AI

Many people turn to AI to improve their writing, their photos, or their videos. YouTube has been doing the same, quietly enhancing the look of users’ uploaded videos through the use of artificial intelligence.

So, what is the problem? Many creators are upset not so much that their videos have been “enhanced” (although there is debate over whether what YouTube has done can actually be seen as an improvement) but that it was done without consent.

Cloudflare has launched new Zero Trust tools in its Cloudflare One platform to help businesses adopt artificial intelligence securely at scale. The features aim to give organizations better visibility into how AI is used, as well as protection from unapproved applications, and controls to safeguard sensitive data, all within a centralized system that can support distributed teams.

Generative AI is now being used by employees across departments, from finance to design, to speed up tasks and create new applications. While this can, and does, help improve efficiency, adoption often happens without security oversight.

The head and co-founder of OpenAI, Sam Altman, entered into discussions aimed at striking a deal to bring ChatGPT Plus to everyone in the UK at no cost to end users.

In a meeting between the UK’s technology secretary Peter Kyle and Altman, there was talk of granting UK residents access to a more advanced tier of ChatGPT as standard. The deal – while not definitely dead in the water – appears to have stalled, but the idea is an extremely interesting one.

Many of the concerns about artificial intelligence can be overcome through transparency. And it is in the name of transparency that Elon Musk has announced the open sourcing of its Grok 2.5 model.

More than this, the AI firm will also make the Grok 3 model open source is around six months.

Rokid will unveil its newest wearable, the Rokid Glasses, at a launch event in New York City on August 26. The company says the device is the world’s lightest full-function AI and AR smart glasses, combining translation, navigation, transcription, and a first-person camera in an everyday design.

The glasses run on Qualcomm’s AR1 platform and include features such as real-time multilingual translation, live transcription, a teleprompter function, and object recognition. Rokid is also building around a developer ecosystem that already counts more than 15,000 developers in China, with plans to expand internationally.

There is nothing that technology companies will not try to enhance with AI. Google is no stranger to this with Gemini, and the company has announced an AI-powered fitness coach for the Fitbit platform.

But this is more than just a fitness coach. Google describes it as a “a fitness trainer, a sleep coach and a health and wellness advisor” all rolled into one. The aim is to be the AI coach that is suitable for everyone, so what can it do?

Microsoft could be accused of many things in relation to Copilot on Windows, but standing still is not one of them.

Both in terms of functionality and design, the company seems to be constantly at work and this is something that is evident in the latest Insider build of Windows 11. Microsoft is rolling out new features such as Semantic Search, and also a completely redesign home page for Copilot on Windows.

The National Football League and Microsoft announced today that their strategic partnership will run for at least several more years, with the goal of expanding the use of artificial intelligence across the sport

The collaboration brings Microsoft Copilot and Azure AI into areas that affect game day decisions, scouting, and stadium operations. With the league hosting hundreds of events each year, the aim is to improve both performance and the fan experience.

We have already seen Microsoft bringing Copilot to Excel. The company only recently added the AI assistant to its spreadsheet as a way to explain formulae to help users better understand them.

Now Microsoft is bringing Copilot to Excel in more ways – arguably more useful ways. Currently available to Insiders, the latest addition sees Microsoft giving users the option to “bring AI to your formulas with the COPILOT function in Excel”.

The global AI in-car assistant market is set to take off massively in the coming years according to Valuates Reports, which forecasts an increase from $6.9 billion in 2024 to $15.8 billion by 2031. The company says this represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.8 percent, reflecting the increasing role of voice-driven and connected systems in vehicles.

AI in-car assistants are becoming integral to modern automotive design, combining voice recognition, infotainment, navigation, and predictive maintenance, in addition to providing drivers with hands-free control.

LibreOffice doesn’t ship with artificial intelligence features by default, but a new extension gives the office suite AI-powered features thanks to a community effort.

While Microsoft Office has started to integrate AI directly into its products, often tied to cloud subscriptions and proprietary tools, LibreOffice follows a different path where volunteers and independent developers can add optional capabilities through open-source extensions.

If you can rely on Microsoft for anything, it is that the company will use Windows to push its own products and services – just look at Copilot.

You will have noticed that Microsoft is busy squeezing Copilot into everything it possibly can. The latest victim of this treatment is the Start menu in Windows 11. This should come as no surprise – Microsoft is not only hellbent on shoving Copilot down people’s throats, it is turning to its tried and tested technique of using the Start menu to do so.

Lenovo’s customer service AI chatbot Lena was recently found to contain a critical vulnerability that could allow attackers to steal session cookies and run malicious code.

Cybernews researchers discovered that with just one maliciously crafted prompt, the AI could be manipulated into exposing sensitive data. Lenovo has since fixed the issue, but the case shows how chatbots can create fresh risks when not properly secured.

Sealing Technologies has launched Operator X, an AI Hunt Kit Assistant built for defensive cyber operations at the edge.

Operator X is designed for situations where you can’t rely on the internet or external cloud services. Many cyber defense teams work in places where security rules are very strict, so sending sensitive data to a cloud provider is not allowed. In those cases, everything has to run locally, inside the secure environment.

The latest Technology Enablement Survey from Eagle Hill Consulting shows that most US employees use workplace technology and believe it can improve productivity.

But despite this, many organizations are missing opportunities by failing to take a people-focused approach, which can limit the adoption of the automation and AI tools that employees say they need in order to work more effectively.