Google just dropped its most advanced family of A.I. models yet, and they give business owners a whole new bag of tricks. Today, the company announced Gemini, its most advanced A.I. model to date, and business owners will be able to begin integrating the tech in just a week. 

What makes Gemini so unique compared to other A.I. models like ChatGPT is that it's designed to be multimodal, meaning it can respond to spoken questions, images, and text or code all at the same time. For example, users could upload a picture or video and ask the system to write a poem about what it sees. Other multimodal platforms are made by separately training models with different capabilities and then stitching them together. 

In a video showing how this multimodality can be harnessed for product ideation, a user shows Gemini an image of two balls of colored yarn and asks what he could make with the materials. In response, the chatbot generates photorealistic images of items that could be made with the yarn, such as crochet cakes and fruit. In another example of how Gemini can transform one piece of media into another, the user draws a picture of a guitar, and asks Gemini to create music inspired by the image. When the user adds an electric amp to the drawing, Gemini changes the music to fit. 

The model could also be a boon to businesses with research-heavy operations. In another video, Google researchers described an incident in which they needed to update a dataset with new information, but to do that, they'd need to sift through over 200,000 scientific papers. The researchers asked Gemini to extract key data from the relevant papers and filter out the non-relevant papers. The A.I. whittled down the 200,000 papers to 250 and updated the study with the new data.

Google says there will be three versions of Gemini: Gemini Nano, designed to power generative A.I. applications on mobile devices; Gemini Pro, designed for deployment at scale; and Gemini Ultra, designed for highly-complex tasks that need extra computing power and reasoning.

Currently, Gemini can only be accessed by using Google's chatbot Bard, but on December 13, developers and enterprise customers will be able to integrate the Gemini API into their business and make use of Gemini Pro and Nano. The Ultra version is expected to be released in early 2024.

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The beginning of a new era has arrived at Google with the unveiling of Gemini, the tech giant’s new AI large language model that looks to eventually power many Google products and services, CEO Sundar Pichai said Wednesday.

“Gemini [is] our most capable and general model yet, with state-of-the-art performance across many leading benchmarks,” said Pichai in a blog post. “It was built from the ground up to be multimodal, which means it can generalize and seamlessly understand, operate across and combine different types of information including text, code, audio, image and video.”

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company plans to license Gemini to customers through Google Cloud for them to use in their own workloads and applications.

Google’s new Gemini LLM will power its generative AI chatbot, Bard, to help with advanced understanding, reasoning, planning and other abilities. It will also be injected into Google’s Search Generative Experience, which answers search queries with conventional texts.

In 2024, Google said Gemini will become available in more of its products and services including Search, Chrome and Duet AI.

“This new era of models represents one of the biggest science and engineering efforts we’ve undertaken as a company,” said Pichai. “I’m genuinely excited for what’s ahead, and for the opportunities Gemini will unlock for people everywhere.”

The launching of Gemini today comes approximately one-year after Microsoft-backed OpenAI launched ChatGPT in late November 2023. Versions of Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology will likely compete in the market.

Gemini Flavors: Ultra, Pro And Nano

There are three flavors to Google’s new LLM: Nano, Pro and Ultra.

Gemini Ultra is Google’s largest LLM, which the company says can outperform human experts on massive multitask language understanding (MMLU) that leverages dozens of subjects—such as physics, math, law, and history—for problem solving and knowledge.

“Gemini Ultra’s performance exceeds current state-of-the-art results on 30 of the 32 widely-used academic benchmarks. With a score of 90 percent, Gemini Ultra is the first model to outperform human experts on MMLU,” said CEO Sundar Pichai.

Next in line is Gemini Pro, which will power many Google AI services going forward and has now become the backbone of Google Bard. Pro is Google’s best model for scaling across a wide range of tasks, the company said.

Gemini Nano is the lightweight flavor of Gemini that is meant to be used directly on devices and on-device tasks, including in edge environments. It can also run natively and offline on Android devices. Google Pixel 8 users will get new features this year via Nano.

“Gemini is also our most flexible model yet — able to efficiently run on everything from data centers to mobile devices,” said Demis Hassabis, CEO and Co-Founder of Google AI business unit DeepMind in a blog post. “Its state-of-the-art capabilities will significantly enhance the way developers and enterprise customers build and scale with AI.”

Beginning Dec. 13, enterprise customers and developers can get access to Gemini Pro via the Gemini API in Google Cloud Vertex AI or in Google AI Studio, the company’s free web-based developer tool to prototype and launch applications quickly.

Advance Coding Abilities

One key use case for Gemini is advanced coding.

Gemini can understand, explain and generate high-quality code in the world’s most popular programming languages such as Python, Java, C++, and Go.

Its ability to work across languages and reason about complex information makes it one of the leading foundation models for coding in the world, said Hassabis.

“Gemini can be used as the engine for more advanced coding systems,” he said. “We’re excited for programmers to increasingly use highly capable AI models as collaborative tools that can help them reason about the problems, propose code designs and assist with implementation — so they can release apps and design better services, faster.”

Google CEO’s On AI Future

Google’s CEO says his company worked hard to ensure Gemini’s safety and responsibility, both through internal and external testing as well as via rigorous security risk assessments.

“AI has the potential to create opportunities — from the everyday to the extraordinary — for people everywhere,” said Pichai. “It will bring new waves of innovation and economic progress and drive knowledge, learning, creativity and productivity on a scale we haven’t seen before.”

Google AI goal with Gemini is to make AI more helpful for everyone in the world.

“This is incredible momentum, and yet, we’re only beginning to scratch the surface of what’s possible,” Pichai said. “I believe the transition we are seeing right now with AI will be the most profound in our lifetimes, far bigger than the shift to mobile or to the web before it.”

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An early computer program built in the 1960s has beaten the viral AI chatbot ChatGPT at the Turing test, designed to differentiate humans from artificial intelligence.

Researchers from UC San Diego in the US tested the early chatbot ELIZA, created in the mid-1960s by MIT scientist Joseph Weizenbaum, against modern versions of the technology.

They found that ELIZA outperformed OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 AI, which powers the company’s free version of ChatGPT.

The Turing test has been the benchmark for determining a machine’s ability to imitate human conversation ever since it was first conceived in 1950 by British computer scientist Alan Turing.

The latest study required 652 human participants to judge whether they were talking to another human or an AI chatbot over the internet.

OpenAI’s GPT-4 chatbot, which is more powerful than the free version of the technology, was able to trick the study’s participants more frequently than ELIZA, with a success rate of 41 per cent.

A conversation with the Eliza chatbot

(Wikimedia Commons)

ELIZA was able to pass itself off as a human 27 per cent of the time, while GPT-3.5 had a success rate of just 14 per cent.

AI expert Gary Marcus described the success of ELIZA as “embarrassing” for modern tech companies working on AI chatbots, however other academics argued that ChatGPT was not designed to perform well in the Turing test.

“I think the fact that GPT-3.5 loses to ELIZA is not that surprising when you read the paper,” Ethan Mollick, an AI professor at the Wharton School in the US, posted on X (formerly Twitter).

“OpenAI has considered impersonation risk to be a real concern, and has RLHF [reinforcement learning from human feedback] to ensure ChatGPT doesn’t try to pass as human. ELIZA very much is designed to pass using our psychology.”

One of the reasons noted in the study for participants mistaking ELIZA for a human was that it was “too bad” to be a current AI model, and therefore “was more likely to be a human intentionally being uncooperative”.

Arvind Narayanan, a computer science professor at Princeton who was not involved in the research, said: “As always, testing behaviour doesn’t tell us about capability. ChatGPT is fine-tuned to have a formal tone, not express opinions, etc., which makes it less humanlike.”

The study, titled ‘Does GPT-4 pass the Turing test’, is yet to be peer reviewed.

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First the main figures. Total revenue was $593 million, which is $6 million less than what Mozilla earned in 2021. It is still $100 million more than the revenue of 2020.

