Technologies

Microsoft Adds AI Chatbot to Its SwiftKey Keyboard App

Now you can ask Bing AI to look things up or soften your tone when chatting.

Microsoft has added its BIng AI chatbot to its popular SwiftKey third-party keyboard app for iOS and Android phones, giving users quick access to AI-generated answers and advice.

With the keyboard open, you need only tap the blue Bing icon above the keyboard on the left to open the submenu, and then choose whether to have Bing AI search the internet for a query or give you answers itself via a chat.

The chatbot can also help with conversational tone, offering suggestions for alternative ways to phrase a typed statement if you want your messages to be a little nicer, funnier or more professional. Heck, it’ll even condense what you say into something that’ll fit in a 140-character tweet.

Anyone can use Bing AI to search within the keyboard, but the more advanced AI chatbot and tone retouching require users to sign in to their Microsoft Account first.

Microsoft added AI to its Bing search engine in early February and has been rolling out more AI integrations since, like adding an AI image creator powered by OpenAI’s Dall-E AI to Bing and an AI-powered ‘Copilot’ to its Office apps. It seems like Bing AI is going to play a big role in Microsoft’s products going forward, as the company added it to Windows 11, too.

Ultimately, adding AI capability to its products is Microsoft’s way to differentiate itself from its tech rivals. Google launched its own AI Bard at the end of March and has assured that conversational AI is coming to its search engine, while Amazon launched a new cloud service called Amazon Bedrock that helps AWS customers build generative AI-powered apps.

The AI wave was kicked off by OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which arrived late last year to surprise users with its rich yet conversational responses. Critics slammed ChatGPT for generating plausible-sounding but false information, but its potential shocked the tech industry into responding, with Google reportedly sounding a «code red» after OpenAI’s chatbot was released.

Technologies

Nearly 500 Starlink Satellites Have Incinerated in Earth’s Atmosphere So Far This Year

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for July 3, #487

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for July 3, No. 487.

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.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is a fun one, and it made me a bit hungry. 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: Beyond vanilla

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: We all scream…

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:

CREST, CHAT, REST, PEES, CHAR, BORE, CORE, SIMP, TORE, SECT, FEST, MIST, CAMP, CHEST

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:

CHERRY, COFFEE, BROWNIE, PISTACHIO, BUTTERSCOTCH

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is ICECREAM. To find it, look for the I that’s three letters to the right on the bottom row, and wind up.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for July 3, #753

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for July 3, #753.

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.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle could be tough. The green category came together quickly for me, but purple, as usual, was tricky. 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: Let’s discuss.

Green group hint: Before a trip.

Blue group hint: Sports stars.

Purple group hint: E-I-E-I-O.