Microsoft Copilot now helps subscription users create personal themes in Outlook using generative AI. In what Microsoft says is “the first instance of dynamic AI-generated theming in productivity applications,” Copilot can now display inboxes against dynamic backdrops based on geography, the weather, or anything else users can imagine. The new feature is available across all popular platforms: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android and the Web. Just like you might “spruce up your office with artwork or plants,” Copilot lets AI enhance your digital environment, according to Microsoft. Continue reading Copilot Now Enables Custom AI Themes in Microsoft Outlook

Google Cloud has begun advising customers it will require multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all business and enterprise users in 2025. That means customers who rely only on a password will have to add secondary authentication. The program is being implemented in a “phased approach” that begins now and will extend to all worldwide business users next year. The security precaution will remain optional for most of those using personal accounts. Google’s move comes after similar implementations enacted by rival cloud giants AWS and Microsoft earlier this year. MFA adds a layer of protection against hacking. Continue reading Google Begins Mandatory Multi-Factor Authentication Logins

The theme of Zoomtopia 2024 was “an AI-first work platform for human connection,” with the release of the custom Zoom AI Companion 2.0 for Zoom Workplace, an AI assistant that costs $12 per month that starting next year will have the ability to create custom AI avatars. Initially available for short video presentations to share with internal teams, the eventual goal is to have a “digital twin” that can participate in meetings and calls. The avatars will “save time and production costs” with segments that work with Zoom Clips for internal circulation in brief messages to colleagues. Continue reading Zoom Updates Its AI Assistant and Previews Custom Avatars

Microsoft announced that its Copilot AI assistant has received a major overhaul, gaining voice and vision capabilities. Copilot also now has a virtual news reader mode to present headlines, as well as the ability to see what you see and to interact in a more conversational manner. Before a general release, these tools will be trialed among a subset of Copilot Pro users “to gather feedback” and make them “better and safer.” Microsoft AI Executive VP and CEO Mustafa Suleyman says the changes herald “a calmer, more helpful and supportive era of technology, quite unlike anything we’ve seen before.” Continue reading Microsoft’s Copilot AI Assistant Update Adds Voice and Vision

Google announced the company is making its new AI assistant Gemini Live available free to all Android users. The move follows the feature’s release last month to Gemini Advanced subscribers. This general release will occur gradually, and only in English for the time being. Gemini Live lets users have a more natural, free-flowing conversation with their phones than was available through Google Assistant via the “Hey, Google” prompt. Gemini inquiries are meant to be conversational, eliciting a back and forth that queriers can interrupt, adding more detail or veering to another topic entirely. Continue reading Google Begins Rolling Out Gemini Live Free to Android Users

Not to be outdone by Windows Copilot+ PCs, Google is also bringing AI to the Chromebook, which will be infused with Gemini’s generative smarts via companies including Acer, HP and Asus. “New Google AI and gaming features are available on Chromebook Plus,” says the Alphabet company, noting “you can now write like a pro with Help Me Write, supercharge your ideas with Gemini, edit photos in a snap with Magic Editor, and more — all on Chromebook Plus laptops starting at $350.” Google, which partially integrated Gemini with the Chrome browser, teased AI for ChromeOS last fall. Continue reading Acer, Asus, HP First to Offer Chromebook Plus with Google AI

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

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

Google is implementing a plan to help its Bard AI become more competitive with OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Bard Extensions will allow English-language users to expand the chatbot’s knowledge repository to data from various Google apps, including Gmail, Google Docs, Google Drive, Google Maps, YouTube, and Google Flights and hotels, or even information stored “across multiple apps and services,” Google says. The update boosts search engine capabilities with the travel features, while providing some functionalities of a personal assistant by letting it identify missed emails or summarize the relevant points in a document. Continue reading Google Links Bard AI to Apps Including YouTube, Docs, Drive

Google is making many of its most powerful cloud computing tools available commercially for the first time, Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian shared at the company’s Cloud Next ’23 conference in San Francisco. In a bid to catch up with top AI rivals such as Amazon and Microsoft, the Google Distributed Cloud will open for general business including at the edge with Vertex AI and PaLM 2. Google Cloud will serve up AI from Anthropic, in which it is an investor, as well as from Meta Platforms. In addition, an AI-infused Gmail productivity suite is on the way. Continue reading Google Takes on the Competition with Cloud and AI Services

Google has unveiled a spate of security enhancements to products in its Google Workspace collection including Gmail and Drive. Artificial intelligence is helping to steer some of the changes, automating specific tasks. The upgrades take a new approach, combining the idea of zero trust with the concept of data loss prevention (DLP). Under zero trust, all users, devices and components are considered untrustworthy at all times — even those within an organization’s network. These Workspace tools are in development or at various stages of testing, but Google says they will begin going live in general release later this year and into Q1 2024. Continue reading Google Is Using AI to Bring Zero Trust Security to Workspace

After teasing new artificial intelligence capabilities for search during its I/O conference this month, Google has opened access to Search Labs, a program that lets people test new concepts prior to release. First up for U.S. users are the Search Generative Experience (SGE), Code Tips and Add to Sheets. Users who want to opt-in to these experiments can do so by tapping the Labs icon in the Chrome browser or the latest version of the Google app for Android and iOS. Those who previously signed up using the waitlist are being notified by email as to activation. Waitlist status can also be checked on the Labs site. Continue reading Google Search Labs Provides Access to Generative AI Tools

While the much-anticipated unveiling of the $1,799 Pixel Fold is generating headlines after yesterday’s Google I/O developer conference, the company made a slew of other announcements, including the $500 Pixel Tablet, the midrange Pixel 7A, AI functionality for Google Search and Android, an AI-powered editing feature for Google Photos, an improved Wear OS 4 (available later this year), and a redesigned Google Home app (available today). In addition, the company announced that its AI-powered chatbot Bard is now available to everyone, whether you were on the waitlist or not. We’ve compiled a helpful list of new products and features, along with links to reviews and related news. Continue reading Google Announces Wide Range of New Products, AI Features

Google is readying an API and other enterprise tools for its Pathways Language Model (PaLM) — a large language model similar to GPT — to encourage developers to create chatbots and other apps using the platform. PaLM is one of Google’s most advanced systems, with the capability to generate text, images, code, video and audio from natural language prompts. Much like OpenAI’s GTP series and the LLaMA family from Meta Platforms, it is suitable for a wide variety of general tasks. To facilitate PaLM’s use for specific tasks, Google is launching the MakerSuite along with the PaLM API. Continue reading Google’s PaLM API, MakerSuite Coming to Select Developers

Social media companies appear to be reducing efforts to combat misinformation at a time when the capabilities to foist false narratives is reaching new levels of sophistication. As a result of staff cuts at Alphabet, Google’s YouTube subsidiary is reportedly left with one person overseeing worldwide misinformation policy. Twitter eliminated its safety and trust division, while Meta also made changes to its disinformation filtering. Meanwhile, The Guardian has unearthed Israeli misinformation contractors operating under the name “Team Jorge” that says it manipulated more than 30 presidential elections worldwide. Continue reading Disinformation Rising on Social Platforms as Policing Wanes