The majority of revenue comes from royalties. Mozilla does not divide royalties payments by company, but the majority comes from the Google search deal. Royalties earned Mozilla $510 million in 2022, which is $17 million less than in 2021. Since some of it is performance-based, it is possible that losses in users have attributed to the decline. Then again, there may be other factors at play here.

Mozilla's other revenue sources are dominated by subscription and advertising. These rose to $75 million in 2022, an increase of nearly $20 million over the 2021 revenue.

The past couple of years saw the release of several products by Mozilla. Some of them were free to use, others require a subscription. Notable products established in the past couple of years are Firefox Monitor, Mozilla VPN, and Firefox Relay. There is also the FakeSpot service that Mozilla acquired recently that may help increase revenue in the coming years. Last but not least, Pocket is still growing strong and contributing to revenue.

Expenses have skyrocketed on the other hand from $339 million in 2021 to $425 million in 2022. The main driving factors are software development, general and administrative, and branding and marketing.

Software development increased by $21 million to $220 million in 2022. Branding and marketing by $28 million to $58 million, and general and administrative from $81 million to $108 million.

All in all, Mozilla managed to increase its net assets by almost $150 million in 2022. Assets sit now at a comfortable $1197 million.

Mozilla and Google agreed on a three-year search deal in 2022. Both companies did not reveal specifics about the deal, but it is clear that Google is still the main factor behind Mozilla's revenue.

Both parties have not made any announcement regarding an extension of the deal. Mozilla's survival still depends on search engine deals, even though other revenue sources show continued growth. While Google is the most likely candidate, there is also a possibility that Microsoft could take over with its Bing search engine.

Mozilla accelerated its investment strategy in 2023. The organization invested in a total of 25 companies and acquired Fakespot up to this day. Last year, Mozilla acquired 2 companies and invested in 3 companies, according to well-informed blogger Sören Hentzschel)

Now You: have you tried Firefox recently?

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BioWare celebrated Dragon Age Day with the new teaser trailer for the upcoming Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. Though brief, the teaser offered glimpses at several new lands players will get to explore when the game launches.

The trailer featured shots of the Anderfels, known for its desolate badlands and distant mountain peaks. Players can also venture through the twisting canals and gleaming towers of Antiva, where the assassins known as Crows lurk in the shadows. Rivain's turquoise seas and lush greenery made an appearance as well.

This is a world brimming with stories and characters waiting to meet you. The fate of this world teeters on the edge of a knife. In past games, you only got to see a slice of the world. In Origins, it was Ferelden—a land ravaged by war and Dark Spawn. In II, it was Kirkwall and its locales—festering with corruption and a dark underworld. And in Inquisition, you ventured across much of Orlais—facing down political intrigue as often as combat.

In addition to confirming these returning locales, BioWare revealed players will get to visit entirely new regions of Thedas never seen before in the Dragon Age franchise. The expansive world will allow more locations than in previous games.

This time, however, much more of Thedas is yours to see. The desolate, beautiful badlands of the Anderfels with curtains of distant mountainous spires. The twisting canals and gleaming towers of Antiva, where Crows may lurk in any shadow. The turquoise seas of Rivain with its rushes of greenery and hardy sea-faring people. And of course, there’s more.

A fuller reveal is planned for the summer of 2024, six years after the tease at The Game Awards in 2018. The game will then be released for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.

While disappointing fans hoping for a 2024 release, the new teaser shows BioWare's focus on world-building and environmental storytelling.

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What you need to know

• Each month, Valve conducts an optional survey through Steam that collects data about the hardware and software its customers use in their PCs.
• The results of the November 2023 survey have been published, and they suggest there have been some interesting shifts.
• Compared to October's survey, the use of 1440p resolution has fallen by over 7%. Meanwhile, Windows 10 use has decreased by 12.05%, while Windows 11 use has gone up by 11.51%. 
• Most users are still playing at 1080p, and the most commonly used GPU is still NVIDIA's RTX 3060. However, it did fall by 4.79%, which is notable.

Every month, Valve conducts an optional and anonymous hardware and software survey through Steam that collects data about its customers' PC builds. The results of these surveys are posted publicly on Steam's website, and now that December's here, the data for November 2023 is in — and it suggests that there have been some interesting shifts.

Arguably the most surprising result is that 2560x1440 resolution was found to be used by just 15.97% of users — a large 7.17% decrease from October's sampling. I definitely wasn't expecting to see this, especially since 1440p looks considerably better than 1080p and isn't too much harder to run in most cases. To be clear, it's still the second most popular resolution after 1080p, which accounts for 60.09% (+1.08%) of Steam's player base. However, a drop of over 7% is a lot, and implies a good number of PC gamers may be moving to more budget-friendly displays. 1366x768 gets the bronze at 4.10% (+0.86%), followed by 3840x2160 (4K) at 3.72% (+1.13%); all other resolutions each account for ~3% or less of what folks are using.

The use of the Windows 10 operating system has also fallen to 53.53% (-12.05%), accompanied by an increase up to 42.04% for Windows 11 (+11.51%). This indicates that many folks who've stuck with Windows 10 since the launch of the newer OS in late 2021 have opted to migrate to Windows 11, likely enticed to do so by numerous improvements and refinements that Microsoft has made over time.

Valve's official breakdown of the most common display resolutions used by Steam users. (Image credit: Steam)

Notably, both Intel and NVIDIA are still beating AMD in the hardware department here, with 65.28% of survey participants using Team Blue CPUs and 75.12% playing with Team Green graphics cards. The most commonly used GPU is still the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 at 4.89%; however, that's still a 4.79% decrease compared to October's results, suggesting that gamers have been making upgrades (Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and holiday season discounts certainly helped with that, I'm sure).

49.88% — close to half of all survey participants — are using 16GB of RAM in their system, while 31.88% have 6-core CPUs (23% have 4-core chips, and 20.55% have 8-core ones). Also, 23.46% of users have 100GB to 249GB of storage space free, while 51.99% have over 1TB of total space. The storage struggle is real, and I'm not sure if even the best SSDs can save us.

You can view the full results of the survey here. Something important to note is that since all these stats come from randomly-chosen participants every month, they don't represent the entirety of Steam's user base. Even taking that into consideration, though, big shifts of 4% or more are uncommon, and likely are indicative of noteworthy market shifts.

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IBM has unveiled the first quantum computer with more than 1,000 qubits — the equivalent of the digital bits in an ordinary computer. But the company says it will now shift gears and focus on making its machines more error-resistant rather than larger.

For years, IBM has been following a quantum-computing road map that roughly doubled the number of qubits every year. The chip unveiled on 4 December, called Condor, has 1,121 superconducting qubits arranged in a honeycomb pattern. It follows on from its other record-setting, bird-named machines, including a 127-qubit chip in 2021 and a 433-qubit one last year.

Quantum computers promise to perform certain computations that are beyond the reach of classical computers. They will do so by exploiting uniquely quantum phenomena such as entanglement and superposition, which allow multiple qubits to exist in multiple collective states at once.

But these quantum states are also notoriously fickle, and prone to error. Physicists have tried to get around this by coaxing several physical qubits — each encoded in a superconducting circuit, say, or an individual ion — to work together to represent one qubit of information, or ‘logical qubit’.

As part of its new tack, the company also unveiled a chip called Heron that has 133 qubits, but with a record-low error rate, three times lower than that of its previous quantum processor.

Researchers have generally said that state-of-the-art error-correction techniques will require more than 1,000 physical qubits for each logical qubit.

A machine that can do useful computations would then need to have millions of physical qubits.

But in recent months, physicists have grown excited about an alternative error-correction scheme called quantum low-density parity check (qLDPC).

It promises to cut that number by a factor of 10 or more, according to a preprint by IBM researchers1. The company says it will now focus on building chips designed to hold a few qLDPC-corrected qubits in just 400 or so physical qubits, and then networking those chips together.

