Microsoft brings out a small language model that can look at pictures - Technology news - NewsLocker (2024)

Illustration: The Verge Microsoft announced a new version of its small language model, Phi-3, which can look at images and tell you what’s in them.
Phi-3-vision is a multimodal model — aka it can read both text and images — and is best used on mobile devices. Microsoft says Phi-3-vision, now available on preview, is a 4.2 billion parameter model (parameters refer to how complex a model is and how much of its training it understands) that can do general visual reasoning tasks li

Even J.Lo in a mech suit can’t save Netflix’s by-the-numbers AI thriller

Image: Netflix You would think that a sci-fi movie where Jennifer Lopez partners with a smart-ass, sentient mech suit to fight against her evil AI brother would be a little more fun. Alas, Atlas — Netflix’s latest attempt at a hit streaming action movie — takes itself far too seriously. It also fails to really dig into the complexities of the AI debate, despite essentially being a conflict between a friendly AI assistant and machine intent on a doomsday scenario. There are some

Judge Hints at Plans to Rein In Google’s Illegal Play Store Monopoly

“Google as an illegal monopolist will have to pay some penalties,” US federal judge James Donato said Thursday, in a hearing discussing next steps after a jury found the company breached antitrust laws.

You can now share passwords within your Google family group

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is now letting users securely share passwords with members of their own family group over the internet, making it easier for everyone in the household to access passwords for shared services like Netflix. The new ability is included in the Google Play services update for May 2024 that’s rolling out now, as reported by Android Authority.
The new password sharing feature just applies to ones that are stored in Google Password Manager, the compan

Advertisem*nt

You can save up to $20 on Anker’s newest Qi2 power banks

Anker’s latest wireless chargers work great whether you’re on the move or getting ready for bed. | Image: Anker I’m in the process of overhauling my entire arsenal of chargers now that the world is finding common ground when it comes to charging tech — whether voluntarily or not. The iPhone 15 finally features a USB-C port, and I anticipate upgrading from my iPhone 12 Pro Max this year to exile Lightning cables from my life for good. Thankfully, though, my last-gen phone

IRS extends its Free File tax program for five more years

Illustration: Hugo Herrera / The Verge The IRS Free File program will be around for another five years. The agency has announced that it’s extending the program through October 2029, allowing people to file their taxes with one of the IRS’s partners for free.
The Free File program got more attention recently after the IRS changed its rules in 2020 to prevent tax preppers from hiding their free services. Both TurboTax and H&R Block left the Free File program after that, and TurboT

Google promised a better search experience — now it’s telling us to put glue on our pizza

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos by Getty Images Imagine this: you’ve carved out an evening to unwind and decide to make a homemade pizza. You assemble your pie, throw it in the oven, and are excited to start eating. But once you get ready to take a bite of your oily creation, you run into a problem — the cheese falls right off. Frustrated, you turn to Google for a solution.
“Add some glue,” Google answers. “Mix about 1/8 cup of Elmer’s glue

Most US TikTok Creators Don’t Think a Ban Will Happen

The Chinese-owned app is in serious trouble in Washington, but a survey of US creators suggests TikTok’s influencer economy is carrying on with business as usual.

Advertisem*nt

Leak: the Asus ROG Ally X will have twice the battery at 80Wh and two USB-C ports

VideoCardz obtained this first — very modified —image of the Ally X. | Image: VideoCardz I exclusively revealed what the Asus ROG Ally X handheld gaming PC will be all about and even touched an early prototype, but Asus wouldn’t talk specs ahead of its June 2nd release. But now, VideoCardz has obtained the key missing details — battery, weight, ports, thickness, storage, and RAM.While we already knew the Ally X was shooting for double the battery life by including a large

The 30 Best Movies on Hulu This Week (May 2024)

The Contestant, Rushmore, and Sideways are just a few of the movies you need to watch on Hulu right now.

