Month: May 2024

OpenAI presents ChatGPT Edu, bringing AI to students, teachers, and more

At this point, there are many students who have wanted to take advantage of the advantages offered by ChatGPT when it comes to carrying out some tasks and other common tasks in the school or university environment. Seeing that this can be an interesting aspect, it seems that OpenAI wants its AI chatbot to be used in a more responsible way and that teachers themselves can use it as an additional tool.

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So, the company has recently announced ChatGPT Edu, “a version of ChatGPT created for universities to responsibly implement AI for students, teachers, researchers, and campus operations,” as stated in the announcement itself. They also claim that this version is affordable and responsible, and that it will be ready for use starting from the next school year.

ChatGPT Edu arrives as one of the great novelties for the next university course

OpenAI has also confirmed that this new version will run on the latest language model GPT-4o, which was released in May. Therefore, users will be able to input images and text for the artificial intelligence to work on. Additionally, it is stated that ChatGPT Edu offers enterprise-level controls and security.

It is often said that universities are not very happy with the use of ChatGPT, but they assure that several of them already use it in its Enterprise version, and among them there are several top-level universities, such as the University of Oxford or Columbia University in New York, for example. Some of its uses have also been indicated, with personalized tutoring and curriculum reviews to help students secure job positions being some of its utilities.

Correction of papers and writing grant applications would also be some of its uses. Among the features of this new version, in addition to the use of GPT-4o, OpenAI indicates that it has advanced capabilities such as data analysis, web browsing, and document summarization; the ability to create customized versions of the chatbot and share them in university workspaces, higher message limits than the free version, improved language capabilities, and stronger administrative, privacy, and security controls.

That’s not all, and the company also wanted to mention that the conversations and data from this new version will not be used to train OpenAI’s own AI models. What they haven’t clarified is the exact price of this ChatGPT Edu, although they have indicated that all learning centers interested in using it can contact OpenAI’s team for more information.

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Certainly, this is a big step towards implementing the use of AI in the school and university environment, and above all, for its use to be somewhat more controlled and more guiding, instead of giving us everything already done. We will see how all this is implemented and what results it gives to those who decide to use this new ChatGPT Edu.

How much would you be willing to pay for a simple skin in ‘League of Legends’? They believe it’s half a salary

Yes, the rewards of the more expensive battle pass include a special banner, a title, many rewards, and the skins, but it costs just 59,260 RPs. That is, 500 euros. A little gift. Let’s see who can resist.

There are those who believe that many DLCs and all skins are simple ways for developers to make money from a fan base that wants to differentiate themselves in online battles in some way, whether it’s wearing Peter Griffin’s skin or using a ‘Terminator’ weapon. But, according to the studios, they assure us that this is completely and categorically false. In other news, ‘League of Legends’ has just released a skin that costs 500 euros.

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League of Money

The idea of Riot is very good: to reward the best esports players in the history of their flagship game with custom skins for their favorite heroes. The first chosen one has been, of course, Faker, the world champion and possibly the best player to ever grace the competitive scene.

There will be two skins for Ahri associated with Faker, each with its own battle pass and corresponding rewards: Rising Legend, Immortal Legend and, in addition, Immortalized Signature Legend, which will have both. Yes, the prizes of the most expensive battle pass grant a special banner, a title, many rewards and the skins, but it costs 59260 RPs. In other words, 500 euros. A little gift. Let’s see who can resist.

It’s not that the Immortalized version is particularly cheap: it will come with emotes and icons for 300 euros, while the regular one will cost 50 euros. Which is already a notoriously expensive price for not providing any additional content in the final game.

It is important to note that Faker himself has said more than once that he prefers to buy skins when they are on sale, and possibly, if he could, he would ask fans not to spend 500 euros on this absurdity just for the most coffee lovers. Think about everything you could buy with that money, and then consider if you really prefer to spend it on making your hero look a little different from the rest.

The worst part is that if it works as expected at Riot, it will mean the beginning of the end. And we complained about the rise in tomato prices: the real inflation was in ‘League Of Legends’.

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Twitch dismisses its Security Advisory Council

Twitch, the popular video game streaming platform owned by Amazon, has decided to dismiss all members of its Safety Advisory Council (SAC). The measure will take effect today, Friday, according to sources and documents obtained by CNBC. The SAC, made up of nine industry experts, streamers, and moderators, was created in May 2020 with the aim of improving trust and safety on the platform.

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The advisory board advised Twitch on the drafting of new policies, product development, and security features, as well as in the protection of the interests of marginalized groups. For four years, the SAC addressed issues such as policies on nudity and “hate raids” targeting vulnerable groups.