The IBM preprint is “excellent theoretical work”, says Mikhail Lukin, a physicist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “That being said, implementing this approach with superconducting qubits seem to be extremely challenging and it will likely take years before even a proof-of-concept experiment can be tried in this platform,” Lukin says. Lukin and his collaborators conducted similar study on the prospect to implement qLDPC using individual atoms instead of superconducting loops2.

The catch is that the qLDPC technique requires each qubit to be directly connected to at least six others. In typical superconducting chips, each qubit is connected only to two or three neighbours. But Oliver Dial, a condensed-matter physicist and chief technology officer of IBM Quantum, at IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, says that the company has a plan: it will add a layer to the design of its quantum chips, to allow the extra connections required by the qLDPC scheme.

A new IBM road map on the its quantum research unveiled today sees it reaching useful computations — such as simulating the workings of catalyst molecules — by decade’s end. “It’s always been the dream, and it’s always been a distant dream,” says Dial. “Actually having it come close enough that we can see the path from where we are today for me is enormous.”

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-03854-1

References

Bravyi, S. et al. Preprint at arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2308.07915 (2023).

Xu, Q. et al. Preprint at arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2308.08648(2023).

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AMD often continues using older technology to offer customers more affordable products, a great strategy for those with tight budgets or those who do not need the latest and greatest. The problem is that the recent rebranding, besides being confusing, makes the old tech look like new. Intel's "Core Truth" points fingers at that approach, roasting the Ryzen 5 7520U for being built on the dated Zen 2 architecture from 2019 and trying to look like a more advanced product from 2022.

Intel compares the Ryzen 5 7520U with the Core i5-1335U and its 83% better score in the cherry-picked CrossMark benchmark developed by BapCo (this might not be the most unbiased metric as AMD and NVIDIA had both accused the firm of favoring Intel in the past), highlighting that "the latest does not always mean the latest."

The company implies that an unsuspicious customer may falsely assume that the Ryzen 5 7520U is the most recent product only because it has the number 7 in its name, just like the latest AM5 CPUs. In reality, only the third number indicates the architecture. Intel says the truth is hidden in plain sight (an Orange sticker might also help) but also very hard to spot at the same time.

Here is how to decipher AMD's cryptic processor names:

• The first number stands for the release year: 7 - 2022, 8 - 2023, 9 - 2024, etc.
• The second number indicates the market segment: 1 and 2 - Athlon, 3 and 4 - Ryzen 3, etc.
• The third number points at the architecture: 2 - Zen 2, 3 - Zen 3, 4 - Zen 4, etc.
• The fourth number is for feature isolation: 0 - lower model, 5 - upper model.
• The letter indicates the TDP and form factor: U - ultrabooks, HS - gaming, etc.

Therefore, you can translate the Ryzen 5 7520U as a mid-tier Zen 2-processor released in 2022 for ultrabooks with 15-28W TDP.

AMD positions its Ryzen 7020 processors at budget-friendly devices with more advanced iGPUs and education markets. Intel counters the argument by claiming that "the future of education and learning depends on the latest technology," and adding that the Intel Core i3-N305 offers faster performance in benchmarks and music or photo editing.

You can check out Intel's "Core Truths" PDF on the official website (via @momomo_us).

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The family portrait of IBM's quantum processors, with the two new arrivals (Heron and Condor) at right.

IBM

 

On Monday, IBM announced that it has produced the two quantum systems that its roadmap had slated for release in 2023. One of these is based on a chip named Condor, which is the largest transmon-based quantum processor yet released, with 1,121 functioning qubits. The second is based on a combination of three Heron chips, each of which has 133 qubits. Smaller chips like Heron and its successor, Flamingo, will play a critical role in IBM's quantum roadmap—which also got a major update today.

 

Based on the update, IBM will have error-corrected qubits working by the end of the decade, enabled by improvements to individual qubits made over several iterations of the Flamingo chip. While these systems probably won't place things like existing encryption schemes at risk, they should be able to reliably execute quantum algorithms that are far more complex than anything we can do today.

 

We talked with IBM's Jay Gambetta about everything the company is announcing today, including existing processors, future roadmaps, what the machines might be used for over the next few years, and the software that makes it all possible. But to understand what the company is doing, we have to back up a bit to look at where the field as a whole is moving.

Qubits and logical qubits

Nearly every aspect of working with a qubit is prone to errors. Setting its initial state, maintaining that state, performing operations, and reading out the state can all introduce errors that will keep quantum algorithms from producing useful results. So a major focus of every company producing quantum hardware has been to limit these errors, and great strides have been made in that regard.

 

There's some indication that those strides have now gotten us to the point where it's possible to execute some simpler quantum algorithms on existing hardware. And it's likely that this potential will expand to further algorithms thanks to the improvements that we can probably expect over the next few years.

 

In the long term, though, we're unlikely to ever get the qubit hardware to the point where the error rate is low enough that a processor could successfully complete a complex algorithm that might require billions of operations over hours of computation. For that, it's generally acknowledged that we'll need error-corrected qubits. These involve spreading the quantum information held by a qubit—termed a "logical qubit"—across multiple hardware qubits. Additional qubits are used to monitor the logical qubit for errors and allow for their correction.

 

Computing using logical qubits requires two things. One is that the error rates of the individual hardware qubits have to be low enough that individual errors can be identified and corrected before new ones take place. (There's some indication that the hardware is good enough for this to work with partial efficiency.) The second thing you need is lots of hardware qubits, since each logical qubit requires multiple hardware qubits to function. Some estimates suggest we'll need a million hardware qubits to create a machine capable of hosting a useful number of logical qubits.

 

IBM is now saying that it expects to have a useful number of logical qubits by the end of the decade, and Gambetta explained how today's announcements fit into that roadmap.

Qubits and gates

Gambetta said that the company has been taking a two-track approach to getting its hardware ready. One aspect of this has been developing the ability to consistently fabricate high-quality qubits in large numbers. And he said that the 1,000+ qubit Condor is an indication that the company is in good shape in that regard. "It's about 50 percent smaller qubits," Gambetta told Ars. "The yield is right up there—we got the yield close to 100 percent."

 

The second aspect IBM has been working on is limiting errors that occur when operations are done on individual or pairs of qubits. These operations, termed gates, can be error-prone themselves. And changing the state of a qubit can produce subtle signals that can bleed into neighboring qubits, a phenomenon called crosstalk. Heron, the smaller of the new processors, represents a four-year effort to improve gate performance. "It's a beautiful device," Gambetta said. "It's five times better than the previous devices, the errors are way less, [and] crosstalk can't really be measured."

 

Many of the improvements come down to introducing tunable couplers to the qubits, a change from the fixed-frequency hardware the company had used previously. This has sped up all gate operations, with some seeing a 10-fold boost. The less time you spend doing anything with a qubit, the less of an opportunity there is for errors to crop up.

 

Many of these improvements were tested over multiple iterations of the company's Eagle chip, which was first introduced in 2021. The company's new roadmap will see an improved iteration of the 133-qubit Heron released next year that will enable 5,000 gate operations. That will be followed with multiple iterations of next year's 156-qubit Flamingo processor that will take gate operations up to 15,000 by 2028.

 

These chips will also be linked together into larger processors like Crossbill and Kookaburra that also appear on IBM's roadmap (for example, seven Flamingos could be linked to create a processor with a similar qubit count to the current Condor). The focus here will be on testing different means of connecting qubits, both within and between chips.

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Josh Miller laughs a few minutes into our conversation and admits that he almost declined today’s interview about The Browser Company. The young CEO is jetlagged from a flight to Paris but appears comfortable over Zoom and eager to talk about Arc, his company's new AI-fortified web browser. So, what’s the reason for his hesitancy? “We weren't sure if we wanted more people to use it,” says Miller. “It’s legitimately a problem how [many] people are interested.” In other words, the Arc browser is too popular—a pretty enviable problem for a software entrepreneur.

On the cover of our 1997 March issue, WIRED editors declared, “The Web browser itself is about to croak.” Whoops! A quarter century later, not only are browsers still here, ribbiting along, but developers continue to update the user experience. The latest upgrade? Generative AI, of course.

