OpenAI unveiled new ChatGPT features that include the ability to have a conversation with the chatbot as if you were making a call, allowing you to instantly get responses to your spoken questions in a lifelike synthetic voice, as my colleague Will Douglas Heaven reported. OpenAI also revealed that ChatGPT will be able to search the web. Google's rival bot, Bard, is plugged into most of the company's ecosystem, including Gmail, Docs, YouTube, and Maps. The idea is that people will be able to use the chatbot to ask questions about their own content--for example, by getting it to search through their emails or organize their calendar. Bard will also be able to instantly retrieve information from Google Search.

Late last month, after a year-plus wait, OpenAI quietly released the latest version of its image-generating AI program, DALL-E 3. The announcement was filled with stunning demos--including a minute-long video demonstrating how the technology could, given only a few chat prompts, create and merchandise a character for a children's story. But perhaps the widest-reaching and most consequential update came in two sentences slipped in at the end: "DALL-E 3 is designed to decline requests that ask for an image in the style of a living artist. Creators can now also opt their images out from training of our future image generation models." The language is a tacit response to hundreds of pages of litigation and countless articles accusing tech firms of stealing artists' work to train their AI software, and provides a window into the next stage of the battle between creators and AI companies. The second sentence, in particular, cuts to the core of debates over whether tech giants like OpenAI, Google, and Meta should be allowed to use human-made work to train AI models without the creator's permission--models that, artists say, are stealing their ideas and work opportunities.

It's logical for humans to feel anxious about artificial intelligence. After all, the news is constantly reeling off job after job at which the technology seems to outperform us. But humans aren't yet headed for all-out replacement. And if you do suffer from so-called AI anxiety, there are ways to alleviate your fears and even reframe them into a motivating force for good. In one recent example of generative AI's achievements, AI programs outscored the average human in tasks requiring originality, as judged by human reviewers.

With its most recent update, Google Bard can now sort through your trove of Google Docs, rediscover ancient Gmail messages, and search through every video on YouTube. Before experimenting too much with the new extensions available for Google's chatbot, it's worth going over the steps you can take to protect your privacy (and the ones you can't). Google Bard launched in March of this year, one month after OpenAI released ChatGPT to the public. You're likely familiar with how chatbots are designed to mimic human conversation, but Google's latest features are designed to give Bard more practical applications and uses. But when every conversation you have with Bard is tracked, logged, and used again to train the AI, how can you trust it with your data?

Mark Zuckerberg's keynote presentation at the Meta Connect event this week started late. The delay was on-brand for the company's decade-long project to make virtual reality mainstream. Back in 2014, a demo of the then-primitive Oculus VR headset hit Zuckerberg like a lightning bolt, and within weeks he owned the company. He started talking about how a digital version of reality was going to be the next computing paradigm in about, oh, five or 10 years. For a time there was a lot of excitement about an impending Metaverse, but the buzz is now barely audible.

The lawyer representing victims of a fatal Tesla crash blamed the company's autopilot driver assistant system, saying that "a car company should never sell consumers experimental vehicles," in the opening statement of a California trial on Thursday. The case stems from a civil lawsuit alleging that the autopilot system caused the owner of a Tesla Model 3 car, Micah Lee, to suddenly veer off a highway east of Los Angeles at 65 mph (105 kph), where his car struck a palm tree and burst into flames. The 2019 crash killed Lee and seriously injured his two passengers, including an eight-year-old boy who was disemboweled, according to court documents. The lawsuit, filed against Tesla by the passengers and Lee's estate, accuses Tesla of knowing that autopilot and other safety systems were defective when it sold the car. Jonathan Michaels, an attorney for the plaintiffs, in his opening statement at the trial in Riverside, California, said that when the 37-year-old Lee bought Tesla's "full self-driving capability package" for $6,000 for his Model 3 in 2019, the system was in "beta", meaning it was not yet ready for release.

ChatGPT can now browse the internet to provide users with current information, its parent company OpenAI has announced. The chatbot was previously trained to use data up to September 2021 and was unable to provide real-time information. On Wednesday, Microsoft-backed OpenAI announced on X, formerly Twitter, that the new update allows it to move past the September 2021 cutoff and access current information on the internet. ChatGPT can now browse the internet to provide you with current and authoritative information, complete with direct links to sources. It is no longer limited to data before September 2021.

FedEx unveiled a two-armed robot called DexR this week that's designed to automate one of the trickiest tasks facing the company's human employees--loading a van with packages. The new robot aims to use artificial intelligence to stack rows of differently sized boxes inside a delivery van as efficiently as possible, attempting to maximize how many will fit. That task is far from easy for a machine. "Packages come in different sizes, shapes, weights, and packaging materials, and they come randomized," says Rebecca Yeung, vice president of operations and advanced technology at FedEx. The robot uses cameras and lidar sensors to perceive the packages and must then plan how to configure the available boxes to make a neat wall, place them snugly without crushing anything, and react appropriately if any packages slip.

Meta is to launch artificial intelligence chatbots embodied by celebrities including Snoop Dogg, Kendall Jenner and Naomi Osaka. Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement at the company's annual Connect conference, where he spoke about new AI products at Facebook's parent company. The chatbots will feature unique interests and allow users to receive personalised advice, with the intention that they will be more interactive and fun to use. Meta will launch more than 28 of these AIs in beta, with some played by celebrities. Snoop Dogg will be "Dungeon Master", who will assist users to play adventure games, the former basketball player Dwyane Wade will be an AI called "Victor" designed to help users work out, Osaka will be anime-obsessed "Tamika", and Jenner will be "Billie", a "big sis" referred to as a "ride-or-die companion".

An exoskeleton suit helps people sprint faster, according to the results of a small study. Elite athletes could one day use the suit in training sessions to improve their running performance, although one expert says it may increase the risk of injuries. Researchers have previously developed exoskeleton devices that help people to walk or jog more efficiently. Now, Giuk Lee at Chung-Ang University in Seoul, South Korea, and his colleagues have created an "exosuit" that enables people to sprint faster. The exosuit, which weighs 4.4 kilograms, has electrical motors on its back that control the length of two steel cables that attach to the wearer's hips and thighs, says Lee. The length of the cable running between each hip and its corresponding thigh shortens as a wearer extends their legs backwards, helping them to complete this motion.