The Kia EV3 will have over 300 miles of range and a ChatGPT-like AI assistant

Kia’s Soul-ful EV designs continue. | Image: Kia Kia introduced the finalized version of its EV3 small electric SUV today, and with it comes a big new feature: AI.The vehicle was first introduced as a futuristic concept vehicle last year, and now it will launch in South Korea this July, followed by Europe in the second half of the year. Kia representative Karla Gonzalez tells The Verge that EV3 is also confirmed for the US — but there’s no timing announced.
The EV3 will be the

The Samsung right-to-repair story just got worse

Image: Samsung iFixit just broke up with Samsung over its shaky commitment to right to repair, but things may be worse than we thought. Samsung is apparently forcing independent repair shops to give up your personally identifying information — and report you for using aftermarket parts.
404 Media has now obtained a leaked copy of a contract between Samsung and an independent service provider, which states that for every repair, an independent repair shop must send Samsung your name, addres

Buy now, pay later services have to act more like credit card providers now

Image: Hugo Herrera / The Verge Buy now, pay later services — or BNPL for short — are now beholden to some of the same rules as credit card providers. On Thursday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued an interpretive rule that classifies BNPL services as credit card providers and requires them to investigate disputed purchases, among other things.BNPL services let customers purchase a product and then pay for it in a series of interest-free installments. Under the n

Euclid space telescope captures tens of thousands of glittering galaxies

Image: ESA Stunning new images from the Euclid space telescope show a dazzling array of starry sights, released to celebrate the first science published from the telescope’s early release observations.
The mission from the European Space Agency, launched last year, aims to elucidate the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy — forces that comprise most of the known universe but that are largely unknown since they are so difficult to study. Scientists know that dark matter must exis

Political consultant behind the Joe Biden deepfake robocalls faces $6 million fine

Image: Laura Normand / The Verge The Federal Communications Commission has proposed imposing multimillion-dollar fines on the political consultant responsible for the robocall campaign that used an AI-generated deepfake of President Joe Biden’s voice — and on the telecom company that facilitated the calls.
Longtime Democratic operator Steve Kramer faces a $6 million fine from the FCC, while Lingo Telecom could be fined $2 million. The FCC announced the proposed penalties on Thursday,

Canva tackled digital design — and now the office suite is next

Canva is introducing a plethora of updates that aim to make its design ecosystem more attractive to professional teams and workspaces. The company has redesigned the platform to make new and existing editing tools easier to find and announced a specialized tier for Enterprises that provides more control over collaboration, brand management, and security for larger organizations.
“We are excited to introduce a revamped Canva experience and a suite of new products to empower every organizat

The Daylight DC1 is a $799 attempt to build a calmer computer

There’s something charmingly retro-futuristic about Daylight’s whole vision. | Image: Daylight Computer There’s a new company in the race to make a less distracting, more minimalist, and generally sanity-saving kind of computer. It’s called Daylight Computer, and it’s launching its first device today: the DC1, a 10.5-inch tablet with some interesting ideas about gadget design.
The DC1’s main hook is its display. Daylight calls it a “LivePaper” scre

The Daylight DC1 is a $729 attempt to build a calmer computer

There’s something charmingly retro-futuristic about Daylight’s whole vision. | Image: Daylight Computer There’s a new company in the race to make a less distracting, more minimalist, and generally sanity-saving kind of computer. It’s called Daylight Computer, and it’s launching its first device today: the DC1, a 10.5-inch tablet with some interesting ideas about gadget design.
The DC1’s main hook is its display. Daylight calls it a “LivePaper” scre

The sequel to Animal Crossing-like Cozy Grove hits Netflix in June

Image: Netflix Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit, from Spry Fox games, will soon be added to Netflix’s ever-expanding lineup of games. Camp Spirit is the follow-up to Cozy Grove, an Animal Crossing-inspired crafting and survival game, but with ghosts instead of dog musicians and tanuki low-interest home loan providers.In Camp Spirit, you’ll fulfill the wishes of dearly departed bears. (For a studio called Spry Fox, it’s kinda hilarious that nearly all of its games focus on bears.) You&rs

Biden's New Import Rules Will Hit Ebike Batteries Too

The tariffs’ effects on the bike industry are still up in the air.

