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AI chatbot Claude is now available as a desktop app for both Windows and Mac computers. The public beta for the apps is available for free users as well as subscribers to the premium version of the AI chatbot. Claude creator Anthropic describes the desktop versions of Claude as "fast, focused, and designed for deep work," implying that those who want to use Claude at home without opening a browser will find it just as helpful as going online or to the Claude mobile app.

One way the desktop app is more efficient is by having a keyboard shortcut to open Claude. After installing the app, you can press Ctrl + Alt + Space to access the AI. That's a boon if you have a lot of other tasks running and don't want to navigate to the website.

The other major benefit of the desktop app is that it frees you from relying solely on mobile devices or web browsers to access your conversations with Claude. You could start the chat on your smartphone, then open the desktop app when you get home or vice versa, with a visit to the website if you're at a public library or similar spot. This continuity can help speed up all kinds of Claude-based projects.

Anthropic also debuted a small upgrade to the Claude on mobile apps: native dictation. You can record up to 10 minutes of audio that Claude will transcribe and then respond to in text form on the app. It's not a full-on voice interactive feature, but it does mean you can at least submit prompts to the AI chatbot without typing.

AI at home

The desktop version of Claude uses Anthropic's latest AI model, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, but it can't do everything the web version does. In particular, it lacks the new Computer Use feature that lets Claude control your cursor and type on your behalf. That's not too much of a surprise since Computer Use and the desktop apps are still in beta. Presumably, the feature will arrive when both are more mature.

Anthropic's timing in releasing the Claude desktop apps is interesting as it is part of a sudden flurry from rival AI chatbots. Both OpenAI's ChatGPT and Perplexity AI have introduced desktop apps in recent weeks. They each have some variation of the web version of their respective chatbots, with many, though not all of the same features. The appeal of a more convenient and accessible AI chatbot is obvious.

That's why Microsoft embedded its Copilot AI directly into the Windows 11 operating system. All of the AI chatbot developers want to encourage current and potential users to stick with their products regardless of where they are or what they are doing. It's going to be another central frontier for the industry, just like mobile apps a decade ago.

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Latest Tech News

We’ve been hearing rumors about a ChatGPT search engine for a while now, but now it's finally live. Rather than being a whole new website called 'SearchGPT', as many had expected, it’s simply an upgrade to the existing ChatGPT website, and all the ChatGPT apps for Windows, Mac, and smartphones.

When you are talking to ChatGPT it will now ask you if it should search the web, if it feels that would produce better results for you, but you can also manually instigate a web search at any time. As you’d expect, ChatGPT search is a feature that’s available immediately for ChatGPT Plus subscribers, and all ChatGPT Plus and Team users will get it today. However, all SearchGPT waitlist users will also be getting access today. Enterprise and Edu users of ChatGPT will be getting access over the next few weeks.

A new Citations bar will open on the right of the window when you click a source link. (Image credit: OpenAI)

How it works

If you look at your ChatGPT prompt bar you’ll see a new search icon called Search. Tap or click this and you will be searching the web using ChatGPT, rather than engaging in a conversation. It’s a bit like the AI summaries that Google already provides in its search engine, but there is an easily identifiable link to sources after each piece of text. When clicked, the sources open up a sidebar that shows citations.

In case you were wondering, the waitlist for SearchGPT is now closed, so if you haven’t already signed up, it’s now too late. As for when the rest of the ChatGPT free tier will get it, OpenAI says, “We’ll roll out to all Free users over the coming months.”

ChatGPT search is perfect for all the jobs you'd normally use Google for. (Image credit: OpenAI)

What's interesting is that ChatGPT has partnered with various industry sources to provide its own maps, that aren't Google Maps, as well as weather, stocks, sports, and news information. OpenAI says it has "partnered with news and data providers to add up-to-date information and new visual designs for categories like weather, stocks, sports, news, and maps."

ChatGPT Search is already looking enticing and could be the first real threat to Google in years. With ChatGPT Search, you’re essentially getting the natural language capabilities of ChatGPT blended with up-to-the-minute information from the web, and that could be just what people are searching for.

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Latest Tech News

Bandwidth limitations have become a significant bottleneck in AI and high-performance computing (HPC), as GPUs are underutilized due to bandwidth constraints, with nearly half of their computational power going to waste.

Nvidia is not expected to release optical interconnects for its NVLink protocol until the "Rubin Ultra" GPU compute engine launches in 2027.