On May 6th, council members were called to a meeting where they were informed that all current contracts would end on May 31st, 2024 and that they would not receive payment for the second semester of the year. Among the advisors were Dr. Sameer Hinduja, co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center; Emma Llansó, former director of the Free Expression Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology; and Dr. T.L. Taylor, co-founder of AnyKey, which promotes diversity and inclusion in video games.

“Looking ahead, the Security Advisory Council will be primarily composed of individuals who act as Twitch ambassadors“, according to the email sent to council members. Twitch ambassadors are users chosen for their positive impact on the community. Payment for council members ranged between $10,000 and $20,000 for a 12-month period, according to a source familiar with the contracts.

The decision by Twitch comes in a context of cuts and layoffs in the technology sector, particularly affecting security and ethics teams. To make matters worse, these cuts come at a time when cyberbullying and the spread of misinformation are on the rise, with serious implications for the mental health of teenagers and the integrity of online information.

A year ago, Twitch laid off about 50 employees responsible for monitoring abusive or illegal behavior. The measure affected approximately 15% of the company’s trust and safety team. In response to CNBC’s inquiries, a Twitch spokesperson stated that the company has added “new board members to provide fresh and diverse perspectives.” Additionally, it was highlighted that over 180 streamers are part of Twitch’s ambassador program and that with the new format, they expect to attract even more voices and perspectives.

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Well no: the “skips” in YouTube videos have nothing to do with adblockers

Many YouTube users have recently expressed their confusion about a strange problem: videos skip to the end or suddenly mute, making it almost impossible to enjoy the platform. In addition, the problem is not limited to specific videos, but affects in a general way.

In this situation, many users turned to Reddit to share their experiences with these interruptions, and some even accused YouTube of doing it intentionally to discourage the use of ad blockers. Some of these users reported that the problem disappeared once they uninstalled their ad blockers, leading them to think that it was a new YouTube strategy to get people to stop using these ad blockers. Now, after several days of suspicions and doubts, Google has shared its version of the story.

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The website 9to5Google shared a statement from YouTube this week regarding the current issue. In it, YouTube states that the problem is not related to their offensive against ad blockers, but rather to some ongoing processes to improve the performance and reliability of the platform. The company took the opportunity to reiterate that ad blockers go against their terms of service and suggested several ways to allow ads simultaneously with existing ad blockers.

“Ad blockers violate YouTube’s terms of service, and we have been urging users to support their favorite creators and allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium for an ad-free experience,” the company said. “An unrelated push to improve the performance and reliability of YouTube may be resulting in suboptimal viewing experiences for ad-block users.”

However, although YouTube confirms that the performance improvements currently underway may be affecting the video viewing experience, it cannot be assured that the problem is limited only to users with ad blockers, since some users reported interruptions even without using ad blockers. Will problems continue to arise?

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Spotify has backtracked with the Car Thing: there will be refunds for the buyers

Spotify has reversed its decision and is offering refunds to people who bought its dashboard accessory, the Car Thing…

A few days ago we brought one of the craziest and most unfair news in the industry in recent times: Spotify withdrew the Car Thing from the market and was not going to give any kind of refund. They said “take it to your nearest recycling point”.

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Now Spotify has backtracked on the decision and is offering refunds to people who purchased their dashboard accessory, the Car Thing, for $90.

While the streaming company unceremoniously discontinued its first and only hardware product in 2022, just five months after its launch. And recently announced its plans to deactivate all remaining Car Things on December 4, 2024.

A withdrawal that no one understands, not even on Spotify

Users who want to get their money back will have to contact Spotify’s customer support and provide proof of purchase.

This small concession comes after a group of Car Thing customers filed a class action lawsuit against Spotify in the Southern District of New York for its short-lived and now doomed accessories.

Car Thing was a simple screen that replicated the Spotify app from your phone, a very attractive gadget for drivers whose cars lack Android Auto or Apple CarPlay.

Although the device was quite simple and probably a sales failure for Spotify, it found new life once it was put on sale and clever users started implementing their Car Things in places other than the car, such as home desks and keyboards.

Although a refund is better than nothing, Spotify continues to put its customers through the hassle of digging up receipts from years ago. With refunds or without them, there will still be a lot of useless electronic waste.

Threads updates its desktop interface and now you can make it look like TweetDeck

Perhaps it’s not the great alternative to Twitter that many indicated, but Threads is definitely one of the best options out there. A good proof of this is that they continue to bet on this social network from Meta with new updates, both for its app and for the desktop version. In fact, it is the latter that has received a patch that has changed its image, although this new look is very familiar to us.

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The social network that serves as an extension of Instagram has started implementing a new user interface globally, and with this, we can customize the view by fixing multiple columns on the screen, allowing us to see them side by side. This may sound familiar to you, and it’s not surprising, as it is quite similar to TweetDeck (currently known as X Pro, with Elon Musk leading the platform).

