Here is the top trending news from the world of technology. News that every tech enthusiast should keep a tab on.
1)
Meta AI creates compact language model designed especially for Mobile Devices
Meta AI, the artificial intelligence arm of Meta, apparently seems to have pulled off an impressive feet by creating a compact language model that perfectly fits our smartphones. Traditionally, large language models are massive, requiring significant processing power and draining battery life of mobile devices. Meta AI claims that it has solved this problem through a deep and thin architecture, embedding sharing, and grouped query attention mechanisms. However, Meta’s mobile LLM is built on a model that has fewer than 1 billion parameters, which is fraction of the size of models like GPT-4. Nonetheless, mobile customized LLMs can prove to be a gamer changer for the entire AI industry as it males powerful AI features more accessible for the users. Mind you though Meta AI’s mobile LLM feature is still under development; but Meta has open sourced the pre-training code, allowing other researchers to build on their work.
2)
Microsoft China imposes ban on Android phones, Switches to iPhones
Cybersecurity concerns have reportedly compelled Microsoft’s Chinese division to impose the ban on the use of Android phones in its work premises. Its employees will have to mandatorily switch to iPhone 15 by September. Microsoft has created several touch points near its office locations where its employees can hand over their Android phones and collect iPhone 15s. To authenticate, Its staff will have to use Microsoft’s Authenticator Password Manager and identity Pass Key apps on their iPhones. The company firmly believes that IOS’s close system and iPhones’ sensitivity towards data protection will help in ramping up its cybersecurity measures. In recent months, Microsoft’s internal system had faced relentless attacks from hacking groups especially from Russian hackers.
3)
AI Video Startup ‘Runway’ in fundraising talks at $4 Bn Valuation: Report
According to The Information, Runway, which creates AI powered video generation tools for professional and amateur film-makers, is holding talks with several investors for a fundraise. The AI startup is planning to raise nearly $450 Mn from big VC firms like General Atlantic while the names of other VC firms is still not known. This potential fundraise comes after a successful funding in June 2023, where they secured nearly $141 Mn with a valuation of $1.5 Bn. If this funding round transpires then this comes as a major short in the arm of Runway as the competition in the video generation space intensifies after the launch of OpenAI’s Sora.
4)
Notepad is getting a spellcheck and autocorrect feature
Better late than never. Microsoft is finally adding spell check and autocorrect feature in Notepad, which arrives almost 40 years after the program was first launched in 1983. However, as of now this feature will only be available to Windows 11 users. The company was testing both these features in March and has now started quietly rolling out to Windows 11 users. The spellcheck feature works almost identical to MS word, underlining the misspelling words in red color. Autocorrect feature can also be enabled to fix the error automatically. One good thing is that these features come with customization option, which means that it isn’t imposed on everyone. You can disable spell check entirely or configure it to based on file type. This is especially helpful for tasks like coding where abbreviations and technical terms might trigger false narratives.
5)
Apple removes dozens of VPN apps from app store in Russia
According to Russian news agency Interfax, Apple removed several VPN apps from its Russian app store, following request from the Russian internet watchdog. Two VPN companies that were till now operating in Russia – Le VPN and Red Shield VPN – have confirmed this news To TechCrunch. The exact reason for the takedown is still not known but many believe that this has been done due to security reasons. Just like China, internet in Russia is heavily controlled and censored and any suspension of misuse of internet especially by foreign elements is often met with strong retribution. This move also comes amid the ongoing intense war between Russia and Ukraine, which has heightened the tension between Moscow and Washington DC.
