A selection of global tech news.
Apple Foldable Iphone | Keep Your Art Out Of AI Generators | Battery-Powered Doorbell With 3D Motion | Fitbit AI Fitness | Microsoft 2M Indians AI Training
Apple eyes a foldable iPhone following Vision Pro launch – TechCrunch
The market is still a relatively small one dominated by Samsung. A folding iPhone could change that.
Last week’s Vision Pro release shed some fascinating light on Apple’s generally top secret development process. A Vanity Fair interview with Tim Cook detailed — in part — what a long and heavy lift it took to get the company’s first headset off the ground. The Apple CEO gave an early iteration of the device the less than flattering nickname, “the monster.”
Rumored foldable versions of the iPhone have also reportedly had their share of setbacks. Issues around durability and the ever-present crease are said to have caused the company to put the foldable iPhone’s development on ice, as the company shifted focused on a folding iPad. A new report from The Information, however, suggests that — after delays — Apple may be back in the foldable iPhone business.
How to keep your art out of AI generators – The Verge
Some AI companies provide ways to opt images out of being used in training data, while tools like Glaze and Nightshade can interfere with AI models directly.
AI-generated imagery feels inescapable. It’s in the video games you play, in the movies you watch, and has flooded social media platforms. It’s even been used to promote the physical hardware that real, human artists use to create digital paintings and illustrations, to the immense frustration of those who already feel displaced by the technology.
The pervasive nature of it seems especially egregious to creators who are fighting to stop their works from being used, without consent or compensation, to improve the very thing that threatens to disrupt their careers and livelihoods. The data pools that go into training generative AI models often contain images that are indiscriminately scraped from the internet, and some AI image generator tools allow users to upload reference images they want to imitate. Many creative professionals need to advertise their work via social media and online portfolios, so simply taking everything offline isn’t a viable solution. And a lack of legal clarity around AI technology has created something of a Wild-West environment that’s difficult to resist. Difficult, but not impossible.
Ring announces a new battery-powered doorbell with 3D motion detection and improved visuals – Engadget
There’s also color night vision and noise-cancelling tech.
Ring has announced a refresh of its popular Battery Doorbell Plus outdoor camera. The Battery Doorbell Pro is an upgrade in nearly every way, as is usually the case when companies slap “Pro” at the end of a name.
Ring says this new model is its “most advanced battery powered doorbell” ever and that it’s packed with features that exceed even its wired doorbells. It boasts radar-powered 3D motion detection, which was also included with the company’s Stick Up Cam Pro. Otherwise called “Bird’s Eye View”, this technology tracks an object’s path through the camera’s field of view so you can monitor where visitors are going and the route they took to get there.
This is paired with an algorithm that sets more nuanced and discrete motion alerts, so you won’t get pinged every time a cat or shadow crosses your yard. You also get something called “Bird’s Eye View” that translates this information into a series of dots on an aerial image of your property.
Security Cameras Wireless Outdoor #Ad
How Fitbit Wants AI to Help You Reach Your Fitness Goals – CNET
Google-owned Fitbit thinks there’s big potential for AI to help people set more realistic health aspirations.
Anyone who exercises regularly — or at least tries to — knows that every day is different. After an exhausting work trip, for example, you probably aren’t as ready for a workout as you would be after getting plenty of sleep over the weekend. Or perhaps you had a particularly intense day at the gym on Monday and still aren’t fully recovered by Wednesday.
Google’s Fitbit is hoping AI can help with scenarios like these as it explores bringing the buzzy technology to its fitness app. Fitbit co-founder James Park, who is leaving the company due to a reorganization of Google’s hardware division, introduced this idea October by announcing Fitbit Labs. The upcoming program will use AI to provide deeper health insights, such as answering questions about why your run may have been harder today than it was yesterday. But Ajay Surie, group product manager at Google, shared additional details about how generative AI will influence the Fitbit app more broadly.
Microsoft plans to train 2M Indians in AI, says Nadella – TechCrunch
Microsoft’s prescient bets and aggressive investments in AI have propelled the software giant to become the world’s most valuable company. Yet Satya Nadella, its typically reserved chief executive, couldn’t resist landing a gloved jab at the rest of the industry.
“We have the best model today … even with all the hoopla, one year after, GPT4 is better,” Nadella said at a company event in Mumbai on Wednesday. “We are waiting for the competition to arrive. It will arrive, I’m sure, but the fact [is] that we have the … leading LLM out there.”
Nadella’s rare bit of reality-check came as he pitched Microsoft’s increasingly powerful lineup of AI offerings to the leaders of some of India’s largest companies. In a 35-minute keynote address, Nadella implored businesses to begin exploring ways to deploy AI to boost productivity and refine their products, while urging them not to fall behind.
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Image Credits: Microsoft
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