Two weeks ago, Google announced a slew of new AI-powered features at its I/O developer conference. Microsoft followed suit last week with the introduction of its Copilot PCs that have, you guessed it, a slew of new AI-powered features. Somewhat predictably, Google is announcing its answer to the Copilot PC initiative with… the humble Chromebook. The Chromebook Plus line that it first announced last October, to be specific. When Google first announced Chromebook Plus, it focused on a combination of higher-performance hardware as well as some modest AI software features compared to what you'd get on regular Chromebooks.

Earlier this week, the team behind the Arc browser for Mac (and recently Windows) released a brand-new iPhone app called Arc Search. As you might expect, it's infused with AI to power an experience where the app "browses for you"--pulling together a variety of sources of info across the internet to make a custom webpage to answer whatever questions you throw at it. That's just one part of what The Browser Company is calling Act 2 of Arc, and the company gave details on three other major new features its bringing to the browser over the coming weeks and months. The connective tissue of all these updates is that Arc is trying to blur the lines between a browser, search engine and website -- the company wants to combine them all to make the internet a bit more useful to end users. In a promo video released today, various people from The Browser Company excitedly discuss a browser that can browse for you (an admittedly handy idea). The Arc Search app showed off one implementation of that idea, and the next is a feature that arrives today called Instant Links.

Apple is reportedly releasing its'biggest' iOS update in the company's history, which is predicted to include new AI-powered features for the iPhone. The company is expected to announce the iOS 18 update at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June, which will incorporate large language models (LLMS) and generative AI in iWork apps. Some of the predicted software updates are a revised version of Siri and the Messages app, which are said to be powered by advanced AI. Apple is likely to release the beta version of the iOS 18 update in July of this year, with a general release slated for September 2024. Apple's iPhone 15 experienced lackluster sales, causing Apple shares to drop by four percent Apple has yet to officially confirm what will be included in the new iOS 18 system, but Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported the upcoming operating system is'ambitious and compelling.'

A set of features rolling out to Google Photos today will make it much easier to declutter your photo library, the company announced in a blog post. Google Photos will now automatically identify similar photos that you took in rapid succession – helpful for those times when you clicked 50 shots of that gorgeous sunset to get the one perfect frame you will never look at again – and group them in a single "stack" to clean up your library. The service will select a top pick that best represents the moment, but you can manually choose an image you want too. If you prefer to have multiple sunsets littering your library, you can turn off stacking. Photos will also automatically organize your pictures, separating IDs, receipts, and tickets into different albums, a feature that seems like it should have been there ages ago given how good Google Photos is at recognizing what's in your images.

During an AI-focused press event today, Microsoft unveiled Microsoft 365 Copilot, its latest push to embed its suite of productivity and enterprise apps with AI. Currently in testing with select (around 20) commercial customers, Copilot combines the power of AI models including OpenAI's recently announced GPT-4 with business data and Microsoft 365 apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams. "Today marks the next major step in the evolution of how we interact with computing, which will fundamentally change the way we work and unlock a new wave of productivity growth," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a statement. Copilot handles different tasks depending on the app in which it's used. For example, in Word, Copilot writes, edits, summarizes and generates text, while in PowerPoint and Excel, Copilot turns natural language commands into designed presentations and data visualizations.

Feedly has taken its artificial intelligence research assistant, Leo, out of … or topic) and Leo incorporates the action into its machine learning algorithm.