Tech Digest daily roundup: Google AI chatbot error knocks $100bn off shares
Google is searching for ways to reassure people that it is still out in front in the race for the best artificial intelligence technology. And so far, the internet giant seems to be coming up with the wrong answer. An advert designed to show off its new AI bot, showed it answering a query incorrectly. Shares in parent company Alphabet sank more than 7% on Wednesday, knocking $100bn (£82bn) off the firm’s market value. In the promotion for the bot, known as Bard, the bot was asked about discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope. It offered the response that the telescope was the first to take pictures of a planet outside the earth’s solar system, when in fact that milestone was claimed by the European Very Large Telescope in 2004. BBC
Twitter has announced that subscribers to its premium Blue service can now post longer tweets – but the news has been overshadowed by technical glitches. Customers who pay £8 a month can now benefit from a 4,000-character limit – substantially more than the standard 280 characters for those with free accounts. But some users were unable to tweet at all on Wednesday, with thousands encountering a message that said they were over the daily limit for posting. This is the latest bug that the social network has suffered since Elon Musk’s takeover late last year. Sky News
Built on the back of what is a globally recognised brand, Hogwarts Legacy’s popularity has never been in doubt — but we didn’t think it would be breaking records quite so soon. Livestreaming platform Twitch, which hosts thousands upon thousands of gaming streams every day, has seen the open world title absolutely explode over the last 48 hours or so. Hogwarts Legacy streams have been so popular that it’s actually broken the record for concurrent viewers on a single-player game. It topped out at an audience of over 1.3 million, jumping ahead of the previous record holder, Cyberpunk 2077 (which managed 1.14 million viewers back when it launched in 2020). PushSquare
The UK capital is about to look radically different in Google Maps. The popular GPS app is adding a 3D digital model of London that lets you soar across the skies to find the best local attractions, Google announced on Wednesday. Originally revealed last May, the immersive view feature is designed to give you a better idea of a place or location to help you plan your visit. Google created the 3D model using advanced computer vision and AI, known as “neural radiance fields”, to combine its billions of street view and aerial images. Evening Standard
If previous reports are to be believed, Apple is working on two new tablets: 11.1-inch iPad Pro and 13-inch iPad Pro. Display analyst Ross Young claims that Apple is going to equip both devices with OLED displays. Seemingly, Apple has partnered with Samsung and LG to source OLED panels for the two tablets. According to ET News, Samsung Display confirmed that it has started preparing its manufacturing plants for the mass production of OLED panels for upcoming Apple tablets. Sammobile
AI tools rate photos of women as more sexually suggestive than those of men, especially if nipples, pregnant bellies or exercise is involved. Two Guardian journalists used the AI tools to analyze hundreds of photos of men and women in underwear, working out, using medical tests with partial nudity and found evidence that the AI tags photos of women in everyday situations as sexually suggestive. As a result, the social media companies that leverage these or similar algorithms have suppressed the reach of countless images featuring women’s bodies, and hurt female-led businesses. The Guardian
