A year after the commercial release of the Vision Pro mixed reality headset, Apple is making progress adding Apple Intelligence, with visionOS 2.4, available now in developer beta in English with consumer release scheduled for April. The AI boost adds Writing Tools, which allows text composition “from scratch using ChatGPT,” as well as Image Playground and the custom emoji app Genmoji. It also integrates Spatial Gallery, a new Vision Pro app for the iPhone that includes a discovery mechanism for curated 3D movies and a remote-viewable Guest Mode for mobile. Additional features and languages will be added throughout the year. Continue reading Apple Intelligence, Guest Mode Coming to Vision Pro in April

In addition to the requisite security updates, Apple is introducing some day-to-day improvements with its new iOS 18.3. These mainly involve Apple Intelligence, now activated by default for the first time. Users that don’t want features such as ChatGPT Siri integration or Image Playground will have to disable them. Apple Intelligence notification summaries now appear in italicized print to stand out more. Apple at one point temporarily paused the AI summaries due to complaints over inaccurate information. Visual Intelligence can now provide information about animals and plants, and add data containing dates from pictures directly to a calendar. Continue reading Apple Intelligence Is On by Default for First Time with iOS 18.3

Microsoft researchers have unveiled Kosmos-1, a new AI model the company says analyzes images for content, performs visual text recognition, solves visual puzzles and passes visual IQ tests. It also understands natural language instructions. The new model is what’s known as multimodal AI, which means it uses different instruction sets, from text to audio and video. Mixing media is a key step in building artificial general intelligence (AGI) that can perform tasks in a manner approximating human performance. Examples from a Kosmos-1 research paper show it can effectively analyze images, answering questions about them. Continue reading Microsoft Unveils AI Model That Comprehends Image Content

Digital platforms Facebook, Twitter, Google, Microsoft and Periscope are implementing new ways to fight some of the worst misdeeds of the Internet: hate speech, pornography, graphic and gratuitous violence, threats and trolling. To do so, they are relying on a new range of solutions mainly but not entirely fueled by artificial intelligence. In recent months, all these Internet companies have been the target of lawsuits and harsh criticism for their inability to remove such content in a timely fashion. Continue reading Tech Firms Test AI Solutions to Combat Inappropriate Content