Microsoft released a nascent version of its Edge browser that uses OpenAI’s ChatGPT model at the start 2023. By the time Google launched sign-ups for the Search Generative Experience in May, multiple smaller companies and startups were poised to launch AI tools for browsers as well.

“We're building a whole super-agent natively integrated into your browser with a team of six,” says Mahyad Ghassemibouyaghchi, founder and CEO of SigmaOS. His startup browser launched a tool, called Airis, just a week after Google announced its SGE experiment. Opera, a small but long-running browser company from Norway, dropped its AI-imbued browser in late June.

Miller, who previously worked as a product manager at Facebook and the White House under Obama, led Arc to its 1.0 launch around the same time, sans chatbot tools. The software was a hit, with positive reviews and influential users like Marques Brownlee.

“We've been pretty big AI skeptics ourselves,” says Miller. “Very wary of the hype.” Despite the apprehension, by fall The Browser Company debuted Arc Max, with generative AI. Reaction from users was intense. On launch day, the new AI tool surpassed Browser’s data limit and the company was forced to reach out to OpenAI and Anthropic to ask for more.

Summarize the Web

That brings us to a critical question: What can these AI tools actually do in browsers? Well, in its first week, Arc Max users created over a million summaries using generative AI to see previews of hyperlinked information as they’re searching the internet, before clicking on the web page. For example, I searched for “namedrop apple” in Google and hovered the cursor over my article about this new iOS 17 feature. Here’s the web page summary created by AI:

Arc via Reece Rogers

Rewrite the Web

Instead of going to OpenAI’s website to use ChatGPT or another chatbot, composing AI text with Airis is fairly seamless. “Let's say you were writing a tweet,” says Ghassemibouyaghchi. “You ask Airis, ‘Rewrite this for me.’ And, it will rewrite your tweet in any tone, any format that you want.” As chatbots and the large language models underlying these tools improve, this AI-composed text may become even more passable as human-written content.

Contextualize the Web

“It changes the way that you browse the web. You don't need to open a new tab, do a Google search, and find something that's somewhat related,” says Brian Bondy, a cofounder and CTO at Brave, another browser startup that added AI as part of the user experience. “You just ask the question on the page that you're on.” In a sidebar on the right side of your screen, Brave’s browser assistant, Leo, can answer questions about the content on web pages and provide additional context as you browse the internet. The company’s basic AI tool runs on Meta’s open source Llama 2 model, while the $15-a-month subscription version of Leo uses Anthropic’s Claude.

Personalize the Web

Software developers continue to experiment with ways generative AI can make browsers more tailored to your interests and the topics you’re looking at on each web page. “The vision that we have is the browsers being even more personal than they are today,” says Krystian Kolondra, an executive vice president and head of desktop browsers at Opera. Imagine a browser that is reactive to your unique interests as well as preferred modes of interaction and configures itself to what you want.

Surf Different

As first-adopters continue to play around with AI-enhanced browsers and companies mimic each other’s functions, the privacy protections offered remain a key differentiator. Sensitive information about who you are, where you live, and what you’re interested in is often fully exposed through your internet browsing habits. “We kind of broke all of the software industry rules,” says Miller. He’s upfront that The Browser Company decided not to release every AI tool that it developed, out of an abundance of caution for user’s privacy. Yes, nascent users often want the most powerful option, but they also may be inclined to trust AI tools more if the creators prioritize privacy.

Ghassemibouyaghchi mentions a conversation he said he had with Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, at an alumni gathering for the Y Combinator startup accelerator. “He had a very interesting take: that one of the crucial implementations of AI will be for personal productivity,” says Ghassemibouyaghchi. “Probably in a browser.” Although OpenAI declined to comment for this story, the company released a new platform, before all the leadership drama, where subscribers can create custom chatbot tools, often called AI agents, to answer questions and interact with software.

Many people working on alternative browsers see AI agents as a potential evolution of how to access the internet. For proponents, the hope is that algorithms continue to understand the context of our online interactions better, and eventually they might be able to browse the internet without us at all—or at least with minimal input. “We don't believe that we can get there any time soon,” says Kolondra. “But these are the levels that we're thinking about.”

Miller remains skeptical of a future where humanity’s doomscrolling days are over and algorithms are the only ones clicking around the internet. “It's quite dystopian to think of a world where there will be an AI bot that just does everything on your behalf,” he says. Miller compares Arc’s tools to the automatic cruise control on a car, rather than some complete, self-driving software.

Despite disagreements about how AI tools will eventually manifest, all of these business leaders are dedicated to crafting the best possible experience for users. No super-powered AI can distract Miller from his mission: “Let's just make your day a little bit better. Let's not pretend like we're revolutionizing the world.”

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Television

ILLUSTRATION: RICARDO REY

Picture this: Screens everywhere. Screens in your palm, screens in your autonomous vehicle, screens embedded in the street sign that used to help you know where to turn, back when humans were still driving cars. This is television in the year 2053. To call it television, though, is quaint. Display hardware will be astonishing—thinner, brighter, able to roll up like a magazine—and so unbelievably cheap to produce that the sets will be free. Well, free of cost but not of commitment. Anyone who signs up for Jeff Bezos’ ad-supported BlueOriginals TV service, which scooped up Elon Musk’s Starlink to broadcast its AI programming globally, will qualify for a free TV. Subscribers to the streaming service from DisneyCharter-­Shopify-WarnerBros.-Discovery+, which acquired TikTok’s US assets after the ban, gets a free set. Buyers of the $640 Apple Vision Pro XX headset get a free Apple TV display bundled in.

There will be so many screens that nesting partners will become polyscreenerous, each of them soaking up audiovisual feeds from two or more personal screens simultaneously, comprising what designer and author Erika Hall calls “our own idiosyncratic combination of device and content.”

A small child who suffered permanent hearing loss after seeing Oppenheimer on Imax in 2023 will have gone on to develop groundbreaking captioning technology for transparent screens—we’ll want it because the sound will still suck. “The only hardware issue that needs to get fixed: AUDIO!” says Tony Fadell, famed product designer and inventor of the iPod. “Smaller, thinner screens run counter to first-­principle audio physics. Solve that, Samsung!” Samsung, doing its best to make Tony happy, will announce a new four-­dimensional spatial audio soundbar at CES 2053, but it will only come bundled with a 4D TV. —Lauren Goode

Phone

ILLUSTRATION: GIOVANNI MEDALLA

When you look at the phone you have now, you might think we’re 99 percent done. Nothing more to see here. Not so fast: According to Counterpoint Research exec Neil Shah, a 2053 smartphone won’t be a phone at all. It’ll be embedded in a headset or our ears or even our brain. “It will have generative and cognitive AI capabilities,” Shah says, “which will learn our habits and anticipate what we need to do next, seamlessly connecting to ambient devices at the office or on the road and make switching between them a breeze.”

A pocketable virtual assistant empowered by artificial intelligence to foretell our wants, streaming a playlist tailored to our mood as we step into the robotaxi it hailed for us, will make our phones the personalized everything machines we’ve always imagined they would be. It also means we’ll be physically interacting with our mobile devices far less. We’ll go from gazing at our handsets all day to rarely ever needing to tap, swipe, or issue a voice command. In the instances when a screen is necessary, we won’t rely solely on slabs of glass but also funkier designs, like a rolled-up display that transforms into a palm-size touchscreen.

Manufacturing will need to transform to meet the demands of a world defined by gaping inequality, scarce resources, and an overabundance of waste. Fairphone cofounder Miquel Ballester is looking to build fully traceable cradle-to-grave supply chains in which every human involved earns a living wage. A pipe dream? We hope not. He’s also excited about the potential of soluble printed circuit boards that can be dissolved in water “so that every component can be easily separated and recycled.” Cool, though we do wonder what that will do to the device’s IPX rating. —Sophie Charara

Health and Fitness Tracking

ILLUSTRATION: GIOVANNI MEDALLA

When it comes to staying fit in the future, Ozempic-style drugs will do the bulk of the heavy lifting by keeping us slim. Getting swole will still require actual work, though. Infinite digital twins of your favorite Peloton instructor will lead simultaneous training sessions around the globe, with workouts tailored to your specific goals and needs. Location-aware ultra-­wideband chips, each an order of magnitude more powerful than the ones currently helping your iPhone sniff out nearby AirTags, will police your form by precisely tracking the movements of the tiny sensors embedded in your sweat-wicking workout clothes.

