Technologies

Search Engine You.com Launches ChatGPT-Style Chatbot

The feature works similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which went viral earlier this year for its unique and realistic responses from a computer program.

You.com, a search engine launched last year promising more customizability, began offering a ChatGPT-style chatbot on its website Friday that can answer questions and hold a conversation, bringing more artificial intelligence-powered technology to the wider web. Though, it does offer some answers with incorrect facts.

The search engine’s new feature follows ChatGPT, an AI chatbot that went viral earlier this year for being able to offer unique answers to complex questions, based on information it gleaned from around the internet. You.com said it hopes to stand out though by offering answers to more-current questions, like, «Won the 2022 World Cup?» People who use the site should be careful though, as its confident answer appeared to get details wrong, like where the game was held.

ChatGPT has information only up to last year. You.com’s chat program is limited in other ways, however, and is seemingly unable to provide useful responses to requests like, «Write me a solitaire program in HTML for the web.»

Both chat programs do things like offer results from the web and repeat encyclopedia-like entries on various subjects. They can also write a letter in response to a prompt like, «Write me a letter to an old friend who I don’t really like but keep in touch with out of obligation.»

ChatGPT, You.com and other similar chatbots are part of a broader shift in the tech world, where artificial intelligence programs are increasingly being coded to create new forms of art, music, writing and even their own code. Their popularity and seemingly fast evolution has begun raising questions about what art is, and whether computers can truly create unique products drawn from a reservoir of information.

The sudden popularity of ChatGPT in particular has reportedly had alarm bells ringing at Google, which has built its corporate image around AI work like self-driving cars, real-time translation apps and smart assistants. The search giant has its own ChatGPT-like tech called LaMDA, which it’s resisted releasing publicly because of possibilities it might offer embarrassing answers or start repeating hate speech. Other chatbots, from Microsoft, Facebook and more, for example, have struggled with these issues.

For now, ChatGPT and You.com exist mostly as interesting demonstrations of what the future of AI could look like.

For example, when asked to write a haiku about Jamaican beef patties, You.com produced this novel result:

Flaky crust, so golden

Seasoned beef inside, so savory

A Jamaican treat

One other thing that separates the two chatbots for now is that You.com will display website results alongside its responses, something ChatGPT isn’t currently designed to do.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for June 9, #463

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 463 for June 9.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Todays NYT Strands puzzle features a bunch of mysterious words. Some are a bit difficult to unscramble so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: What you see isn’t what you get

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Hiding in plain sight

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

CALL, CALLS, FALL, FALLS, SAME, SEAM, LAND, ROSE, COVE, CANE, CANES, FLUME, FLUMES, DIGS, MEAL, COLA, CARD, CASE

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

MASK, CLOAK, COVER, FACADE, DISGUISE, CAMOUFLAGE

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is FALSEFRONT. To find it, start with the F that’s two rows over from the far left and two letters down. Wind around into a question mark.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for June 9, #729

Here are some hints and the answers for Connections for June 9, No. 729.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Do you play the NYT Spelling Bee? If you do, you should be able to ace the purple category in today’s NYT Connections puzzle. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group, to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Control-C.

Green group hint: Don’t wait till the last minute.

Blue group hint: Pals to plan a heist.

Purple group hint: Think another NYT online game.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Keyboard shortcut commands.

Green group: Secure in advance.

Blue group: Crime organization.

Purple group: Spellling Bee ranks minus a letter.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is keyboard shortcut commands. The four answers are paste, print, quit and save.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is secure in advance. The four answers are book, order, request and reserve.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is crime organization. The four answers are crew, family, ring and syndicate.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is Spelling Bee ranks minus a letter. The four answers are genus, goo, mazing and slid. (Genius, good, amazing and solid.)

Technologies

I Made Google Translate My Default on iPhone Before a Trip and It Saved Me More Than Once

Google Translate supports far more languages than Apple’s app, and it’s easy to make the switch.

If you’re traveling overseas this summer, the Google Translate app can come in handy to quickly translate a road sign or conversation. The latest Google Translate update allows you to pick the app as your default translation app for Apple iPhones and iPads running iOS and iPadOS 18.4 and later. Previously, you were limited to the built-in Apple option.

Google began leveraging AI to boost Google Translate’s offerings, adding 110 languages last year to increase its total support for 249 languages. Compare that to Apple Translate, which supports 19 languages. Neither Google nor Apple responded to a request for comment.

Both apps offer voice and text translation, including a camera feature that lets you instantly translate by pointing your camera at text. Both also allow you to use translation features without an internet connection, which can come in particularly handy when traveling to more remote locations.

After using both, I found that the Google Translate picked up speech a little quicker so I didn’t have to constantly repeat myself, and the audio pronunciations were a little easier to understand than on Apple Translate. I switched to Google Translate as the default on my iPhone, and here’s how you can, too.