Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNET There’s been widespread industry focus lately on audio generative AI models, with OpenAI this week releasing the latest updates of its own model, Voice Engine. Now joining the trend is Stability AI, which has revealed its own most advanced audio model. Also: DALL-E adds a new way to adjust AI-generated images. Learn how to … Read more
Every week seems to bring with it a new AI model, and the technology has unfortunately outpaced anyone’s ability to evaluate it comprehensively. Here’s why it’s pretty much impossible to review something like ChatGPT or Gemini, why it’s important to try anyway, and our (constantly evolving) approach to doing so. The tl;dr: These systems are … Read more
A number of major AI services performed poorly in a test of their ability to address questions and concerns about voting and elections. The study found that no model can be completely trusted, but it was bad enough that some got things wrong more often than not. The work was performed by Proof News, a … Read more
Text and image generators have decidedly gone mainstream music generators haven’t gotten as much attention. Microsoft hopes to change that. This week, the company partnered with AI startup Suno to incorporate a music-generating plug-in with Copilot. Is it good? As far as apps that turn text prompts into a believable-sounding song, it’s impressive. Listen to … Read more
A new class action lawsuit filed this week in the U.S. District Court in D.C. accuses Google and parent company Alphabet of anticompetitive behavior in violation of U.S. antitrust law, the Sherman Act, and others, on behalf of news publishers. The case, filed by Arkansas-based publisher Helena World Chronicle, argues that Google “siphons off” news … Read more
zf L/Getty Images If a year is a long time in technology, then two years is practically a lifetime. At the back end of 2021, everyone was talking about the metaverse. Two years later and practically no one is talking about it (except, perhaps, Mark Zuckerberg). So, what went wrong? One of the big issues is hype. … Read more
A tougher fundraising environment reveals which companies and sectors investors have real conviction in, and which areas aren’t attractive outside of a bull market. AI startups dominated dealmaking this year, but there is another sector that VCs have stayed committed to: defense tech. We saw the latest example of this trend just this week. On … Read more
With a massive $2 billion reported investment from Google, Anthropic joins OpenAI in reaping the benefits of leadership in the artificial intelligence space, receiving immense sums from the tech giants that couldn’t move fast enough themselves. A byword for the age: Those who can, build; those who can’t, invest. The funding deal, according to sources … Read more
When we first read PitchBook’s data on global venture investment in Q3, the first conclusion that my colleague Alex Wilhelm and I reached was that startups around the world wouldn’t be mistaken to expect another quarter of declines. As usual, the numbers are nuanced: European startups were faring slightly better than the rest of the … Read more
Headlines This WeekMeta’s AI-generated stickers, which launched just last week, are already causing mayhem. Users swiftly realized they could use them to create obscene images, like Elon Musk with tits, ones involving child soldiers, and bloodthirsty version of Disney characters. Ditto for Microsoft Bing’s image generation feature, which has set off a trend in which … Read more