Amazon is planning to add generative artificial intelligence to its decade-old voice assistant, Alexa, which will require a monthly fee to offset the cost of the technology, according to reports. Although the new Alexa price plan has not been disclosed, it is not expected to be included in the $139 yearly Amazon Prime plan. The possible move comes as Apple is also undergoing an AI overhaul of its voice assistant, Siri. Once considered precocious by many consumers, Siri and Alexa are now playing catch-up to AI assistants from leaders in the space including Google, Microsoft and OpenAI. Continue reading Amazon to Upgrade Alexa with AI, May Add Subscription Fee

Google is offering developers a toolkit for incorporating generative AI features into mobile and web applications. Firebase Genkit, an open-source framework, is available now in beta. Blending models, cloud services, agents, data sources and more in a “code-centric approach” developers are used to, the Genkit makes building and debugging for AI easier, according to Google. The first release is built for JavaScript and TypeScript developers, making building AI-powered apps available to professionals who specialize in building server-side applications using the Node.js JavaScript runtime. Continue reading Firebase Genkit: Developer Framework for AI-Powered Apps

Google is showing off a developmental chatbot it says represents the future of AI assistants. Called Project Astra, it has the ability to “see” and “hear,” remembering the information ingested, which it can then answer questions about — from simple queries such as “Where did I leave my glasses?” to unpacking and explaining computer code. Demonstrated at the Google I/O conference this week, Astra understands the world “just like people do” and is able to converse naturally, in real time. The company says some Project Astra features may come to Gemini late this year. Continue reading Google Teases Astra AI Assistant and Debuts Gemini 1.5 Pro

Google has infused search with more Gemini AI, adding expanded AI Overviews and more planning and research capabilities. “Ask whatever’s on your mind or whatever you need to get done — from researching to planning to brainstorming — and Google will take care of the legwork” culling from “a knowledge base of billions of facts about people, places and things,” explained Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai at the Google I/O developer conference. AI Overviews will roll out to all U.S. users this week. Coming soon are customizable AI Overview options that can simplify language or add more detail. Continue reading Google Ups AI Quotient with Search-Optimized Gemini Model

OpenAI CTO Mira Murati announced during a live-streamed event today that the company is launching an updated version of its GPT-4 model that powers OpenAI’s popular chatbot. The new flagship AI model, GPT-4o is reportedly “much faster” and offers improved text, voice and vision capabilities. Murati said GPT-4o will be free to all users, while Plus users will enjoy “up to five times the capacity limits” available to free users. According to OpenAI, the new AI model “can respond to audio inputs in as little as 232 milliseconds, with an average of 320 milliseconds, which is similar to human response time in a conversation.” Continue reading OpenAI Unveils Faster AI Model, Desktop Version of ChatGPT

Google introduced Threat Intelligence at the RSA Conference in San Francisco this week. Claiming actionable information at “visibility only Google can deliver, based on billions of signals across devices and emails,” Threat Intelligence draws on the capabilities of the company’s Gemini LLMs, Mandiant cybersecurity arm, and cloud-based VirusTotal tool. An AI-powered Gemini agent “provides conversational search” across the repository of Threat Intelligence, “enabling customers to gain insights and protect themselves from threats faster than ever before,” Google says in a move to empower even small teams without IT departments with threat protection. Continue reading Google Taps AI for Its ‘Threat Intelligence’ Cybersecurity Plan

Anthropic has launched a paid tier catering to business customers as well as a free mobile app for iOS users featuring its chatbot Claude. The generative AI startup — which has backing from Amazon, Google and Salesforce — is positioning itself to compete with companies like OpenAI, Google and Microsoft that focus on enterprise plans for revenue while also offering individual plans. Anthropic’s Team plan starts at $30 per user per month, on par with competing enterprise products, and requires a minimum of five seats. Anthropic has been beta testing Team over the past few quarters in industries including legal, tech and healthcare. Continue reading Anthropic Debuts Enterprise Plan, Free Claude App for iPhone

Alphabet reported revenue of $80.5 billion for Q1, a 15 percent increase fueled largely by online advertising from Google Search and YouTube. The figure topped analyst estimates of $78.8 billion. Profit soared, rising 57 percent to more than $23.6 billion, wildly overperforming the forecast of $18.9 billion. The strong performance resulted in Alphabet announcing its first ever shareholder dividend, at 20 cents per share, which pays out on June 17. Alphabet’s board approved a $70 billion stock repurchase program, and the news-filled earnings event drove Alphabet shares up 13 percent in after-hours trading. Continue reading Alphabet Profit Up 57 Percent, Prompting First-Ever Dividend

