Posts by Mike Knight
Try Being Nice To Your AI
With some research indicating that ‘emotive prompts’ to generative AI chatbots can deliver better outputs, we look at whether ‘being nice’ to a chatbot really does improve its performance. Not Possible, Surely? Generative AI Chatbots, including advanced ones, don’t possess real ‘intelligence’ in the way we as humans understand it. For example, they don’t have…
Read MoreGoogle Pauses Gemini AI Over ‘Historical Inaccuracies’
Only a month after its launch, Google has paused its text-to-image AI tool following “inaccuracies” in some of the historical depictions of people produced by the model. ‘Woke’ … Overcorrecting For Diversity? An example of the inaccuracy issue (as highlighted by X user Patrick Ganley recently, after asking Google Gemini to generate images of the…
Read MoreFirm Ordered To Stop Employee Face-Scanning
The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has ordered Serco Leisure to stop using facial recognition technology (FRT) and fingerprint scanning to monitor employee attendance. Not Necessary or Proportionate An ICO investigation found that public service provider Serco Leisure, Serco Jersey and seven associated community leisure trusts had been “unlawfully processing the biometric data of more than…
Read MoreInstagram and Facebook Ads ‘Apple Tax’
Meta has announced that it will be passing on Apple’s 30 per cent service charge (often referred to as the “Apple tax”) to advertisers who pay to boost posts on Facebook and Instagram through the iOS app. This move is a response to Apple’s in-app purchase fees, which apply to digital transactions within apps available on the…
Read MoreDing Dong Doorbells
After the Amazon-owned ‘Ring’ video doorbell company’s recent major subscription price hike across its range caused anger and made the news, we look at what customers have said and if there’s a way to beat the price hike. Ouch! Ring has angered customers and received some negative publicity after announcing that starting on 11 March…
Read MoreWhat Are ‘Virtual’ Credit Cards?
In this tech-insight, we take a look at the world of virtual cards, who offers them, their benefits, and other secure payment alternatives. What Are Virtual Credit Card Numbers? Virtual credit cards and their card numbers (as the name suggests) only exist in the virtual world, e.g. in an app on your phone, and are…
Read MoreGoogle Waits On Hold For You Until A Human Answers
Google’s new “Talk to a Live Representative” feature will call a business for you, wait on hold for you, and call you when a human representative is available. Being Tested Similar to Google Pixel’s existing “Hold for Me” feature, “Talk to a Live Representative” is currently in testing in the US by Google’s Search Labs…
Read MoreOpenAI Videos Gamechanger
OpenAI’s new ‘Sora’ AI-powered text-to-video tool is so good that its outputs could easily be mistaken for real videos, prompting deepfake fears in a year of important global elections. Sora Open AI says that its new Sora text-to-video model can generate realistic videos up to a minute long while maintaining visual quality and adherence to…
Read MoreGoogle’s AI Saves Your Conversations For 3 Years
If you’ve ever been concerned about the privacy aspects of AI, you may be very surprised to learn that conversations you have with Google’s new Gemini AI apps are “retained for up to 3 years” by default. Up To Three Years With Google now launching its Gemini Advanced chatbot as part of its ‘Google One AI…
Read MoreStolen Device Protection Update Rolled Out
Apple iPhone users are being urged to use a new feature called ‘Stolen Device Protection’ which was rolled out in a recent update to iOS. As the new feature’s name suggests, it can help prevent someone who has stolen your device and knows your passcode from making critical changes to your account or device. It…
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