It's not just Android phones that are vulnerable to a screenshot security flaw. Developer Chris Blume has discovered that Windows 11's Snipping Tool falls prey to a similar exploit. The utility doesn't completely erase unused PNG image data, making it possible to recover some of the cropped-out picture and potentially obtain sensitive data. As BleepingComputerverified with researcher David Buchanan, you can extract the supposedly hidden info using a slightly modified version of the script used to demonstrate the Android vulnerability.
The issue doesn't affect some PNG files, including optimized images. You can also wipe the unused data by saving the cropped picture as another file in an image editing tool. JPEG files also leave data from the original screenshot, but the exploit isn't known to work with the format at this stage.
holy FUCK.
Windows Snipping Tool is vulnerable to Acropalypse too.
An entirely unrelated codebase.
The same exploit script works with minor changes (the pixel format is RGBA not RGB)
We've asked Microsoft for comment and will let you know if we hear back. In a statement to BleepingComputer, Microsoft says it's "investigating" the security reports and will "take action as needed" to protect users.
Buchanan and programmer Simon Aarons recently found a severe "aCropalypse" flaw in the Markup screenshot feature on Google Pixel phones. While Google has since patched the security hole with its March update (now expanded to Pixel 6 phones), the fix only addresses images created after installing the patch. Provided Microsoft releases a corresponding Windows 11 update, existing images may have the same problem.
The concern, as you might guess, is that an intruder with access to your images might use a script to recover information you intend to hide, such as contacts and business secrets. The culprit could use the info for harassment, blackmail or espionage. While this may not be as much of a headache for locally stored screenshots (you have larger problems if an attacker already has access to your device), it could be very troublesome for unmodified images you save in the cloud.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/windows-11-security-flaw-exposes-cropped-out-screenshot-data-131519887.html?src=rss
Paying a monthly fee for something you never use makes zero financial sense. But subscription overload is real, with dozens of streaming, gaming, dating and even hot-sauce delivery services lining up to take a monthly cut of your paycheck. While it’s tough to keep track of everything you signed up for – especially the ones you don’t use – we’ve come up with a few tricks to help thin the ranks of your recurring charges. We included a list of common subscriptions you may have forgotten about, as well as instructions on how to cancel a few of the most unwanted. And for those who could use a little cancellation help, we tested a couple of finance apps that track and nix stuff on your behalf.
First things first: Find out what subscriptions you have
Before putting this post together, I had no idea how many subscriptions I was paying for. Surprises included a coding game for my kid (that he no longer plays) and a British streaming app I’d gotten for one show (that I finished nearly a year ago). You, too, may not know what subscriptions are quietly subtracting dollars from your accounts. One of the most comprehensive ways to see what you’re paying for is to look at your bank and credit card transactions, performing a search for every transaction in the previous full month. It may be a lot to scroll through, but each monthly subscription will appear at least once in that time frame.
Another approach is to search for welcome and thank you emails, since most services send out an initial message confirming your new subscription. Using the advanced search function in your email, enter the words “welcome” or “thank you” in the subject field, and variations on the words “annual” “subscribing” and “membership” in the general or keyword search fields. You should get a decent idea of the things you’ve signed up for, but may have to wade through lots of promotional emails before you find the services you actually subscribed to. This method isn’t as comprehensive as going through your banking statements, but it could help you find annual subscriptions that won’t show up in a month’s worth of transactions.
Sometimes it’s helpful to simply see a list of common subscriptions people pay for (and often forget about). Here are a few:
For the most part, if you sign up and pay for a service through an app, you can cancel through the same app. Some app developers will instead direct you to their website to pay for a subscription. A cancellation process will nearly always involve logging in to your account and navigating to your profile or account details to view and cancel your subscription.
Here are steps to cancel a few of the most popular subs.
From the Apple App Store or Google Play Store
When you pay for a subscription through an app store, the transaction will likely be listed as a payment to either Apple or Google, so it’s harder to see what you’re paying for using the banking suggestion above. Here’s how to see what you’ve subscribed to using the two major app marketplaces, plus how to cancel.
How to cancel subscriptions through Apple’s App Store 1. Open the Settings app from your iPhone or iPad’s home page. 2. Tap your profile box at the top. 3. Tap on Media & Purchases. 4. A pop up window will appear; tap on View Account 5. Scroll down and tap on Subscriptions. 6. You’ll see your active and inactive subscriptions listed. 7. Tap the one you want to cancel and follow the prompts.
