Revealed in the midst of the company's Live from Paris event, Google Translate is gaining a much-needed upgrade as it's gaining what is arguably the most important translation metric: context.
With the power of AI, Google Translate will begin to provide more “contextual translation options” complete with examples in the intended language. In the example given, the AI will be able to understand if you’re talking about ordering a bass (the fish) for dinner or ordering a bass (the instrument) for your band. The service will then provide sample sentences for each translation pertaining to a particular meaning.
Besides maintaining accuracy, the announcement states Google Translate will begin using “the right turns of phrase, local idioms, or appropriate words depending on your intent.” That way, the translated sentence will match how a native speaker talks.
The update will be rolling out to Google Translate on both mobile and browser versions within the coming weeks. At launch, only a handful of languages will be supported: English, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish. Other reports claim more languages will be coming out months from now. We reached out to Google to confirm this; however, a representative told us the company doesn’t have any new info to share at the moment.
Updating the iOS app
Additionally, the Google Translate app redesign that first appeared on Android is migrating over to iOS. iPhone owners will now have a slew of quality-of-life changes such as a “larger canvas for typing [alongside] more accessible entry points”. The user interface has also been streamlined to make translating easier to do.
You'll also have a more dynamic font that will autocorrect itself as you type. “Alternate translation and dictionary definitions” will appear alongside translations. Users can also hold the language button to “quickly pick a recently used language.” And swiping down on the text area brings up recent translations.
For the cherry on top, Google Translate on iOS will support an additional 33 languages from Hawaiian, Hmong, Luxembourgish, and Yiddish – just to name a few. It is recommended you download this batch onto your phone in case you get stuck without an internet connection and need to translate something on the fly. A set of instructions on how to download them can be found on the Translate Help page.
Hopefully, with these changes, Google Translate is able to shake its long-standing reputation of being inaccurate. But if you still don’t trust the service and want something better, be sure to check out TechRadar’s recently updated list of the best translation software of 2023.
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Hackers have been found once again using the classic “fake crypto job” scam to distribute dangerous malware, experts have warned.
However, instead of the usual North Korean Lazarus Group, this time it’s the Russians trying to take advantage of gullible crypto workers. Cybersecurity researchers from Trend Micro recently observed unnamed Russian threat actors targeting workers in the cryptocurrency industry, located in Eastern Europe.
They would send out emails, inviting the victims to consider a new job offer at a crypto firm. The email would carry two attachments, one seemingly benign .txt file (titled “Interview Questions”) and one obviously malicious (titled “Interview Conditions.word.exe”).
Bring your own vulnerable driver
The attack is a three-step campaign: If the victim runs the executable, it downloads a second payload that abuses a vulnerability in an Intel driver, tracked as CVE-2015-2291. This method, commonly referred to as “Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver”, allows threat actors to execute commands with Kernel privileges, and they use this ability to disable antivirus protection.
Once the antivirus is disabled, they trigger the download of the third payload, which is a variant of the Stealerium malware, named Enigma.
The malware, which gets pulled from a private Telegram channel, is capable of extracting system information, browser tokens, stored passwords (it targets virtually all popular browsers nowadays, including Chrome, Edge, Opera, etc.), data stored in Outlook, Telegram, Signal, OpenVPN, and more. What’s more, Enigma can grab screenshots and extract clipboard content.
When it gets what it wants, Enigma zips it all up in a Data.zip archive and sends it back via Telegram.
While fake job offers are usually something Lazarus Group does, Trend Micro believes that this time around, the group is of Russian origin. Apparently, one of the logging servers hosts an Amadey C2 panel, largely popular among Russian cybercriminals. Furthermore, the server runs “Deniska”, a Linux variant used almost exclusively by Russians - and the server’s default time zone is also set to Moscow.
Spotify is rolling out a new curation feature that will lessen the impact other playlists have on your recommendations.
It’s called Exclude from your Taste Profile, and according to the announcement, the aim is to make sure your own playlists aren't flooded with “songs and artists that don’t fit with [your] listening habits” or feel misplaced. For example, users can prevent their kids’ music from appearing on their heavy metal/trap Blend playlists if they have a family plan “or white noise dominating [their] Discover Weekly.” Doing so will tell Spotify which playlist should have its influence diminished; ultimately resulting in a more personalized experience for you.
