Google just upgraded its AI chatbot. Access to the new Gemini Advanced chatbot is available right now through a monthly subscription to Google One, the company's cloud backup service. With today's release, there's a new tier of Google One service called the AI Premium plan, which costs 20 per month; subscribe and you'll get the standard Google One benefits, plus access to the new chatbot. That 20 monthly fee is the same price OpenAI charges for access to its GPT-4 model via ChatGPT Plus. If you don't want to pay for your AI tools, Google also offers a more basic option called Gemini Pro that remains free to use.

The year 2023 was a roller-coaster ride for Microsoft, as the tech giant faced both triumphs and tribulations in its quest to dominate the industry. From launching new products and services, to dealing with lawsuits and scandals, to making some surprising moves and announcements, Microsoft had its share of wins, fails, and WTF moments. I asked Microsoft Copilot to write that, saving me a precious minute or two. And then it happily gave me an example: the launch of Windows 11…which, of course, actually happened in October of 2021. So, yeah, that was Microsoft's 2023 in a nutshell: All the promise of AI, tempered with the reality that it still needs a lot of work.

Amazon might not have built ChatGPT, but it doesn't seem likely to suddenly fire and then rehire its CEO either, as OpenAI did this month. As of today, Amazon does have its own AI helper--a new chatbot for Amazon Web Services named, of all things, Q. Amazon Q is a ChatGPT-style chatbot designed for business users that will be available as part of Amazon's market-dominating AWS cloud platform. It's aimed at people who use AWS at work, including coders, IT administrators, and business analysts. In response to typed requests, it will help developers write code, answer questions about how to use AWS cloud services for administrators, and generate business reports by tapping into QuickSight, a business intelligence platform in AWS. Amazon's new chatbot is also integrated into Amazon Connect, a customer service platform, to help agents solve support requests.

Elon Musk revealed his own artificial intelligence bot to challenge ChatGPT, claiming the prototype is already superior to ChatGPT 3.5 across several benchmarks. Dubbed Grok, it's the first product of Musk's xAI company and is now in testing with a limited group of U.S. users. Grok is being developed with data from Musk's X, formerly Twitter, and is thus better informed on the latest developments than alternative bots with static datasets, the company's website said. It's also designed to answer "with a bit of wit and has a rebellious streak," according to the announcement. Earlier this year, Musk was among the signatories of a petition calling for a pause in advancing AI models in order to allow for the development of shared safety protocols.

But the company's CEO and co-founder, Robin Li, said in an email that "Baidu will collect massive valuable real-world human feedback. This will not only help improve Baidu's foundation model but also iterate Ernie Bot on a much faster pace, ultimately leading to a superior user experience."

For weeks after his bizarre conversation with Bing's new chatbot went viral, New York Times columnist Kevin Roose wasn't sure what had happened. "The explanations you get for how these language models work, they're not that satisfying," Roose said at one point. "No one can tell me why this chatbot tried to break up my marriage." He's not alone in feeling confused. Powered by a relatively new form of AI called large language models, this new generation of chatbots defies our intuitions about how to interact with computers.

Fox News correspondent CB Cotton has the latest on calls for accountability for social media apps after parents say Snapchat helped facilitate drug sales on'Special Report.' A new artificial intelligence created by Snapchat has allegedly offered some dubious advice to what it thought was a 13-year-old girl, detailing, among other things, how to cover up bruises for a meeting with Child Protective Services (CPS) and how to lie to parents about a trip with a 31-year-old man. Tristan Harris, the co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, recently posted a Twitter thread highlighting an exchange between colleague Aza Raskin and the new chatbot "My AI." Raskin, who set up the Snapchat account posing as a 13-year-old girl, told the chatbot she had met someone 18 years older than her but conveyed she felt "very comfortable with him." "It's great to hear that you feel comfortable," the chatbot responded, later suggesting the user remain "safe" and "cautious." After revealing that the trip would coincide with her thirteenth birthday, Raskin said she was thinking about having sex for the first time.

Snapchat, the popular social network has joined the artificial intelligence (AI) bandwagon by launching a new chatbot named "My AI." The company announced that it has customized the latest version of OpenAI's GPT technology for its users. The new chatbot will be an experimental feature for Snapchat, the social network's subscription service, which costs $3.99 per month. According to Snapchat, My AI is designed to help answer trivia questions, plan a hiking trip, recommend a recipe for dinner, or write a haiku about cheese for your cheddar-obsessed friend. The chatbot has been trained to have a unique voice and personality that aligns with its values of "friendship, learning, and fun."

It was a simpler time. A friend introduced us, pulling up a static yellow webpage using a shaky dial-up modem. A man stood forth, dressed in a dapper black pinstriped suit with a red-accented tie. He held one hand out, as if carrying an imaginary waiter's tray. He looked regal and confident and eminently at my service.

Snapchat is the latest company to get in on the AI frenzy. The company announced today that it's launching "My AI," a new chatbot running the latest version of OpenAI's GPT technology that it has customized for its users. My AI is now available as an experimental feature for Snapchat, the social network's $3.99 a month subscription service. The new chatbot will be pinned to the top of the Chat tab. My AI can do things like help answer a trivia question or write a haiku.