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Google will blur explicit images in search by default

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In the following months, Search engine giant, Google, will introduce a brand new SafeSearch blurring functionality available by default to all consumers.

The filter is designed to safeguard individuals as well as their households from accidentally having to experience explicit images and videos on Search. The search engine giant says it’s launching the function on 7 February to commemorate Safer Internet Day.

Google
Image Source: canadatoday.news

A new setting, rolling out “in the coming months,” “will blur explicit imagery if it appears in Search results when SafeSearch filtering isn’t turned on,” writes Google’s Jen Fitzpatrick, senior vice president of Core Systems & Experiences. “This setting will be the new default for people who don’t already have the SafeSearch filter turned on, with the option to adjust settings at any time.”

Source: arstechnica.com

The option will shortly become the latest default for users who are not yet using the SafeSearch filter enabled. As a result, if explicit imagery shows up on results pages, Google will distort it.

Also Read: Google announces Bard A.I. in response to ChatGPT

Explicit sexual content such as violence, pornography, and gore are examples of explicit results. Google mentions that users can change the configuration at any moment. Previous to this development, the filter had already been enabled by default for registered members under the age of 18.

When the setting would become the default, Google would then inform you that SafeSearch blurring has been enabled. If users get brought near a graphic image, users can view it by simply clicking the “view image” button.

Alternatively, you can change the filter as well as turn it off entirely by selecting the “manage setting” toggle. Users can, for instance, choose the “filter” option to assist in filtering explicit pictures, text, & links.

Alternatively, you can select “off,” which also means you’ll see all useful results for your request, regardless of whether they’re explicit.

Also Read: Can ChatGPT assist Microsoft in dethroning Google Search?

It is important to note that SafeSearch just works on results from Google searches and will not restrict explicit content found on other browsers or webpages that you visit directly. Google as well observes that, even though SafeSearch isn’t perfect, it does help extract explicit material in Google’s search results for all of your inquiries, including pictures, videos, as well as websites.

Bard

Google announces Bard A.I. in response to ChatGPT

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Google disclosed on Monday that the company will gradually launch an artificial intelligence chatbot software called Bard in the following weeks. The declaration backs up previous CNBC news. Bard will directly compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, an AI service.

LaMDA, or Language Model for Dialogue Applications, is the firm’s large language model that powers Bard. Google revealed in a blog post on Monday that it would make the chat technology accessible to reliable testers before adding it much more widely accessible to the general public.

Bard
Image Source: businessinsider.in

According to CNBC, Search Engine Giant, Google, is running tests on some of these functionalities with staff as part of a code red response plan to ChatGPT, a renowned AI chatbot supported by Microsoft in part. A chatbot labeled “Apprentice Bard” was added, in addition to the latest search desktop design concepts that can be utilized in a question-and-answer format.

Also Read: ChatGPT creator made a free tool for detecting AI-generated text

“Soon, you’ll see AI-powered features in Search that distill complex information and multiple perspectives into easy-to-digest formats, so you can quickly understand the big picture and learn more from the web: whether that’s seeking out additional perspectives, like blogs from people who play both piano and guitar, or going deeper on a related topic, like steps to get started as a beginner,” wrote CEO Sundar Pichai.

Source: cnbc.com

The corporation used Bard to demonstrate new findings from the James Webb Space Telescope of NASA to just a 9-year-old as an illustration of how it can be used to ease complex subjects.

The software tests follow the latest all-hands discussion in which employees voiced concerns over the firm’s competitive aspect in AI, provided ChatGPT’s rising popularity.

According to CNBC, Google’s AI lead, Jeff Dean, told staff at the time that now the firm has a significantly higher reputational damage risk of offering inaccurate information and is therefore moving “extra cautiously than just a small project.” Even so, he & Pichai hinted at the time that Google could perhaps release parallel products to the general public the following year.

Also Read: Dell to slash about 6,650 jobs in latest tech job cuts

Google’s primary business is simple website search, and the firm has long positioned itself as an AI innovator. In recent weeks, officials have asked more staff for input on the attempts.

The company emphasized Monday that it will need rigorous testing, saying “we’ll combine external feedback with our own internal testing to make sure Bard’s responses meet a high bar for quality, safety, and groundedness in real-world information.”

Source: cnbc.com
Bret Taylor

Salesforce’s Bret Taylor to Start AI Firm With Departing Google VP

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Together with departing Google vice president Clay Bower, Bret Taylor, who just quit as co-CEO of Salesforce Inc., is creating an artificial intelligence firm.

In a LinkedIn post, Bavor, who worked for Google for over seven years as the vice president of augmented reality and virtual reality as part of an 18-year career, was vague about his future plans but made it apparent that he is working with Bret Taylor.

Bret Taylor
Image Source: finance.yahoo.com

Since the two of them joined Google together years ago, he claimed that they had known one another for a long time. He stated that he has “always admired [Taylor’s] keen product sense and entrepreneurial spirit, his technical chops, and, above all, his character and integrity.”

