Technologies

Apple Reportedly Working on a ChatGPT-Like Search Experience

Apple’s large internal AI push is aimed at catching up with its competition.

Apple is internally working on a «ChatGPT-like search experience» to instantly generate answers for users, according to a report from Bloomberg on Sunday.

The Answers, Knowledge and Information team, or AKI, is a team within Apple looking to make internal AI products for its devices. The company is reportedly building an «answer engine» — an AI-powered service that pulls from information online to answer general queries. It’s also possible that a separate app might be developed. This AI search could power Siri, Spotlight and Safari.

A representative for Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

With companies like Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI all investing billions in AI development, Apple has notably been absent from the race. Instead of rushing to build AI models that could power the next generation of Siri, Apple opted to partner with OpenAI and leverage its technology.

With the launch of the iPhone 16, Apple introduced Apple Intelligence, AI on the iPhone that could assist in text generation, photo editing and summarization. The implementation, however, felt half-baked to many, and the rollout was slow.

Apple’s place in the AI race

Reports surfaced earlier this year that Apple was looking to purchase Perplexity, an AI company that’s taking on Google with an AI-powered search engine. Adding Perplexity to Apple’s portfolio would certainly help propel the company in the AI race. It would also lessen its reliance on Google.

Currently, Apple has a lucrative $20 billion per year deal with Google to allow it to be the default search engine on Apple devices. That’s also why Apple hasn’t built its own competing search engine — although, Apple argues that even if the deal didn’t exist, we can’t assume it’d have made a competing search engine.

That deal is now on shaky ground after the Department of Justice’s antitrust division sued Google and won, declaring the company is maintaining an illegal monopoly in online search. As a judge weighs remedies in this case, Apple has been barred from participating in the case, meaning Apple could lose $12.5 billion in annual revenue if the DOJ forces how Google makes these deals.

Creating a new AI-powered search engine within Apple might unwind the strands between Google and the iPhone maker, but could lead to more competition in the online search and AI markets.

Technologies

You May Soon Be Able to Chat on WhatsApp Even Without an Account

‘Guest chats’ isn’t in beta testing yet, but will likely be released in a future WhatsApp update.

Not part of the WhatsApp club yet? Not to worry, it looks like you’ll soon still be able to dip your toes in without signing up.

A new feature called «guest chats,» found by WABetaInfo in a beta build ,will reportedly allow anyone without a WhatsApp account to chat with someone who does after the feature is rolled out in a future update.

To start a guest chat, an app user would need to invite a non-app user via a link to an online chat. The invited party does not need to have WhatsApp installed on their phone nor have a WhatsApp account, and the sender can share the online chat link on any platform they choose — text, email, social media, etc.

Upon opening a chat link, the guest will be able to engage in encrypted chat with the sender. The guest chats will be only one-to-one — no group chats — and photos, videos or GIFs can be allowed to be shared. Voice and video messages won’t be supported.

Meta did not immediately to inquiries from CNET about this story.

This forthcoming WhatsApp feature brings app owner Meta further in line with the European Union’s 2020 Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act. One of the provisions of that legislation was allowing WhatsApp and Messenger users in Europe to communicate with people using other messaging services, what Meta refers to as «third-party chats.»

WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app in the world, with more than 2 billion monthly users. The US leads the way with the most WhatsApp iOS downloads.

Technologies

WhatsApp Adds Tools to Save You From Scams

The Meta-owned service says it took down nearly 7 million accounts linked to criminal scam centers.

WhatsApp, the popular messaging service, says it’s cracking down on millions of accounts linked to scam networks and providing users new tools to alert them when they might be targeted.

In a post, the Meta-owned service says it took down more than 6.8 million accounts linked to scam networks primarily based in Southeast Asia. WhatsApp said that many of them are driven by cryptocurrency investment scams and pyramid schemes, and that some use ChatGPT to generate text and links that may send users to other apps.

WhatsApp says that for users, it’s adding new safeguards to group messaging and individual messages that will warn users when someone who’s not in their contacts list tries to initiate a chat or add a user to a group messaging thread.

Overall, the service is advising that users take more time to consider responding to a chat request and to verify whether someone trying to contact them is who they say they are. Using a secondary form of communication is one way to do that, WhatsApp says: «If they messaged you on WhatsApp, call them on their phone – or if they sent you an SMS, give them a WhatsApp call using the phone number you know is theirs.»

WhatsApp is the world’s most widely-used encrypted messaging app.

Technologies

All PS Plus Subscribers Can Play Lies of P and Other Games All August Long

Subscribers can also play this zombie survival game or an anime fighting game.

Lies of P is an award-winning game that reimagines the story of Pinocchio as a soulslike action role-playing game set in a grimy world overrun by killer mechanical puppets. And all PlayStation Plus subscribers can play that award-winning game, and others, at no additional cost now.

PlayStation Plus is Sony’s version of Xbox Game Pass, and it offers subscribers a large, constantly expanding library of games. Subscribers can choose from the Essential, Extra and Premium tiers, which each have unique perks and benefits. The plans start at $10 a month, and each tier gives subscribers access to monthly games and rewards.

Here are the games all PS Plus subscribers can play throughout August. You can also check out the games Sony added to the PS Plus Game Catalog in July, including Cyberpunk 2077.

Lies of P

This is a macabre soulslike game akin to Bloodborne and based on Carlo Collodi’s classic tale, The Adventures of Pinocchio. Puppets have torn the city of Krat apart, and you play as Pinocchio as he searches for Geppetto in the grisly, oil-stained city. You’ll encounter traps, twisted contraptions and maniacal humans in your search throughout the city, and maybe you’ll find what it means to be human along the way.

DayZ

Can you survive the zombie apocalypse? DayZ places you and dozens of other players into a dense 163 square-kilometer (about 63 square-mile) map filled with zombies and materials you’ll need to last. And with no checkpoints or saves, you’ll need to work together; otherwise, you’ll have to start all over.

My Hero One’s Justice 2

This over-the-top fighting game is the sequel to the arena fighting game My Hero One’s Justice. In this game, you can fight as — or against — many of the characters from the popular anime series My Hero Academia, including All Might, Endeavor and Fat Gum. You’ll use your characters’ Quirks — or unique powers — to overcome your opponent’s abilities and win these epic clashes.

For more on PlayStation Plus, here’s what to know about the service and a rundown of PS Plus Extra and Premium games added in July. You can also check out the latest and upcoming games on Xbox Game Pass and Apple Arcade.