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Google I/O just showed me how to live the laziest life through AI – TechRadar

Posted: May 15, 2024 at 2:37 am

The dirty secret about Google Gemini (and probably all AI) is that it's built for lazy people like me. At the Google I/O keynote on Tuesday, Google spent hours showing us the myriad ways Gemini and its associated technologies could pick up the slack for us or, more specifically, me, the laziest person you'll ever meet.

I know what you're thinking, "No, no, Lance, you seem like a real hardworking guy." It's a lie. I've spent my decades-long career finding shortcuts - and AI is my white whale. Instead of riding a giant vessel into an uncertain fate, Google has handed me the whale...er...AI on a platter the size of a typical smartphone.

In Google's developing vision, there are so many things I no longer have to do for myself. This is laziness nirvana.

It starts simply. If I don't want to remember my license plate number (because why would I?), Google's new AskPhotos function can look through your massive photo library and use AI to identify your license plate for you. Walking around to the back of my car and checking the plate (or maybe just looking out the front window at the car parked in my driveway) is for people far more energetic than me.

Around 2011, I realized I had too much email to ever read, let alone understand. So much goes unread because I'm too lazy to go through it. My buddy Google Gemini slides up next to me, gives me a nudge and a grin, and promises to read it, summarize it, and create responses. This is the email of my lazy dreams.

As I write this, I'm about to head off on vacation. I hate planning vacations. I find it tedious and confusing, and I'm too lazy to get it done (my wife is the exact opposite). Gemini will let you tell it where you want to go, along with a few other details I may or may not have, and then it cooks up a shockingly complete travel itinerary (in a related vein, Gemini seems ready to manage an equally challenging move to, say, a new state).

I used to try to help my kids with their math problems and mostly failed, mainly because I was taught "old math" and they were taught "new math." Google's new Circle to Search for text problems, including math and formulas, would've soothed my lazy psyche into a blissful state of incompetence. Perhaps if my kids saw me doing this, simply just circling the thing I do not understand, they would've assumed I was being super helpful instead of what I am: super lazy.

I'm an "artist." I put it in quotes because my drawing skills are just above average. Worse, when faced with a drawing task, I often fight the impulse to not start at all. That's not just laziness, it's avoidance of possible disappointment because I couldn't create the thing. Google's latest image model, Imagine 3, is so good I realize there's no point in trying to create anything. I could never draw a wolf, wooden owl, yarn elephant, or people enjoying the golden hour sun that well. Enabling "lazy mode" and putting the pen down.

Hi, my name is Lance, and I'm a TikToker. For some reason I can't explain, TechRadar lets me shoot and post TikTok videos on its channel. Imagine Grandpa explaining tech, and you get the idea. It's a lot of work and sometimes, I'd rather visit our kitchen's snack bins. Google's Veo video model looks every bit as powerful as OpenAI's Sora. I bet that with a little training, it could create the TikToks for me and possibly include an AI-generated someone who looks vaguely like me (a thumb with glasses would do). Ooooh, Cheetos.

Now, this one's a bit dangerous. Google showed how you could pour all your research into Gemini, and it'll spit out at least an outline. You know reporting, which is hard work, by the way, is all research, right? Keep this lazy tool away from me.

Recently, we hired a new guy. It was a lot of work. Yes, worth the effort, but the work part I can do without. I had no idea Google would let me create a Virtual Teammate, one I can even name. He, she, or they can hang out in our chat rooms and engage like a real coworker. Gosh, this is so easy.

One of the big, overarching messages of Google I/O was to let Google do the Googling for you. In other words, if you need to perform a search, even a big, multi-part one, don't put much effort into it.

Don't tell Google, but I already do this. I'm usually too lazy to carefully parse out my prompt, so I type whatever is in my head into the search field and leave it to the search engine to figure it out.

It appears Google's been reading my lazy brain and just turned up the proactive search capabilities to 11. I mean, they are really owning the phrase, "Google will do the Googling for you." Music to my lazy heart.

I've done my share of tinkering and troubleshooting, and it doesn't always go well. What if I didn't? Google Project Astra is so peppy and proactive. All I have to do is film something, ask Google, "What the hell; is wrong with this?" and go take a nap while it spits out the answer.