This delay has led hyperscalers and cloud builders to explore ways to leapfrog Nvidia’s technology by adopting optical interconnects earlier.

Introducing ChromX

Xscape Photonics, an optical interconnect company spun out of research at Columbia University, is using photonics to realize scalable, high-bandwidth, energy-sustainable, and cost-effective solutions to enable the next generation of AI, ML, and simulation hardware.

This could help the AI industry save billions of dollars in wasted GPU capacity while also offering a path to greener, more sustainable AI infrastructures.

The Next Platform recently took a closer look at Xscape Photonics and spoke with the team behind it, including CEO Vivek Raghunathan, a former MIT researcher and Intel engineer.

Raghunathan highlighted the inefficiencies of current GPU systems, explaining that as scaling continues, the problem shifts "from GPU device-level performance to a system-level networking problem."

This is where Xscape’s technology comes into play. By converting electrical signals into optical ones directly within the GPU, Xscape can dramatically increase bandwidth while simultaneously reducing power consumption.

The startup’s solution, called the "ChromX" platform, uses a laser that can transmit multiple wavelengths of light simultaneously through a single optical fiber - up to 128 different wavelengths (or "colors"). This enables a 32-fold increase in bandwidth compared to lasers that use only four wavelengths.

The ChromX platform also relies on simpler modulation schemes like NRZ (Non-Return-to-Zero), which reduce latency compared to higher-order schemes like PAM-4 used in other systems such as InfiniBand and Ethernet. The ChromX platform is programmable, allowing it to adjust the number of wavelengths to match the specific needs of an AI workload, whether for training or inference tasks.

Raghunathan told The Next Platform’s Timothy Prickett Morgan, “The vision is to match in-package communication bandwidth to off-package communication escape bandwidth. And we think when we use our multicolor approach, we can match that so that giant datacenters - or multiple datacenters - behave as one big GPU.”

The potential impact of this technology is enormous. AI workloads consume vast amounts of energy, and with data center demand projected to triple by 2035, power grids may struggle to keep up. Xscape Photonics’ innovations could offer a vital solution, enabling AI systems to operate more efficiently and sustainably.

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A leading expert has raised critical questions about the validity of claims surrounding "Zettascale" and "Exascale-class" AI supercomputers.

In an article that delves deep into the technical intricacies of these terms, Doug Eadline from HPCWire explains how terms like exascale, which traditionally denote computers achieving one quintillion floating-point operations per second (FLOPS), are often misused or misrepresented, especially in the context of AI workloads.

Eadline points out that many of the recent announcements touting "exascale" or even "zettascale" performance are based on speculative metrics, rather than tested results. He writes, "How do these 'snort your coffee' numbers arise from unbuilt systems?" - a question that highlights the gap between theoretical peak performance and actual measured results in the field of high-performance computing. The term exascale has historically been reserved for systems that achieve at least 10^18 FLOPS in sustained, double-precision (64-bit) calculations, a standard verified by benchmarks such as the High-Performance LINPACK (HPLinpack).

Car comparison

As Eadline explains, the distinction between FLOPS in AI and HPC is crucial. While AI workloads often rely on lower-precision floating-point formats such as FP16, FP8, or even FP4, traditional HPC systems demand higher precision for accurate results.

The use of these lower-precision numbers is what leads to inflated claims of exaFLOP or even zettaFLOP performance. According to Eadline, "calling it 'AI zetaFLOPS' is silly because no AI was run on this unfinished machine."

He further emphasizes the importance of using verified benchmarks like HPLinpack, which has been the standard for measuring HPC performance since 1993, and how using theoretical peak numbers can be misleading.

The two supercomputers that are currently part of the exascale club - Frontier at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Aurora at Argonne National Laboratory - have been tested with real applications, unlike many of the AI systems making exascale claims.

To explain the difference between various floating-point formats, Eadline offers a car analogy: "The average double precision FP64 car weighs about 4,000 pounds (1814 Kilos). It is great at navigating terrain, holds four people comfortably, and gets 30 MPG. Now, consider the FP4 car, which has been stripped down to 250 pounds (113 Kilos) and gets an astounding 480 MPG. Great news. You have the best gas mileage ever! Except, you don’t mention a few features of your fantastic FP4 car. First, the car has been stripped down of everything except a small engine and maybe a seat. What’s more, the wheels are 16-sided (2^4) and provide a bumpy ride as compared to the smooth FP64 sedan ride with wheels that have somewhere around 2^64 sides. There may be places where your FP4 car works just fine, like cruising down Inference Lane, but it will not do well heading down the FP64 HPC highway."