Bavor stated, “We share an obsession with recent advances in AI, and we’re excited to build a new company to apply AI to solve some of the most important problems in business,” possibly teasing what may happen next. Will there be an AR/VR component? Right now, it’s tough to say, but the two are working on something.

He wasn’t being detailed, but next month we could learn more about whatever it is. He noted, “I’ll be setting out with Bret on this next adventure in March, and will have more to share once we get started. Until then, I’ll be focusing on transitioning my teams and projects, and wrapping things up properly at Google.”

Also Read: Salesforce co-CEO Taylor to leave as Benioff takes sole charge

Prior to embarking on an entrepreneurial path and launching the pioneering social network FriendFeed in 2007, Taylor worked at Google for four years beginning in March 2003. In 2009, Facebook bought the company where Taylor served as CTO for a while.

Later, he founded Quip, a business document collaboration platform that Salesforce purchased in 2016 for $750 million. He climbed the ranks to become co-CEO and is now going back to his entrepreneurial origins of business development.

Bavor, who joined Google in 2005, advanced through the organization’s ranks to become a manager on Gmail and Google Drive. He is regarded as Sundar Pichai’s preferred lieutenant.

Bavor was chosen to lead Google’s virtual reality division in 2015 in an effort to outperform competitors regarding the next computer platform. Although Google has introduced a number of devices and waves of software, its products have not been widely adopted, and the corporation has pulled back from this market.

A company spokesperson stated that Google had no plans to announce a replacement for Bavor. Projects from the laboratories devoted to cutting-edge technology will be transferred to Google’s Tech & Society division, which is run by senior vice president James Manica. Executives from Google Hiroshi Lockheimer and Rick Osterloh will be in charge of the augmented reality lab projects.

Also Read: Samsung, Google & Qualcomm team up on mixed-reality platform

Bavor recently wrote an email outlining changes to Google’s R&D initiatives within the Google Labs division, which housed the business’s internal incubator Area 120. After a reorganization in 2021, Bavor was the head of Labs, although many of its innovative initiatives were severely harmed by Alphabet’s widespread layoffs.

chatgpt

Can ChatGPT assist Microsoft in dethroning Google Search?

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By incorporating ChatGPT into its Bing search engine, Microsoft is hoping to unseat Google as the dominant search engine. That is stated in a recent report from The Information, but will the risk be worthwhile?

Despite ChatGPT’s recent November 2022 launch, its uncanny realism has caused it to become popular among both the general population and artificial intelligence experts.

chatgpt
Image Source: bdtechtalks.com

Users have been utilizing it to write articles, create code, and create musical scores since they can enter any prompt they can imagine and get back something that closely resembles human-generated writing.

According to the Information, the Redmond-based corporation is attempting to introduce a new edition of Bing that uses ChatGPT technology to respond to user questions.

Also Read: Microsoft Considers $10 Billion Investment in ChatGPT Creator

Interestingly, the report asserts that this may be accomplished in a manner distinct from the standard list of links and text excerpts that users receive from any search engine presently.

Though the specifics of Bing’s AI-powered search results are still unknown, they most likely won’t significantly differ from current practices given that ChatGPT isn’t intended to be a search engine.

According to StatCounter, Google currently holds a nearly insurmountable lead among search engines, devouring 92.5% of the worldwide market. With only 3% of the market, Bing is mired in second place, making Google’s dominance glaringly obvious. Google is allegedly still concerned.

According to a December 2022 New York Times article, Google management had issued a “code red” alert in reaction to the release of ChatGPT because it posed a threat to the company’s hegemony and revenue.

And ChatGPT isn’t the sole AI that might put Google’s position as the industry leader in danger. There are also additional contenders for the title of best AI, including Google’s own LaMDA and BlenderBot from Meta.

Microsoft has included AI in its offerings in the past, in addition to ChatGPT. The corporation declared in 2022 that it would integrate the DALL-E 2 picture bot into its Designer application and Image Creator tool in Bing.

Microsoft invested $1 billion in OpenAI, the company that created both DALL-E 2 and ChatGPT, leading to the development of both of these connections. Microsoft will consider its investment success if it ultimately manages to topple Google from its lofty heights.

Also Read: China’s Baidu to launch ChatGPT-style bot in March

ChatGPT is an OpenAI project that is built on top of the GPT-3 autocomplete text generator.ChatGPT is an OpenAI project that is built on top of the GPT-3 autocomplete text generator. On OpenAI, a demo of the chatbot was made accessible in late November (login required).

In addition to producing AI-generated material like music and poems, ChatGPT can accurately answer trivia questions. The AI’s capacity to assist with code debugging is another characteristic that might make it the perfect GitHub Copilot companion.

However, there are numerous reports claiming that ChatGPT frequently provides incorrect but plausible replies. Stack Overflow briefly banned the chatbot last month as a result of this uncertainty.

mixed-reality platform

Samsung, Google & Qualcomm team up on mixed-reality platform

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The newest tech behemoth to embrace augmented and virtual reality is Samsung. The smartphone manufacturer claims that it will collaborate with Qualcomm and Google on a future mixed-reality platform.

