chatbots

Meta Connect, the big developer event and hardware showcase from the company that runs Facebook and Instagram, is kicking off next week. Meta is likely to show off its new VR and mixed-reality technology, put a shiny polish on its…

A pleasant female voice greets me over the phone. “Hi, I’m an assistant named Jasmine for Bodega,” the voice says. “How can I help?”“Do you have patio seating,” I ask. Jasmine sounds a little sad as she tells me that unfortunately, the San…

A United Nations report released today proposes having the international body oversee the first truly global effort for monitoring and governing artificial intelligence.The report, produced by the UN secretary general’s High Level Advisory…

The first time I used SocialAI, I was sure the app was performance art. That was the only logical explanation for why I would willingly sign up to have AI bots named Blaze Fury and Trollington Nefarious, well, troll me.Even the app’s…

A fresh wave of anxiety about children and technology is cresting, with parents and pundits increasingly interrogating how kids use smartphones, social media, and screens. It hasn’t stopped teenagers from embracing generative AI. New…

Synthetic voices have been proliferating for years, and the generative AI boom of the new ’20s has sped that process right along. AI voices are everywhere—in podcasts, in political campaigns, and in chatbots where they maybe-not-so-subtly…

I leave ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode on while writing this article as an ambient AI companion. Occasionally, I’ll ask it to provide a synonym for an overused word, or some encouragement. Around half an hour in, the chatbot interrupts our…

There is no wilder time than the present to build a company around artificial intelligence. The server bills are astronomical, for one. Also the market for talent is red hot, and you’ll end up paying through the nose for good people. Even…

When Meta released its large language model Llama 3 for free this April, it took outside developers just a couple days to create a version without the safety restrictions that prevent it from spouting hateful jokes, offering instructions…

The Friend gets around 15 hours of battery life and comes in an array of colors that look almost exactly like the color palette of the first Apple iMac computers. (Schiffmann says that wasn’t intentional.) The design comes from a…