How to cancel subscriptions through Google’s Play Store 1. Open the Google Play app. 2. Tap your profile circle in the upper right. 3. Tap on Payments & Subscriptions. 4. Tap on Subscriptions. 4. You’ll see your active subscriptions and can decide which ones you no longer want.
How to cancel Amazon Prime
Amazon
Amazon raised the price of a Prime membership last February, bringing it to $15 per month or $139 per year. While a membership gets you things like free shipping and access to Prime Video, if you aren’t shopping online as much as you used to and you’ve already finished The Peripheral, here’s how to cancel.
Through the Amazon app: 1. Tap the person icon at the bottom of the screen. 2. Tap on the Your Account button at the top of the screen. 3. Scroll down to and tap Manage Prime Membership under the Account Settings section. 4. You’ll be taken to a Prime page; tap Manage Membership. 5. Select the Manage Membership option and tap End Membership. Here, you can also opt for a reminder to be sent three days before your next renewal if you don’t want to cancel right away.
Via a web browser: 1. Sign in to Amazon. 2. Hover over Accounts & Lists to the right of the search bar up top. 3. Click on Memberships & Subscriptions under Your Account. 4. You’ll see your Prime membership listed; click on the Prime Membership Settings button. 5. Click on Update, Cancel & More under Manage Memberships. 6. In the pop-up menu, click the End Membership button.
How to cancel Paramount Plus
Paramount Plus is one of the cheaper subscriptions out there, going for $5 per month for the ad-supported version, or $10 if you don’t want to see commercials. But if you’re done with Picard, we feel you.
1. Log in to your Paramount Plus account on a web browser. 2. Select the primary profile for the account. 3. Hover over your profile name in the upper right and select Account from the drop down menu. 4. Click on Cancel Subscription in the Subscription and Billing section.
How to cancel Apple TV+
Apple
For just $7 per month, Apple TV+ offers some qualityshows. But if you’re just waiting for Severance to come back, there’s no penalty for canceling the service until the denizens of Lumon Industries return. Since Apple TV+ requires an Apple ID, it’s easiest to cancel through the settings app on your Apple device. If you didn’t sign up through a Mac, iPad or iPhone or don’t have an Apple TV box, follow the PC instructions.
On an iPhone or iPad: 1. Open the Settings app. 2. Tap your profile box at the top. 3. Tap on Media & Purchases. 4. A pop-up window will appear; tap View Account. 5. Scroll down to and tap on Subscriptions. 6. Tap either Apple TV+ or Apple One membership, depending on how you first signed up. 7. Select which subscriptions you want to cancel and follow the prompts.
On a Mac: 1. Open the App Store app. 2. Click on your name and profile image at the bottom left. 3. Click on Account Settings at the top of the screen. 4. In the pop-up window, scroll down to the Manage section and click the Manage link to the right of the word Subscriptions. 5. Select the Edit link next to the subscription you want to cancel, then click the Cancel Subscription button.
On an Apple TV box: Open the Settings app from the home page. Click on Users & Accounts. Click on Subscriptions. Find the subscription you want to cancel and follow the prompts.
On a PC: 1. Open the iTunes app. 2. Click the Account tab at the top of the iTunes window and select View My Account. 3. Scroll down to the Settings section and click the Manage link to the right of the word Subscriptions. 4. Select the Edit link next to the subscription you want to cancel, then click the Cancel Subscription button.
How to cancel an Audible membership
If you downloaded Audible for a 12-hour road trip but haven’t used it much since, here’s how to stop paying $8 per month. If you didn’t sign up via Amazon or Audible and instead went through Apple’s App Store or Google Play, follow the “From an app store” instructions above.
Through Amazon: 1. Sign in to your Amazon account. 2. Hover over Accounts & Lists to the right of the search bar. 3. Click on Memberships & Subscriptions under YourAccount. 4. You’ll see your Audible membership listed; click the Audible Settings button. 5. Scroll down to Membership Options & Help and click on Cancel Membership.
Through Audible: 1. Sign in to your Audible account. 2. Hover over the link that says Hi [your name] and select Account Details from the menu. 3. You’ll see a box with your membership details; click on Cancel Membership. 4. Answer the “reason for canceling” question and follow the prompts.
