Emilia David

Former Reporter

Google engineer indicted over allegedly stealing AI trade secrets for China

Emilia DavidMar 6, 2024

Now you can make Gemini’s AI responses more precise.

9to5Google points out a recent update to Google’s Gemini chatbot that lets people edit and fine-tune its responses directly on the chatbox.

The Gemini update page explains the addition from March 4th:

We’re launching a more precise way for you to tune Gemini’s responses. Starting in English in the Gemini web app, just select the portion of text you want to change, give Gemini some instruction, and get an output that’s closer to what you are looking for.

Users can modify Gemini’s response.

The Verge

Emilia DavidMar 6, 2024

Microsoft’s small math AI model does math better than the big boys.

Microsoft found that small language models can exceed the performance of much larger ones when trained to specialize in a single area. Researchers fine-tuned the Mistral 7B model to create Orca-Math, an SLM that solved grade school math problems better, at 86.8 percent, than models like Llama 2, GPT-3.5, and Gemini Pro — even though it ingests significantly less data.

The company was rumored to build a team entirely focused on creating SLMs (AI models that use less computing power), which would be suited for phones and laptops.

Bar graph showing Orca-Math outperforming other large language models.

Graph comparing Orca-Math’s performance in solving grade school math problems.

Microsoft

Microsoft invokes VCRs in motion to dismiss The New York Times’ AI lawsuit

Emilia DavidMar 6, 2024

Kayak’s new AI features will let users double-check flights with a screenshot

Emilia DavidMar 5, 2024

ChatGPT can read its answers out loud

Emilia DavidMar 4, 2024

AI tax prep chatbots are giving bad advice.

A review by The Washington Post finds that AI-powered chatbots from leading tax prep companies H&R Block and Intuit Turbo Tax gave either irrelevant or unhelpful tax filing advice.

Here’s one example: Where should your child file taxes if she goes to college out of state? When I asked, TurboTax’s “Intuit Assist” bot offered irrelevant advice about tax credits and extensions. H&R Block’s “AI Tax Assist” bot gave me the wrong impression she has to file in both places. (The correct answer: She only files in the other state if she has earned income there.)
Question after question, I got many of the same random, misleading or inaccurate AI answers.

H&R Block announced AI Tax Assist in December, while Turbo Tax released a similar service in November. Both companies have said AI chatbots learned from the same datasets human experts use to answer tax questions, but their disclaimers mention that users should always double-check AI-provided advice.

Review | TurboTax and H&R Block now use AI for tax advice. It’s awful.

[The Washington Post]