says he left Google so he can speak freely about the dangers of rushing generative AI products.

  • “It is hard to see how you can prevent the bad actors from using it for bad things,” Hinton, 75, told The New York Times(subscription).

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Artificial intelligence is changing how people work. That can be scary…

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Artificial intelligence is changing how people work. That can be scary. But for now, most jobs are still safe.

source: nytimes.com, contributed by FAN, Bill Amshey  |  image: pixabay.com

‘It’s been revolutionary’

Eli Snyder, a special-education teacher in Colorado, wanted to play basketball with his students. He had questions: How could he adapt the game for a child with cerebral palsy? And how could he help his students with autism play a highly stimulating activity?
ChatGPT had answers.

The artificial intelligence chatbot had analyzed the internet’s vast amount of data, including information about disabilities and basketball. It used patterns it found in all that text to generate recommendations: Shrink the court size to reduce the distance players need to travel in wheelchairs. Lower the hoop and install a ramp leading up to it so students can roll the basketball into the net. Pair up players so each person has a buddy for support.

Snyder could have found this information through a simple Google search. He turned to ChatGPT because it produced complete paragraphs instead of delivering links that would have left him with more clicking and synthesizing to do. The chatbot’s response helped him quickly write adapted lesson plans for each of his students.

“It’s been revolutionary,” Snyder, 30, said. “What used to take me an hour now takes me five minutes.”