OpenAI made the last big breakthrough in artificial intelligence by increasing the size of its models to dizzying proportions, when it introduced GPT-4 last year. The company today announced a new advance that signals a shift in approach—a model that can “reason” logically through many difficult problems and is significantly …
Read More »An ‘AI Scientist’ Is Inventing and Running Its Own Experiments
At first glance, a recent batch of research papers produced by a prominent artificial intelligence lab at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver might not seem that notable. Featuring incremental improvements on existing algorithms and ideas, they read like the contents of a middling AI conference or journal. But …
Read More »OpenAI Warns Users Could Become Emotionally Hooked on Its Voice Mode
In late July, OpenAI began rolling out an eerily humanlike voice interface for ChatGPT. In a safety analysis released today, the company acknowledges that this anthropomorphic voice may lure some users into becoming emotionally attached to their chatbot. The warnings are included in a “system card” for GPT-4o, a technical …
Read More »OpenAI Slashes the Cost of Using Its AI With a ‘Mini’ Model
OpenAI today announced a cut-price “mini” model that it says will allow more companies and programs to tap into its artificial intelligence. The new model, called GPT-4o mini and available starting today, is 60 percent cheaper than OpenAI’s most inexpensive existing model while offering higher performance, the company says. OpenAI …
Read More »OpenAI Touts New AI Safety Research. Critics Say It’s a Good Step, but Not Enough
OpenAI has faced opprobrium in recent months from those who suggest it may be rushing too quickly and recklessly to develop more powerful artificial intelligence. The company appears intent on showing it takes AI safety seriously. Today it showcased research that it says could help researchers scrutinize AI models even …
Read More »Google DeepMind's Chatbot-Powered Robot Is Part of a Bigger Revolution
In a cluttered open-plan office in Mountain View, California, a tall and slender wheeled robot has been busy playing tour guide and informal office helper—thanks to a large language model upgrade, Google DeepMind revealed today. The robot uses the latest version of Google’s Gemini large language model to both parse …
Read More »An AI Bot Is (Sort of) Running for Mayor in Wyoming
Victor Miller is running for mayor of Cheyenne, Wyoming, with an unusual campaign promise: If elected, he will not be calling the shots—an AI bot will. VIC, the Virtual Integrated Citizen, is a ChatGPT-based chatbot that Miller created. And Miller says the bot has better ideas—and a better grasp of …
Read More »OpenAI Offers a Peek Inside the Guts of ChatGPT
ChatGPT developer OpenAI’s approach to building artificial intelligence came under fire this week from former employees who accuse the company of taking unnecessary risks with technology that could become harmful. Today, OpenAI released a new research paper apparently aimed at showing it is serious about tackling AI risk by making …
Read More »Prepare to Get Manipulated by Emotionally Expressive Chatbots
It’s nothing new for computers to mimic human social etiquette, emotion, or humor. We just aren’t used to them doing it very well. OpenAI’s presentation of an all-new version of ChatGPT on Monday suggests that’s about to change. It’s built around an updated AI model called GPT-4o, which OpenAI says …
Read More »Generative AI Doesn’t Make Hardware Less Hard
Things aren’t going so well for AI hardware startups. After years of development, startup Humane launched a $700 wearable in early April that leans heavily on artificial intelligence. The original pitch for the Ai Pin was that you no longer need to juggle different apps; its operating system can “search …
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