Threads can now look a lot like TweetDeck

“We are starting to implement the new threads.net on desktop computers worldwide, so you can customize what you see. We have many great ideas to make this the best website for sharing ideas, so stay tuned for more and more. Let us know if you have any suggestions,” recently stated Adam Mosseri, director of Instagram, to announce the arrival of this new functionality.

Beyond its more than reasonable resemblance to TweetDeck, it is worth mentioning that this update to the Threads user interface is very practical for those who want to organize everything they see on the social network and thus see everything that interests them at the same time. This new view can be activated by clicking on the pin icon at the bottom left of the screen and selecting the columns that interest us.

To be exact, we can choose between ‘For you’, ‘Following’, ‘Liked’, ‘Saved’, ‘Search’, ‘Profile’ and ‘Activity’ (within this option you can configure if you want to see mentions, replies or everything, for example). In fact, you can also, using the ‘Search’ column, pin a specific topic or hashtag in one of these columns, and for that you just have to search for the keyword in the search bar and access the desired result. It is worth mentioning that, in addition, each column has three dots at the top right and in them we can find several options such as ‘Save’, ‘Not interested’ and more.

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This new functionality has been in development for some time and apparently, all Threads users on their desktop version can already enjoy it. As we mentioned, activating it is very simple and it offers us many options to customize our interface.

iOS 18 is going to arrive powered by AI and Siri is the big beneficiary

There are rumors that OpenAI has struck a deal with Apple and that Apple will promote the security of its cloud processing using M2 chips…

Apple is planning a major AI update for Siri, and it could give you the ability to control specific iPhone app features with your voice, according to a report from Bloomberg.

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The update will allow Siri to analyze your phone’s activity while automatically activating Siri-controlled functions. To start, you will only be able to use Siri to control functions in Apple-created applications, but the company plans to support “hundreds” of commands within its applications, Bloomberg reports.

Siri will only be able to process one command at a time. However, Apple will eventually allow Siri to handle multiple tasks in a single request, such as asking Siri to summarize a recorded meeting and then send it to a friend.

What does all this mean for iPhone users

That sounds a bit like what Samsung promised when they launched Bixby in 2017, saying that “anything you can do with touch, you can do with voice” within Samsung’s applications.

It is not clear exactly how the technology will work, but a recent demonstration by Microsoft showed how its GPT-4o powered assistant Copilot could look at the screen to do things like give advice on how to play Minecraft.

Last month, Bloomberg reported that Apple will focus on handling many AI requests on the device. It could process simpler commands on the iPhone, while obtaining more complex requests from the cloud.

There are rumors that OpenAI has closed a deal with Apple and that Apple will promote the security of its cloud processing using M2 Ultra chips with its Secure Enclave, telling users that remotely processed data is as secure as when it is on their device.

This aligns with multiple reports we have seen in recent weeks. Research articles indicate that Apple is preparing to overhaul Siri, and it is also said that the company plans to bring AI transcription to Notes and Voice Memos.

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Although the arrival of a new Siri is not expected until next year, we will surely be able to take a look at what Apple has been preparing during the WWDC on June 10th.

After recommending us to make pizza with glue, Google defends its search with AI

Google’s AI produced all kinds of strange results, such as that people should put glue on pizza to make the cheese stick.

Last week, Google made available to millions of users their search results based on artificial intelligence. The goal was to offer a better search experience… with controversial results.

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However, AI yielded all sorts of strange results, such as people should put glue on pizza so that the cheese sticks and thus eat stones.

Google quickly removed some inaccurate results from AI, which it calls AI Summaries, but the damage -and the memes- were already done.

Google explains the reasons for the failures of its search AI

Now, in an article published on Thursday on the blog of the company by Liz Reid, Google’s search lead, the tech giant blames “data gaps” for inaccurate results, along with people who make up strange questions, and doubles down by claiming that AI results are leading to “greater satisfaction” with search.

Reid argues that, in general, AI results do not hallucinate (a term used when AI goes crazy), but sometimes they misinterpret what is already on the web.

“There’s nothing like having millions of people using the feature with many novel searches,” he writes. “We have also seen new nonsensical searches, apparently intended to produce incorrect results.” And he rightly points out that a “large number of fake screenshots” of AI summaries have been spread on the Internet.

And Google forced millions of people to use this feature, which caused many negative reactions and even led to articles explaining how to improvise a way to disable it.

Reid’s blog also explains how Google is fixing AI summaries by limiting when they appear for “meaningless” queries and satires. Part of Reid’s blog also compares AI summaries to another long-standing search feature called featured snippets, which highlights relevant information from a web page without using generative AI.