Eadline’s article serves as a reminder that while AI and HPC are converging, the standards for measuring performance in these fields remain distinct. As he puts it, "Fuzzing things up with 'AI FLOPS' will not help either," pointing out that only verified systems that meet the stringent requirements for double-precision calculations should be considered true exascale or zettascale systems.

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If you want to buy a MacBook Air but your budget won’t quite stretch, Infinix has launched a lightweight, highly-affordable Windows 11 alternative which brings an impressive array of features promising to rival higher-end competitors.

The Inbook Air Pro+ weighs only 1kg, placing it firmly in the thin and light category - ideal for everyday use, performance, processing, and multitasking.

Equipped with Intel’s 13th Gen Core i5 processor (1334U), featuring 10 cores, a 4.6GHz turbo boost, and integrated Iris Xe graphics, the laptop comes with 16GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 512GB of M.2 NVMe SSD storage - doubling the memory and storage capacity of the entry-level MacBook Air. An advanced cooling system with 79 precision-designed 0.2mm S-shaped fan blades prevents the device from overheating when under load.

Short battery life

One of the highlights of the Air Pro+ is its 14-inch OLED 2.8K (2880 x 1800) display. It’s rare to see an OLED panel at this price, so that alone is a great selling point. With a 16:10 aspect ratio, a peak brightness of 440 nits, and a 120Hz refresh rate, it promises vibrant, sharp visuals. The display also supports 100% of both the sRGB and DCI-P3 color gamuts, ensuring accurate color reproduction - ideal for creative professionals.

The Air Pro+ sports all the ports you expect to see on a modern laptop, such as USB-C, HDMI 1.4, and USB 3.2. It also comes with a Full HD+ IR webcam supporting face recognition and a backlit keyboard. Wireless connectivity is provided in the form of WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2.

The 57Wh battery life, as per Infinix’s claims, lasts up to 8–10 hours, which should be just enough to get you through a full workday. In comparison, the Apple MacBook Air offers up to 18 hours. The Air Pro+ does at least support 65W Type-C fast charging.

Currently priced at 49,990 Indian rupees (approximately $600) on Flipkart, the Infinix Air Pro+ provides impressive specs for its price, offering a tempting option for budget-conscious buyers who need performance and portability without breaking the bank.

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Japan is often seen as a global leader in cutting-edge technology, known for innovations in robotics, electronics, and high-speed trains - however, the country is also known for its tendency to hold onto older technology long after it has been abandoned elsewhere.

Only recently has Japan begun to phase out floppy disks in government offices, and far too many of its laptops and devices still come equipped with legacy features like VGA connectors. Most recently, we covered a PCI Express adapter that adds a parallel port to modern PCs, allowing buyers to connect long-forgotten devices like HP LaserJet or dot matrix printers. For bonus nostalgia points, the driver for it comes on a CD, and it’s compatible with Windows XP and newer.

But now, Planex Communications has embraced Japan’s unwillingness to fully move on with the release of its PL-US56K2(A) USB-connected 56K modem, ideal for anyone who still needs to dial into the internet like it’s 1999.

BEEEEEE-DEEEE-DEEEEEE-KEEEEEE-SHHHHH-BRRRRR-DEEEEE-KRRRRRR-WEEEEEEEEE-SHHHHHHH

For around 5,980 yen (about $40) on Amazon, this device is designed for PCs without built-in modems, enabling access to analog public phone lines for internet connectivity, data transmission, and even faxing - all without needing to install any drivers.

The modem supports the ITU-T V.90 and V.92 protocols, offering a maximum theoretical data reception speed of 56Kbps and a transmission speed of up to 33.6Kbps. At those speeds, you won’t be streaming HD videos, but you can at least check your emails or send a fax while reflecting on how far technology has come - or hasn’t, depending on your perspective.

Powered via USB 2.0, the PL-US56K2(A) is small and light, weighing just 28 grams and measuring a compact 25mm x 75mm x 18mm, making it easy to tuck away next to your other relics from the late '90s like your floppy disks, PalmPilot, and that stack of AOL free trial CDs.

The PL-US56K2(A) isn’t likely to take the world by storm, but it’s a handy solution for anyone still navigating the world of dial-up or needing to send the occasional fax.

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