Users can now choose different tones of responses of AI Bing chatbot

by Hansraj Agrawal | Mar 3, 2023 | Technology

Tech giant Microsoft has added a new feature to its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered Bing chatbot that allows users to choose different tones for responses.

Users can choose between three options for the chatbot’s responses — precise, balanced and creative.

The creative mode provides responses that are “original and imaginative”, whereas the precise mode gives “accuracy and relevancy for more factual and concise answers”, reports The Verge.

The tech giant has set the Bing chatbot’s default mode to balanced, which it thinks will strike the right balance between accuracy and creativity.

These new chat modes are currently rolling out to all Bing AI users, and about 90 per cent of users should already be seeing them.

According to Mikhail Parakhin, the head of web services at Microsoft, the update includes a “significant reduction in cases where Bing refuses to reply for no apparent reason”.

Last month, the company had said that it was also going to test an additional option that would allow users to choose the tone of the chat from more precise, to balanced and more creative.

“The goal is to give you more control on the type of chat behaviour to best meet your needs,” it added.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Meta expanding Instagram’s age verification test to 6 more countries

by Hansraj Agrawal | Mar 3, 2023 | Technology

Meta has announced that it is expanding its “age verification test” on Instagram to six more countries, including Europe and Canada.

“Starting today, we’re beginning to expand our age verification test on Instagram to more countries in Europe, Mexico, Canada, South Korea, Australia and Japan,” the company said in an updated blogpost on Thursday.

It further mentioned that it is planning to make the age verification tools available in more countries globally within the next few months.

In June last year, the company had initially started testing new options for Instagram users to verify their age, starting with people based in the US.

Later, in October, Meta expanded this test to India and Brazil.

If someone attempts to edit their date of birth on the platform from under the age of 18 to 18 or over, they have to verify their age using one of three options — upload their ID, record a video selfie or ask mutual friends to verify their age.

According to the company, this will make sure “that teens and adults are in the right experience for their age group.”

“In addition to testing the new menu of options to verify people’s ages, we also use artificial intelligence (AI) to understand if someone is a teen or an adult,” it added.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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iMessage can now be used for Windows Insiders through Phone Link app

by Hansraj Agrawal | Mar 2, 2023 | Technology

A new version of Microsoft’s Phone Link app for Windows is now available, and it finally supports Apple iPhones too. For the first time, this includes support for iMessage on Windows, but there are some restrictions on its functioning.

According to reports, the Phone Link app allows users to send messages directly to the iMessage app by connecting Windows devices to iPhones via Bluetooth. With this feature, users will be able to chat directly from their computers or laptops with iPhone users, opening up new channels of communication.

How to use iMessage on Windows?

• A new iPhone-specific prompt will be displayed by the Phone Link app on Windows 11

• The Android option is next to this.

Users will then be prompted to grant certain permissions.

• After that, iPhone users will be required to scan a QR code in order to begin the syncing process

• After that, proceed to the steps for confirmation, which will assist you in confirming that the PC and phone are within range.

• During this step, you will be prompted to verify that the code displayed on your iPhone and the one in Phone Link match.

• After pairing is complete, you will be led to grant a set of permissions that allow us to transfer all of your favourite content to Phone Link. It is important to be aware that Windows Insiders (beta) will be the first to have this feature. It’s not clear whether it will be available to all users from the start.

Key features of iMessage on windows

• Add and remove reactions: Similar to what you can do on social media platforms, it lets you add reactions to messages

• Message Outcomes: iMessage also provides message effects that can give your messages a little extra flair

• Tell us where you are: You can share your current location with your contacts using iMessage

• Pin important conversations: You can easily access conversations by pinning them to the top of your iMessage conversation list

The Phone Link app from Microsoft is seen as a game-changer for Windows users with iPhones because it makes it easy to access iMessage and stay connected. Although there are some drawbacks, Windows 11’s ability to send and receive messages, make calls and view notifications represents a significant improvement in cross-platform communication.

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Snapchat+ subscribers will soon be able to freeze Snap streaks

by Hansraj Agrawal | Mar 2, 2023 | Technology

Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, has announced that Snapchat+ subscribers will soon be able to freeze their Streaks.

“We’ll also be adding a new way for Snapchat+ subscribers to freeze their Streaks, putting things on pause when they know they’re going off the grid,” the company said in a blogpost on Wednesday.

“Since 2016, Snapchatters have celebrated the friendships they nurture daily with Snap Streaks with pals near and far,” the company said.

However, sometimes users just need a day to take a pause.

The company said that users can take a break with a new feature the platform is testing to “let you reignite the spark and restore one Streak for free with just one tap.”

On Monday, Snap had introduced its new artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot for the platform. It is powered by the latest version of OpenAI’s GPT technology.

The “My AI” chatbot is available as an experimental feature for Snapchat+ subscribers and will be rolling out to users this week.

–IANS

aj/prw/bg

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Google-owned YouTube disables posts, new comments on English Help forum

by Hansraj Agrawal | Mar 2, 2023 | Technology

Google-owned YouTube has disabled new posts and comments on its English Help forum as it switches to a read-only mode ahead of “improvements” in the next several months.

The English Community forum has always been a place for users and creators to discuss YouTube with each other, and share tips and ideas to help each other get the most out of YouTube products and services.

“Unfortunately, many threads are not relevant for user-based discussion and a large amount of questions go unanswered. Our goal is to ensure this can be a helpful space for all of you, so we’ll be using this time and these experiments to inform the long-term plan for this forum — more to come,” according to the YouTube Help page.

However, the company said that the update is only relevant to this YouTube English Community forum.

There have been no changes to other YouTube forums in other languages or for specific products, as these separate forums are experiencing high-quality user questions and user-based discussions.

Moreover, the company mentioned that it might update the way the homepage looks, including the category boards and how threads are organised.

Meanwhile, YouTube Music will soon introduce podcasts to the application for users in the US.

“We will soon start to bring both audio and video-first podcasts to YouTube Music for users in the US, making podcasts more discoverable and accessible, with more regions to come,” a YouTube spokesperson said.

–IANS

shs/svn/

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Tech giant Apple still working on classical music application: Report

by Hansraj Agrawal | Mar 2, 2023 | Technology

Tech giant Apple has released its second beta of iOS 16.4 to developers, and code in the update revealed that the company is still working on its classical music application.

According to code in the beta, users will have to install the standard Apple Music app in order to listen to “Apple Music Classical”, reports MacRumors.

“To listen in Apple Music Classical, you’ll need to install Apple Music,” read a line in the MusicKit framework.

The beta update also reintroduced the page-turning animation as an option.

So, in the Themes and Settings section of the Books applications, there will now be three options for page turning– Curl, Side and None.

Code in iOS 16.4 also confirmed that users in South Korea will soon be able to add credit and debit cards to the Wallet app for use with Apple Pay, indicating that iOS 16.4 will add Apple Pay in the country.

Also, there is a new splash screen in the Podcasts application in the beta 2 update, the report said.

In August 2021, the company announced that it had acquired the classical music service Primephonic and planned to release a dedicated classical music app in 2022.

However, the application has not been launched yet.

–IANS

aj/svn/

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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