An extension of this is Google Gemini's growing ability to explain everything I look at. Why should I expend the mental energy to interpret the images my eyes deliver to my brain? My Pixel 8 Pro has a "brain." I'll let it and Gemini doi it.

There are, it seems, no limits to what Google and its powerful AIs will do for you. If I want to find a couch and park myself there for a day or more, Google's upcoming AI Agents will be there to reason, plan, memorize, and think steps ahead. These little bits of AI are for you or rather me.

I'd share more, but, well, laziness.

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Google I/O just showed me how to live the laziest life through AI - TechRadar

Recommendation and review posted by G. Smith

Google is building Gemini Nano AI right into Chrome – The Verge

Posted: May 15, 2024 at 2:37 am

Google is building its Gemini AI into Chrome on desktop. During its I/O event on Tuesday, Google announced that Chrome 126 will use Gemini Nano to power on-device AI features such as text generation.

The integration will let you do things like generate product reviews, social media posts, and other blurbs directly within Chrome. Microsoft similarly added its AI assistant Copilot to Edge last year, letting you ask questions and summarize the information on your screen. Unlike Gemini Nano in Chrome, Copilot in Edge doesnt run locally on your device.

Google also announced that it will make Gemini available in Chrome DevTools, which developers use to debug and tune their apps. Gemini can provide explanations for error messages as well as suggestions on how to fix coding issues.

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Google is building Gemini Nano AI right into Chrome - The Verge

Recommendation and review posted by G. Smith

Chinese firms make headway in producing high bandwidth memory for AI chipsets – Yahoo! Voices

Posted: May 15, 2024 at 2:37 am

By Fanny Potkin and Eduardo Baptista

SINGAPORE/BEIJING (Reuters) -Two Chinese chipmakers are in the early stages of producing high bandwidth memory (HBM) semiconductors used in artificial intelligence chipsets, according to sources and documents.

The progress in HBM - even if only in older versions of HBM - represents a major step forward in China's efforts to reduce its reliance on foreign suppliers amid tensions with Washington that have led to restrictions on U.S. exports of advanced chipsets to Chinese firms.

CXMT, China's top manufacturer of DRAM chips, has developed sample HBM chips in partnership with chip packaging and testing company Tongfu Microelectronics, according to three people briefed on the matter. The chips are being shown to clients, two of them said.

Tongfu Microelectronics' shares surged 8% in Wednesday trade.

In another example, Wuhan Xinxin is building a factory that will be able to produce 3,000 12-inch HBM wafers a month with construction slated to have begun in February this year, documents from corporate database Qichacha show.

CXMT and other Chinese chip firms have also been holding regular meetings with South Korean and Japanese semiconductor equipment firms to buy tools to develop HBM, said two of the people.

The sources were not authorised to speak on the matter and declined to be identified. Hefei-based CXMT or ChangXin Memory Technologies and Tongfu Microelectronics did not respond to requests for comment.

Wuhan Xinxin, which has flagged to regulators that it is interested in going public, and its parent company did not respond to requests for comment. The parent company is also the parent of NAND memory specialist YMTC or Yangtze Memory Technologies. YMTC said it did not have the capability to mass produce HBM.

Both CXMT and Wuhan Xinxin are private companies which have received local government funding to advance technologies as China pours capital into developing its chip sector.

Wuhan's local government also did not respond to requests for comment.

Separately, Chinese tech behemoth Huawei - which the U.S. has deemed a national security threat and is subject to sanctions - is aiming to produce HBM2 chips in partnership with other domestic companies by 2026, according to one of the sources and a separate person with knowledge of the matter.

The Information reported in April that a Huawei-led group of companies aiming to make HBM includes Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit, a memory chip maker also under U.S. sanctions.

Huawei, which has seen demand soar for its Ascend AI chips, declined to comment. It is not clear where Huawei procures HBM. Fujian Jinhua did not respond to a request for comment.

LONG JOURNEY AHEAD

HBM - a type of DRAM standard first produced in 2013 in which chips are vertically stacked to save space and reduce power consumption - is ideal for processing massive amounts of data produced by complex AI applications and demand has soared amid the AI boom.