Smartwatches will still be popular (and fashionable), but instead of just counting reps, they’ll keep close tabs on a wider array of health conditions. New sensors that more accurately monitor blood pressure, glucose levels, and heart rate will feed data into an on-­device AI analysis engine that correlates any irregularities with the historical and real-time health data of family members.

Jennifer Radin, an epidemiologist who has conducted research for Scripps and the Centers for Disease Control, says the data that today’s devices collect lacks detail. In a 2053 world full of cheap and ubiquitous wearables, these devices will not only tell us when we’re getting sick, but data from millions of those wearables will be used to create granular health models of every community, predicting the spread of viruses and allergens and tracking trends on a societal scale. “I hope this empowers the individual to both better understand their own health as well as outbreaks that may be occurring in their community or environmental impacts that are constantly changing,” Radin says.

Alerts will buzz all of your screens and devices whenever your virtual medic discerns it’s time for you to mask up, book a telehealth visit, or request a vax-by-drone appointment. If the news is more serious, we just hope the AI has a good bedside manner. —Boone Ashworth

Disaster Survival

ILLUSTRATION: RICARDO REY

The landscape of 2053 looks like the landscape of today, just more beat up. Forests blackened by fire, rivers muddied by runoff, skies obscured by smoke, and oceans whipped to a frothing violence by a rapidly warming biosphere. Given this grim fate, the technology we use to mitigate the impacts of our own planetary abuse and neglect will surely improve. Wearable air-quality monitors will alert us to the presence of particulate ash, carbon monoxide, mold spores, and pathogens like Covid-51. Our mobile devices will be able to scan food we’re about to eat for traces of microplastics and other potential toxins. Air-filtration masks will be thinner, more breathable, and, thanks to advances in antimicrobial polyester, infinitely reusable.

Robin Murphy, a professor of computer science and engineering at Texas A&M University and cofounder of the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue, envisions a future in which even the worst environmental catastrophes are rendered less devastating by technology. Key to this, she says, are autonomous robots. Firefighting drones will track blazes around the clock and drop fire retardant in zones where it’s unsafe to send humans. Armies of wee robots will snake through rubble to search for trapped survivors. Floating bots will navigate the smaller rivers that today’s equipment can’t accurately study, collecting data for the AI-enhanced flood prediction models that can let the most vulnerable residents know when it’s time to evacuate. “I foresee a world in which there’s a disaster, but it’s not an emergency,” Murphy says.

These technologies won’t supplant hands-on rescue work; they’ll supple­ment the efforts of first responders. Humans will still have to make the call about who gets help first and where to concentrate resources like food and water. The machines can take that over by 2083. —Boone Ashworth

Headphones

ILLUSTRATION: GIOVANNI MEDALLA

Over-ear headphones will have plummeted in popularity by 2053. Advances in materials and manufacturing will lead to smaller, lighter, more comfortable designs, and—more importantly—headphones that fit your ears perfectly. It’s already possible to buy earphones with tips shaped to match your outer ear canal, but 30 years from now, extraordinarily accurate and rapid mapping of your pinna and ear canal means you’ll be able to get headphones 3D-printed or molded to fit you and you alone. They’ll be so discreet and comfortable, you’ll forget you’re wearing them.

Advances in battery technology will be felt in headphones as surely as they will be in cars and other devices. Battery life will be increased by harvesting the energy of your movements and body heat. Improvements in wireless tech will enable stable and reliable transmission of enormously complex, information-rich data—way more than just audio, though the audio they pump out will exhibit a level of sonic fidelity and realism that makes the best of today’s headphones sound like someone playing a comb and paper next to your ear.

More than just aural escape pods, the in-ear headphone of 2053 will take on many of the tasks currently handled by our phones, acting as a portal, an assistant, and a platform for running apps. Making calls, instantly translating multilingual conversations, controlling the smart home—none of this will need a screen, just a tap or voice command. Headphones will have the computational power to act as a personal operating system, blurring the lines between audio accessory and mobile communicator. If considered purely as equipment, the headphones of the future will be as essential as clothing or shelter. —Simon Lucas

Car

ILLUSTRATION: RICARDO REY

Why are flying cars always held up as the future of automotive technology? We’ve had them since the 1940s—they’re called helicopters. In the modern world, electric vehicles have caused the biggest upheaval for the car industry since its inception, but the next three decades will feel less radical. Better batteries? Sure. Self-driving? Likely. Augmented reality windscreens? WayRay and others are developing them now. Declining car ownership? Certainly.

For Andy Palmer, CEO of the EV charging company Pod Point and ­former COO of Nissan, batteries will be the next big, boring advance. “They’ll be more energy-dense, meaning longer ranges,” he says. “We’ll see changes to the way batteries are charged—wireless potentially, and faster.” As far as more environmentally friendly fuels, Palmer says hydrogen is one to watch, assuming storage and production challenges can be overcome. And experts agree that the next decades will finally bring Level 5 autonomous driving—autos without steering wheels will be the norm.

Car ownership is a present-day status symbol. Mobility as a service (MaaS) will upend that, especially in cities. “On-demand motoring will become common­place, especially if cars can be summoned remotely,” Palmer says. “But in rural areas we won’t see a great deal of change.” Soumen Mandal, senior automotive analyst at Counterpoint, thinks pay-per-use subscriptions, ride-sharing, and ride-hailing will dominate while micromobility soars and new car sales stagnate. Of course, your robotaxi will hard-sell you add-ons: in-cabin video streaming, upgraded AR info, advanced safety features, and even custom scents.

The biggest shift will be societal. Three astonishing stats have not changed in two decades: Average daily journeys are under 30 miles; average car occupancy is 1.4 humans, making a typical five-seater far too big; and the average car spends 95 percent of its time parked. Translation: Today’s car makes no objective sense, and drastic change is inevitable. Yes, that does mean flying cars are coming. We just really hope those don’t have human drivers either. —Jeremy White

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Table of contents:

1. Windows 11 news
2. Updates are available
3. Gaming news
4. A blast from Microsoft's past
5. Random fact about Microsoft

A new Ugly Sweater!

To keep up with the tradition, Microsoft announced a new Windows Ugly Sweaterfor the 2023 holiday season. This time, it features bright colours of the legendary Bliss wallpaper from Windows XP, released 22 years ago. If you want to snag one, you better hurry up since this extremely exclusive, high-fashion product is available for a limited time and in limited quantities.

Windows 11 and Windows 10

Here we talk about everything happening around Microsoft's latest operating system in the Stable channel and preview builds: new features, removed features, controversies, bugs, interesting findings, and more. And of course, you may find a word or two about older but still supported versions.

Let us start the Windows 10/11 section with some fresh stats from Valve and Statcounter. According to Valve, Windows 11 is having a blast among the gaming audience, and more than 42% of all Windows users on the platform run Windows 11 as their main gaming OS.

Other types of users are slightly less enthusiastic about the OS Microsoft may replace with Windows "12" in 2024. Statcounter claims Windows 11's global market share is slightly above the 26% mark. The latest report from Statcounter also includes new data about Microsoft Edge, which is currently at an all-time high.

If you are thinking about upgrading from Windows 10 to 11, you may be interested in our latest benchmark comparing the performance of the two operating systems after a clean install. Results may surprise you and, spoiler alert, make you think twice before moving to Windows 11.

Windows 10 received a new optional non-security update, with Copilot as its primary change. Those sticking to the good old Windows 10 can try Microsoft's latest AI-powered assistant by installing KB5032278 from Windows Update (no longer requires enlisting into the Windows Insider Program).

