Weekly Tech Recap: Meta AI starts appearing on WhatsApp and Instagram, ChatGPT gets a major upgrade and more

Weekly Tech Recap: We’ve seen a whirlwind of activity shaping the world of technology, including OpenAI delivering a much-needed upgrade to ChatGPT, Meta testing its AI chatbot on WhatsApp and Instagram, and Google Gemini AI confirmed to be coming to Oppo and OnePlus devices. So, without further ado, let’s dive in and take a look at the tech developments that made headlines this week.

1) Meta AI chatbot coming to WhatsApp and Instagram:

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta is now testing its generative AI chatbot, called ‘Meta AI’, on Instagram. Similar to other chatbots in the market, Meta AI will be able to craft poetry, generate images and answer other questions based on a single text prompt. Notably, Meta had also recently started testing its AI chatbot for certain users in India and other countries.

While confirming the development in a statement to Engadget, Meta said, “Our generative AI-powered experiences are under development in various phases, and we’re testing a range of them publicly in a limited capacity,”

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2) Oppo and OnePlus smartphones to get Gemini AI:

Chinese smartphone makers Oppo and OnePlus announced on Friday that their devices will soon be integrated with Google’s Gemini AI models. Notably, the two companies said in an earlier statement that their smartphone will come with Gemini Ultra 1.0 integration, but later issued a clarification stating that Oppo and OnePlus devices will get “Gemini models”.

In a joint release, Oppo and OnePlus said they are working with Google to integrate cloud AI into their upcoming products, meaning users will be able to use AI for tasks like summarising news articles, generating audio and generating social media content. Without going into further detail, the companies also said they are working with a number of partners to bring ” groundbreaking AI experiences” to their users.

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3) Apple is making it easier to repair your iPhones:

Apple is finally making it easier to repair your iPhones by allowing customers and third-party service providers to utilise used Apple parts in repairs. The Cupertino-based tech giant says the new process will help maintain user privacy, security and safety, while offering customers more options and increasing product longevity.

Notably, Apple users were previously unable to repair their iPhones with used parts due to a process called ‘parts pairing’, which matches the serial number of the device to the new part sold by Apple. So if an iPhone user replaced their display or camera with a used part, they would receive a notification saying that Apple couldn’t verify the newly installed part and the new hardware could cause Face ID and Touch ID to stop working.

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4) Google is bringing Pixel’s AI image editing features to all users:

Google is bringing a host of AI-powered features to its Photos app from May 15. Google is also rolling out its AI-powered Magic Editor to all eligible devices. The powerful tool was one of the key selling points when the Pixel 8 series was launched last year, but it seems Google wants to get users accustomed to its own tool amid a rush of AI-powered image editors on the market.

However, Google does mention that free users will only be limited to 10 edits per month and that more edits will require a Google One subscription with 2TB of storage or more. However, Pixel users will still be able to make unlimited image edits.

5) Bill Gates and Sam Altman discuss AI:

Microsoft Founder Bill Gates hosted OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on his podcast where the duo had a wide-ranging discussion on artificial intelligence. During the discussion, Gates also shared his scepticism about artificial intelligence taking away his job. He said, “I get a lot of excitement that, hey, I’m good at working on malaria, and malaria eradication, and getting smart people and applying resources to that. When the machine says to me, ‘Bill, go play pickleball, I’ve got malaria eradication. You’re just a slow thinker,’ then it is a philosophically confusing thing.”

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6) ChatGPT gets GPT-4 Turbo upgrade:

OpenAI has released a new update to ChatGPT, which is touted to make the generative AI chatbot more direct, less verbose and use more conversational language. Notably, the new upgrade is only available to paid users of ChatGPT, including those with ChatGPT Plus, Team, Enterprise or API subscriptions.

Informing about the latest upgrade in a post on X (formerly Twitter), OpenAI wrote: “Our new GPT-4 Turbo is now available to paid ChatGPT users. We’ve improved capabilities in writing, math, logical reasoning, and coding”

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