It’s an ideal time to outfit hybrid home workers, and Lenovo is going all-in on the concept, rolling out new tools for digital business users. Foremost among the digital offerings is the ThinkVision 27 3D, a 27-inch glasses-free 2D/3D compatible monitor with real-time eye-tracking. Designed for developers and professional content creators like graphic artists or product designers who can benefit from immersive 3D visualization, ThinkVision has a max resolution of 1920×2160 for 3D and displays flat at 3840×2160, thanks to a lenticular lens in the monitor that can toggle between the two. Continue reading Lenovo Offers Glasses-Free 3D at 4K via ThinkVision Monitor

Hugging Face has collected $235 million in an investment round that includes contributions from Amazon, IBM, Google, Nvidia, Salesforce, AMD, Intel and Qualcomm. The New York-based startup creates and distributes open-source tools for artificial intelligence development, carving an AI-centric niche similar to the more general programming approach taken by the Microsoft-owned GitHub. The incoming cash infusion — earmarked for talent recruitment — gives Hugging Face a lofty $4.5 billion valuation that experts say indicates momentum for open source in what has to date been a highly competitive AI sector. Continue reading Big Tech Firms Propel Hugging Face to $4.5 Billion Valuation

Epic Online Services, the development hub for Epic Games, has expanded its crossplay overlay initiative to include initial support for games on Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo Switch and Sony PlayStation, optimizing its free SDKs for multiplayer crossplay and making it easier for developers to link their games and communities for those platforms across multiple stores. Last summer, EOS launched a PC crossplay overlay. The current upgrade enhances “capabilities across all supported platforms,” the company says, noting “crossplay enables bigger games, bigger audiences” and global games industry growth by connecting more players with a single overlay. Continue reading Epic Offers Crossplay Support for Xbox, PlayStation, Switch

Blockchain startup Aptos Labs will use the Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service to “explore innovative solutions” in blockchain and Web3 for technologies involving artificial intelligence, tokenization and payments. As part of the deal Aptos describes as a “partnership,” the company is launching Aptos Assistant, which will enable natural language prompts, making Web3 applications like smart contracts and decentralized apps more “user-friendly and secure” for “everyday Internet users and organizations” as well as developers. Aptos offers what is known as Layer 1 blockchain, technology designed to facilitate transactions at scale. Continue reading Aptos Teams with Microsoft Azure OpenAI on Web3 Solutions

Google has debuted Project IDX, an AI-enabled development environment for building full-stack web and multiplatform apps. Comparing app development that works across mobile, web, and desktop platforms to “building a Rube Goldberg machine” with a duct-taped tech stack, Google says Project IDX smooths the process of compiling, testing, deploying and monitoring apps. The browser-based Project IDX is built on the Google Cloud using the Codey family of AI foundation models built on PaLM 2. Currently, IDX supports the JavaScript and Dart languages, with plans for Python, Go and more. Continue reading Google’s Project IDX Offers Full-Stack Dev in a Web Browser

Spotify is rolling out its new Confidence software development product in private beta. Based on its learnings from more than 10 years of experience experimenting at scale, the company says Confidence aims to make it simple for teams to set up, run and analyze their own user tests so they can quickly perfect and productize ideas. “Whether it’s automatically coordinating simultaneous A/B tests or orchestrating the rollout of an AI recommendation system across mobile, desktop, and web, the platform we built scales experimentation best practices and capabilities,” Spotify explains, adding that it plans to make the technology available soon to all companies. Continue reading Spotify’s Confidence Development Platform Is in Private Beta

Google has teamed with San Francisco startup Replit in a bid to challenge Microsoft’s GitHub and the Github Copilot code generator launched in conjunction with OpenAI. Under the new partnership, Replit developers will get access to Google Cloud infrastructure, services, and foundation models via Replit’s software development AI, called Ghostwriter, while Google Cloud and Workspace developers will get access to Replit’s collaborative code editing platform. Replit, which says 20 million developers use its platform, launched Ghostwriter in the fall and in January added a conversational AI interface for generating code and debugging. Continue reading Google Cloud Partners with Replit to Develop AI Coding Tools

