World entering golden age of artificial intelligence: Microsoft CEO Nadella

by Hansraj Agrawal | Jan 18, 2023 | Technology

An Indian farmer recently used a ChatGPT interface to access an opaque government programme via the internet despite knowing only a local dialect, Microsoft chief Satya Nadella said on Wednesday to underline that the world is entering a golden age of artificial intelligence.

Recent breakthroughs in the AI space and products like ChatGPT are capturing broad attention and generating excitement, he said during an interaction here at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting.

Nadella said technology will provide more and more ways to bring people together.

The cutting-edge chatbot ChatGPT is capturing the world’s imagination and the new artificial intelligence site amassed 1 million users in just five days after its recent launch.

ChatGPT answers complex questions via short prompts on a vast array of topics, and even writes lyrics and poetry.

Speaking with WEF Founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab, the Microsoft Chairman and CEO said that a golden age of artificial intelligence (AI) is underway and will redefine work as we know it.

“The future of work is not just about technology and tools. It’s about new management practices and sensibilities to the workplace,” Nadella said.

He said Microsoft is opening up access to new AI tools like ChatGPT and he sees these technologies acting as a co-pilot, helping people do more with less.

He provided two anecdotes of recent use cases of GPT technology, the first of an expert coder from Silicon Valley who improved his productivity by 80 per cent by using the model to help write better code faster.

The second one, he said, involved an Indian farmer who was able to use a GPT interface to access an opaque government programme via the internet, despite only speaking a local dialect.

“AI is just at the beginning of the S-curve. The near-term and long-term opportunities are enormous,” he added.

Looking ahead, he said, Microsoft intends to lead on quantum computing.

Microsoft has all the building blocks for a next-generation quantum computer. “Microsoft will achieve quantum supremacy and aims to build a general-purpose quantum computer,” he added.

On safety and security, Nadella said the operating principle for protecting critical infrastructure should be to assume the worst — “have zero trust”.

“Safety and security needs to be included right at the design stage,” he said.

Sustainability is at the core of the business and by 2050 Microsoft aims to not just be carbon-neutral but carbon-negative, he 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.)

Source link

Apple launches 2nd Gen HomePod with spatial audio support at Rs 32,900

by Hansraj Agrawal | Jan 18, 2023 | Technology

Apple on Wednesday announced second-generation HomePod that delivers next-level acoustics in a gorgeous, iconic design.

Packed with Apple innovations and Siri intelligence, HomePod offers advanced computational audio for a groundbreaking listening experience, including support for immersive Spatial Audio tracks.

HomePod (2nd generation) is available for Rs 32,900, with availability beginning February 3.

The smart speaker is is compatible with iPhone SE (2nd generation) and later, or iPhone 8 and later running iOS 16.3 or later; or iPad Pro, iPad (5th generation) and later, iPad Air (3rd generation) and later, or iPad mini (5th generation) and later running iPadOS 16.3.

“Leveraging our audio expertise and innovations, the new HomePod delivers rich, deep bass, natural mid-range, and clear, detailed highs,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

“With the popularity of HomePod mini, we’ve seen growing interest in even more powerful acoustics achievable in a larger HomePod. We’re thrilled to bring the next generation of HomePod to customers around the world,” he added.

HomePod is available in white and midnight, a new colour made with 100 per cent recycled mesh fabric, with a colour-matched woven power cable.

The S7 chip is combined with software and system-sensing technology to offer even more advanced computational audio that maximizes the full potential of its acoustic system for a groundbreaking listening experience.

Users can listen to a catalog of over 100 million songs with Apple Music, enjoy Spatial Audio with a single HomePod or as a stereo pair, or create a captivating home theater experience with Apple TV 4K.

Two or more HomePod or HomePod mini speakers unlock a variety of powerful features, said Apple.

HomePod can also recognise up to six voices, so each member of the home can hear their personal playlists, ask for reminders, and set calendar events.

HomePod easily pairs with Apple TV 4K for a powerful home theatre experience.

Users can also intuitively navigate, view, and organise accessories with the redesigned Home app, which offers new categories for climate, lights, and security, enables easy setup and control of the smart home, and includes a new multicamera view.

–IANS

na/

(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.)

Source link

China publishes 1% more of most-cited scientific papers on AI than others

by Hansraj Agrawal | Jan 18, 2023 | Technology

US analysts of government investment in science and technology (S&T) report that China has taken the lead in highly regarded scientific research in cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI).

“Chinese scholars now publish a larger fraction of the top 1 per cent most-cited scientific papers globally than scientists from any other country,” said Caroline Wagner, a US policy expert who studies government investment in S&T.

China’s sprint to the top began in 1977, when the science-minded Deng Xiaoping, who succeeded Mao Zedong, introduced the Four Modernisations. One of these was to strengthen China’s progress in S&T.

Until as recently as 2000, the US continued to produce many times the number of scientific papers each year as China did. However, in the past two decades of investing funds in indigenous research and shifting emphasis to high-technology (tech) manufacturing, China is emphatically at the top.

In 2017, for the first time, Chinese scholars published more scientific papers than American researchers. In 2022, Chinese researchers published three times as many papers on AI as US researchers.

“Since 2000, China has sent an estimated 5.2 million students and scholars to study abroad. The majority of them studied science or engineering,” says Wagner.

Currently, China trails only the US in national expenditure on S&T. Chinese universities, which have improved dramatically in recent years, now produce the world’s largest number of engineering PhDs each year.

