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Google has unveiled a new artificial intelligence chatbot tool dubbed “Bard” in an apparent bid to compete with the viral success of ChatGPT.

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and parent company Alphabet, said in a blog post that Bard will be opened up to “trusted testers” starting Monday (local time), with plans to make it available to the public “in the coming weeks.”

Like ChatGPT, which was released publicly in late November by AI research company OpenAI, Bard is built on a large language model.

Here is something new from Earth’s interiors.

A team of researchers at the University of Texas at Austin (UTA) has found a new layer under Earth’s crust called “melt,” according to a press release. It comprises hot molten rocks and reveals useful insights about our planet’s tectonic plate activity.

Interestingly, these plates are constantly moving, and their movement is linked to the occurrence of earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions. Moreover, tectonic motion is so powerful; that it could also lead to the formation of new mountain ranges and even new continents.


Forplayday/iStock.

Is there any strategy or alliance too complex for its ruthless intelligence?

Meta AI made a groundbreaking announcement with the launch of CICERO — the first-ever AI (artificial intelligence) capable of winning at Diplomacy, a multiplayer strategy game that calls for mutual trust, compromise, and teamwork. This marks a significant milestone in AI evolution.

“CICERO moves AI from the gaming table into real-world applications.”


Derick Hudson/iStock.

Game on!


Feb 6 (Reuters) — Google owner Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) on Monday said it will launch a chatbot service and more artificial intelligence for its search engine as well as developers, an answer to Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) in their rivalry to lead a new wave of computing.

Microsoft, meanwhile, said it planned its own AI reveal for Tuesday.

The cascade of news reflects how Silicon Valley is anticipating massive change from so-called generative AI, technology that can create prose or other content on command and free up white-collar workers’ time.

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐦 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐝𝐨𝐳𝐞𝐧 𝐩𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝

An autism researcher lost two dozen papers to retraction in January, eight years after the publisher was made aware of potentially troubling editorial practices. Elsevier, the publisher, cited undisclosed conflicts of interest, duplicated methodology and a “compromised” peer-review process as reasons for the retractions.

The papers were published in Research in Developmental Disabilities and Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders between 2013 and 2014 — a period when Johnny Matson, then professor of psychology at Louisiana State University (LSU) in Baton Rouge and an author on all of the papers, was editor-in-chief of both journals.


Elsevier’s retractions focus on peer review and conflicts of interest.