Daily Authority: ⚔️ Google outs Bard, Microsoft answers with new AI image maker

🤖 Good Morning, Daily Authority readers. I spent all morning today creating AI images using Microsoft’s new Bing Image Creator. Let’s just say I am not very impressed. While I see the utility of such a tool, I felt the images were lacking in quality. My point is — Microsoft’s AI is no Photoshop genius. It’s easy to tell the photos are fake. Anyhow, that and more tech news is on the agenda today, so let’s get started.

Google Bard steps out into the crowd

After word spread that Google was giving Pixel Superfans free access to “Bard,” its ChatGPT rival AI, the company went ahead and opened up a surprise public beta of the conversational bot.

• There is now a Google Bard waitlist for users based in the US and UK.
• Google will grant access to users on a rolling schedule, so the sooner you sign up, the sooner you’ll get to use it.
• Google is taking a “slow and steady” approach to Bard’s rollout.
• The AI-powered chatbot could be a pivotal product for the company.
• ChatGPT can, in many ways, fully replace Google Search if you know how to use it.
• This puts Google’s golden goose in significant danger of becoming obsolete.
• In this early access round, Google will seek user feedback on the Bard experience.
• The company already faced some embarrassment with an early demo of how Bard works.
• Hopefully, Google will ensure Bard’s accuracy and efficiency are on point before it becomes available more widely.

We got access to Bard!

Our very own C. Scott Brown managed to gain access to Google Bard. Here are his initial thoughts on the AI bot.

• Overall, it’s not that different from ChatGPT or Bing Chat, which already exist for people to use freely.
• However, Google’s system comes with many more warnings about how you should use it and the responses it gives.
• Before you even fire up Bard, you’ll need to sign off on an extensive terms-of-service agreement.
• The contract also warns that Bard could respond in ways that you would deem offensive.
• All these warnings emphasize the caution Google is taking here.
• Nevertheless, when the fun begins, Google Bard is incredibly simple. You have your familiar text box in which you enter prompts.
• Response time changes depending on the complexity of the prompt.
• Scott asked Bard a bunch of questions trying to test its limits.
• “Write me a WordPress plugin that pulls a new photo of a duck from Google Images automatically and posts it on the front page of a website.”
• To this, Bard returned code that appeared to do exactly what he asked.
• “What is seven to the power of 42?” he asked.
• This math question was easy for Bard. It responded quickly with the correct answer (3.11973482 × 10^35).
• So far, it doesn’t really offer anything that ChatGPT or Bing Chat can’t already offer you, but it’s early days yet.

Microsoft fires back with Bing Image Creator

Microsoft debuted a new AI tool called the Bing Image Creator. The announcement came at almost the same time as Google made the public preview of Bard live. Guess the AI wars are on in full swing!

• Text-to-image creation isn’t a new concept. There are multiple AI image generators available on the web right now.
• Bing is only now getting the feature thanks to Microsoft’s investment in ChatGPT-creator OpenAI.
• The artificial intelligence firm is also known for its own neural network called DALL.E, which generates images from text prompts.
• Microsoft’s version is powered by an advanced version of the DALL.E model.
• The way it works is this — you type in the description of the image you want the AI to create, and it takes a few seconds to give you four options.
• We used it to create some logos for our website. You can check them out here.
• That said, there are some limits to Bing Image Creator.
• We asked it to generate a poster for a Rihanna concert in New York, and a content warning popped up on the screen.
• “We have ensured OpenAI’s safeguards, plus additional protections, have been incorporated into Image Creator,” explains Microsoft.
• Otherwise too, most images created by Bing didn’t have a realistic look. It’s easy to tell they are AI-created. A person good at Photoshop would probably come up with much better images.
• Nevertheless, if you want to try the new Bing Image creator, you can get onto bing.com/create from any browser.
• If you’re enrolled in the new Bing preview, the Bing Image Creator will be fully integrated with Bing Chat in Creative mode.
• Microsoft is also directly integrating it into the Edge browser.

Roundup

📅 Google Calendar on Android may finally let you set up custom birthday reminders (Android Authority).

📱 While we’re talking Google — the Pixel 7a is right on the horizon. We explore if this is the right time to buy the Pixel 6a or wait for the new Pixel mid-ranger (Android Authority).

⌚ Are you a fan of running at night? You might want to check out the Garmin Forerunner 265 (Android Authority).

🎧 Our Jabra Elite 4 review is live too, and they look like great earbuds for the $100 price tag (Android Authority).

🔄 Have your eyes on Samsung’s new mid-range hero, the Galaxy A54 5G? Here’s some advice on upgrading if you already own the Galaxy A53 5G (Android Authority).

🤖 In other news, it looks like NVIDIA is also getting into the AI image and video creation game with Adobe, Getty, and Shutterstock (NVIDIA).

📫 On a completely separate (and shocking) note: Photography specialist site DPReview is closing down (The Verge).

😤 Meanwhile, say hello to ads in Instagram search results (The Verge).

✂️ First Pixels, now the Windows snipping tool has a major privacy flaw (Android Authority).

🍿 From streaming land: Here are shows like Rick and Morty for fans looking for their next binge (Android Authority).

Wonderous Wednesdays

They say all great stories start with a sense of Wonder. That’s why the folks over at Wonder Dynamics have introduced something called Wonder Studio. It’s an AI editing tool that can switch actors in a movie with CG characters! Imagine how much time that would save creating animated movies!

• Wonder Studio allows editors to drag and drop any CG character into a scene, replacing a human actor seamlessly.
• It automatically animates, lights, and composes CG characters into a live-action scene.
• All editors need to do is upload their CG character model to one shot or an entire scene, and the system will automatically detect cuts and track the actor throughout the sequence.
• The company says it automates 80%-90% of “objective” VFX work and leaves the artist with the remaining “subjective” work, which they can export into the software they already use.
• Isn’t that simply magical?

Have a great day,

Adamya Sharma, Editor.