The market for HBM is dominated by South Korea's SK Hynix - until recently the sole HBM supplier to AI chip giant Nvidia according to analysts - as well as Samsung, and to a lesser extent U.S. firm Micron Technology. All three manufacture the latest standard - HBM3 chips - and are working to bring fifth-generation HBM or HMB3E to customers this year.

China's efforts are currently focused on HBM2, according to two of the sources and a separate person with direct knowledge of the matter.

The U.S. has not put restrictions on exports of HBM chips per se but HBM3 chips are made using American technology that many Chinese firms including Huawei are barred from accessing as part of the curbs.

Nori Chiou, an investment director at White Oak Capital and a former analyst who looked at the IT sector, estimates that Chinese chipmakers lag their global rivals by a decade in HBM.

"China faces a considerable journey ahead, as it currently lacks the competitive edge to rival its Korean counterparts even in the realm of traditional memory markets," he said.

"Nonetheless, (CXMT's) collaboration with Tongfu represents a significant opportunity for China to advance its capabilities in both memory and advanced packaging technologies within the HBM market."

Patents filed by CXMT, Tongfu and Huawei indicate that plans to develop HBM domestically date back at least three years when China's chip industry increasingly became the target of U.S. export controls.

CXMT has filed almost 130 patents in the United States, China, and Taiwan for different technical issues related to the manufacturing and functionalities of HBM chips, according to Anaqua's AcclaimIP database. Of those, 14 were published in 2022, 46 in 2023, and 69 in 2024.

One Chinese patent, published last month, shows the company is looking at advanced packaging techniques like hybrid bonding to create a more powerful HBM product. A separate filing shows that CXMT is also investing in developing technology needed to create HBM3.

(Reporting by Fanny Potkin in Singapore and Eduardo Baptista in Beijing; Additional reporting by Heekyong Yang and Joyce Lee in Seoul; Editing by Brenda Goh and Edwina Gibbs)

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Chinese firms make headway in producing high bandwidth memory for AI chipsets - Yahoo! Voices

Recommendation and review posted by G. Smith

Google will let you create personalized AI chatbots – The Verge

Posted: May 15, 2024 at 2:37 am

Google is adding a bunch of new features to its Gemini AI, and one of the most powerful is a personalization option called Gems that allows users to create custom versions of the Gemini assistant with varying personalities.

Gems lets you create iterations of chatbots that can help you with certain tasks and retain specific characteristics, kind of like making your own bot in Character.AI, the service that lets you talk to virtualized versions of popular characters and celebrities or even a fake psychiatrist. Google says you can make Gemini your gym buddy, sous-chef, coding partner, creative writing guide, or anything you can dream up. Gems feels similar to OpenAIs GPT Store that lets you make customized ChatGPT chatbots.

You can set up a gem by telling Gemini what to do and how to respond. For instance, you can tell it to be your running coach, provide you with a daily run schedule, and to sound upbeat and motivating. Then, in one click, Gemini will make a gem for you as youve described. The Gems feature is available soon to Gemini Advanced subscribers.

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Google will let you create personalized AI chatbots - The Verge

Recommendation and review posted by G. Smith

Google’s Gemini AI is coming to the sidebar in Docs, Drive, Gmail, and more – The Verge

Posted: May 15, 2024 at 2:37 am

The right sidebar in Googles Workspace apps is now the center for a lot of Googles AI plans. The company announced today at its I/O developer conference that it is bringing Gemini 1.5 Pro, its latest mainstream language model, to the sidebar in Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drive, and Gmail. Itll be the same virtual assistant across all of those apps, and the key bit is that itll know about everything you have saved everywhere.

The idea seems to be to use Gemini to connect all the Workspace apps more seamlessly. According to Aparna Pappu, the general manager and VP of Workspace, Google users have long been trying to hack Gemini to do complicated, multi-app things: send an email based on the data theyre looking at in Sheets or add a reminder to respond to the email they were currently looking at. And since Gemini has access to all of your documents, emails, and files, it can answer questions without forcing you to switch apps.

In a briefing with press ahead of I/O, Pappu gave the example of searching for information about a New York Knicks game. I could ask something like, what time do doors open for the Knicks game, and Im not looking for information from the web, which is going to give me generic information. I want information from my ticket, which happens to be a PDF in my email somewhere. Gemini can find that information, and Pappu said early users are quickly learning to use it as a way to find things more quickly.