How to cancel Spotify Premium
Spotify
Spotify finally added a feature that lets you exclude certain playlists so your kids’ tastes don’t influence your recommendations – and that feature is available whether you pay for $10 for Premium or not. If you want to go back to the free version of Spotify, you’ll need to do so on a web browser, as you can’t cancel through the app. Luckily, you can use either a mobile browser or a desktop version.
1. Head to Spotify on a web browser and log in. 2. If you haven’t logged in via the web before, you’ll see a button for Web Player or Account Overview; select Account Overview. 3. If you’re already in the Web Player, click either the gear icon (mobile browser) or your profile image (desktop browser) in the upper right corner. 4. Select Your Account. 5. Your subscription will appear under the Your Plan section; click the Change Plan button. 6. A list of subscription plans will appear; scroll to the bottom and select Cancel Premium under the Spotify Free plan.
How to cancel YouTube TV
YouTube TV happens to be one of the few subscription services that allows you to cancel through the app itself, as long as you’re on an Android device. Non-Android users can cancel through a web browser. If you’re not watching enough live TV to justify the $65 per month, here’s what to do.
On an Android device: 1. Open the YouTube TV app. 2. Tap your profile circle at the top right. 3. Tap on Settings, then tap on Membership. 4. Under your membership details, tap Manage. 5. Click on Cancel Membership and follow the prompts.
Via a web browser: 1. Head to YouTubeTV. 2. Log in and click your profile circle in the top right. 3. Tap on Settings, then tap on Membership. 4. Under your membership details, tap on Manage next to Base Plan. 5. Click on Cancel Membership and follow the prompts.
Apps that can help
Some finance apps will track and manage your subscriptions for you. We researched a bunch and tried out a couple of the best to see how they can help. Note that some of these cost money, and adding another subscription to your life can feel counterproductive when you’re trying to do the opposite.
Rocket Money
Owned by the same company as Rocket Mortgages, Rocket Money is a finance app that connects with your bank account and offers to help you budget and track your overall spending, in addition to managing your subscriptions. You’ll pay for the app using a sliding scale from $3 to $12 per month for the premium version, which includes automated cancellation and other features. To access the free version at sign-up, move the slider to the left until you reach $0.
Once you’ve linked your account, navigating to the Recurring tab gives you an overview of your subscriptions. I liked that you can access this using either the mobile or desktop app. After linking my accounts, it reminded me of an upcoming renewal for a magazine I don’t read and hosting fees for a website I no longer need. Canceling both of those would save me nearly $200 in a year. Unfortunately, my monthly Apple One payment and the HBO Max access that I pay for through my Samsung TV didn’t show up as recurring subscriptions. That could be due to how my bank lists the transaction, but I’d like to have seen those on the list, too.
Next to each transaction is a three dot menu, which includes an option to “cancel this for me” for Premium subscribers. Click and you’ll see contact methods to handle it yourself or a button to have Rocket Money do it. After you provide your username and password for the service, you’ll get an email confirmation that tells you the process could take up to ten days to complete. When I had Rocket Money cancel Paramount Plus for me, I got an email later that night saying the cancellation was complete.
While it’s not a magic program that zaps your subscriptions away, Rocket Money could save you a few steps. Seeing (most of) your recurring charges together is also helpful for staying on top of things. It’s up to you whether the Premium charge (and taking on another subscription) is worth the cancellation service.
Mint
Brought to you by Intuit, whose products include TurboTax and QuickBooks, Mint works a lot like Rocket Money, syncing with your bank accounts and offering to cancel subscriptions on your behalf. Here, though, subscription management is only available on the iOS and Android apps. That’s fine for mobile bankers, but disappointing for those who prefer using a desktop.
When I tried to get a picture of what I’m paying for each month, the app told me no subscriptions were found in my transaction history, despite the fact that I pay for many. We reached out to Mint to find out if this is just a glitch on my end, or if there's something else going on. We'll update when we hear back.
While it didn't show me any of my subscriptions, it did provide a list of common ones, like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+. Tapping on one prompts an upgrade to premium for $5 per month. After that, the process works similarly to Rocket Money, asking for your login details so the app can cancel what you don’t want.
One thing I did appreciate was the inclusion of a Rent and Mortgage designation within Mint’s regular banking function – categorization that, bizarrely, Rocket Money doesn’t offer.
