Google has unveiled plans to infuse its dominant search engine with more advanced artificial intelligence technology. The move comes three months after Microsoft's Bing search engine started to tap into tech similar to that which powers the artificially intelligent chatbot ChatGPT. With our new generative AI experience in Search, you'll get even more from a single search. You'll be able to quickly make sense of information with an AI-powered snapshot, pointers to explore more and natural ways to ask. Starting at $1799, this ultra-premium device combines personal AI, #GoogleTensor G2, and @Android innovation for a #Pixel smartphone that unfolds into an incredible compact tablet.#GoogleIO

Meta is not pivoting away from its signature product, the metaverse. Or at least that's what the Meta chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, is arguing. Despite reports that sales teams at Meta have spent less time pitching the metaverse to advertisers, Zuckerberg claimed on the tech firm's latest quarterly earnings call that it's business as usual over at the company formerly known as Facebook. "A narrative has developed that we're somehow moving away from focusing on the metaverse vision, so I just want to say upfront that that's not accurate," the CEO said. But neither is the virtual reality world the only product Meta has bet its future on, Zuckerberg argued: "We've been focusing on both AI and the metaverse for years now, and we will continue to focus on both."

Google on Wednesday said it is opening Bard, a rival to Microsoft-backed ChatGPT, to 180 countries as it expands use of artificial intelligence across its platform. Executives at an annual Google developers conference in Silicon Valley said that generative AI will also be used to supercharge the tech giant's leading search engine. "We have been applying AI for a while, with generative AI we are taking the next step," Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai told thousands of developers gathered for the event. This could be due to a conflict with your ad-blocking or security software. Please add japantimes.co.jp and piano.io to your list of allowed sites.

In the days leading up to its annual software conference, Google executives were unusually excited about … wallpaper. Wallpaper that's generated by artificial intelligence after tapping a few prompts on your phone screen. "Generative AI" is the key phrase here. It's the category of artificial intelligence that tech companies both big and small are hanging their futures on right now. Alphabet-owned Google is one of the pioneers in this space; as Google executives like to remind people, the "T" in OpenAI's ChatGPT actually refers to transformer technology that Google introduced back in 2017. And Google has been working on human-like chatbot technology for years.

To say the Google I/O 2023 keynote was packed would be an understatement. Google unveiled a flurry of new Pixel devices as well as the latest versions of Android and other platforms. It also won't surprise you to hear that AI was everywhere -- this was Google's big chance to compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT. Don't worry if you missed something during the event, though, as we've got all the biggest announcements from the event. There's no doubt that the (previously confirmed) Pixel Fold was the star of the show.

Generative AI really is everywhere. It's used to make social media avatars. It can help debug code. It can even ask nosey neighbors to be a little more polite to each other. Now, Google is hoping to use it to encourage app developers to expand their use of custom store listings on the Google Play store.

Because of safety and reputational risks, Google has been slower than competitors to launch AI-powered products. But fierce competition from competitors Microsoft, OpenAI, and others has left it no choice but to start, says Chirag Shah, a computer science professor at the University of Washington. It's a high-risk strategy, given that AI language models have numerous flaws with no known fixes. Embedding them into its products could backfire and run afoul of increasingly hawkish regulators, experts warn. Google is also opening up access to its ChatGPT competitor, Bard, from a select group in the US and the UK to the general public in over 180 countries.

Google unveiled fundamental new improvements to its AI chatbot during the company's I/O 2023 keynote on Wednesday, with new Duet AI powers fundamentally improving its Workspace productivity apps as well. AI has been one of the unexpected breakthroughs of the past year, with nearly daily updates from tech giants big and small implementing AI. Even the U.S. government wants to use AI. Google, long the dominant player in search, has had its reputation undermined by AI models like ChatGPT and even generative AI art from Midjourney. Google has lagged behind OpenAI's ChatGPT and Microsoft's Bing in terms of AI, launching its own Bard chatbot in February, a day before Microsoft had publicly launched Bing's AI chatbot.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., joined'America's Newsroom' to discuss the significance of Sen. Feinstein's absence amid the push to confirm Biden's judicial nominees. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will testify before Congress next week, a major step for lawmakers seeking to understand and regulate the fast-moving industry of artificial intelligence. Altman's company is the developer behind ChatGPT, the AI chatbot that captured the nation's attention late last year, with Americans using it for everything from medical advice to cheating on homework. The AI guru will appear before the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on privacy, technology, and the law on Tuesday. "Artificial intelligence will be transformative in ways we can't even imagine, with implications for Americans' elections, jobs, and security," Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said in a statement ahead of the hearing.

Six months ago, Google didn't appear remotely worried about its search business. At Google's annual I/O conference today, the search giant announced that it will infuse results with generative artificial intelligence technology similar to that behind ChatGPT. The company is launching an experimental version of its prized search engine that incorporates text generation like that powering ChatGPT and other advanced chatbots. Google's reimagined search still involves typing a query, and it still responds with links to websites, snippets of content, and ads. But in some situations, the top of the page will feature text synthesized by AI that pulls from information found on different sources across the web, and link to those webpages.