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OpenAI on Monday announced GPT-4o, a brand new AI model that that the company says is one step closer to “much more natural human-computer interaction.” The new model accepts any combination of text, audio and images as input and can generate an output in all three formats. It’s also capable of recognizing emotion, lets you interrupt it mid-speech, and responds nearly as fast as a human being during conversations.

“The special thing about GPT-4o is it beings GPT-4 level intelligence to everyone, including our free users,” said OpenAI CTO Mira Murati during a live-streamed presentation. “This is the first time we’re making a huge step forward when it comes to ease of use.”

During the presentation, OpenAI showed off GPT-4o translating live between English and Italian, helping a researcher solve a linear equation in real time on paper, and providing guidance on deep breathing to another OpenAI executive simply by listening to his breaths.

The “o” in GPT-4o stands for “omni”, a reference to the model’s multimodal capabilities. OpenAI said that GPT-4o was trained across text, vision and audio, which means that all inputs and outputs are processed by the same neural network. This is different from the company’s previous models, GPT-3.5 and GPT-4, which did let users ask questions simply by speaking, but then transcribing the speech into text. This stripped out tone and emotion and made interactions slower.

OpenAI is making the new model available to everyone, including free ChatGPT users, over the next few weeks and also releasing a desktop version of ChatGPT, initially for the Mac, which paid users will have access to starting today.

OpenAI’s announcement comes a day before Google I/O, the company’s annual developer conference. Shortly after OpenAI revealed GPT-4o, Google teased a version of Gemini, its own AI chatbot, with similar capabilties.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/openai-claims-that-its-free-gpt-4o-model-can-talk-laugh-sing-and-see-like-a-human-184249780.html?src=rss 

Google is teasing an intriguing new AI feature one day ahead of its I/O developer conference. The company shared a brief video on X that appears to show a new camera-powered AI feature that’s able to recognize what’s in the frame in real time.

The video, which is labeled as a “prototype,” shows what appears to be a Pixel device with the camera open viewing the keynote stage at I/O. The person holding the camera asks, “hey, what do you think is happening here?”

A voice replies that “it looks like people are setting up for a large event, perhaps a conference or presentation.” It’s also able to identify the “IO” letters as being tied to Google’s developer conference and mentions “new advancements in artificial intelligence.” As the two voices go back and forth, a text transcript appears on the screen.

It’s not exactly clear what the feature is, though it bears some similarities to Google Lens, the company’s camera-powered search feature. What’s shown in the teaser video, however, appears to be working in real-time, and responding to voice commands much like the multimodal AI in Meta’s smart glasses. The fact that the demo is shown on a Pixel device is also intriguing as Google often releases new AI-powered features on its Pixel lineup first.

While it’s somewhat unusual for Google to preview one of its announcements so soon before its big keynote, it’s likely not a coincidence that the company dropped the video right as OpenAI showed off similar capabilities with its new GPT-4o model during a live event. Whatever Google has in store, though, we don’t have much longer to wait to get the full details. Google I/O kicks off tomorrow, May 14, and Engadget will be covering the keynote live from Mountain View.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-teases-new-camera-powered-ai-feature-one-day-ahead-of-io-175452903.html?src=rss 

A group of Amazon workers in Quebec have formed the first union at one of the company’s Canadian warehouses. On Friday, the province’s labor tribunal granted union accreditation to workers at the DXT4 warehouse in Laval, a Montreal suburb. It determined that a majority had opted to unionize after signing union cards.

A group of some 200 workers are organizing as the Laval Amazon Workers Union under the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN), which represents around 330,000 people across a variety of industries in Canada. A general assembly to decide on a constitution, bylaws and representatives will take place in the coming days. A consultation with union members will then take place to agree on a list of demands.

The union says Amazon is legally required to come to the negotiation table to hash out a contract. However, it expects Amazon to appeal the labor tribunal’s decision after allegedly attempting to stop the unionization efforts.

“First and foremost, this is a great victory for the men and women from Latin America, Chad, the Maghreb and Asia who were not afraid to stand up for their rights,” CSN president Caroline Senneville said in a statement. “Over the past few months, Amazon has pulled out all the stops to block our unionization campaign, flooding the workplace with scaremongering messages. DXT4 workers have given us all a lesson in courage. Of course, we hope it spreads.”

Amazon claimed in a letter to the labor tribunal on May 6 that the accreditation would not “respect the interests of its employees.” The company argued that some workers signed union cards after being misled and that some aspects of the Quebec labor code run contrary to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“We believe that all people should have the right to inform themselves and to vote according to their situation and convictions at the time,” Amazon spokesperson Barbara M. Agrait told the CBC. “If a simple majority of people at an employer have joined a union at any point, then there’s no vote and representation is automatic for all employees — including maybe dozens or hundreds of employees who didn’t even know it was being considered.”

Amazon has long been accused of attempting to upend unionization efforts at warehouses in the US and Europe. In 2022, workers at a warehouse in Staten Island, New York, became the first in the company to form a union. But the Amazon Labor Union does not yet have a contract with Amazon, and reports suggest it’s running low on funds ahead of a leadership election.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-workers-become-the-first-to-unionize-at-one-of-the-companys-canadian-warehouses-180447875.html?src=rss 

Google is teaming up with HP to bring its futuristic video conferencing technology Project Starline to enterprise consumers. The company first began demoing this service in 2021 and the first iteration involved a 3D video chat booth with a projection of the person you’re talking to. We came away extremely impressed by the holographic technology, remarking on how realistic everything seemed and that the other person seemed to be in the room with you.

However, this technology isn’t quite the same as what we tried a couple of years back. Since then, Google has streamlined and simplified the system a fair amount. There’s no more video chat booth, as the whole thing has been moved to a system that features a large TV and cameras. This scales back some of the wow factor, but makes it much easier to implement.

To that end, Google and HP will be integrating Project Starline with common video conferencing apps like Google Meet and Zoom. There’s no information as to how much it’ll cost for companies to sign on to use this technology, or any details regarding the initial setup. Google says more information will be revealed later this year with actual commercialization beginning in 2025.

HP calls it an “immersive collaboration experience” and it certainly looks to be a better telepresence solution than a tiny smartphone screen. At the end of the day, though, it’s just a big display. The updated Project Starline tech doesn’t include anything resembling holographic projection.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/googles-project-starline-video-conferencing-tech-is-coming-to-offices-171622980.html?src=rss 

Apple and Google’s long-in-the-works effort to alert people to unwanted Bluetooth trackers that may have been planted on them has come to fruition. The companies have developed an industry standard called Detecting Unwanted Location Trackers. This makes it possible to alert someone via iOS or Android if they’re being tracked with one of those devices.

When an unknown Bluetooth device is seen moving with someone over a period of time, they’ll get an alert that reads “[Item] Found Moving With You.” So if you’re an Android user and someone has planted an AirTag on you, you’ll should get a notification telling you as such. Apple and Google are rolling out the capability in iOS 17.5 and across Android 6.0 and later devices starting today.

The companies announced a partnership to tackle this issue last May with backing from industry partners such as Samsung and Tile. Apple says that Chipolo, Eufy, Jio, Motorola and Pebblebee are among the companies who say that their future Bluetooth tags will work with the new standard.

Developing…

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-and-google-roll-out-a-cross-platform-feature-to-tackle-unwanted-bluetooth-trackers-172411423.html?src=rss