Reminder apps
There are other apps, like Bobby (iOS) and Tilla (Android), that don’t connect with your bank account. Instead, you enter the details of the subscriptions you already have and add new ones as you go. The apps will remind you about upcoming renewals and let you quickly see what you’re paying for, all in one place. Both are free to use but limit the number of subscriptions you can track until you upgrade, which costs a flat $4 for Bobby and $2 for Tilla. I feel like if you possess the diligence to keep apps like these up to date, you could just as easily use a spreadsheet or native apps like Apple or Google’s Reminders, though these are more colorful.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/how-to-find-and-cancel-your-unused-subscriptions-130036314.html?src=rss
It kind of makes sense that Tesla would make wireless chargers. After all, when you think of the company, you think electric vehicles and their Superchargers (at least, after you force the image of Elon Musk out of your mind). But wireless charging is a slightly different beast that requires understanding of magnetic fields and expertise in power transfer technologies. That’s where Freepower, formerly known as Aira, comes in. Founder Jake Slatnick started the company in 2017 and told Engadget that it has spent the last five and a half years developing a “much more advanced form of Qi,” the industry-wide standard for wireless charging.
As a “technology supplier” according to Slatnick, Freepower doesn’t typically make products for consumers, besides the Base Station chargers it made in collaboration with Nomad Goods. When the Pro model launched in 2019, it was considered an enticing alternative to Apple’s canceled AirPower charging mat. Both promised to deliver power to up to three devices without you having to carefully align them to the charging coils. But the Base Station series is no longer supported and had compatibility issues that affected its charging speeds.
In December last year, Tesla and Freepower announced the Wireless Charging Platform, and it might be a spiritual successor to the Base Station Pro. Like many of the car maker’s other products, though, it’s almost ludicrously expensive. At $300, Tesla’s offering is twice the cost of the priciest item on our roundup of the best multi-device wireless chargers. Still, diehard fans might not mind the premium, and there are some unique characteristics here that could explain the delta (although I maintain that it’s still too much to justify).
For that money, you’re at least getting what feels like a sturdy, premium product. The charging platform is a dense, solid block about 220mm (8.66inches) wide that weighs 747 grams (1.64 pounds). Together with the magnetic stand that props it up at an angle, the whole thing comes in at 1.02kg (2.26 pounds), which is pretty hefty. It’s not like you’re going to be carrying this around in your backpack so it’s not a huge deal, but it’s worth noting in case you were hoping to take it on your next trip.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget
Aside from that minor note, there isn’t much to complain about. The alcantara fabric on the surface provides a grippy texture for my slippery phones, and the power cable is an ample 60 inches long, so it easily extends to my side table from the nearest outlet. The wire also tucks away neatly into the understated slot so cable management fans can rejoice. The platform and the included 65-watt charger all feature an angular style that’s reminiscent of the Cybertruck, in a sleek all-matte-black finish. It’s not much to look at, until you take a closer look and start noticing the little aesthetic touches.
While Tesla was responsible for the charging platform’s appearance, Freepower handled the tech. Thanks to the 30 coils embedded beneath the surface, with the loops overlapping each other in layers, you should not only be able to charge up to 3 devices at once, but it also doesn’t matter where you place them. This is the idea of “spatial freedom” that Slatnick mentioned, where, unlike Magsafe or other Qi products, you won’t have to align your handset with the rings on the charger to establish a connection.
I enjoyed being able to throw my iPhone 14 Pro down haphazardly and not worry about lining up circles or waiting for magnets to click into place. It was also nice that when I shifted the iPhone slightly to make room for my Pixel 6 Pro, the charging wasn’t interrupted.
One tiny thing I noticed was a slight delay of a few seconds from the time I placed my phone on the surface till the charging indicator appeared onscreen. This is a tad slower than other Qi chargers I’ve experienced, but not a major concern. The actual charging speed is comparable to Magsafe and other Qi devices that support 15W rates. My iPhone 14 Pro got from 57 percent to 65 percent in 22 minutes, which is in line with my experience with an older Belkin wireless charger.