Windows Insider Program

After taking a brief pause, Microsoft resumed releasing new preview builds each week. Here is what we received this week:

• Canary Channel: 26002 with a new energy saver, performance improvements for Quick Actions, and more.
• Dev Channel: 23595 with a new place for the Copilot icon and other changes.
• Beta Channel: 22635.2776 with support for more languages for the recently released inking improvements in Windows 11 version 23H2.

The new preview builds contain some interesting changes, some of which you might find slightly controversial. For example, Microsoft decided to try the Copilot icon in the bottom right corner of the screen. As a result, the "Show desktop" button is now turned off by default for some Windows Insiders. Luckily, you can revert that change with only a few clicks.

Another taskbar-related change in the latest Windows 11 preview builds is a new ID that breaks the old taskbar from Windows 10. Luckily, build 26002 ships with the ID turned off by default, so it is a bit too early to say goodbye to the old-styled taskbar.

Here is another slightly baffling story: Windows users discovered an uninvited app on their systems. According to numerous reports, Microsoft is installing the HP Smart app on Windows 10 and 11 for no apparent reason and without permission. If you have found one on your system and you do not use HP products, feel free to delete it without remorse.

As for improvements, the latest Windows 11 Canary builds contain an updated energy saver to help your device work for a bit longer when running out of battery juice. And for the first time ever, battery saver is available for desktop users. Microsoft says the change will help environment-conscientious users save energy.

Updates are available

This section covers software, firmware, and other notable updates (released and coming soon) delivering new features, security fixes, improvements, patches, and more from Microsoft and third parties.

There is no shortage of good browsers for Windows PCs, and competition is tough, to put it mildly, especially when you have players like Google Chrome absolutely dominating the market. However, Samsung is not afraid, and the company feels like it can get a piece of the pie with its Samsung Internet browser, now available on Windows 10 and 11. If you use Samsung Internet on your Android device, downloading the browser on your PC might be a solid alternative to other solutions, especially with features like sync, extension support, and Chromium under the skin.

Microsoft is finally rolling out the Cocreator feature in Paint on Windows 11, allowing users to generate art within the app using OpenAI's DALL-E model. According to numerous reports, Microsoft no longer requires enlisting in the Windows Insider Program or signing up on the waitlist.

Another great feature coming soon to one of the stock Windows 11 apps is the ability to use your Android phone as a webcam. Enthusiasts took apart one of the recent Link to Windows updates on Android and discovered many code strings hinting at the potential feature.

Paint's Cocreator feature is not the only thing that left the preview stage this week. In the official Bing blog, Microsoft announced that Bing Chat (now just Copilot) is out of preview. According to Microsoft, the end of the preview stage means "organizations and users can feel even more confident adopting it as part of their daily workflows." Ah, and the "PRE" badge is now gone.

Microsoft revealed that the Microsoft 365 extension for Chromium-based browsers is now dead. It is no longer receiving feature or security updates, and Microsoft plans to remove it from customers' computers on January 15, 2024.

The company also deprecated another Office-related product. The updated Windows documentation claims Microsoft Defender Application Guard for Office is no longer in development. Microsoft recommends using Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Protected View, and WDAG to keep computers within enterprises safe from infected Office documents.

Finally, TechNet Wiki, a website full of articles and discussions related to Microsoft products for IT Admins, will soon go read-only. The company plans to block new posts on December 5, 2023, so contributors better hurry up and back up their posts before it is too late.

Other notable updates released this week include the following:

• Microsoft is working on "Advanced Windows Settings" to give users and developers more control over their PCs. The change should arrive as a part of the recently launched Dev Home app for Windows 11.
• Skype Insider 8.110 is out with the TwinCam feature that lets you use your smartphone as a secondary camera during a video call. It is a great thing to have if you want to show something to your friend without going out of the frame.
• Preview versions of Word and Outlook received "research-backed" typography refinements with adaptive justification, kerning, and OpenType ligatures. You can try those changes in the latest preview build or turn them off in settings.
• Mozilla released Firefox 120.0.1 to resolve a bug causing 100% CPU usage, slow startup, green screen YouTube videos, and more.
• GPT-4 Turbo is coming soon to Copilot alongside a potential character limit increase (the current one is 5,000 characters).
• Activity-based authentication timeout support will leave Outlook for the Web in January 2024.

New driver updates released this week:

• AMD Software 23.30.13.01 with optimizations for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

The Microsoft 365 Roadmap Weekly finishes the update section with the latest features coming soon to Office and other productivity apps made by Microsoft. Those include Copilot for Microsoft Stream and an in-app device store for Teams where you can purchase Teams-certified cameras, headsets, desk phones, and more. And to make this week's Microsoft Weekly excellent, here is a recap of the new features introduced for Excel in November 2023.

On the gaming side

Learn about upcoming game releases, Xbox rumors, new hardware, software updates, freebies, deals, discounts and more.

After selling tons of GTA V copies for ten years, Rockstar Games is finally ready to reveal a Grand Theft Auto "6" trailer. The company's official X (Twitter) account announced the trailer reveal scheduled for December 5 at 9 AM Eastern time. It is too early for release dates, but at least we will soon know what the game looks like, where it is set, and more.

Do you remember Counter-Strike 1.6, Valve's legendary first-person shooter? In November 2023, Valve released an update to celebrate 25 years of the original Half-Life. As it turned out, the update included the earliest prototype of Left 4 Dead, another critically acclaimed game from Valve. Called "Terror Strike," the prototype uses Counter-Strike 1.6 assets to demonstrate the zombie swarm gameplay.

Another game getting an update with a surprise is Baldur's Gate 3. However, it is not as exciting as the one hidden inside Counter-Strike 1.6. According to Larian Studios, Baldur's Gate 3's upcoming update weighs 30GB, and it requires roughly 130GB of free space to install. The studio even recommends reinstalling the game to download the patched version. Let us all hit F in the chat to pay respects to gamers with sloppy internet connections.

Microsoft confirmed its plans to make Xbox-related announcements during the 2023 Game Awards Show, where, in 2019, the company unveiled Xbox Series X. Although we do not know what the company has in store, customers expect new games or even hardware, especially in light of the latest Xbox app update that brought a dedicated user interface for Windows-powered handheld consoles.

Microsoft also announced a new wave of games to hit Xbox Game Pass, PC Game Pass, and Cloud Gaming. Look out for Far Cry 6, Raise of the Tomb Raider, Goat Simulator 3, and more. Remnant: From the Ashes and Remnant 2 are also now available in the catalog.

By the way, do not expect Xbox Game Pass on other consoles, such as PlayStation 5 or Nintendo. In an interview with Windows Central, Phil Spencer revealed that the company does not plan to bring its gaming subscription to rival consoles. Still, it is researching a "roadmap for the Xbox Family Plan," something Microsoft abandoned earlier this year.

Deals and freebies

Ubisoft is giving away Assassin's Creed Syndicate to those playing PC games. The 2015-released installment of the Assassin's Creed franchise is up for grabs until December 6, 2023, so you still have plenty of time to snag one if you have not already.

If one game is not enough and you want to get more, check out NVIDIA's latest promo that grants RTX 40 Series buyers three months of PC Game Pass. All you have to do is follow the damn train purchase an eligible NVIDIA GPU.

Also, you can snag two games on the Epic Games Store: Jitsu Squad and Mighty Fight Federation are available for free until Thursday. The first one is an old-school beat 'em up, and the second one is an arena-style fighting. And, of course, you can always find more deals and offers in our weekly PC Game Deals series.

A blast from Microsoft's past

John Callaham's weekly "Look back" series provides throwbacks into the past, detailing the company's products, partnerships, mishaps, and successes from years ago.

Following the release of the original Halo TV series in 2022, Paramount is gearing up for the second season, rumored for a February 2024 debut. But did you know that Bungie, the original Halo development, had plans for a big-budget feature film? Check out this look-back story from John Callaham detailing the idea of a Halo movie and how it never happened due to numerous issues, including financial disputes with Microsoft.

