Toggle light / dark theme

Watch Project Astra factorise a maths problem and even correct a graph. All shot on a prototype glasses device, in a single take in real time.

Project Astra is a prototype that explores the future of AI assistants. Building on our Gemini models, we’ve developed AI agents that can quickly process multimodal information, reason about the context you’re in, and respond to questions at a conversational pace, making interactions feel much more natural.

More about Project Astra: deepmind.google/project-astra

Theory of mind —the ability to understand other people’s mental states—is what makes the social world of humans go around. It’s what helps you decide what to say in a tense situation, guess what drivers in other cars are about to do, and empathize with a character in a movie. And according to a new study, the large language models (LLM) that power ChatGPT and the like are surprisingly good at mimicking this quintessentially human trait.

“Before running the study, we were all convinced that large language models would not pass these tests, especially tests that evaluate subtle abilities to evaluate mental states,” says study coauthor Cristina Becchio, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany. The results, which she calls “unexpected and surprising,” were published today —somewhat ironically, in the journal Nature Human Behavior.

The results don’t have everyone convinced that we’ve entered a new era of machines that think like we do, however. Two experts who reviewed the findings advised taking them “with a grain of salt” and cautioned about drawing conclusions on a topic that can create “hype and panic in the public.” Another outside expert warned of the dangers of anthropomorphizing software programs.

Geoffrey Hinton, one of the “godfathers” of AI, is adamant that AI will surpass human intelligence — and worries that we aren’t being safe enough about its development.

This isn’t just his opinion, though it certainly carries weight on its own. In an interview with the BBC’s Newsnight program, Hinton claimed that the idea of AI surpassing human intelligence as an inevitability is in fact the consensus of leaders in the field.

“Very few of the experts are in doubt about that,” Hinton told the BBC. “Almost everybody I know who is an expert on AI believes that they will exceed human intelligence — it’s just a question of when.”

Aaron Vick is a multi-x founder, former CEO, best-selling author, process and workflow nerd and early-stage/growth advisor focused on Web3.

The age of artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the landscape of creativity, challenging our understanding of creator rights and digital identity. As AI becomes an integral part of the creative process, collaborating with human minds to push the boundaries of imagination and innovation, we find ourselves in a new era that demands reevaluating the essence of authorship.

This AI renaissance is not just about the tools we use to create; it is about the fundamental shift in how we perceive and value creativity. In a world where AI can generate art, music and literature that rivals the works of human creators, we must reconsider what it means to be an author, an artist or a creator. The lines between human and machine creativity are blurring, giving rise to new forms of expression and collaboration that were once unimaginable.

At Microsoft’s AI press event, the company unveiled its latest Surface PCs with new AI Copilot features built-in. Check out all the highlights in our recap from Redmond, WA.

Everything Microsoft Just Announced: Copilot Plus PCs, Surface Pro and Laptop Running on Qualcomm https://bit.ly/3ynj8BQ

0:00 Intro.
1:05 Copilot+PC
2:30 Microsoft Copilot Update.
4:14 Microsoft Copilot with Minecraft.
6:33 Copilot+PC NPU
7:29 Copilot+PC Qualcomm Snapdragon X ELite.
8:10 Copilot+PC Surface Laptop and Surface Pro.
8:50 Copilot+PC Surface Laptop Specs.
10:54 Copilot+PC Surface Pro Specs.
12:01 Surface Pro Flex Keyboard.
12:35 Surface Slim Pin.
12:50 Copilot+PC Preorders and Availability.

Never miss a deal again! See CNET’s browser extension 👉 https://bit.ly/3lO7sOU