Freepower
One thing that was different was how warm my phone felt after sitting on the platform for about half an hour. Charging in general, and wireless charging in particular, can cause a device to get hot, but this felt warmer than usual. It wasn’t enough to alarm or burn me, but I also haven’t left my gadgets on this longer than an hour, so I’m not sure how it would pan out if left overnight. This greater heat output than usual suggests there might be some energy wasted in the process, and we've asked Freepower to elaborate on the efficiency of its tech and will update when we get an answer.
It’s worth pointing out that the issue often cited as the reason behind Apple’s cancellation of the AirPower charging mat was that it was reportedly running “way too hot” due to its multi-coil design. Slatnick told Engadget that while its technology is “functionally equivalent to AirPower,” it has a team of expert engineers that have managed to work out many of the challenges in multi-coil design. These include determining how to deliver power to multiple devices at once, locating where each one’s receiver coils are, the varying levels of charge they might be at, as well as how to do all that without using too much energy.
I’m not about to drop $300 for a Tesla-branded wireless charging station, even if it is very sleek and technologically impressive. Setting aside my concern about how hot it makes my phones, I’m just not the sort of person who would pay $300 for something I don’t actually need. But I am interested in what Freepower is working on. Slatnick wants to continue working with other vehicle manufacturers or furniture companies to see how to embed its multi-device wireless charging technology into all the surfaces that surround us. Maybe one day we’ll see kitchen counters or backseat pockets in cars that can charge the devices that we’ve become so reliant on. Let’s hope that we get there without too many exploding phones or electrical fires in the process.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tesla-wireless-charging-platform-hands-on-well-made-and-exorbitant-123056735.html?src=rss
Windows support is coming to Nreal Air AR glasses. The company announced Nebula for Windows, which lets you view your PC on the virtual equivalent of an ultra-wide monitor.
Nreal says gaming is the top use for its glasses, which connect to an external device to show content on a private virtual screen. The company cites a recent survey showing that 68 percent of Nreal Air owners use the glasses for gaming, making Windows support a top priority.
The company says Windows users will enjoy a virtual curved gaming monitor with a 21:9 aspect ratio. Nreal suggests the setup is particularly ideal for fans of cockpit games where a wide field of view is advantageous. In addition, Nebula for Windows will support three degrees of freedom (3-DoF), meaning it follows your head movements and rotations but not leaning or moving through space.
Nreal
Nreal hasn’t yet announced an exact release date, but it will show off the Windows support at GDC 2023 in San Francisco this week. It will also showcase “next-gen casual AR games for mobile” there as the company looks to spark more Android gaming development for the popular wearable.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nreal-air-ar-glasses-will-soon-support-windows-120041674.html?src=rss
Google Bard is the company’s answer to ChatGPT: an AI chatbot using LaMDA, the company’s in-development language model. We’ve been testing it, and what’s immediately clear are all the company’s warnings, whether it’s the experiment label or the regular reminders that Bard “will not always get it right.” Even the example entries, when you boot up Bard, include what the chatbot can’t do.
The big difference between Google and Bing’s integration is the alternative responses that Bard throws up alongside the conversation. You can click the dropdown arrow next to "View other drafts" at the top left of each chat bubble to see some other suggestions. Unlike Bing, Google's chatbot doesn't always cite its sources, which I think could be a major point as these chatbots creep into our daily internet lives. They’re still prone to mistakes, and I want to know where these bots get their answers from. Also, be careful what you’re searching for. Google notes these early rounds of testing will inform Bard's direction, so we’d advise not using private information. Another reason to be cautious? A bug in ChatGPT accidentally revealed user chat histories yesterday.
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Oppo’s made another flagship phone, and it’s the largest external redesign since 2021’s Find X3 Pro, with the three rear cameras – all with a 50-megapixel resolution plus optical stabilization – in a large circular island. The glass-covered upper part houses the main camera, the ultra-wide camera, the LED flash and Hasselblad's logo, while the lower part features the periscopic camera with 3x optical zoom (65mm equivalent) or 6x "in-sensor" zoom – a fancy new way of saying it crops the image. Along with the barrage of sensors, Oppo has stuck to its strengths, featuring 100W SuperVOOC fast-charging, which the company claims can fully charge the phone in a mere 28 minutes. It’s bonkers.
With DGX Cloud, more companies can build their own.
