Technologies

Computing Guru Criticizes ChatGPT AI Tech for Making Things Up

Vint Cerf, who helped create the internet’s core network technology, hopes engineers can improve artificial intelligence’s shortcoming.

Vint Cerf, one of the founding fathers of the internet, has some harsh words for the suddenly hot technology behind the ChatGPT AI chatbot: «Snake oil.»

Google’s internet evangelist wasn’t completely down on the artificial intelligence technology behind ChatGPT and Google’s own competing Bard, called a large language model. But, speaking Monday at Celesta Capital’s TechSurge Summit, he did warn about ethical issues of a technology that can generate plausible sounding but incorrect information even when trained on a foundation of factual material.

If an executive tried to get him to apply ChatGPT to some business problem, his response would be to call it snake oil, referring to bogus medicines that quacks sold in the 1800s, he said. Another ChatGPT metaphor involved kitchen appliances.

«It’s like a salad shooter — you know how the lettuce goes all over everywhere,» Cerf said. «The facts are all over everywhere, and it mixes them together because it doesn’t know any better.»

Cerf shared the 2004 Turing Award, the top prize in computing, for helping to develop the internet foundation called TCP/IP, which shuttles data from one computer to another by breaking it into small, individually addressed packets that can take different routes from source to destination. He’s not an AI researcher, but he’s a computing engineer who’d like to see his colleagues improve AI’s shortcomings.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT and competitors like Google’s Bard hold the potential to significantly transform our online lives by answering questions, drafting emails, summarizing presentations and performing many other tasks. Microsoft has begun building OpenAI’s language technology into its Bing search engine in a significant challenge to Google, but it uses its own index of the web to try to «ground» OpenAI’s flights of fancy with authoritative, trustworthy documents.

Cerf said he was surprised to learn that ChatGPT could fabricate bogus information from a factual foundation. «I asked it, ‘Write me a biography of Vint Cerf.’ It got a bunch of things wrong,» Cerf said. That’s when he learned the technology’s inner workings — that it uses statistical patterns spotted from huge amounts of training data to construct its response.

«It knows how to string a sentence together that’s grammatically likely to be correct,» but it has no true knowledge of what it’s saying, Cerf said. «We are a long way away from the self-awareness we want.»

OpenAI, which earlier in February launched a $20 per month plan to use ChatGPT, has been clear about about the technology’s shortcomings but aims to improve it through «continuous iteration.»

«ChatGPT sometimes writes plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers. Fixing this issue is challenging,» the AI research lab said when it launched ChatGPT in November.

Cerf hopes for progress, too. «Engineers like me should be responsible for trying to find a way to tame some of these technologies so they are less likely to cause trouble,» he said.

Cerf’s comments stood in contrast to those of another Turing award winner at the conference, chip design pioneer and former Stanford President John Hennessy, who offered a more optimistic assessment of AI.

Editors’ note: CNET is using an AI engine to create some personalfinance explainers that are edited and fact-checked by our editors. Formore, see this post.

Technologies

Lossless Audio Finally Arrives for Spotify Premium Subscribers. Here’s How to Enable It

The streaming audio company says the feature is rolling out to Premium subscribers in some regions.

Lossless audio, a format that Spotify says has been much-requested by subscribers over the years, is finally arriving on the streaming service.

In a post, the company says that 24-bit/44.1kHz FLAC audio will now be an option for premium subscribers in select markets «across nearly every song available in Spotify.»

Subscribers will have the option to adjust music quality as low, normal, high, very high and now lossless, with the option to see how much data each tier requires.
While audio formats such as MP3 or AAC use varying degrees of compression to reduce file sizes — which means you don’t get the full depth and range of the music — lossless formats including FLAC and Apple’s ALAC preserve the original data from a song without any quality loss.

In addition to working in Spotify’s apps, the company says, lossless audio will be available on some Spotify Connect devices from Sony, Bose, Samsung, Sennheiser and other manufacturers. It plans to add support for Sonos and Amazon audio devices next month, according to the post.

The lossless feature has been a missing component on the service, which launched in 2008 and became available in the US in 2011. Some of its audio-streaming competitors added lossless before Spotify.

«Spotify has promised a lossless music tier for many years, originally dubbed Supremium, and it is one of the last of its competitors to add uncompressed tunes,» said Ty Pendlebury, TV and home video editor at CNET. «Both Apple and Amazon added complimentary lossless and hi-res files back in 2021, while YouTube Music is one of the only holdouts by only offering compressed music.»