Random fact about Microsoft

And here is a randomly selected piece of trivia about the company, Windows, and other Microsoft-made things.

Did you know that long before Teams, Microsoft launched an app for collaborative work and file sharing among users on a local network? Windows Meeting Space was a part of Windows Vista (Home Premium and more expensive editions) and allowed setting up impromptu meetings, sharing documents, text and ink messaging, and more. Windows Meeting Space failed to gain traction, and Microsoft discontinued it with the release of Windows 7. The company replaced WMS with Microsoft Office Live Meeting, a commercial web conferencing service.

Windows Meeting Space (Image credit: Codeguru.com)

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A number of Sony PlayStation Store users are finding that out the hard way this week. As reported by Kotaku, Sony sent out emails to those users, informing them that, after December 31, they wouldn't be able to watch any TV shows they paid for on the PlayStation Store that were produced by the Discovery cable TV service.

The email included a link to the many, many Discovery shows that will be affected by this situation. The link included an introduction that stated:

As of 31 December 2023, due to our content licensing arrangements with content providers, you will no longer be able to watch any of your previously purchased Discovery content and the content will be removed from your video library.

 

We sincerely thank you for your continued support.

 

Thank you,

 

PlayStation Store

Again, the list of Discovery TV shows that won't be available to watch on the PlayStation Store, even by people who purchased that content, is massive. They include whole seasons and even the entire runs of shows from well-known Discovery series like Cake Boss, Deadliest Catch, Finding Bigfoot, Jon & Kate Plus 8, Man vs. Wild, MythBusters, Naked and Afraid, Say Yes to the Dress, Shark Week, Sister Wives, and many, many more.

Kotaku also pointed out that while the PlayStation Store used to allow people to transfer content they bought to other devices like the PlayStation Portable, that feature is no longer available on the more recent PS4 and PS5 consoles. There's no indication that Sony and Discovery will make a last-minute attempt to extend the licensing agreement beyond December 31 so people who bought these shows can continue to watch them.

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The Alexa app has been updated with new customization options and a focus on smart home controls. With these updates, customers should be able to access their favorite features, easily control their devices, and jump into device settings in just a few taps.

• Favorites: Access your most-used devices and features on the Home page through Favorites. Supported device types include Echos, lights, plugs, switches, locks, cameras, thermostats, and temperature sensors, with more to come.
• Home Shortcuts bar: The Shortcuts bar on the Home page organizes devices by category and displays popular Alexa features like shopping lists, alarms, and Routines. You can customize the rotating carousel at the top of the Home page and view the state of your connected devices directly from Shortcuts.
• Streamlined Activity section: Activity cards now stack to show time-sensitive information like timers, alarms, and reminders. This frees up space on the Home page.
• Camera snapshots: If you subscribe to Ring Protect, you can soon view up to six snapshots from your connected Ring cameras directly from the Home page under Favorites.
• Chat and type with Alexa: Accessing Alexa chat is now easier with the new streamlined feature in the Alexa app. Simply tap the blue chat indicator to enjoy a full-screen chat experience, view visual responses, and receive conversation prompts.
• New search controls: The Devices page lets you filter content by device type, sort devices alphabetically by newest, oldest, or newest, and search for devices by name or keywords. You can also flip between List View and Map View to access a holistic view of your connected devices throughout your home.
• Map View: Select customers in the U.S. who have compatible iOS devices. They can now create a digital floor plan of their home and pin their connected devices to it. This feature provides an easy-to-understand visual representation of the home layout. It allows quick access to control smart home devices without navigating multiple lists or apps.

The new Alexa app features are available now in the Alexa iOS and Android mobile apps. More about it here.

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The game's official website has the highlights for the Update 2.1 release. The biggest new feature is a new metro system for Night City:

Travel around Night City with ease thanks to Night City Area Rapid Transport metro services. Stop worrying about the traffic and enjoy the view thanks to the 5 metro lines stopping on a total of 19 stations spread throughout the city. Service available only after V receives the text message from NCART.

CD Projekt Red also stated during its Update 2.1 Twitch stream today that players can skip actually traveling on the metro rail and simply use the stations as a fast travel feature.

Players can also expect changes to the game's boss battles:

We've introduced a number of improvements to boss fights, most notably to the one with Adam Smasher. It is now more iconic, as Smasher will better adapt to the tactics used by players, will be much more relentless and will use Sandevistan — much like he was in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.

Players will also be able to listen to the game's radio stations on their own with the Update 2.1 patch while on foot or riding on the metro.

Cyberpunk 2077 will also get some new vehicles, including a cabriolet version of the real Porsche 911. The update will also let players replay the car races, and motorbike races will add in ways for players to throw knives at other players.

Finally, the update will include some more accessibility features, including three colourblind options, new cinematic, radio, and overhead subtitles with options to resize them, and a new aim assist feature.

The Cyberpunk 2077 Update 2.1 patch will launch on Tuesday, December 5. That's also when the new Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition will be released, combining the base game with the recent Phantom Liberty expansion pack.

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In a complain letter obtained by Reuters, Google has accused Microsoft of using business tactics that left competitors at a significant disadvantage. This is not the first time UK regulators have received a complaint against Microsoft in relation to their cloud computing business. Earlier this year, Ofcom had asked the regulators to look into the business practices of Amazon and Microsoft as they were the leading cloud services providers in the region. This was followed by a formal investigation opened by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) into both Amazon and Microsoft.

In the letter submitted to the CMA, Google alleges that Microsoft's model and licensing practices discourage customers from going to their rivals for similar services.

With Microsoft’s licensing restrictions in particular, UK customers are left with no economically reasonable alternative but to use Azure as their cloud services provider, even if they prefer the prices, quality, security, innovations, and features of rivals,

Last year, Microsoft was forced to make amends to its licensing agreement after another investigation from the EU into the business. However, Google noted that those changes not enough to help a healthy competition in the industry.

A Microsoft spokesperson, on the hand, noted that these changes were made after the Redmond giant had consulted with independent cloud providers.

As the latest independent data shows, competition between cloud hyperscalers remains healthy. In the second quarter of 2023 Microsoft and Google made equally small gains on AWS, which continues to remain the global market leader by a significant margin.

Google's Cloud Vice President Amit Zavery gave a detailed statement to Reuters where he talked about why Microsoft poses a bigger threat to the industry even though Amazon AWS holds a bigger market share.

A lot of our software and cloud services interoperate, and can run on AWS or on Azure as well, so you're not restricted. If you don't fix this, eventually you will have fewer cloud providers, and then innovation will not really happen, and investments will start shrinking.

 

There are some issues, in terms of cloud interoperability, but we can fix that. That's a discussion between providers, which is much understood, and customers are forcing that conversation.

 

The problem we run into with Microsoft is that there's no technical issue, but you have licensing restrictions which means we are now being prevented from competing.

Google has made six different recommendations to the CMA which includes forcing Microsoft to improve interoperability and banning the company from withholding security updates for customers who switch to a different service.

The CMA has not commented on the letter and has not confirmed if it plans to open a formal investigation into Microsoft in regards to the allegations made by Google.

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Homeworld 3

Blackbird Interactive showed off some new footage along with brief interviews with some of of the game's team members. More importantly, we got what we hope is the final release date for the long-awaited space-based RTS sequel. Homeworld 3 is now set for release on March 8, 2024. However, if you buy the Deluxe, Fleet Command, or the Collector's Edition, you can play the game 72 hours early.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl

The long-in-development post-apocalypse shooter from GSC GameWorld was the number one "Most Wanted" game for 2024 during the PC Gaming Show. For the event, we got a "thank you" message from the developer's CEO Evgeniy Grygorovych and a new story-themed trailer. The game is due out in the first quarter of 2024.

Pacific Drive

We got a new trailer for this unusual but cool-looking first-person post-apocalypse survival game from developer Ironwood Studios. The trailer has also confirmed a February 22 2024 release date for the game.

