Technologies

Google Brings Genie 3 ‘World Building’ Experiment to AI Ultra Subscribers

The research prototype is like creating your own video game in real time.

Google announced on Thursday that it’s widening access to its experimental research prototype, Genie 3, to its AI Ultra subscribers. The experiment allows users to generate 3D worlds and navigate through them.

Google gave the world a glimpse of Genie 3 back in August and opened it up to users participating in its Trusted Testers program. Now, Genie 3 will be available on the highest tier of Google’s AI subscription plan, limited to users 18 and up.

Google calls Genie 3 a general-purpose world model that lets users generate dynamic worlds, which can be navigated in real time. Seeing the demos in action, it’s like creating a video game on the fly.

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Google breaks down Genie 3’s functions in three ways.

World sketching: Using text prompts and uploaded images, users can craft a world as they see fit, along with the character that will navigate it. You can choose how the character navigates the world, whether that be walking, flying, or something else, and you can even select the perspective of the character, like first-person or third-person views.

World exploration: With your world built, Genie 3 will generate the path ahead in real time based on your interactions and movements. You can also adjust the camera view and angle as you navigate through the world.

World remixing: Google will allow users to remix worlds by building on top of the prompts that created them. Genie 3 offers a curated gallery of worlds to choose from. You can then download videos from your world explorations.

Since Genie 3 is still an early experimental release, it’s not without a few limitations.

Worlds generated may not look completely true to life or adhere perfectly to the user prompts.
Some characters created to navigate the worlds might be less controllable than others, and some may have higher latency in control.
Limitations in generations to 60 seconds.

Google says that Project Genie will expand to more territories in «due course.» For now, unless you’re a Google AI Ultra subscriber or a part of the Trusted Testers Program, you’ll have to wait until the experiment expands to more people.

Technologies

Google Considers Letting Websites Opt Out of Having Content Scraped for AI Overviews

Google’s polarizing generative AI summaries that appear at the top of search results are particularly unpopular among publishers. Regulatory intervention in the UK may offer them a way out.

Google says it’s exploring the option of letting publishers opt out of having their website content used to generate AI Overviews at the top of search results.

In a blog post published on Thursday, the company addressed its approach to the controls it provides to websites in order to manage how their content appears in Search AI features. The post was Google’s response to the fact that the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has opened a consultation into potential new requirements for Google.

Google introduced its AI Overviews features, which places AI-generated summaries at the top of search results, in summer 2024. The company relies on information scraped from websites to generate Overviews, and websites have been unable to opt out of Google using their content for this purpose.

As a direct result of this, many publishers and media organizations around the world have reported massive drops in click-through traffic, which has a domino effect on revenue and their ability to the produce the original content Google relies upon for Overviews.

Citing Google’s dominant position in the online search world, the CMA proposed a package of measures on Wednesday designed to ensure news and content producers get a fairer deal over how their content in used by the company. These measures include allowing publishers to opt out of their content being used to power AI features, such as AI overview, or to train AI models outside of Google Search.

In its blog post, Google said it was «now exploring updates to our controls to let sites specifically opt out of Search generative AI features.» It didn’t say whether these controls would be available to publishers based outside of the UK.

«Our goal is to protect the helpfulness of Search for people who want information quickly, while also giving websites the right tools to manage their content,» the company said. «We look forward to engaging in the CMA’s process and will continue discussions with website owners and other stakeholders on this topic.»

The company also stated that any new controls it added needed to avoid breaking Google Search «in a way that leads to a fragmented or confusing experience for people.» Its overall goal is to protect «the helpfulness» of Search.

It should be noted that Google’s AI Overviews have, on many occasions, provided inaccurate information, including in the above screenshot, which erroneously identifies CNET’s parent company as Red Ventures. (CNET is currently owned by Ziff Davis.) It could be argued that this represents an example of the «fragmented and confusing experience» Google says it wants to avoid.

The CMA said it would wait a year to announce the results of the consultation and whether it planned to take further action. In the meantime, Google said it hopes it can find a path forward «that provides even more choice to website owners and publishers.»

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Jan. 30, #964

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for Jan. 30 #964.

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 is pretty challenging across the board. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times 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 the 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: In the same vicinity.

Green group hint: Like a hairbrush or razor.

Blue group hint: Like a Post-It note.

Purple group hint: Not foot.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Region.

Green group: Grooming items.

Blue group: Things with adhesive surfaces.

Purple group: ____ hand.

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 region. The four answers are area, cluster, patch and pocket.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is grooming items. The four answers are comb, compact, nail file and tweezers.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is things with adhesive surfaces. The four answers are Band-Aid, lint roller, sticker and tape.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ____ hand. The four answers are helping, minute, poker and upper.

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Jan. 30 #698

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Jan. 30, No. 698.

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 kind of difficult. Some of the answers are tricky 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: We’re not lost.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Navigate a path.

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:

CENT, FLAIR, RAIN, RAINS, PART, MART, TARS, PAWS, BEND, BENDY, DATE, DATES, PASS, SWAY, SWAYS.

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:

STAR, ATLAS, BEACON, COMPASS, SEXTANT, LANDMARK

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is FINDYOUR WAY. To find (ha!) it, start with the F that is five letters to the right on the top row, and wind down and across.

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