Good morning! This is your daily ☕️ Techpresso.
In today's Techpresso:
🤖 Amazon is struggling to bring AI to Alexa
👋 Meta creating robot hand that can feel touch
🧠 Sam Altman says ChatGPT-5 not coming in 2025
🇨🇳 China uses Meta AI for military chatbot
🔎 Google just gave its AI access to Search
🎁 + 7 other news you might like
🔮 + 4 handpicked research papers and tools
🤖 Amazon is struggling to bring AI to AlexaLINK
Amazon's revamped, AI-powered Alexa, initially planned for a 2024 launch, has been delayed to 2025 due to ongoing issues with integrating advanced language models for seamless smart home control. Early testers reported that the new Alexa's responses often felt slow and irrelevant, and its smart home capabilities, such as controlling lights, became unreliable. Under the new leadership of Panos Panay, Amazon aims to improve Alexa’s functionality and hardware quality, although a clear vision for its future capabilities has yet to be fully conveyed by CEO Andy Jassy.
👋 Meta creating robot hand that can feel touchLINK
Meta is pioneering tactile sensing in robotics through collaborations with GelSight and Wonik Robotics to develop advanced sensors like the Meta Digit 360, enabling robots to interact with the world as humans do.
The Meta Digit 360 sensor, featuring 18 sensing capabilities, perceives subtle force and spatial details, offering AI researchers tools to enhance human-robot interactions in areas such as medicine, prosthetics, and virtual environments.
By using the PARTNR benchmark and Habitat 3.0 simulator, Meta aims to assess collaborative AI models, advancing robotics to function as partners in daily human activities, with practical applications in various sectors.
🧠 Sam Altman says ChatGPT-5 not coming in 2025LINK
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman confirmed that while there are exciting updates coming soon, ChatGPT-5 will not be released in 2025; instead, improvements are expected without labeling them as GPT-5.
OpenAI has introduced significant updates, such as Advanced Voice mode and a new search feature for ChatGPT, which Altman believes surpasses traditional search engines for complex information queries.
Altman expressed confidence that achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI) is feasible with existing hardware, suggesting that superintelligence advancements don't require entirely new technology.
🇨🇳 China uses Meta AI for military chatbotLINK
Chinese research institutions affiliated with the military have developed AI systems using Meta's open-source Llama model, intended for military applications such as intelligence gathering and decision-making.
The AI tool, named ChatBIT, was trained with extensive military dialogue records and is projected to be used for strategic planning and command decision-making, according to published papers by researchers linked to the People's Liberation Army.
Despite Meta's prohibition against military use of its open-source language models, China has deployed the Llama-based AI for domestic policing and potentially for training electronic warfare strategies.
🔎 Google just gave its AI access to SearchLINK
Google has launched "Grounding with Google Search" for its Gemini models, allowing AI applications in Google AI Studio and through the Gemini API to use search results for enhanced query responses.
This integration, unique among leading AI model providers, simplifies development by natively offering web search grounding, enhancing response accuracy and transparency without requiring extra third-party tools.
The feature, enabled via a simple toggle, ensures AI outputs are current by using live search data, and it provides source attribution, though it introduces increased latency and costs due to the depth and citations in responses.
Other news you might like
Android 16 will ship early in 2025.LINK
Microsoft's controversial 'Recall' feature for Copilot+ PCs delayed again.LINK
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says he has a secret weapon in the AI wars.LINK
Indonesia blocks Google Pixel sales after ban on iPhone 16.LINK
How AI helped Reddit make first-ever profit in 19 years.LINK
Apple reaches deal to acquire Pixelmator.LINK
Finally, a sign of life for Europe’s sovereign satellite Internet constellation.LINK
Latest research and tools
Winlator: an Android application enabling users to run Windows (x86_64) applications on their devices by utilizing Wine and Box86/Box64 technologies.LINK
Character Case Mapper: a tool that identifies and displays unexpected behavior of UTF-8 characters when their case is converted from uppercase to lowercase or vice versa.LINK
TokenFormer: Rethinking Transformer Scaling with Tokenized Model Parameters: the paper suggests improving transformer models by scaling them with tokenized parameters for enhanced efficiency and performance.LINK
DAWN: Designing Distributed Agents in a Worldwide Network: the paper discusses strategies for creating distributed agents that can effectively operate across a global network.LINK
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