NVIDIA's AI push finally seems to be leading somewhere. The company's GTC (GPU Technology Conference) has always been a platform to promote its hardware for the AI world. Now it's practically a celebration of how well-positioned NVIDIA is to take advantage of this moment. Supercomputers are expensive, so its new DGX Cloud service offers an online way to tap into the power of its AI supercomputers. Starting at a mere $36,999 a month for a single node, it’s meant to be a more flexible way for companies to scale up their AI needs. Man, that’s still expensive.
Ford has finally shown the medium electric crossover it teased last year. It’s an electric Explorer "designed for Europe" and suited to tight city streets. It's relatively compact (under 14.8ft long versus 16.6ft for the gas SUV) and includes a few technology features you won't even find in higher-end Ford EVs like the Mustang Mach-E. The 15-inch vertical touchscreen will seem familiar, but it slides up and down – you won't have to settle for an awkward position. You also won't find the physical knob from earlier Ford EVs. The automaker also utilizes the electrified design to provide a massive amount of console storage space (enough for a laptop) and a locker for valuables.
The company is looking for a music scientist to help it build the application.
According to a job posting (seen by TechCrunch), Duolingo has a small team working to build an app for teaching music. The job ad is for an "expert in music education who combines both theoretical knowledge of relevant learning science research and hands-on teaching experience." They have to translate "research findings into concrete ideas" that can be used for the "learning by doing" activities Duolingo is known for. If it’s anything like Duolingo, I’ll be learning melodies and instruments I may never ever play in the real world. What’s the musical equivalent of, “Without a doubt, I want to eat ham”?
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-google-expands-access-to-its-ai-chatbot-bard-112516974.html?src=rss
Disentangling ourselves from TikTok is more complicated than simply banning the app, just ask the state of Maryland. According to a new report in The Wall Street Journal, it’s one of several states that used TikTok’s tracking pixel on a government website despite a statewide ban barring TikTok-related software from official devices and networks.
According to the report, Maryland was one of 27 states that had code for TikTok’s tracking pixel embedded in an official government website. While these types of tools are extremely common — tracking pixels help online advertisers target their ads — their use has also been widely criticized by privacy advocates.
In Maryland’s case, the TikTok pixels were reportedly found on a state-run COVID website and were related to an ad campaign from last year. Likewise, TikTok’s pixel was also found on a website run by Utah's Department of Workforce Services, which told The Wall Street Journal the pixel was used for an ad campaign targeting job seekers. Like Maryland, Utah has also banned TikTok from government devices.
The report underscores how, even with bans in place, governments are finding it difficult to disentangle themselves from TikTok completely. The company is currently grappling with the threat of a nationwide ban in the United States if parent company ByteDance doesn’t divest its stake in the service. CEO Shou Zi Chew is set to testify in a Congressional hearing on Thursday, when he will make the case that banning the app would hurt its 150 million American users.
Elsewhere, a new report in Forbes highlighted other issues that a nationwide ban may not fully resolve. According to the report, the personal data of TikTok users from India is still accessible to TikTok and ByteDance employees, despite the country banning the app in 2020. Forbes points out that this is likely due to the terms of India’s ban, which apparently “did not seem to call for deletion of app data that had already been captured and stored.”
Even so, it’s not the first time security experts have questioned whether it would ever be possible to “claw back” TikTok user data that’s already been collected by the company. In an odd way, that may make it a bit easier for TikTok to argue that an outright ban would be less effective than its multibillion-dollar plan to impose strict data controls and other measures meant to lock down US user data. That plan, known as Project Texas, has so far failed to persuade lawmakers and the Treasury Department officials involved in the years-long negotiations with TikTok.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/a-tiktok-ban-is-a-lot-more-complicated-than-just-shutting-down-the-app-201114677.html?src=rss
The age of enterprise AI has come crashing down upon us in recent months. Public infatuation with ChatGPT since its release last November has opened the floodgates of corporate interest and set off an industry-wide land grab with every major tech entity vying to stake their claim in this burgeoning market by incorporating generative AI features into their existing products. Heavyweights including Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Baidu are already jockeying their Large Language Models (LLMs) for market dominance, while everybody else, from Adobe and AT&T to BMW and BYD, scrambles to find uses for the revolutionary technology.
NVIDIA's newest cloud services offering, AI Foundations, will allow businesses lacking the time and money to develop their own models from scratch to "to build, refine and operate custom large language models and generative AI models that are trained with their own proprietary data and created for their unique domain-specific tasks."