The information was released on Wednesday during Samsung’s Unpacked event and comes after rumors that Apple may launch the first ever-virtual reality headset this year. Hiroshi Lockheimer, SVP of Android at Google, and Cristiano Amon, CEO of Qualcomm, both took the stage to jointly announce the partnership.

mixed-reality platform
Image Source: techweekmag.com

No specific products were mentioned by Samsung as being under development. Additionally, it didn’t offer a release date for any planned mixed-reality services or products.

Technology that combines the traits of augmented and virtual reality is referred to as mixed reality. Similar to Google Glass, augmented reality combines software and the physical world by superimposing graphics on the user’s surroundings.

Also Read: The iPhone may get a microLED display. What does that mean?

In contrast, virtual reality technologies like the Meta Quest 2 immerse the user in a 360-degree virtual environment. Passthrough cameras, a method that enables AR and virtual reality technologies to merge into one product line, are helping a new generation of VR headsets advance mixed reality, nevertheless.

This is possible with the Quest 2 and Quest Pro headsets from Meta and the future Vive XR Elite. The identical idea should be used in Apple’s anticipated headset.

The development arrives at a time when virtual, augmented, and mixed-reality platform are receiving more attention. According to Bloomberg, Apple is planning to unveil a mixed-reality headgear in 2023 that might cost $3,000 or more.

Google unveiled a new pair of AR glasses at Google I/O last year with a focus on language translation, and Sony’s PlayStation VR 2 and HTC’s Vive XR Elite are both set to debut this month. Before the year is out, Meta’s Quest 3 will be released.

With the exception of the Gear VR device, which it released in multiple incarnations between 2015 and 2017, Samsung has been very quiet regarding virtual reality.

Given that Samsung, Google, and Qualcomm already collaborate to develop smartphones, the alliance makes logical. Samsung creates the physical components of its Galaxy devices, while Qualcomm provides the processor and Google is in charge of the Android operating system’s supporting software.

Also Read: Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked 2023 Event: What to expect?

Since many of the leading VR and AR headsets use Qualcomm chips, the company has been driving the development of phone-compatible AR and VR headsets for many years. Additionally, Qualcomm is working with Meta on upcoming smartphones and Microsoft on the hardware for its next augmented reality glasses. It’s unclear if this new partnership will work with Qualcomm’s current Snapdragon Spaces technology for phones and headsets.

Samsung unveiled its plans for mixed reality alongside the release of its latest Galaxy Book and Galaxy S23 smartphone range. The new range, which comes in three versions—standard, Plus, and Ultra—offers a number of enhancements and is currently up for preorder.

Fingerprint

Chrome Adds Fingerprint Unlock to Incognito Tabs on Android

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Google unveiled a feature enabling fingerprint access to Chrome Incognito tabs as a celebration of Data Privacy Day. In 2021, this feature was made available to iOS users, and it is now available to Android users too.

The Android version of Google Chrome’s Incognito Mode will soon be more private. Google Chrome Incognito tabs will now be automatically locked whenever the browser is closed for Android users thanks to a new feature.

fingerprint
Image Source: itechpost.com

Users will now be able to unlock them using their smartphone’s fingerprint scanner and biometric authentication. In a blog post announcing the deployment of the Google Chrome feature, the company states that Android users would need biometric authentication to resume their Incognito tabs after closing and reopening the app. The Incognito session will therefore be inaccessible to anyone but the device’s owner.

Also Read: DOJ poised to sue Google over digital ad market dominance

According to the corporation, the feature is being rolled out to Google Chrome users on Android. It is important to note that users must activate the feature in Google Chrome’s Settings menu because it is not turned on by default.

Users can open Chrome’s settings menu, click on Privacy & Security, and then select Lock incognito tabs whenever they leave Chrome to activate this new privacy option. Once enabled, the feature will be available, and users will need to use their phone’s fingerprint sensor to “unlock” their Incognito tabs.

Additionally, users must give verification, like their phone PIN or pattern, in order to enable or disable this feature. By browsing incognito, users can avoid saving their activity data to their device or Gmail accounts and keep their search history secret.

In the meanwhile, Google has provided five tips for providing a secure browsing environment in advance of Data Privacy Day, which is observed on January 28.

Also Read: How to activate Bluetooth on the Google Stadia controller?

The capabilities allow users to use Chrome’s password manager on Android, iOS, and desktop to store and automatically fill passwords on their devices, as well as the ability to remove the browser’s data, including history, cookies, and cache, from a certain time or completely.

According to reports, Google is also developing a completely revamped menu with a new toggle that would allow users to instantly disable all harmful extensions. Extensions will be disabled and possibly harmful extensions will be blocked by the new toggle. Similar “pause extensions on this site” options are available in Microsoft Edge as well. The brand-new feature is now in development and is accessible in Chrome Canary.

Chrome is also enhancing Safety Check with “more personalized recommendations and reminders about what you have previously shared with websites and find those controls in one place to revoke permissions and protect your privacy.”