As Chinese scientific power first began growing, the academic community in America and Europe dismissed Chinese research as low quality and imitative. However, an analysis of citations revealed otherwise.

A citation means the referencing or citing of an academic paper by another paper. The greater the number of times a paper has been cited, the more influential it can be regarded. By that logic, the top 1 per cent of the most-cited papers could be considered to represent the upper echelons of S&T.

Wagner and her research team counted the number of papers each country had in the top 1 per cent each year, measured by the number of citations it had received in various disciplines.

In 2019, China topped the list, with 8,422 articles in the most-cited 1 per cent. The US followed with 7,959 articles and the European Union had 6,074.

“…in the top 1 per cent, most-cited AI research, Chinese papers outnumbered the US papers by a 2:1 ratio… China also led in nanoscience, chemistry, and transportation,” reported Wagner.

The study also looked at the mix of disciplines referenced in the papers. The more diverse and varied the referenced research in a single paper, the more interdisciplinary and novel the work was regarded as. Chinese research was found to be as innovative as the other top-performing countries.

China is not just an imitator but is a scientific power on a par with the US and Europe. To support US tech firms in countering China’s scientific growth, President Joe Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law on August 9.

Source link

Gupshup launches new auto bot builder powered by GPT3 to build chatbots

by Hansraj Agrawal | Jan 18, 2023 | Technology

Conversational engagement platform Gupshup on Wednesday launched its Auto Bot Builder, a tool that applies the power of GPT-3 – the latest generative AI technology developed by OpenAI – to automatically build advanced chatbots for specific enterprise requirements.

Auto Bot Builder uses the GPT-3 LLM (Large Language Model) and tunes it with a proprietary enterprise knowledge base and domain expertise, resulting in a chatbot specialised to an enterprise, unlike ChatGPT, which is a general-purpose chatbot. This will enable enterprises to incorporate the latest advances in AI technology, in a no-code environment, into their conversational experiences to substantially enhance their customer engagement.

The company claims that the bots built by the new tool can virtually handle any natural-language query posed by the user and provide meaningful responses in almost all scenarios. Businesses can build these chatbots for each stage of the customer lifecycle including marketing, commerce, and support. Use cases include marketing offers, lead gen, product discovery, product recommendations, shopping advice, troubleshooting, customer support, etc.

The new bot builder will reduce the time and effort it takes to create conversational journeys, enabling enterprises to develop more journeys faster for use cases across the entire customer lifecycle, the company said.

“GPT-3 represents a massive improvement in language and conversational abilities. We’re excited to help enterprises harness the power of LLMs to enhance their customer experience. Gupshup is always among the first to bring the latest technology to enterprises. This is just the beginning of a new wave of innovation, and we expect to rapidly roll out more advanced capabilities,” said Beerud Sheth, CEO of Gupshup.

With the Auto Bot Builder tool, a user can “instantly build” a chatbot using content from their website, documents, message logs, product catalogues, database, and other corporate systems of record. The tool accepts the content of any size, processes it and fine-tunes the Large Language Model (LLM) to the specific context. Auto Bot Builder is capable of handling really large content sets, which need special pre-processing.

For industry-specific use cases, Gupshup has also developed instances based on its proprietary training data and domain expertise that provides an even greater head-start in developing high-quality enterprise-specific conversational experiences.

Gupshup offers a single messaging application programming interface (API) for over 30 channels across voice, text, and chat to enable businesses to create frictionless conversations with their customers. It serves verticals including banking, insurance, e-commerce, retail, gaming, and healthcare.

Source link

Fitbit to end music streaming services Deezer, Pandora from older devices

by Hansraj Agrawal | Jan 18, 2023 | Technology

Google-owned wearable brand Fitbit will reportedly remove music streaming services Pandora and Deezer from the Fitbit Sense, Versa 3 and other older devices in March this year.

In an email, Fitbit informed users that Pandora and Deezer applications “will be removed as of March 31, 2023”, because of which, “you will no longer be able to download Pandora stations or add Deezer playlists to your device, nor will you be able to play anything that you have previously downloaded,” reports 9To5Google.

The company did not provide an explanation for this “deactivation” and said that it is “sorry for any inconvenience!”

A support article on the company’s website also confirmed the end of the services.

Moreover, the help pages for those two streaming services have been removed.

Following last year’s removal of the ability to transfer playlists to watches from computers, Deezer and Pandora became the only way to listen to music, the report said.

–IANS

aj/shb/

(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.)

Source link

Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max may feature periscope camera for optical zoom

by Hansraj Agrawal | Jan 18, 2023 | Technology

Apple’s upcoming smartphone, iPhone 15 Pro Max, will reportedly feature a periscope folding zoom camera, although it will only be included in the top-end iPhone model.

Earlier, the tech giant was expected to include a folding zoom camera system in the iPhone 14 range, reports AppleInsider.

However, according to unspecified industry sources, major supplier of mobile camera modules LG Innotek and camera module parts maker Jahwa Electronics will both provide this system for the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

A folding zoom camera system is likely to not make a visible difference to the exterior of the iPhone, and will not necessarily reduce the camera bump.

Instead, it might use a mirror or prism that is expected to work like a periscope, which will allow the system to use the length and width of the iPhone’s whole body.

The rumoured system is expected to debut in the iPhone 15 Pro Max in 2024 and is likely to come to both the iPhone 16 Pro Max and the iPhone 16 Pro, the report said.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, it was reported that the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max models are likely to include new features such as solid-state buttons with haptic feedback, a titanium frame and increased RAM.

–IANS

aj/fs/

(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.)

Source link

Times Top News

Times Top News