These models include NeMo, NVIDIA’s text-to-image generation engine and DALL-E 2 competitor; BioNemo, a drug and molecule discovery-focused fork of the NeMo model built for the medical research community; and Picasso, an AI capable of generating images, video and “3D applications… to supercharge productivity for creativity, design and digital simulation,” according to Tuesday’s release. Both flavors of NeMo are still in early access and Picasso remains in private preview despite Tuesday's news, so it'll be a minute before any of them are released to the wider public. NeMo and Picasso both operate on NVIDIA's new DGX Cloud platform and will eventually be accessible through an online portal.
These enterprise-facing cloud-based services function as blank templates that companies can pour their own databases into to train on specifically. So while something like Google’s Bard AI is trained on (and will pull from) data from all over the internet to provide a generated response, NVIDIA’s AIs will allow companies to tailor a similarly-styled LLM to their own specific needs using their own proprietary data — think of ChatGPT but solely for one Pharma company's research division. The models can be trained with anywhere from 8 billion to 530 billion parameters, which is more than triple the 185 billion parameters GPT-3.5 provided.
Imagine StableDiffusion, but trained on Getty Images with Getty’s actual permission. NVIDIA announced such a system Tuesday built on the NeMo cloud service: a series of responsibly sourced text-to-image and text-to-video models, "trained on Getty Images' fully licensed assets," Tuesday’s press release read. "Getty Images will provide royalties to artists on any revenues generated from the models."
BioNeMo, uses the same technical underpinnings as NeMo itself, but is geared entirely towards drug and molecule discovery. Per Tuesday’s release, Bio NeMo, “enables researchers to fine-tune generative AI applications on their own proprietary data, and to run AI model inference directly in a web browser or through new cloud APIs that easily integrate into existing applications."
"BioNeMo is dramatically accelerating our approach to biologics discovery," Peter Grandsard, executive director of Biologics Therapeutic Discovery at Amgen said in a statement. "With it, we can pre-train large language models for molecular biology on Amgen’s proprietary data, enabling us to explore and develop therapeutic proteins for the next generation of medicine that will help patients."
Six models will be available at launch including DeepMind’s AlphaFold2, Meta AI’s ESM2 and ESMFold predictive models ProtGPT-2, DiffDock and MoFlow. According to the companies, incorporating AI-based predictive models helped reduce the time to train “five custom models for molecule screening and optimization” using Amgen’s proprietary data on antibodies from the usual three months down to four weeks.
NVIDIA announced a similar partnership with Shutterstock as well. The photography site will use Picasso to generate 3D objects from text prompts as a new feature within Creative Flow, with plans to offer it on Turbosquid.com and NVIDIA’s forthcoming Omniverse platform.
“Our generative 3D partnership with NVIDIA will power the next generation of 3D contributor tools, greatly reducing the time it takes to create beautifully textured and structured 3D models,” Shutterstock CEO Paul Hennessy, said in the release. “This first of its kind partnership furthers our strategy of leveraging Shutterstock’s massive pool of metadata to bring new products, tools, and content to market. By combining our 3D content with NVIDIA’s foundation models, and utilizing our respective marketing and distribution platforms, we can capitalize on an extraordinarily large market opportunity.”
NVIDIA is also partnering with Adobe as part of the latter’s Content Authenticity Initiative, which seeks to enhance transparency and accountability within the generative AI training process. The CAI’s proposals include a “do not train” list, similar to robot.txt but for images and multimodal content, and persistent origination tags that will detail whether a piece is AI generated and from where. The two companies have also announced plans to incorporate many of Picasso’s features directly into Adobe’s suite of editing software including Photoshop, Premiere Pro and After Effects.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nvidia-ai-foundations-customizable-genewrative-ai-cloud-service-161505625.html?src=rss
When NVIDIA's founder and CEO Jensen Huang waxed poetic about artificial intelligence in the past, it mostly felt like marketing bluster, the sort of lofty rhetoric we've come to expect from an executive with a never-ending supply of leather jackets. But this year, following the hype around OpenAI's ChatGPT, Microsoft's revamped Bing and a slew of other competitors, NVIDIA's AI push finally seems to be leading somewhere.
The company's GTC (GPU Technology Conference) has always been a platform to promote its hardware for the AI world—now it's practically a celebration of how well-positioned NVIDIA is to take advantage of this moment.