Among early testers, Pappu said, a popular use case has been receipts. Rather than dig through your email, your files, and everything, you can just ask Gemini to find and organize all your receipts from across your Google account. And lets say you hit on the prompt that says Put my expenses in a Drive folder, she says, from there Gemini can put them all into a Sheet.

In keeping with so many of Googles announcements at I/O, the Workspace team seems to be focused on using Gemini to help you get stuff done and do stuff on your behalf. Pappu talked about how popular Gmails Help me write feature has been, especially on mobile, where people dont want to type as much. By grounding the model in your data and not the entire internet, Google hopes it can also begin to mitigate the models tendency to hallucinate and make other mistakes.

At least for now, the new sidebar isnt for everyone: its available now to some early testers and will roll out to paid Gemini subscribers next month. But Pappu did say Google is looking at how it could use on-device models to bring the capabilities to more users over time, so your days of hunting through Google Drive to find that old PDF may finally be coming to an end. Eventually.

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Google's Gemini AI is coming to the sidebar in Docs, Drive, Gmail, and more - The Verge

Recommendation and review posted by G. Smith

Google now offers ‘web’ search and an AI opt-out button – The Verge

Posted: May 15, 2024 at 2:37 am

This is not a joke: Google will now let you perform a web search. Its rolling out web searches now, and in my early tests on desktop, its looking like it could be an incredibly popular change to Googles search engine.

The optional setting filters out almost all the other blocks of content that Google crams into a search results page, leaving you with links and text and Google confirms to The Verge that it will block the companys new AI Overviews as well.

Isnt every search a web search? What is Google Search if not the web? you might rightfully ask.

But independent websites like HouseFresh and Retro Dodo have pointed out how their businesses have gotten buried deep beneath sponsored posts, Quora advice from 2016, best-of lists from big media sites, and no less than 64 Google Shopping product listings, in the words of HouseFresh managing editor Gisele Navarro.

Now, with one click, a bunch of those blockers seemingly disappear.

Search for best home arcade cabinets, one of Retro Dodos bread-and-butter queries, and its no longer buried it appears on page 1. (Drag our image slider to see the difference.)

HouseFresh still doesnt get page 1 billing for best budget air purifiers but its higher up, and youre no longer assaulted by an eye-popping number of Google Shopping results as you scroll:

If you search for Wyze cameras, youll now get a hint about their lax security practices on page 2 instead of page 3:

Im not sure its an improvement for every search, partly because Googles modules can be useful, and partly because the company isnt giving up on self-promotion just because you press the web button. Here, you can see Google still gives itself top billing for Google AR glasses either way, and its Top stories box is arguably a helpful addition:

Which of these results helps you better learn about the Maui wildfires? Im genuinely not sure:

And when you ask Google who wrote The Lord of the Rings, is there any reason you wouldnt want Googles full knowledge graph at your disposal?

Admittedly, its an answer that Google isnt likely to get wrong.

As far as I can tell, the order of Googles search results seem to be the same regardless of whether you pick web or all. It doesnt block links to YouTube videos or Reddit posts or SEO factories... and I still saw (smaller!) sponsored ads from Amazon and Verkada and Wyze push down my search results:

Web is just a filter that removes Googles knowledge panels and featured snippets and Shopping modules and Googles new AI Overviews as well, Google spokesperson Ned Adriance confirms to The Verge. AI Overviews are a feature in Search, just like a knowledge panel or a featured snippet, so they will not appear when someone uses the web filter for a search.

It doesnt magically fix some of the issues facing Googles search engine. But it is a giant opt-out button for people whove been aggravated by some of the companys seemingly self-serving moves, and a way to preserve the spirit of the 10 blue links even as Googles AI efforts try to leave them behind.

Danny Sullivan, Googles Public Liaison for Search, says hes been asking for something like this for years:

As a next step, Id like to see Google promote the button to make it more visible. Right now, the company warns that it may not always appear in the primary carousel on desktop at all you may need to click More first and then select Web.

Heres hoping this all works well on mobile, too; Im not seeing it on my phone yet.

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Google now offers 'web' search and an AI opt-out button - The Verge

Recommendation and review posted by G. Smith


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