Epic Games introduced Unreal Engine 5.2 at GDC 2023, demonstrating new levels of photorealism and physics designed to facilitate the creation of real-time interactive worlds for the metaverse. Procedural content generation tools and a material framework called Substrate for intricate surfaces with detailed refraction and reflection are new to the 5.2 preview build, available now at the Unreal Engine Marketplace and on GitHub. The economy around Unreal Editor for “Fortnite” has expanded to include a new revenue-sharing plan that lets creators keep 40 percent of funds generated from “islands” they create for the popular game. Continue reading Epic Debuts Unreal 5.2 and Expands ‘Fortnite’ Profit-Sharing

Chat app Discord is expanding the use of artificial intelligence on its platform, including the addition of OpenAI technology to its chatbot and moderation features. Discord says it has 150 million users across 19 million interest groups, called “servers,” that dialogue using text, audio and video chat. Discord’s Midjourney text-to-image generation group is its largest community, with in excess of 13 million members. “Harnessed properly, AI can fundamentally enhance and empower genuine human connection,” Discord CEO Jason Citron said at a press event last week, heralding “the most exciting moments in technology emerging.” Continue reading Discord Integrates OpenAI Tech, Updates AI-Driven Features

OpenAI is now allowing third-party developers integrate ChatGPT into their apps, a solution the company says will be a more cost-effective alternative. The language model can be used for more than chat, says OpenAI, which also has a new speech-to-text model called Whisper. The company is also touting gpt-3.5-turbo, calling it the “best model for many non-chat use cases.” With a major investment from Microsoft, and the eyes of the industry on it, OpenAI seems to be feeling some pressure to add earnings to the success it has as a thought leader. Continue reading OpenAI Targets Affordable AI with ChatGPT and Whisper APIs

Game developers are harnessing the power of generative AI to improve the state of play. With hundreds of computer-controlled characters, many of whom have incidental roles, the goal of giving these bit players the ability to spout some meaningful dialogue, should a player cross their path, is one potential use for chatbot text. Sony’s Haven Studios is using GenAI to quickly mock-up characters, while Roblox is developing an AI system it plans to let users leverage to create digital objects and build-out virtual worlds based on text prompts. Continue reading Game Creators Are Now Testing the Benefits of Generative AI

OpenAI is piloting a $20 per month subscription plan called ChatGPT Plus for its text-generating chatbot. The paid plan offers benefits over the free version that include faster response times, access to ChatGPT even during peak periods and early access to new features. OpenAI will soon begin inviting U.S. customers to subscribe and said it plans to offer the Plus plan in more territories. Since debuting ChatGPT, the company has received feedback from “millions of people” using the viral to draft prose, edit content, brainstorm ideas, educate and assist with programming. Continue reading ChatGPT, the Fastest Growing App, Intros Subscription Plan

Spotify is estimated to have a one-third share of the global music-streaming market, and now the company is making a mark in B-to-B with Backstage, an open-source framework for building developer portals that is now in use by an estimated 200 companies, including American Airlines, Netflix, Roku, Epic Games, VMware and LinkedIn. Backstage centralizes management of engineering tools, resources and documentation — from CI/CD status and Kubernetes monitoring to API and library docs and more. While Spotify has made Backstage available free, it’s now introducing a package of five premium plugins via paid subscription. Continue reading Spotify Launches Premium Plugins for Backstage Framework

Apple is planning to allow app sideloading in response to the European Union’s Digital Markets Act, set to take effect in 2024. The move reverses long-held policies that were a source of ire to many Apple developers as well as global regulators. It is believed the new approach could spillover to other regions where lawmakers are at various stages of reining in Big Tech, with companies including Google and Meta Platforms also in the crosshairs. The news sent shares up among companies that offer dating apps, including Match Group and Bumble. Spotify also got a bump. Continue reading Apple Plans to Open iOS to Third-Parties Thanks to EU Laws

Apple has updated its App Store pricing in what some have interpreted as a preemptive move against regulatory and legal pressure over store policies. Apple is offering developers “700 additional price points and new pricing tools” to make it easier to set prices per App Store country or region and manage foreign exchange rate changes, among other things. The move brings the total number of available App Store price points to 900 and allows developers in the U.S. to set prices ranging from $0.29 to $10,000. The new policy is expected to roll out soon in global markets. Continue reading Apple Revises App Store Pricing Policy, Adding 700 Options