Ground rules
Other reports of the feature reveal additional details not present in the initial announcement; all of which we were able to confirm thanks to a Spotify representative. Changes from Exclude from your Taste Profile are applied “retroactively” as it will prevent “past and future listening” of a playlist from affecting your own music. This means that even if you willingly listen to music from a playlist you don’t like, your recommendations won’t be influenced. But what will affect your Taste Profile are liked songs.
Spotify will take liked songs from excluded playlists “into consideration for future recommendations” for a person’s Discover Weekly or Blend collection. So be mindful of what you or other people in your family plan like on the platform otherwise those tracks will bleed over. Additionally, Exclude from your Taste Profile only applies to playlists – you cannot block individual albums or songs.
Availability
Exclude from your Taste Profile will be coming out to Spotify on Android, iOS, the desktop app, and the web browser version starting today. Be sure to keep an eye out for the update when it arrives on your device. To enable the feature, select the three dots at the top of a playlist, and in that menu, Exclude from your Taste Profile will appear. And if you ever change your mind, perform the same steps again to disable the feature.
2023’s shaping up to be an interesting year for Spotify as the update comes in the midst of a particularly quiet time for the platform. Several weeks ago the company announced it laid off about 600 employees similar to other big tech firms. And around that time, rumors began circulating that monthly membership costs will go from $9.99 to $10.99. Nothing’s confirmed of course, but given similar price hikes elsewhere, this worst-case scenario is sadly likely.
ChatGPT and Bing. Who knew they could be so good together?
Welcome to the AI wars. Not the kind we imagined where Skynet launched a surprise missile attack on its makers, but one in which companies are all vying to be the dominant source of your artificial intelligence connection. To put this powerful technology at your and everyone else's fingertips. And at the tip of this spear are, somewhat unexpectedly, Microsoft and Bing.
Here's the crazy thing, though. I've seen and tried Microsoft's new Bing search engine and its powerful chatbot, which Microsoft unveiled in a Redmond, Washington, event on Tuesday, and I think Microsoft may have just won the first skirmish of this crucial tech dominance battle. This could improbably be Bing's moment. And by "moment," I mean when you finally start realizing or caring that Microsoft has had a search engine of its own for well over a decade.
You might want to start using Bing. At least as soon as you can get access to the first iteration of Bing and its new chatbot, which I luckily have access to right now.
New look, new AI powers
The new Microsoft Bing search box. It accommodates 1,000 characters. The chatbot window can hold 2,000 characters.(Image credit: Future)
I know, Microsoft's announcement of a new Chatbot-enhanced search engine comes just 24 hours after Google unveiled its ChatGPT rival Bard and plans to reinvent its own much more popular search engine. But here's the difference. Google's Bard is coming soon. The new Bing is here now, and it works as you would want and expect an "Ask me anything" search engine to work.
In some ways, the new Bing looks a lot like the old Bing, but it's not. The desktop version, which is available now and will be followed by a mobile one, neither hides nor forces AI chat on you.
Obviously, the interface looks different. There's a new "Chat" option in the menu, and you can even slide between the main search screen and one devoted entirely to the chatbot. Back on the search screen, the query box is much larger, accommodating up to 1,000 characters for pretty much any natural language question you can cook up.
You can - and I did - type in virtually anything you want into that space. Microsoft says most people type on average 2.4 words in a search box, but that's operating within the parameters and confines of a typical search engine. To be clear, Microsoft is not reinventing the wheel here. Most people are already typing lengthy queries into Google Search and getting decent keyword-based results. However, the new Bing takes this thought a step further.
Ask it anything
You type in what you think. (Image credit: Future)
As we were typing in our various queries, which included a vanity search on moi and longer ones like asking about baking blueberry muffins for someone who's allergic to gluten and milk, Bing was collecting the standard fare like Wikipedia results on me and muffin recipes from various foodie sites. If you were to look at only the center of the screen, you could assume nothing has changed, but populating somewhat more slowly on the right is a new box full of more conversational results from Bing's chatbot.
The results are like its cousin ChatGPT but also not. Microsoft basically took OpenAI's work on ChatGPT and, with OpenAI's help, iterated on it, put the formidable power of Azure Cloud Services behind it, and combined it with Bing's knowledge graph to create what it's calling the Prometheus Model.
