Meta builds AI model that can virtually chat with people & learn from conversations
Meta AI has built and released BlenderBot 3, and has deployed it in a live interactive conversational AI. It is capable of searching the internet to chat about virtually any topic, and is designed to learn how to improve its skills and safety through natural conversations and feedback from people. Meta combined two recently developed machine learning techniques, SeeKeR and Director, to build conversational models that learn from interactions and feedback. According to Meta, initial experiments show that as more people interact with the model, the company will be sharing organic conversational data collected from the interactive demo system and model snapshots in the future. Meta AI’s progress in building conversational AI systems with BlenderBot and its successor, BlenderBot 2 initiated the development of the first unified system trained to blend different conversational skills, such as personality, empathy, and knowledge, to have long-term memory, and to search the internet to carry out conversations.
Twitter launches Location Spotlight to appeal to brick-and-mortar businesses
The feature allows businesses with a physical location to prominently position important information on their Twitter profiles. Businesses may add details like store hours and addresses, a Google Map with directions, and a single touch option to contact a company through phone or Twitter direct message. Zoom out: The new features are a part of Twitter’s concerted effort to win over more merchants. The platform’s new Shop module enables select retailers to sell products directly on Twitter. Shopify recently became the first commerce platform to partner with Twitter. “Product Drops,” a new feature which allows users to be reminded when a drop they’ve expressed interest in goes live, was launched recently as well.
Meta Testing New Platform ‘Super’ for Influencers
The new platform allows influencers to host live streams, earn revenue and engage with viewers. It has reportedly paid influencers between $200 and $3,000 to use the platform for 30 minutes, Super entered development in late 2020 and is currently being built by Meta’s New Product Experimentation team. Super entered development in late 2020 and is currently being built by Meta’s New Product Experimentation team. It was mentioned that Meta recently reached out to multiple creators asking them to try out the new project.
RBI releases regulatory framework for digital lending
The guidelines are created by RBI as an effort to mitigate the concerns arising from credit delivery through digital lending methods. The banking regulator has categorically specified that the lending business can only be carried out by entities regulated by it or those permitted under the law. The central bank has divided the universe of digital lenders into three groups — entities regulated by the RBI and permitted to carry out lending business; entities authorized to carry out lending according to other statutory/ regulatory provisions but not regulated by the RBI, and entities lending outside the purview of any statutory/ regulatory provision. These guidelines are for the first category, or entities regulated by the RBI. As for other entities which are part of the second and the third categories, the RBI has asked the respective regulator/ controlling authority/ the central government to formulate guidelines based on the recommendations of the working group on this subject it had formed back in January 2021.
Three new privacy features on WhatsApp
In the first feature, users can leave groups silently without notifying anyone, other than the admins. The second feature allows them to choose who can and can’t see them online. The third feature offers screenshot blocking for View Once Messages – that is used to share photos or media – for an added layer of protection.
Hyperlive viewers to touch 25 mn within one year
Glance Lockscreen platform’s Hyperlive (‘Hyperlive’ is a made-in-India next generation premium ‘live’ content experience) debuted in India on Independence day this year. On Independence Day, Glance users experienced over 30 unique Hyperlive shows that celebrated the spirit of India. In order to commemorate the occasion, Glance lit up all its lock screens with India’s national flag making #HarScreenTiranga and empowered users with a dynamic feature that offered content across hues and themes, resonating with India. “Currently, around 10 million viewers watch Hyperlive shows daily. Over the next few months, Glance expects the number to go up to 25 million daily,” Rohan Choudhary, Vice President and General Manager, Glance Feed said.
Samsung develops artificial muscle actuators for immersive VR, AR
This project leverages compact artificial muscle actuators to enable fast image focus in AR/VR and tactile feedback for VR controllers. According to SamMobile, two of the tallest barriers to VR/AR immersion are the lack of variable focus and tactile feedback. An image rendered inside a VR headset does not change focus between objects according to the user’s line of sight. Similarly, VR and AR controllers lack the tactile feedback depth and versatility to trick users into thinking that virtual objects they might happen to interact with have weight to them.