Google is implementing an internal reorganization that combines its Android and hardware teams. Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced a new Platforms & Devices team headed by Rick Osterloh, which includes Android, Chrome, ChromeOS, Photos and all Pixel products. Pichai says the move will help speed development. Osterloh’s mandate is full-stack platform development that smoothly incorporates AI across all Google platforms, including smartphones, TVs and anything with Android OS. Hiroshi Lockheimer, who previously ran ops for Android, Chrome and ChromeOS, moves on to other projects at Google and Alphabet. Continue reading Google Merges Android and Hardware Units for AI Efficiency

During Google Cloud Next 2024 in Las Vegas, Google announced an updated version of its text-to-image generator Imagen 2 on Vertex AI that has the ability to generate video clips of up to four seconds. Google calls this feature “text-to-live images,” and it essentially delivers animated GIFs at 24 fps and 360×640 pixel resolution, though Google says there will be “continuous enhancements.” Imagen 2 can also generate text, emblems and logos in different languages, and has the ability to overlay those elements on existing images like business cards, apparel and products. Continue reading Google Imagen 2 Now Generates 4-Second Clips on Vertex AI

Google is moving its most powerful artificial intelligence model, Gemini 1.5 Pro, into public preview for developers and Google Cloud customers. Gemini 1.5 Pro includes what Google claims is a breakthrough in long context understanding, with the ability to run 1 million tokens of information “opening up new possibilities for enterprises to create, discover and build using AI.” Gemini’s multimodal capabilities allow it to process audio, video, text, code and more, which when combined with long context, “enables enterprises to do things that just weren’t possible with AI before,” according to Google. Continue reading Google Offers Public Preview of Gemini Pro for Cloud Clients

Google Vids is a new AI-powered video creation app for Google Workspace. The aim is to integrate a simple AI video editor with the real-time collaboration capabilities of cloud-based text editors Docs, Sheets and Slides, “allowing people everywhere to tap into immersive storytelling at work.” Vids will be released to Workspace Labs in June. Vids will be able to generate an easy-to-edit storyboard and piece together a first draft, with suggestions from stock footage and stills, as well as background music. “It can also help you land your message with the right voiceover,” according to Google. Continue reading AI-Powered Video Generator Available for Google Workspace

Databricks, a San Francisco-based company focused on cloud data and artificial intelligence, has released a generative AI model called DBRX that it says sets new standards for performance and efficiency in the open source category. The mixture-of-experts (MoE) architecture contains 132 billion parameters and was pre-trained on 12T tokens of text and code data. Databricks says it provides the open community and enterprises who want to build their own LLMs with capabilities previously limited to closed model APIs. Compared to other open models, Databricks claims it outperforms alternatives including Llama 2-70B and Mixtral on certain benchmarks. Continue reading Databricks DBRX Model Offers High Performance at Low Cost

Google has rebranded its Bard chatbot as Gemini, and is launching a Gemini mobile app along with a subscription offering for Gemini Advanced that will be included as part of the new $19.95 monthly Google One AI Premium plan. As with Bard, Google will continue to make a free version of the Gemini chatbot available. Gemini Advanced is powered by Gemini Ultra, the most sophisticated of the three Gemini AI models Google unveiled in December. “Gemini Advanced not only allows you to have longer, more detailed conversations, it also better understands the context from your previous prompts,” Google explains. Continue reading Google Intros Gemini Advanced Chatbot, One AI Subscription

Web-based transcription service Otter.ai is expanding its toolkit with Meeting GenAI, aimed at corporate customers who want to increase meeting productivity while decreasing effort. Multi-meeting capabilities have been added using Otter AI Chat, which can respond to queries like “What did I miss in the meetings from the past two weeks?” Conversation Summary View summarizes meetings in real-time along with automatically identified action items that are assigned owners, deadlines and tracking. Otter is positioning itself as a David versus the Goliaths of AI meeting assists: Microsoft Copilot, Zoom AI Companion and Google’s Gemini for Workspace. Continue reading Otter Adds New Generative AI Features to Its Meeting Assistant