How the FBI built its own smartphone company to hack the criminal underworld

Photo by Oliver Morin / AFP via Getty Images On today’s episode of Decoder, I sat down with Joseph Cox, one of the best cybersecurity reporters around. Joseph spent a long time working at Vice’s tech vertical Motherboard, but last year, after Vice imploded, he and three other journalists co-founded a new site, called 404 Media, where they’re doing some really great work.
Somehow, on top of all that, Joseph also found time to write a new book coming out in June called Dark Wire:

Spotify is going to break every Car Thing gadget it ever sold

Image: Spotify Spotify’s brief attempt at being a hardware company wasn’t all that successful: the company stopped producing its Car Thing dashboard accessory less than a year after it went on sale to the public. And now, two years later, the device is about to be rendered completely inoperable. Customers who bought the Car Thing are receiving emails warning that it will stop working altogether as of December 9th.
Unfortunately for those owners, Spotify isn’t offering any kind

He Trained Crypto Cops to Fight Crypto Crime—and Allegedly Ran a $100M Dark Web Drug Market

The strange journey of Lin Rui-siang, the 23-year-old accused of running the Incognito black market, extorting his own site's users—and then refashioning himself as a legit crypto crime expert.

He Trained Cops to Fight Crypto Crime—and Allegedly Ran a $100M Dark-Web Drug Market

The strange journey of Lin Rui-siang, the 23-year-old accused of running the Incognito black market, extorting his own site’s users—and then refashioning himself as a legit crypto crime expert.

Twitter Is Dead, Long Live the Portal

The NYC-Dublin portal gives us a peak into the future of online community building in the wake of Twitter's demise.

TikTok says it disrupted more than a dozen influence campaigns this year

Illustration: The Verge TikTok says it disrupted more than a dozen covert influence campaigns on the platform since January, including one originating from China.
In a blog post, the company announced it would begin publicly reporting on influence campaigns, where networks of accounts engage in coordinated efforts to sway political discourse. TikTok will share details of campaigns it detects and removes, saying it hopes it will “increase transparency about our work to aggressively counter

Microsoft outage took down Copilot, DuckDuckGo, and ChatGPT search features

It’s a sad panda day. | Image: Microsoft Search capabilities for ChatGPT, Copilot, DuckDuckGo, and other platforms stopped working on Thursday morning due to a Microsoft outage.
The issues — which began around 3AM ET — appeared to be linked to Bing’s API and any service that relies upon it. While Microsoft’s own web search engine, Bing, was also seemingly affected, according to TechCrunch, it came back online eventually.
By 11AM ET, OpenAI posted a note indicating t

Samsung’s smart fridges mistakenly warned users its free TV service was ending

A notification on my Samsung Family Hub smart fridge told me my favorite feature was going away. Apparently, it was wrong. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Yesterday morning, I woke up to a notice on my fridge alerting me that one of my favorite features was going away. No, it wasn’t about to stop making ice. Instead, my Samsung Family Hub smart fridge told me I would no longer be able to watch Samsung TV Plus on its built-in screen. And while that turned out not to be the ca

The Nintendo Switch has turned into an excellent Mario RPG machine

Paper Mario: The Thousand-year Door. | Image: Nintendo When it comes to Mario’s traditional platforming adventures, the story is mostly set dressing. There’s an intro about Peach being captured or Bowser turning into a sentient castle, and then you get on with the jumping and exploring. But there’s a rich and interesting world that goes underexplored — which is where Mario’s roleplaying spinoffs come in. Since the original Super Mario RPG on the SNES, these games ha

Pocket-Sized AI Models Could Unlock a New Era of Computing

Research at Microsoft shows it’s possible to make AI models small enough to run on phones or laptops without major compromises to their smarts. The technique could open up new use cases for AI.