Ernie, the foundation model for Baidu’s generative AI, has been updated with iRAG technology to mitigate visual hallucinations and a no-code tool called Miaoda that creates apps using natural language. The company behind China’s largest search engine says Ernie now handles 1.5 billion daily user queries, up from 50 million circa its March 2023 launch (a 30x increase). Baidu also debuted Ernie-powered smart glasses from its Xiaodu Technology hardware unit. The Xiaodu AI Glasses features built-in voice activation and cameras for taking photos and video. The news was shared at this week’s Baidu World 2024 in Shanghai. Continue reading Baidu’s Ernie AI Gets Improved Text-to-Image and App Builder

Nvidia’s growing AI arsenal now includes video search and summarization tool AI Blueprint, which helps developers build visual AI agents that analyze video and image content. The agents can answer user questions, generate summaries and even enable alerts for specific scenarios. The new feature is part of Metropolis, Nvidia’s developer toolkit for building computer vision applications using generative AI. Globally, enterprises and public organizations increasingly rely on visual information. Cameras, IoT sensors and autonomous vehicles are ingesting visual data at high rates, and visual agents can help monitor and make sense of that workflow. Continue reading Nvidia’s AI Blueprint Develops Agents to Analyze Visual Data

The AI search wars are officially on, with Google giving Gemini access to its online answer engine just hours before OpenAI launched ChatGPT Search. Google is primarily targeting developers with its new feature, “Grounding with Google Search,” though the Alphabet company used the occasion to also tout its new search return template, AI Overviews. Launched last week, ChatGPT Search offers responses in real time using a conversational format. Initially, it is available only to ChatGPT Plus and Teams subscribers as well as those on the SearchGPT waitlist as part of ChatGPT’s existing interface. Continue reading AI Search Wars Heat Up as OpenAI and Google Add Features

Alphabet’s revenue increased by 15 percent during the latest quarter, topping $88.3 billion. Powered by advertising and cloud services, profits surged 34 percent to $26.3 billion, exceeding Wall Street expectations of $22.9 billion. The company experienced continued growth in the online marketplace with popular consumer services such as Google Search and YouTube while also expanding in B2B with cloud offerings. All this as the government explores dismantling its business while competitors such as TikTok and Amazon come after its market share. Advertising growth slowed in Q3, yet still notched a healthy year-over-year increase of 10.4 percent. Continue reading Alphabet Profits Climb 34 Percent, Powered by Cloud and Ads

Just in time for the holiday season, Google Shopping is launching an AI-powered personalized feed that recommends items customers might like. The redesign is coming to desktop and mobile devices in the U.S. in the coming weeks. Suggested items are based on search and YouTube histories as well as AI inference. Shoppers will get “an AI-generated brief with top things to consider” in finding the right item, plus a curated feed of products. For now, the brief will be labeled “experimental,” and Google is encouraging feedback for the times AI doesn’t get it 100 percent right. Continue reading Google Shopping Redesigned with Gemini Feed, Infinite Scroll

Hailuo, the free text-to-video generator released last month by the Alibaba-backed company MiniMax, has delivered its promised image-to-video feature. Founded by AI researcher Yan Junjie, the Shanghai-based MiniMax also has backing from Tencent. The model earned high marks for what has been called “ultra realistic” video, and MiniMax says the new image-to-video feature will improve output across the board as a result of “text-and-image joint instruction following,” which means Hailuo now “seamlessly integrates both text and image command inputs, enhancing your visuals while precisely adhering to your prompts.” Continue reading MiniMax’s Hailuo AI Rolls Out New Image-to-Video Capability

Having demonstrated how advertisements in its AI Overviews would work back in May at its Google Marketing Live event, the search giant is now adding the feature for U.S. mobile users and plans to include Google Lens shopping ads “above and alongside visual search results by the end of the year.” “The ways people ask questions today have expanded beyond the search box,” notes Google, explaining the move as a response to that evolution, as artificial intelligence technology has helped consumers use their voice and cameras “to explore the world around them.” Continue reading Google Serving Ads in AI Overviews and Lens Search Results