Path of Exile 2

The show showed off some more gameplay from Grinding Gears' sequel to its fantasy action RPG, along with some more developer interviews describing what they have planned to add to the game. Grinding Gears previously announced it planned to launch a closed beta for Path of Exile 2 on June 7, 2024.

Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines 2

We got to see some brief gameplay footage from the long-awaited horror-themed RPG sequel, which is now being developed by The Chinese Room. It showed off a new playable clan for the game, Banu Haqim. It's due out sometime in the fall of 2024.

Frostpunk 2

We got a cool looking new trailer for Frostpunk 2, the sequel to the city-building survival game from developer 11 Bit Studios. The game does not yet have a release date.

You can check out all of the new trailers at the PC Gamer YouTube channel

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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According to Valve, the main reason behind the decision is the end of Google Chrome support on macOS High Sierra and Mojave. Several parts of the Steam client rely on embedded Chrome, which will soon stop working on Apple's old operating system. In addition, Valve says future Steam versions will depend on features and security updates available only in macOS Catalina (10.15) and newer.

The end of support does not mean Steam and downloaded games will stop working on February 15, 2024. Customers will be able to continue using the platform and play games for some time, but Valve cannot guarantee continued functionality after the specified date. In addition, the lack of security updates may expose old operating systems to additional security risks.

The latest Hardware & Software Survey from Valve indicates that 1.19% of all Steam customers use macOS to access the platform. Over 98% of them use macOS 10.15 and newer. Therefore, the change is unlikely to upset a large number of Steam users. Still, there is one notable problem with Steam dropping macOS 10.13 and 10.14: 32-bit games.

macOS 10.14 Mojave was the last operating system with support for 32-bit applications and games. macOS 10.15 Catalina removed 32-bit app support, rendering plenty of games unusable on macOS. Those playing games on Mac now have to make a tough choice: continue using an unsupported OS or abandon 32-bit games.

Valve says Steam will stop accepting 32-bit-only games at the end of 2023.

As a reminder, Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 will lose access to Steam on January 1, 2024. Unlike macOS High Sierra and Mojave, Steam will not run on old and now-unsupported Windows versions starting next year.

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Ursula Pachl, Deputy Director General of the BEUC, said:

“The choice the tech giant is currently providing to consumers is unfair and illegal – the millions of European users of Facebook and Instagram deserve far better than this. Meta is breaching EU consumer law by using unfair, deceptive and aggressive practices, including partially blocking consumers from using the services to force them to take a decision quickly, and providing misleading and incomplete information in the process. Consumer protection authorities in the EU must now spring into action and force the tech giant to stop this practice. The company’s approach also raises concerns regarding the GDPR.”

The BEUC claims that Meta is forcing users to "either consent to the processing of their data for advertising purposes by the company or pay in order not to be shown advertisements". It is doing so by blocking their use of Facebook and Instagram until they have selected one option, creating a sense of urgency, which is considered an aggressive practice under European consumer law.

The organization also said that by opting for a paid subscription, consumers may believe that they will receive a privacy-friendly option with less tracking and profiling. However, it is likely that users' data might still be collected for purposes other than ads on Meta's platforms.

Meta's ad-free subscription costs €9.99 a month on the web or €12.99 a month on the Facebook or Instagram iOS and Android apps. Meta says that these prices are in line with what YouTube, Spotify, and Netflix offer as part of their subscriptions in the region.

via: Reuters

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The company said that the recovery will begin as soon as this quarter with an estimated growth of 5% thanks to a strong holiday season and an improving macroeconomic environment, namely that inflation is starting to drastically shrink. Over 2024, Canalys estimates that shipments will reach 267 million units, 8% higher than this year.

It put some of the growth next year down to the Windows refresh cycle and the emergence of AI-capable and ARM-based devices.

Commenting, Canalys Analyst Ben Yeh said:

“The global PC market is on a recovery path and set to return to 2019 shipment levels by next year. The impact of AI on the PC industry will be profound, with leading players across OEMs, processor manufacturers, and operating system providers focused on delivering new AI-capable models in 2024.

 

These initiatives will bolster refresh demand, particularly in the commercial sector. The total shipment share of AI-capable PCs is expected to be about 19% in 2024.

 

This accounts for all M-series Mac products alongside the nascent offerings expected in the Windows ecosystem. However, as more compelling use-cases emerge and AI functionality becomes an expected feature, Canalys anticipates a fast ramp up in the development and adoption of AI-capable PCs.”

The region with the predicted largest growth in 2024 is Latin America at 12.2% followed by the Middle East and Africa at 11.6%. The latter region also only declined 0.1% this year so that’s not too bad compared to other places.

The region will the smallest expected growth next year is Greater China at just 4.3% and it also contracted the most this year by a huge 18.0%. North America saw a decline of 9.7% this year but next year it is expected to grow by a decent 7.3%.

Source: Canalys

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OpenAI said on Wednesday that it had completed the first phase of a new governance structure that added Microsoft as a nonvoting board member, as it works to end the divisions that fueled the ouster of Sam Altman as chief executive and sets itself up for a future as a bigger company.

In a blog post, Mr. Altman, who was rapidly reinstated last week, also outlined his priorities for OpenAI as he retakes the reins of the high-profile artificial intelligence start-up. He said the company would resume its work building safe A.I. systems and products that benefited its customers. He added that its board would focus on improving governance and overseeing an independent review of the events that led to and followed his removal as chief executive.

Microsoft expands a three-person board that OpenAI announced last week. The tech giant is one of OpenAI’s biggest investors, having committed $13 billion. Microsoft will be able to participate in OpenAI’s board meetings but not vote on business decisions.

“Part of what good governance means is that there’s more predictability, transparency and input from various stakeholders, and this seemed like a good way to get that from a very important one,” Mr. Altman said in an interview, referring to Microsoft.

The blog post was the first extensive commentary from Mr. Altman since the leadership crisis at OpenAI. Four board members fired him on Nov. 17, saying he hadn’t been “consistently candid” with them. That set off a frenzy, with more than 700 of OpenAI’s 770 employees signing a letter saying they would leave if Mr. Altman didn’t return. Within days, he reclaimed his job, and two board members said they would resign.

The drama was scrutinized because OpenAI is one of the most powerful players in artificial intelligence, a rapidly evolving technology that could help people become more productive, potentially displace jobs and be used to spread misinformation. The leadership crisis raised questions about the company’s governance structure, which is unusual because a nonprofit board is in control, as well as whether it had outgrown its roots and how it should move forward.

On Wednesday, Mr. Altman and Bret Taylor, a tech executive who has been appointed the new chairman of OpenAI, did not directly address these questions in blog posts. Without providing many specifics, they said the company would build a board that included members with expertise in technology and safety policy.

Mr. Taylor said OpenAI would remain committed to its mission of building artificial intelligence “that is safe and benefits all of humanity.”

For the foreseeable future, OpenAI’s board will consist of Microsoft; Mr. Taylor, an early Facebook officer and a former co-chief executive of Salesforce; Lawrence Summers, a former Treasury secretary; and Adam D’Angelo, the chief executive of the question-and-answer site Quora, who was among the members who ousted Mr. Altman.

In an interview, Mr. Taylor said he and Mr. Summers would oversee the independent review and select a law firm to conduct the investigation.

Microsoft declined to comment on its board membership.

Mr. Altman said OpenAI had not lost any employees during the leadership crisis. Its executive ranks will look similar to what they were before Mr. Altman’s ouster, with Mira Murati returning to her role as chief technology officer. Mr. Altman said Greg Brockman, the company’s former chairman, will be his partner and continue in his role as president.

The future of Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI’s chief scientist and a founder, is unclear. He was one of the board members who voted for Mr. Altman’s removal. Mr. Sutskever later said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that he regretted his role in the ouster.

In his blog post, Mr. Altman said he harbored “zero ill will towards” Mr. Sutskever and was in discussions with him about “how he can continue his work at OpenAI.”

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