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Another ChatGPT rival is out in the wild. Baidu has made ERNIE Bot, its generative AI product and large language model, generally available to the public through various app stores and its website. Alongside ERNIE (Enhanced Representation through Knowledge Integration), the company plans to release a string of AI apps it says will allow folks “to fully experience the four core abilities of generative AI: understanding, generation, reasoning, and memory.”

Opening up ERNIE Bot (which is focused on the Chinese market) to the public will enable Baidu to obtain much more human feedback, according to CEO Robin Li. The company notes that this will help it iterate on ERNIE Bot more quickly and improve the user experience.

Baidu announced the chatbot back in March, demonstrating capabilities such as summarizing a sci-fi novel and offering suggestions on how to continue the story in an expanded universe. It can generate images and videos based on text inputs too. Earlier this month, Baidu said ERNIE Bot’s training throughput had increased three-fold since March and that it’s now capable of data analysis and visualization, generating results more quickly and handling image inputs.

As of August 15th, Chinese companies need to obtain approval from authorities before they can release generative AI experiences to the public, and Baidu was one of the first to get the green light, according to Bloomberg. The report suggests officials see AI as a “business and political imperative given the transformative nature of the technology.” Beijing is said to want guardrails in place to keep a tight lid on content while still enabling Chinese companies to compete with overseas rivals.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/baidu-opens-up-its-ernie-generative-ai-to-the-public-200655940.html?src=rss 

Google has been busy making a bunch of announcements for its cloud-based productivity apps this week, largely centered on Duet AI integration. There are some other helpful updates on the way to several apps, including Google Chat.

A feature is now available in beta on several Workspace plans (with full availability on the roadmap for early next year) that allows for messaging interoperability between Chat and other services including Slack and Microsoft Teams. Google, which teamed up with a company called Mio to make this function work, suggests that this could be handy for organizations that use a variety of communications apps.

“We know that communication and collaboration happens over multiple channels and tools,” Google wrote in an announcement post. “This can cause missed messages, silos of communication, and a frustrating experience monitoring multiple chat tools.” It notes that organizations need Mio licenses to use the feature. According to GIF Google shared, it seems that if you edit a message in one of the connected apps, the change will be replicated in the others.

Meanwhile, 9to5 Google reports that Chat will gain support for voice messages. These will enable users to “save typing and allow recipients to hear the tone and context of the message,” according to Google. The feature should be available in early 2024, but it’s unclear whether it will be available in group chats and one-on-one DMs. It’s also uncertain whether there will be transcription support from the jump.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-chat-now-plays-nice-with-slack-and-microsoft-teams-190033902.html?src=rss 

The annual Awesome Games Done Quick (AGDQ) speedrunning charity gaming event is returning in January. It’s going to be an in-person affair once again, the first time since COVID. It all takes place in Pittsburgh at the Wyndham Hotel from January 14th to the 21st. Despite the change to an in-person format, you’ll be able to stream the festivities via the Games Done Quick Twitch channel.

For the uninitiated, AGDQ is a speedrunning marathon event that runs all day and night throughout the week. AGDQ 2024 will be held in support of the Prevent Cancer Foundation and you’ll be able to quickly donate to the charity on Twitch or via the Games Done Quick website. The event raised over $3.5 million for the foundation back in 2022 and $2.6 million last year. There’s also a sibling event held in the summer that has raised millions of dollars for Doctors Without Borders.

AGDQ 2024 is still months away, so the organizers have yet to issue a list of participants and games. Past years have seen speedrunners take on hundreds of releases, from newer titles like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice to retro-flavored gems like Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Doom. Yes, labeling 2010’s Super Mario Galaxy 2 as retro makes me feel old too, but it is what it is. 

Games Done Quick has stated that speedrunners don’t have to head to Pittsburgh to take part, as there will be remote runs available for those unable to travel. The organization is accepting speedrunning submissions from September 1st to the 10th, so start practicing your runs now.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/speedrunning-charity-event-awesome-games-done-quick-returns-in-january-183533237.html?src=rss 

A couple months after Microsoft revealed plans to increase Game Pass subscription prices, Sony is getting in on the act. The company is bumping up the annual prices of all three PlayStation Plus plans on September 6th.

An annual Essential subscription will soon cost $80 per year, up from $60. The Extra plan is going up by $35 to $135 per year, while an annual Premium plan will soon cost $40 more at $160. The price changes won’t take effect for current PS Plus users on an annual plan until their next renewal date that’s on or after November 6th. If you make any changes to your plan between September 6th and then (such as changing tiers), the new pricing will apply.

Sony has not announced changes to the monthly ($10 for Essential, $15 for Extra and $18 for Premium) or quarterly ($25 for Essential, $40 for Extra and $50 for Premium) for the time being. It notes that the annual plan is still less expensive than a monthly or quarterly subscription in the long run.

You still have a few days to stack an extra year (or two or three) onto your existing PS Plus plan at the current prices. It’s too early to tell whether it will be worth waiting until Black Friday in case there are better deals, so if you have the cash to spare, now might be the time to add extra time to your plan.

Sony notes that it’s bumping up PS Plus plans globally to “enable us to continue bringing high-quality games and value-added benefits to your PlayStation Plus subscription service.” That’s maybe a difficult case to make given the three monthly games that will be available for all three tiers in September: the reboot of Saints Row, Black Desert – Traveler Edition and (a game I’m admittedly interested in) Generation Zero, all of which have received middling or poor reviews.

Although they’re somewhat different offerings, it’s worth noting that PS Plus is generally less expensive than the equivalent Game Pass tiers. An annual PS Plus Essential plan is $52 less than a year of Xbox Game Pass, while a 12-month PS Plus Premium membership is $44 less expensive than Game Pass Ultimate over the same timeframe.

That said, Microsoft offers access to all of its first-party games via Game Pass upon their release, an enticing offering that Sony can’t match. The new Game Pass Core tier (which is replacing Xbox Live Gold) is $60 per year and includes full online multiplayer access and an initial library of 25 games.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sony-is-jacking-up-annual-playstation-plus-plans-by-as-much-as-40-164534502.html?src=rss 

Late-night comedy’s five biggest hosts are starting a podcast. Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, John Oliver and Jimmy Fallon will host Strike Force Five, a weekly chat about “the complexities behind the ongoing Hollywood strikes.” All proceeds will go to out-of-work staff from the hosts’ five talk shows.

“The hosts bring their unique insights, opinions, and humor to the show as they navigate the Hollywood strikes and beyond,” a Spotify blog post reads. The five comedians will take turns moderating the episodes. Spotify’s Megaphone is producing the series, and the streaming service is the podcast’s sole sales partner — but the series isn’t exclusive to the platform. “[It’s available on] Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts,” Meyers said in a video Kimmel posted to X (formerly Twitter). “But Spotify, you fucks,” Oliver aggressively deadpanned.

The series launches on August 30th (day 120 of the strike, as noted byTVLine). It will run for at least 12 episodes.

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) have been at odds without much discernible progress since the WGA began striking on May 2nd. The WGA described the sides’ latest meeting last week as more of a “lecture” than a negotiation. “We were met with a lecture about how good their single and only counteroffer was,” the WGA negotiating committee wrote to members. “But this wasn’t a meeting to make a deal. This was a meeting to get us to cave, which is why, not 20 minutes after we left the meeting, the AMPTP released its summary of their proposals. This was the companies’ plan from the beginning — not to bargain, but to jam us. It is their only strategy — to bet that we will turn on each other.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/late-night-tvs-biggest-hosts-start-a-strike-force-five-podcast-to-support-striking-staff-172100624.html?src=rss