TikTok is updating its Live subscription offering, renaming the monetization offering simply “Subscription,” opening it up to eligible non-Live creators in regions including the U.S., Japan, Brazil, France, the UK and Germany. Like the third-party subscription platform Patreon, TikTok’s Subscription allows fans to pay creators for exclusive content and other perks. In participating regions, creators can offer fans monthly subscriptions at three price tiers, each with its own parameters and perks. TikTok launched Live subscriptions in 2022 and announced in March that it would be revamping the feature to allow more users to monetize. Continue reading New TikTok Live Subscriptions Help More Creators Monetize

AI-powered ad campaigns “are continuing to deliver big results for businesses large and small,” according to Google, which has put Gemini to work for Google Ads. The company announced at the DMEXCO digital marketing event in Cologne a new suite of Gemini-powered tools aimed at making the experience even better by providing additional insights and more control over where and how marketing assets are deployed globally using Google Ads. For starters, Gemini’s “conversational experience” for search campaigns will expand its language palette, making auto-generated headlines and images available in German, French and Spanish in the months ahead. Continue reading Google Unveils Gemini-Powered Ad Features and AI Image ID

Palo Alto-based startup PIP Labs announced an $80 million funding round for Story Protocol, a blockchain platform to track intellectual property rights in the era of artificial intelligence and the data scraping that enables model training. CEO and co-founder Seung Yoon “SY” Lee says the company aims to create a more sustainable IP environment for digital consumers and builders. The raise, led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Polychain Capital, values the startup at $2.25 billion. The move comes after Sahara AI announced it raised $43 million this month to fund a blockchain-based IP tracking system. Continue reading Story Raises $80M to Create Blockchain-Based IP Protection

Google has reached a deal with California to contribute to a $250 million fund supporting California journalism over five years in exchange for legislators abandoning a bill requiring the tech giant to pay to use news content in Google Search. The proposed compromise, which has already generated controversy, allocates roughly $70 million from the state budget with the rest primarily from Google. In addition to financially supporting newsrooms, the fund will create a National AI Innovation Accelerator to provide access to new tools. Both initiatives are expected to go live in 2025, pending legislative approval. Continue reading Google Reaches a Compromise with California News Outlets

Reddit will soon add AI-generated summaries atop its search results, co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman told investors on a Q2 earnings call last week. The company will later this year begin testing AI-powered search result pages that “summarize and recommend content,” said Huffman, who expects the technology will help Reddit users “dive deeper” into content and aid in discovery. Huffman mused monetization strategies, including boosting ad inventory and possibly installing a paywall to differentiate premium content. The discussions accompanied news that Reddit lost $10.1 million in Q2, which saw revenues of $281 million, a 54 percent increase year-over-year. Continue reading Q2 Report: Reddit Adds Users, Narrows Losses, Preps for AI

Max, the streaming service formerly known as HBO Max, has redesigned its homepage with features designed to foster personalization and help fight search fatigue. Last month Max rolled out “whole page optimization,” with added rows of personalized content across the entire homepage. Since that change went well, according to parent Warner Bros. Discovery, the company is doing more along those lines, emphasizing an algorithm-driven approach to content curation, similar to that used by Netflix. Viewing history and selection patterns now inform recommendations as to which shows, movies or content categories users might like. Continue reading Max Embraces Homepage Personalization After Positive Tests

Microsoft has begun the release of Bing generative search, making it available for “a small percentage of user queries.” The company says it will solicit user feedback and undertake further testing prior to a broader rollout. Google began dabbling in what it called the Search Generative Experience last summer, then upped the ante by adding a search-optimized version of its Gemini model this spring. The journey was not without controversy, something Microsoft will surely try to avoid. Microsoft says its new AI-driven search functionality “combines the foundation of Bing’s search results with the power of large and small language models (LLMs and SLMs).” Continue reading Microsoft Testing Bing Generative Search for User Feedback

San Francisco-based OpenAI revealed it is currently testing SearchGPT, a prototype of new AI search features that provides “fast and timely answers with clear and relevant sources.” The testing arrives as similar technology is made available by leading search services Google and Microsoft Bing. The SearchGPT prototype, featuring a user interface similar to that of OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot and virtual assistant, launched last week to a group of 10,000 test users and publishers who will be tapped for feedback. The plan is to iterate an improved version and then integrate SearchGPT directly into ChatGPT, although no timeline was provided. Continue reading OpenAI Begins Testing Prototype of New AI Search Features