NEWS
►New AI principles in the UK. The UK has set out principles designed to prevent artificial intelligence (AI) models from being dominated by a handful of tech companies to the detriment of consumers and businesses, by emphasising the need for accountability and transparency. The nation’s anti-trust regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority, proposed a set of principles six weeks before the UK hosts a global AI safety summit, underpinning its approach to AI when it assumes new powers in the coming months to oversee digital markets. Read it here.
►Meta has plans to develop dozens of chatbot personas. Meta is preparing to announce a generative AI chatbot, called ‘Gen AI Personas’ internally, aimed at younger users, according to The Wall Street Journal. Reportedly set to launch during the company’s Meta Connect event, they have multiple personas geared towards engaging young users with more colourful behaviour. Read it here.
►Google’s AI assistant can now read your emails, plan trips and double-check answers. Google announced updates to its Google Bard AI assistant including integration with Google apps and a feature that double-checks Bard's answers against web content. It also added language support for over 40 languages. Read it here.
► Quest v57 update. The Meta Quest v57 update expands avatar customisation, rebrands the default user interface panel, and disables Guardian in some mixed reality apps. Read it here.
►World’s first humanoid robot factory. Agility Robotics is building a factory in Oregon that will be able to manufacture more than 10,000 of its Digit humanoid robots per year. The 70,000-square-foot RoboFab facility is set to open later this year. Digit robots will be used in the factory to produce more Digits. Read it here.
► Meta's Horizon Worlds avatars finally have legs. If you launch Horizon Worlds and look in the mirror in the menu space, you'll see your avatar's full body, and you'll see it for other people too when you enter a world. But if you look down, you still won't see your own legs. This update only applies to third person avatars - other people and yourself in the mirror - not in first person. Read it here.
► AI-powered microscope to help doctors spot cancer. The Department of Defence has teamed up with Google to build an AI-powered microscope that can help doctors identify cancer. The tool is called an Augmented Reality Microscope, and it will usually cost health systems between $90,000 to $100,000. Experts believe the ARM will help support doctors in smaller labs as they battle with workforce shortages and mounting caseloads. Read it here.
►Surgeon trains in virtual reality. Dr. Jake Shine, an orthopedic surgery resident, recently performed a successful shoulder replacement after preparing for it in virtual reality. He and a supervising physician used a Meta Quest 2 to practice the upcoming surgery in a 3D simulation. “You can really fine-tune and learn what to do, but also what definitely not to do, with zero risk to the patient,” Shine said. Read it here.
►OpenAI’s new AI image generator. OpenAI announced DALL-E 3, the latest version of its AI image-synthesis model that features full integration with ChatGPT. DALL-E 3 renders images by closely following complex descriptions and handling in-image text generation (such as labels and signs), which challenged earlier models. Like its predecessor, DALLE-3 is a text-to-image generator that creates novel images based on written descriptions called prompts. Read it here.
► DPVR launches new VR headset. DPVR, a Shanghai-based manufacturer of virtual reality headsets, has unveiled its latest headset with the launch of the ‘DPVR P2,’ which the company states is aimed at educators, innovative EdTech providers, and forward-thinking enterprises worldwide. Read it here.
►AI can already design better cities than humans. Automation scientist Yu Zheng and colleagues wanted to find new solutions to improve our cities, which are fast becoming congested and concrete. They developed an AI system to tackle the most tedious, computational tasks of urban planning – and found it produces urban plans that outperform human designs by about 50 percent on three metrics: access to services, green spaces, and traffic levels. Read it here.