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Ultimately, Google’s introduction of AI summaries has been another PR mistake for the company. Meanwhile, Google rushes to compete against OpenAI and new AI search startups like Perplexity, which is already rumored to be worth $3 billion.

If Google wants to compete, it needs to act quickly. But it also needs to maintain the trust of its users. It could be difficult to regain it after AI Overviews told us all to eat Elmer’s glue.

This is everything that Sony has presented at the PlayStation Direct of E3 2024

In the 30 minutes of the PlayStation Direct, 14 different games were presented, including Monster Hunter Wilds, Astro Bot, Concorde…

We were all surprised when Sony announced overnight that there would be a PlayStation Direct at midnight on May 31st. And even more so when they had already announced that the company was lacking exclusive games for this fiscal year.

Well, a week before the Summer Game Fest celebration, PlayStation organized its second State of Play event of the year. PlayStation wisely decided that the best way to ensure that their conference receives maximum attention is to organize a show before others organize theirs.

In the 30 minutes that the presentation lasted, 14 different games were presented, including Monster Hunter Wilds, Astro Bot, Concorde, and Silent Hill 2, in addition to the news that God of War Ragnarök will be coming to PC.

If you missed the live presentation, here are the main announcements and trailers. We have selected the best ones, so sit back and enjoy.

An Overwatch with Marvel characters? Your eyes don’t lie with Marvel Rivals

NetEase Games presented a new trailer for Marvel Rivals during Sony’s State of Play. And although I know that no one can claim exclusive ownership of a 5v5 hero shooter, it becomes really hard to ignore the Overwatch scent of all this when all the action in the trailer takes place in a techno-futuristic Japanese temple adorned with cherry blossoms. Things may change during the closed beta in July.

God of War Ragnarok comes to PC this September

The Ragnarök is near, if you have a PC capable of handling it. During their summer event State of Play, Sony announced that God of War Ragnarök will be coming to PC on September 19th. The news came with a new trailer announcing that the game is now available for pre-order.

Infinity Nikki, no idea really, but it’s very beautiful

I have no idea what’s going on in this game, but it looks very nice. Infinity Nikki is described as an “open-world adventure and dress-up game,” which, well, is definitely a genre. Although if we look at it from a distance, it looks more like a cute platformer Super Mario Bros. A beta version for PS5 will be released soon.

Concord, an Overwatch that mixes interestingly with Apex Legends

One year after acquiring Firewalk Studios, Sony unveils Concord, the developer’s new game, for the first time. The clip serves as an introduction to this original science fiction universe, which appears to be heavily inspired by Star Wars and the Marvel Universe.

The 5v5 shooter will arrive on PS5 and PC at the same time, as you know it is Sony’s new policy as they announced today. And early access begins on August 23rd. By the way, it looks a lot like Overwatch and it looks promising.

A new Astro Bot is on the way and we are happy

My favorite Sony character will have another game and that’s good news for all gamers. In today’s State of Play, the company has revealed the latest Astro Bot game, which was rumored earlier this month.

It seems to be a direct sequel to Astro’s Playroom, so it will make excellent use of the PS5 controller and all its functions. The game features 50 worlds to explore – just like its predecessor, it seems that these levels will explore the history of PlayStation to varying degrees. It will be released on September 6th and will be a PS5 exclusive when it comes out.

Monster Hunter Wilds looks amazing

We finally have more details about the mysterious upcoming Monster Hunter game. Capcom has released a new trailer for Monster Hunter Wilds at Sony’s State of Play event, showcasing fluid combat, a dark-looking world, and what appear to be some new monsters, including one that bears a striking resemblance to a Final Fantasy chocobo.

Wilds is a continuation of the 2018 open-world title Monster Hunter World, which became Capcom’s best-selling game in history. It was first announced at The Game Awards last year and will be released on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC sometime next year.

Discord returns to its gaming roots with its new design

Great news for gamers. Discord, the popular instant messaging platform, is redesigning its app to focus on video games again. Discord CEO, Jason Citron, has announced that the company has decided to prioritize a service that strengthens friendships around video games and other shared interests.

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This year, the popular app will incorporate changes that will facilitate quick access to chats and improve the reliability of voice, video, and streaming technology. In addition, Discord plans to extend more features to a greater number of devices.

With this change of focus, Discord is reversing the strategy adopted in 2020, when the pandemic pushed the company to become a more generalized chat platform. During that period of time, Discord adapted to allow users to connect, learn, and share ideas more easily. However, market evolution and the need for specialization have led the company to reevaluate its course.

Citron already anticipated this return to a focus on video games in an interview with The Verge in April, pointing out that 95% of its users are gamers and highlighting group chats around video games as the main use of the platform: “Looking ahead, we are very focused on video games as our main use case,” said the executive.

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