AI News Summer 2024

We’re into Summer 2024 and there’s been some more AI news, coming from the usual players in the AI field.

At WWDC 2024, Apple announced their own AI – Apple Intelligence – which will bring lots of AI features to the Apple ecosystem, including devices and computers. They officially say that Apple Intelligence is ‘the personal intelligence system that puts powerful generative models at the core of iPhone, iPad, and Mac’. It will be included in iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and MacOS Sequoia, although I wouldn’t expect it to be included in the very first iOS 18 versions, I assume lots of development and testing work yet for their AI.

Near the end of July, OpenAI announced SearchGPT – their AI-powered search engine. This sounds somewhat like Perplexity AI, which I highly recommend from all the current AI apps and interfaces, so will be interesting to see what’s in SearchGPT and how it measures up to Perplexity AI. SearchGPT is currently on a waitlist, though there seems to be extensions for Chrome and Edge already available at https://searchgpt.me

Anthropic’s Claude AI is now available on iOS and iPadOS, as well as on Android. I’m not 100% sure, but I might add the Claude iOS app to my ‘Testing the AI Chatbots‘ feature, which included those major AI chatbots which then had iOS apps and a free version – it included Perplexity AI, OpenAI ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini (tested via Chrome browser as a special concession)

And this week, Microsoft said ‘Microsoft Bing adds better version of Google’s AI Overview‘ – so this is Bing’s own AI overview being added to their search results. I’ve noticed some users already complaining that this has caused a complete change to the Bing results page, where the usual results links have been shifted around and with AI overview then taking centre stage. I did have a couple of test searches on Bing and the results are a bit of a mess – Wikipedia or eBay or some other large site at the top, then actual links below that and then on the right various other results and links into various sites – all looks a bit jumbled and hard to make out the important info.

My take on all the above is that it will be interesting to try them all out, especially as in most cases you can try them all out for free, when they’re available. I especially like the fact that Apple’s AI features are said to be available on Macs with Silicon processors, from M1 upwards, so you don’t necessarily have to buy the next iPhone to try it out (if you’ve got a relevant M1+ Mac of course) I assume the tip top Apple AI features might only be available on Pro versions of their new iPhones, but let’s see what happens.

Pat Walsh provided Kingston Valdes with a professional and personable service that was excellent value. The site was built and tested quickly, we are delighted with the results, and we have already had positive feedback from some of our clients. If you’re thinking of building a new site or adapting an existing one, I’d certainly recommend speaking with Pat about it.

Kathy Valdes, Kingston Valdes

Pat has been absolutely incredible at testing each of our projects he works on. He’s very professional, organised and diligent. I look forward to using him again in the future.

Oliver Thurtle, Director of Technology, Drum

We’ve worked with Pat Walsh on a number of very different projects, from interactive video projects to mobile apps. His work is very thorough and has quickly become an essential and important phase of all the production work we do at Storythings. He’s thorough, diligent, and a pleasure to work with.

Matt Locke, Director, Storythings

Pat is an excellent one-stop-shop for testing Apps and Websites. He is a self-starter who just knows what needs to be done and gets on with it, and is responsive to requests for any specific testing requirements. He provides test plans and reports as a matter of course and was a pleasure to work with. I will definitely be working with Pat again if the opportunity arises.

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Pat is a real asset to any team – highly competent technically but also easy going and a great guy to work with. Highly recommended!

Andrew Ebling, Head of App Development, Composed

Pat performs comprehensive website testing for us, across all the main browsers and platforms, including mobile devices. His flexible approach to testing and clear feedback enable us to have confidence that the business end of our website is still working smoothly after system updates and changes.

Steve Liu, Manager, Wicked Lasers

Pat came to Composed to respond to our (increasingly urgent) need of QA on mobile and web and I can testify he more than fulfilled the task. On the Android side, his very structured approach (first exploratory testing, then focus on defining test plans for a variety of scopes) and his clear knowledge of the latest mobile technologies have quickly paid off. He was involved directly with the developers (including myself) and this very dynamic relationship enabled us to annihilate bugs swiftly and efficiently.

David Ferrand, Android Developer, Composed

Couldn’t recommend Pat highly enough. He goes beyond what you’d expect of a QA tester, commenting more broadly on user experience and even design. He’s quick, efficient and thorough – couldn’t ask for any more.

Rob Calvert, Director, Click

AI News Summer 2024

AI News Summer 2024

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