Spotify says lossless is eventually rolling out to 50 different markets.

How to enable lossless audio on Spotify

Once you receive a notification from Spotify that lossless is available, you can use the Spotify app to enable the feature.

To do this, tap on your profile image, go to Settings & Privacy, then Media Quality and select where to enable the format: over Wi-Fi, over cellular or in downloads.

The company says you need to enable the feature manually for each device you use.

Technologies

You Can Play Hollow Knight: Silksong on Xbox Game Pass Now

Microsoft is adding a few other games to the service soon, but everyone knows we’re here to play Silksong, right?

The wait is over. After years of rumors and speculation, Hollow Knight: Silksong, the sequel to the award-winning indie darling Hollow Knight, is here. And Xbox Game Pass subscribers can play the highly anticipated sequel right now at no additional cost.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, a CNET Editors’ Choice award pick, offers hundreds of games you can play on your Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Amazon Fire TV, smart TV and PC or mobile device for $20 a month. A subscription gives you access to a large library of games, with new ones, like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, added monthly, plus other benefits such as online multiplayer and deals on non-Game Pass titles.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source on Chrome.

Here are all the games Microsoft is adding to Game Pass soon. You can also check out the games the company added to the service in August, including Gears of War: Reloaded.

Hollow Knight: Silksong

Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers can play now.

The wait is over for one of the most anticipated indie games in recent memory. You play as the hunter and princess Hornet as she ascends to Hallownest’s peak. You’ll venture through mossy grottos, craft deadly tools and take on over 200 powerful bugs with acrobatic skills as you climb to the top. But you aren’t just taking down everything in your path. You’ll also befriend strangers and unlock secrets that might help you in your quest.

I Am Your Beast

Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass and Game Pass Standard subscribers can play now.

This covert, revenge thriller is like a comic book in game form. You play as a retired secret agent who gets called in for «one last job.» But unlike other stories where the hero says, «Yes,» you say, «No.» So now the military-industrial complex is hunting you through the North American wilderness. You have to evade your enemies and sabotage their equipment to survive.

Nine Sols

New to Game Pass Standard.

Don’t let the cute cat-like hero fool you; this game can be brutal. This 2D action platformer is about revenge. You play as an ancient hero who awakes from a 500-year slumber to embark on a vengeful journey against those who imprisoned them. The hand-drawn art style and gameplay inspired by Sekiro make this a uniquely challenging and beautiful game.

Game Pass Ultimate subscribers could play this game in December, and Game Pass Standard subscribers can play this difficult but rewarding game soon, too.

Cataclismo

Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers can play now.

This game combines resource management, real-time strategy, siege defense and exploration into one title. Creatures from a corrupted world, called Horrors, are seeking to destroy humanity, so you have to build intricate fortresses to fend off waves of enemies. Once the Horrors are gone, you’ll forage for resources outside of your defenses during the day to help in the next night’s attacks. Will you be able to find a way to put a stop to the Horrors once and for all, or will you fall like the rest of humanity?

Paw Patrol World

Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass and Game Pass Standard subscribers can play now.

Microsoft removed this kid-friendly game from Game Pass in February, and the company is bringing it back to the service this month. You can play as Chase, Skye, Marshall or Everest as they save the day across locations like Adventure Bay, Jake’s Mountain, the Jungle and Barkingburg. Use your nose to sniff out secrets and pup treats you can use to unlock new outfits and more for your pup.

RoadCraft

Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers can play on Sept. 16.

When natural disasters strike, someone has to clean up the damage and restore the local infrastructure. That’s where you and your company come in. You’ll use construction machinery to clear debris, replace faulty equipment and rebuild roads, bridges and more. Don’t just throw all that debris away. Some of it can be recycled and used for reconstruction in this building simulator.

Games leaving Xbox Game Pass on Sept. 15

While Microsoft is adding all those games to Game Pass soon, the company is removing a few others from the service on Sept. 15. So you still have some time to finish your main campaign and any side quests in these games before you’ll have to buy them separately.

For more on Xbox, discover other games available on Game Pass now, read our hands-on review of the gaming service and learn which Game Pass plan is right for you. You can also check out what to know about upcoming Xbox game price hikes.