Verdict has listed five of the companies that trended the most in Twitter discussions related to disruptive tech, using research from GlobalData's Technology Influencer platform. The top companies are the most mentioned companies among Twitter discussions of more than 513 disruptive tech experts tracked by GlobalData's Technology Influencer platform during the second quarter (Q2) of 2022. OpenAI's text-to-image engine DALL·E 2 not understanding some mysterious language, and the company's release of GPT-3, a new generative language model, were some of the popularly discussed topics in Q2. Spiros Margaris, a venture capitalist and board member at the venture capital firm Margaris Ventures, shared an article on the artificial intelligence (AI) company, OpenAI, having found its text-to-image engine DALL·E 2 to show peculiar behaviours, including something that may be hidden or a fictional language. According to Giannis Daras, a PhD student at the University of Texas at Austin, the AI model produced an artwork when given the input "apoploe vesrreaitais eating Contarra ccetnxniams luryca tanniounons", which makes no sense to humans but the machine generated images of birds eating bugs constantly, the article detailed.

It is an increasingly common modern annoyance: arriving at the front of the queue to pay in a shop, pulling out a smartphone for a hygienic contact-free payment, and staring down at an error message because your phone fails to recognise your masked face. As more and more nations mandate masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus, technology companies are scrambling to keep up with the changing world. But some experts are warning that the change may have to start with users themselves. Apple's Face ID is the most well-known example of a consumer facial verification system. The technology, which uses a grid of infrared dots to measure the physical shape of a user's face, secures access to the company's iPhones and iPads, as well as other features such as Apple Pay.

The coronavirus crisis has everyone going digital full-throttle -- including specialists in the realm. This year, following widespread store closures, it's been all about bulking up e-commerce services -- on the double. But next up, the focus will be on artificial intelligence, according to Ian Rogers, chief digital officer at LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, who spoke to WWD through Zoom. "We talk a lot about data and artificial intelligence, I think you'll see us talk more about that -- if we were at VivaTech this year, our theme would be artificial intelligence," he said, referring to the French technology fair that was canceled this year. The executive normally reveals winners of the annual LVMH Innovation Prize at the VivaTech fair, which is France's equivalent to the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show, drawing industry heavyweights such as Alibaba chairman and cofounder Jack Ma and Microsoft chief executive officer Satya Nadella.

The EU has opened a major investigation into Apple over concerns that it uses its platforms unfairly. The EU commission will pursue antitrust investigations against the company over its App Store and Apple Pay products, which critics argue have stifled competition. The Commission said it was investigating Apple Pay over allegations the tech giant wields its control over the Pay platform to force developers into using it over others. It said a preliminary investigation had raised concerns that "Apple's terms, conditions, and other measures related to the integration of Apple Pay" may "distort competition and reduce choice and innovation". In addition, the EU Commission announced it had opened a second investigation into concerns that the firm's App Store restricts developers from informing iPhone and iPad users of alternative purchasing possibilities, instead pushing "mandatory use of Apple's own proprietary in-app purchase system".

You're wearing a mask, as encouraged by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and possibly by your local government during this coronavirus outbreak, and you want to use FaceID to open your iPhone or Android phone. Yes, says a Chinese researcher from Tencent's Xuanwu lab. But according to Apple, this is frowned upon big time and could affect the integrity of your phone. There are several hacks available online, and most will send the user to reregister for FaceID on the iPhone by covering the left and right side of their face separately. After the researcher from Tencent originally demonstrated and popularized this setup, many others copied and tweaked with videos on YouTube.

With conversational commerce mushrooming throughout the retail world, it surely must have the feel of déjà vu for the iconic 1-800-Flowers.com Founded in 1976 and branded with its workhorse 1-800-Flowers phone number in 1986, the company can point to its penchant for speaking directly to its customers as a reason for its longevity -- first through the phone and then across the internet. The process of conversational commerce uses remarkably intuitive technology tools such as voice messaging and chatbot applications to facilitate seamless interactions between brands and shoppers to drive transactions or trigger service. Voice protocols are emerging as the dominant technique fueling conversational commerce, notably voice assistants such as Apple Siri, Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. In addition, text-enabled chatbots are proliferating to help consumers through human-like conversations.

As a credit union, having mobile capabilities is no longer an option. Credit unions today must offer and utilize a robust mobile solution in order to be in the game. Much is made in the media today about why Apple Pay has not taken off as anticipated. This is a classic "chicken or the egg" conundrum. The journey started with building a phone with the technology and capabilities to be used securely at the point of sale.

Credit Union Australia (CUA) has turned to Sydney-based artificial intelligence (AI) firm Flamingo AI to pilot its chatbot Rosie in its CUA health insurance business. Under the agreement, Flamingo's cognitive virtual sales assistant, Rosie, will be piloted by CUA Health to provide a service for potential new members visiting its website, assisting the user from the quote stage, through to the point of sale. CUA Health CEO Philip Fraser says: "Consumers are becoming more financially and technologically savvy and there is an ever increasing number that prefer the convenience and accessibility of a digital sales channel." To placate any human anxiety, he adds: "This channel is certainly not a replacement for our human service team – rather it provides us with a huge opportunity to grow our health member base by lifting the number of quote requests that are followed all the way through to taking out a policy." After a period of "learning" the commonly asked questions and answers, Rosie will be deployed on the CUA Health web channel for a three-month pilot, expected to kick off in the next few months.

Now that smartwatches are actually useful enough for the general populace, setting them up isn't as pedestrian a task as pairing with your phone and calling it a day. On the surface, customizing your new device may not seem like a complicated task, but people often overlook some of the tools that can potentially make wearables more helpful. From recommended settings to the apps worth downloading, here's a walkthrough of what you should look out for when setting up your new wearable. This part you probably already know. Turn on your watch, pair it with your phone and follow the onscreen instructions.

The autocorrect bug that switched the letter "i" to "A" and a question mark is getting a fix with the release of iOS 11.1.1. Apple released the updated on Thursday, making it the sixth update to iOS 11. iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users can go to Settings General Software Update to download iOS 11.1.1. Apple says the new update "Fixes an issue with keyboard auto-correct" and "Fixes an issue where Hey Siri stops working." The autocorrect bug meant users had a hard time talking in first person with their iOS devices. The issue did not affect everyone, but many people reported the problem on social media.