Google adds its HD voice model Chirp 3 to its Vertex AI platform

March 17, 2025

A lot of the focus in generative AI up to now has been on text-based interfaces used to generate text, images and more. The next wave appears to be voice, and it’s rolling in fast. In the latest development, Google today announced that it would be adding Chirp 3 — its HD voice interface — […]

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Google beefs up its UK AI business with Agentspace data residency and more

March 17, 2025

Google is doubling down on building out its AI business in the U.K., and on Monday morning in London, the CEO of Google DeepMind Demis Hassabis and Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian appeared alongside customers BT and WPP to spell out some of its plans. The company said it will be expanding UK data residency […]

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European tech industry coalition calls for ‘radical action’ on digital sovereignty — starting with buying local

March 17, 2025

A broad coalition drawn from across the ranks of Europe’s tech industry is calling for “radical action” from European Union lawmakers to shrink reliance on foreign-owned digital infrastructure and services to bolster the bloc’s economic prospects, resilience, and security in increasingly fraught geopolitical times. In an open letter to European Commission president, Ursula von der […]

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Apple reportedly considered building the iPhone 17 Air without ports

March 16, 2025

After reporting in January that Apple is adding an “Air” option to its iPhone lineup, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman is offering more details about the upcoming slimmer iPhone. The iPhone 17 Air will launch this fall, Gurman says — and like the MacBook Air, it will be thinner than standard models, while combining high-end and low-end […]

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Meta takes aim at ex-employee’s memoir ‘Careless People’

March 16, 2025

Meta won a legal victory this week against Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former employee who recently published a memoir of her time at the company titled “Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism.” An arbitrator ruled that Wynn-Williams, who worked at Facebook (now Meta) from 2011 to 2017, may have violated the […]

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People are using Google’s new AI model to remove watermarks from images

March 16, 2025

Users on social media have discovered a controversial use case for Google’s new Gemini AI model: removing watermarks from images, including from images published by Getty Images and other well-known stock media outfits. Last week, Google expanded access to its Gemini 2.0 Flash model’s image generation feature, which lets the model natively generate and edit […]

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Baidu launches two new versions of its AI model Ernie

March 16, 2025

Chinese search engine Baidu has launched two new AI models — Ernie 4.5, the latest version of the company’s foundational model first released two years ago, as well as a new reasoning model, Ernie X1. According to Reuters, Baidu claims that Ernie X1’s performance is “on par with DeepSeek R1 at only half the price,”, […]

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Nvidia’s AI empire: A look at its top startup investments

March 16, 2025

Over the last two years, Nvidia has used its ballooning fortunes to invest in over 80 AI startups. Here are the giant semiconductor’s largest investments.

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