Artificial intelligence is more a part of our lives than ever before. While some might call it hype and compare it to NFTs or 3D TVs, AI is causing a sea change in nearly every facet of life that technology touches. Bing wants to know you intimately, Bard wants to reduce websites to easy-to-read cards, and ChatGPT has infiltrated nearly every part of our lives. At The Verge, we’re exploring all the good AI is enabling and all the bad it’s bringing along.
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Meta forms new Wearables group and lays off some employees
Meta’s Reality Labs is undergoing its biggest restructuring in years by separating into two orgs: Wearables and Metaverse. A small number of employees have been laid off as a result.
Google is redesigning its search engine — and it’s AI all the way down
From ‘AI Overviews’ to automatic categorization, Google is bringing AI to practically every part of the search process.
The marketing whiplash in this press release announcing the availability of the Galaxy Book4 Edge is really something.
It starts by praising the magic of AI (14 times), saying Samsung’s “next-gen AI PC will change the way users work, create and play through the power of AI.” It ends with this teeny tiny footnote for its “popular Galaxy AI:”
Samsung does not make any promises, assurances or guarantees as to the accuracy, completeness or reliability of the output provided by AI features.
To be fair, Samsung didn’t say the change was good.
A remarkable essay on how an AI-generated video on kung fu led one family to order actual, physical encyclopedias.
Knowledge is not a market commodity. Moreover, “justified true belief” does not result from an optimization function. Knowledge may be refined through questioning or falsification, but it does not improve from competition with purposeful nonknowledge. If anything, in the face of nonknowledge, knowledge loses.
From ChatGPT to Gemini: how AI is rewriting the internet
How we use the internet is changing fast thanks to the advancement of AI-powered chatbots that can find information and redeliver it as a simple conversation.
As seen in MacRumors, iOS 18 beta testers can set a new Siri wake word using Vocal Shortcuts, a new accessibility feature. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Vocal Shortcuts > Set Up Vocal Shortcuts, then find and tap “Siri” to try it.
It won’t work with HomePods. And your iPhone won’t acknowledge it unless you pause after saying the word. That’s good; otherwise, you learn just how frequently you say a word like “computer.”
According to the proposed settlement (via Reuters), Clearview would give away nearly a quarter of the company — either paying out 23 percent of its value, or 17 percent of its revenue. The NYT reports Clearview is only valued at $225 million, though, so I’d be surprised if I even see a quarter dollar from this one.
[The New York Times]
Apple and OpenAI make a deal
On The Vergecast: the inner workings of Apple Intelligence, Xbox handhelds, and the future of movie theaters.
Autonomous Cars
People are still investing in driverless vehicles.
California Dems shelve robotaxi bill.
Waymo issues software and mapping recall after robotaxi crashes into a telephone pole
GM pumps $850 million in Cruise to keep struggling robotaxi company afloat
Inside Google’s big AI shuffle — and how it plans to stay competitive, with Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis
Google invented a lot of core AI technology, and now the company’s turning to Demis to get back in front of the AI race for AI breakthroughs.
We don’t know exactly how often AI Overviews will appear in search, but early observations point to trouble for publishers.
A Press Gazette experiment found that AI Overviews appeared on nearly a quarter of top news-related Google searches, pushing down organic results. Some publishers are bracing for their Google traffic to trickle to zero. Others say it’s already happened.
Android Authority reports that the latest APK for Google Messages contains a new fab that allows users to chat with Gemini directly instead of tapping the button at the bottom of the messages list.
It's a slightly more streamlined process, but given this isn’t even available to beta testers yet there’s no word on when it could be generally available.
The company is on track to make about $3.4 billion in revenue this year, which is about double what it brought in last year, according to a new report by The Information.
CEO Sam Altman reportedly told employees that $200 million of that revenue is the cut OpenAI gets from Microsoft selling its models through Azure. That means the vast majority of OpenAI’s revenue is coming from ChatGPT subscriptions and its own developer platform.
[The Information]
What if you just submit a real photo? Read Android Authority’s story about someone who did just that.
[Android Authority]
I’m at Fortune’s MPW dinner in San Francisco, where OpenAI CTO Mira Murati had a quick, wide-ranging conversation about the state of the company.
What I found most interesting was her comments on the weird board structure: The previous non-profit board structure didn’t have accountability to anyone but themselves, she said. That is the old board that ousted CEO Sam Altman.
Data centers already use a lot of water and electricity, and adding AI overviews to Google Search only makes those problems bigger.
AI uses “orders of magnitude more energy” than traditional search engines, Hugging Face researcher Sasha Luccioni tells Scientific American.
Correction: Apple’s AI emoji are generated on device, not in data centers.
[Scientific American]