"We are at the iPhone moment for AI," Huang said during his GTC keynote this morning. He was quick to point out NVIDIA's role at the start of this AI wave: he personally brought a DGX AI supercomputer to OpenAI in 2016, hardware that was ultimately used to build ChatGPT. We've seen the DGX systems evolve over the years, but it's remained out of reach for many companies (the DGX A100 sold for $200,000 in 2020, which was half the price of its predecessor!). So what about everyone else?
That's where NVIDIA's new DGX Cloud comes in, an (obviously) online way to tap into the power of its AI supercomputers. Starting at a mere $36,999a month for a single node, its meant to be a more flexible way for companies to scale up their AI needs. DGX Cloud can also work together with on-site DGX devices, since they're all controlled with NVIDIA's Base Command software.
NVIDIA says every DGX Cloud instance is powered by eight of its H100 or A100 systems with 60GB of VRAM, bringing the total amount of memory to 640GB across the node. There's high-performance storage, as you'd expect, as well as low-latency fabric that connects the systems together. That amount of power may make the cloud solution more tempting for existing DGX customers—why spend another $200,000 on a box, when you can do so much more for a lower monthly fee? DGX Cloud will be powered by Oracle's Cloud Infrastructure to start, but NVIDIA says it will expand to Microsoft Azure next quarter, as well as Google Cloud and other providers "soon."
Developing...
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nvidia-gtc-ai-dgx-cloud-161517378.html?src=rss
Microsoft's Bing AI chat can already be helpful for finding answers, but now it can help you produce fanciful pictures. The company has introduced a Bing Image Creator preview that adds OpenAI's DALL-E AI image generation to both Bing search and a sidebar in the Edge browser. You just have to ask the chatbot to create an image with either a direct description or a follow-up to a previous query. If you're wondering how to revamp your living room, you can ask Bing to draw some ideas based on your criteria.
Yes, Microsoft is aware of the potential for things to go awry. The company says it's applying "additional protections" beyond OpenAI's own. It will block you from creating potentially "harmful" images, the firm says. Microsoft also explicitly clarifies that images are AI-generated, including through watermarks.
Image Creator is available to a selection of Bing desktop and mobile users in preview and through a dedicated site. Edge users have access as well If you're part of the test group, you'll have to toggle the Creative mode to give the generator a try. Microsoft plans to bring the creative tool to Balanced and Precise mode users in the future, though, and plans to fine-tune the system's behavior in multi-step chats. While the technology only supports English, more languages are in the works.
More forms of AI are finding their way into Bing. The company is rolling out AI-based Knowledge Cards that now offer "dynamic" quick-glance info like charts and timelines. Stories, meanwhile, provide images and short videos linked to searched topics.
The DALL-E tool comes just as Adobe has unveiled plans to put generative AI in Photoshop, After Effects and Premiere Pro, while NVIDIA is launching a customizable cloud AI service that includes image creation. While Microsoft clearly isn't competing directly with Adobe or NVIDIA, it's joining a wave of tech giants that see AI image production as a valuable tool. Bing Image Creator might also provide a competitive edge over Google, which only just widened access to its Bard AI chat following a limited test.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-brings-dall-es-ai-image-generation-to-bing-and-edge-152749735.html?src=rss
Reading some of your favorite Manga series may be getting a little easier soon: Kodansha, the publisher behind hit titles like Attack on Titan and Ghost in the Shell, has announced that it's launching a new digital reading platform in May. Simply titled, K Manga, the new app promises to launch with a backlog of 400 titles, and will provide early access to new chapters from the publisher's most popular series.
The announcement doesn't say if K Manga will sell Manga by the volume or have a paid subscription tier, but users will be able to "read limited chapters of manga for free." That, paired with a promise that K Manga releases will be "official translations" seems to be positioning the app as an alternative to the unofficial pirate sites that share fan-translated Manga for free online.
As for what you'll be reading on the app? Kodansha highlights a few contemporary series such as The Seven Deadly Sins: Four Knights of the Apocalypse and Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro, but the company's back catalog has enormous potential. Although none of these series are officially announced for K Manga yet, Kodansha is the publisher for iconic hits like Sailor Moon, Akira and Battle Angel Alita.
The K Manga app will launch on May 10.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/attack-on-titan-publisher-kodansha-is-launching-its-own-manga-app-140032685.html?src=rss
