In a move toward increased transparency, San Francisco-based AI startup Anthropic has published the system prompts for three of its most recent large language models: Claude 3 Opus, Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Claude 3 Haiku. The information is now available on the web and in the Claude iOS and Android apps. The prompts are instruction sets that reveal what the models can and cannot do. Anthropic says it will regularly update the information, emphasizing that evolving system prompts do not affect the API. Examples of Claude’s prompts include “Claude cannot open URLs, links, or videos” and, when dealing with images, “avoid identifying or naming any humans.” Continue reading Anthropic Publishes Claude Prompts, Sharing How AI ‘Thinks’

OpenAI announced its newest model, GPT-4o, can now be customized. The company said that the ability to fine-tune the multimodal GPT-4o has been “one of the most requested features from developers.” Customization can move the model toward more specific structure and tone of responses or allow it to follow specific instruction sets geared toward individual use cases. Developers can now implement custom datasets, aiming for better performance at a lower cost. The ChatGPT maker is rolling out the welcome mat by offering 1 million training tokens per day “for free for every organization” through September 23. Continue reading OpenAI Pushes GPT-4o Customization with Free Token Offer

D-ID, a platform that uses AI to generate digital humans, has announced D-ID Video Translate in general availability. The tool lets businesses and content creators automatically re-voice videos in multiple languages, “cloning the speaker’s voice and adapting their lip movements from a single upload.” D-ID is making the Video Translate tool, which accommodates 30 different languages, free to D-ID subscribers for a limited time, available through the D-ID Studio or the company’s API. Languages include Arabic, Mandarin, Japanese, Hindi and Ukrainian, in addition to Spanish, German, French and Italian. Users can simultaneously translate content using bulk translation. Continue reading D-ID Employs AI to Translate Videos into Multiple Languages

Graphic design company Canva announced it is acquiring fellow Australian startup Leonardo AI with plans to have Leonardo’s 120 employees, including executives, join the Canva AI team. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Sydney-based Leonardo has been gaining attention for its advanced generative AI platform that helps users create images and art based on the open-source Stable Diffusion model developed by Stability AI. The Leonardo team claims its offering is different than other AI art platforms since it provides users with more control. Users can experiment with text prompts and quick sketches as Leonardo.ai creates photorealistic images in real time. Continue reading Canva Aims to Boost Its GenAI Efforts with Leonardo Purchase

An alternative app store called AltStore PAL recently launched in response to the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) and is now offering third-party iOS apps. The move comes several months after the company implemented an updated version of its open-source app marketplace in the EU. The DMA was enacted to foster competition, regulating Apple into opening up to rivals. Among AltStore PAL’s new offerings is iTorrent, which lets users download peer-to-peer files, and qBitControl, a remote client for iOS devices. Another app, PeopleDrop, automatically helps users connect to those nearby. Epic Games revealed it plans to offer “Fortnite” on AltStore PAL. Continue reading App Merchant AltStore PAL Bows in EU with a Focus on iOS

Google has reconsidered its previously announced plan to turn off third-party tracking cookies in its Chrome browser in favor of an option to be controlled by consumers. The original plan was pushed back a few times but was expected to take place early next year. Competitors and regulators have raised concerns about the deprecation that would have left Google — which hauled in more than $237.86 billion in ad revenue last year — free to use its own tracking to serve targeted ads to those using Chrome. Google is now developing a new plan to let consumers make their own informed decisions about whether to allow third-party cookies. Continue reading Google Changes Direction with Plans for Third-Party Cookies

New York-based speech synthesis software startup ElevenLabs has launched its latest AI development — Voice Isolator and an API to go with it. Voice Isolator is designed to extract background noise, leaving clear dialogue for film, podcast, and interview post-production. The Voice Isolator API lets developers integrate the new product into third-party applications. To use the technology, content is uploaded and processed by the Voice Isolator model, resulting in what the company claims is speech comparable in quality to that obtained in a recording studio. The app is described as “free, with some limitations.” Continue reading ElevenLabs Voice Isolator Audio Post Tool Released with API

Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that the company will test a feature to create AI characters through the AI Studio on Instagram that can engage with fans and respond to messages. “Rolling out an early test in the U.S. of our AI Studio so you might start seeing AIs from your favorite creators and interest-based AIs in the coming weeks on Instagram,” he wrote. “These will primarily show up in messaging for now, and will be clearly labeled as AI.” Zuckerberg noted the beta test will help the company improve AI characters and will be made “available to more people soon.” Meta launched AI Studio last year to help businesses build custom chatbots. Continue reading Meta Testing AI Chatbots for Instagram Created by Its Users

The Google Home API has been opened to developers that want to use the smart home devices and automations in apps. “Building on the foundation of Matter, we’ve re-envisioned Google Home as a platform for developers — all developers, not just those that build smart home devices,” the company announced at Google I/O. The new APIs provide access to over 600 million devices with a single integration and create the possibility for Google TVs to serve as smart home hubs. Google’s established partners have access to the Home APIs, and the company is now waitlisting other interested developers. Among the first partners are ADT and Eve. Continue reading Google Reimagines Home as Platform for All App Developers

Google is showing off a developmental chatbot it says represents the future of AI assistants. Called Project Astra, it has the ability to “see” and “hear,” remembering the information ingested, which it can then answer questions about — from simple queries such as “Where did I leave my glasses?” to unpacking and explaining computer code. Demonstrated at the Google I/O conference this week, Astra understands the world “just like people do” and is able to converse naturally, in real time. The company says some Project Astra features may come to Gemini late this year. Continue reading Google Teases Astra AI Assistant and Debuts Gemini 1.5 Pro

In a move aimed at launching more accessible Android apps, Google has open-sourced code for Project Gameface, a hands-free game control feature released last year that allows users to move a computer with facial and head gestures. Developers will now have more Gameface resources with which to build Android applications for physically challenged users, “to make every Android device more accessible.” Project Gameface evolved as a collaboration with quadriplegic video game streamer Lance Carr, who has muscular dystrophy. The technology uses a smartphone’s front camera to track movement. Continue reading Google Adds Open-Source Gameface for Android Developers

OpenAI CTO Mira Murati announced during a live-streamed event today that the company is launching an updated version of its GPT-4 model that powers OpenAI’s popular chatbot. The new flagship AI model, GPT-4o is reportedly “much faster” and offers improved text, voice and vision capabilities. Murati said GPT-4o will be free to all users, while Plus users will enjoy “up to five times the capacity limits” available to free users. According to OpenAI, the new AI model “can respond to audio inputs in as little as 232 milliseconds, with an average of 320 milliseconds, which is similar to human response time in a conversation.” Continue reading OpenAI Unveils Faster AI Model, Desktop Version of ChatGPT

As part of its spring product release, Yelp has added Yelp Assistant, an AI feature designed to connect consumers with relevant business professionals. The chatbot leverages OpenAI language models along with Yelp data to find the right fit and can interactively quiz users to learn more about their project and needs. Available on iOS (with plans for Android later this year), Yelp’s move is part of a trend using artificial intelligence to provide operational help managing households and life tasks. For example, the California-based energy intelligence firm Bidgely is now using AI to generate individualized consumer profiles on energy usage. Continue reading Yelp Assistant Joins Movement to Add AI Consumer Services

Microsoft, which has been developing small language models (SLMs) for some time, has announced its most-capable SLM family, Phi-3. SLMs can accomplish some of the same functions as LLMs, but are smaller and trained on less data. That smaller footprint makes them well suited to run in a local environment, which means they’re ideal for smartphones, where in theory they would not even need an Internet connection to run. Microsoft claims the Phi-3 open models can outperform “models of the same size and next size up across a variety of benchmarks that evaluate language, coding and math capabilities.” Continue reading Microsoft Small Language Models Are Ideal for Smartphones

Apple Vision Pro users disappointed by the Netflix webOS experience on the spatial computing wearable can now take advantage of the independently developed Supercut app, designed to enhance the streaming platform on Apple’s new headset, as well as to make Amazon Prime Video work better through a dedicated iPad app port. Created by Christian Privitelli, Supercut delivers the correct aspect ratio for each app, as well as eliminating black bars, and more. It also enables 4K streaming with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. Privitelli is working on a version for streaming platform Plex. Continue reading Supercut Improves Streaming of Netflix, Amazon on Vision Pro