The Bing Chat integration with Microsoft Edge browser let you go beyond the information you find on the page to gather more sources and gain additional information and context.(Image credit: Future)
Going deeper and further
In each case, the chat result expanded on the results in more detail, and because it's conversational, that first result can be just the beginning of a longer conversation. On my vanity search, we got the details about my career but then asked the chatbot if I'd ever won any awards. It found the ones I did and the ones where I was runner-up (thanks for that reminder, new Bing).
At the bottom of that right-hand chat box result is a "Let's Chat" button that lets you deepen the query with additional questions.
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Want to plan a trip? You can get really detailed with the new Bing.(Image credit: Future)
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I presented Bing Chat with a difficult travel premise. It did its best to help me work through it. The chat feels like a concerned friend but with a vast amount of knowledge behind it.(Image credit: Future)
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I told Bing about my personal (fake) pain and workout concerns.(Image credit: Future)
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Bing chat cares(Image credit: Future)
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But it can't answer every question/(Image credit: Future)
On my baking question, I got details specifically about how to find ingredients that wouldn't bother my allergic friend. What's notable about some, but not all, of these results is how, unlike ChatGPT, every reference is cited in place. I only had to float over one to see the source or click through to visit the origin page.
In the chat screen, every result returns additional guiding questions to continue your search. When I launched a search about working out my quads without hurting my back (I lied and told Bing I injured it last summer), Bing responded by telling me how sorry it was that I hurt my back, adding "I hope you are feeling better now. 😊 Building your quads, or quadriceps femoris, can be challenging if you have back pain, but there are some exercises that can help you without hurting your back..." then suggested a long list of well-cited exercise options. The list was extensive and full of citations.
It's early days
With Bing's new chatbot most of the necessary citations are baked into the results.(Image credit: Future)
We have already seen some results, though, that don't include a reference, like one a colleague did on exercise options that was link free despite recommending a few different workout options. The concern here would be that the chatbot didn't even account for the possibility that the person searching can't handle those kinds of activities.
Still, it's early days for the new Bing and the whole point of AIs is that they learn (or can be trained), and get better and better. What's more, the system does have a mechanism for feedback so you can call out inaccurate responses. You do this by selecting dislike, but you can get more granular by adding some detail and a screenshot in a feedback window. I would like to see the ability to select the exact offending text, right-click, and select, "this is inaccurate." Maybe in a future version.
Even so, the beauty of what Microsoft has built here is the first fully-integrated Search AI. Not only is it elegant and useful (in the Microsoft Edge integration you can ask Bing Chat to summarize a page for you) but, as is often the case with the best new AI tools, it's also fun.
If Bing returns and inaccurate or unacceptable result, you can send Microsoft feedback.(Image credit: Future)
It's also doing what we probably always wanted search to do, guiding us to the best result. Google has arguably the most powerful and comprehensive knowledge graph, but an initial search won't necessarily bring back the results you want. So you recast your search. It's a series of stops and starts until you get to the best result. With the addition of Bing Chat, search becomes a funnel where additional context and questions can narrow the focus until you have the best result.
Granted there's concern about abuse, but because Microsoft built this on top of the already strong foundation of its often ignored search engine – the chat inherits Bing's gifts and ability to mitigate bad, old, false, and harmful information.
I'm certain it won't be foolproof because AI rarely is. Still, ChatGPT has been such a sensation not only because it's so powerful and easy to use, but because it's mostly managed to avoid surfacing the biases and poor judgment that's plagued so many of the previous chatbots.
Put another way, Microsoft combined a seasoned search engine with what might arguably be considered the best-in-class consumer AI, improved on both of them, and built something brand new that anyone can use without any training at all.
And they've done it before Google.
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The US Department of Transportation said on Thursday it is investigating Elon Musk's brain-implant company Neuralink over the potentially illegal movement of hazardous pathogens. A Department of Transportation spokesperson told Reuters about the probe after the Physicians Committee of Responsible Medicine (PCRM), an animal-welfare advocacy group, wrote to Secretary o...
A US judge on Thursday extended a ban on FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried's ability to contact employees of companies he once controlled and use encrypted messaging technology while out on bail awaiting trial on fraud charges. US District Judge Lewis Kaplan on February 1 had temporarily barred Bankman-Fried from contacting any current or former ...
