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.

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.

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.

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".