The Silicon Valley giant has released the first two models of the Llama 3 family – one with 8B parameters and one with 70B. According to Meta, these models are significantly better than the Llama 2 models, offering a much lower false rejection rate, improved alignment, and greater diversity in model responses. The specific capabilities of the models such as, code generation and instruction following have also been greatly improved.

Llama 3 was pre-trained on more than 15T tokens from publicly available sources, therefore the training dataset of Llama 3 is seven times larger than the training dataset of Llama 2 and contains four times more code.

According to Meta, in developing Llama 3, a new human evaluation set for benchmarking was also developed that contains 1,800 prompts across 12 use cases. These include asking for advice, classification, answering a closed question, writing code, creative writing, extraction, answering an open question, reasoning, rewriting, summarizing, and more.

The 70B parameter model beat Claude Sonnet, Mistral Medium, GPT 3.5, and Llama 2 using this new assessment set.

Llama 3 is available on AWS, Databricks, Google Cloud, Hugging Face, Kaggle, IBM WatsonX, Microsoft Azure, NVIDIA NIM and Snowflake. In addition, some hardware vendors will also offer support for it, including AMD, AWS, Dell, Intel, NVIDIA and Qualcomm.

Over the next few months, the company plans to update Llama 3 with new features, longer context windows, and larger model sizes.

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Earlier this year, the company released its first feature update for Windows 11 – “Moment 5.” However, it failed to generate much interest.

The full list of new features in version 24H2 of Windows 11 is not yet complete, but some of the changes that will occur in the operating system are clear. Today we will present to you 5 of them, which according to Neowin are worth your attention. In addition to this, some of those listed will appear before version 24H2.

Use your phone as a webcam

Windows 11 will let you use your Android smartphone as a wireless webcam. Modern phones have great cameras, and even expensive webcams often can’t match their capabilities. Future Windows updates will make it possible to use different cameras in your smartphones to make video calls on a computer, apply additional effects (such as HDR), and more.

Windows 11 will offer a dedicated window with all controls and additional information such as connection status and battery level. Currently, the ability to use Android smartphones as webcams with Windows 11 PCs is available to all Windows Insiders with the Link to Windows app version 1.24012.

Deeper Copilot integration

Copilot in Windows still seems like a huge afterthought with a very limited set of actually useful Windows-related features. Fortunately, Microsoft is making its new AI assistant more capable in terms of interacting with the hardware. Copilot is expected to be able to scan for Wi-Fi networks, display device information, report battery level, toggle battery saving, clean some memory, take screenshots, interact with accessibility features, and more.

Built-in QR code generator

Although at first glance this seems like a not-so-important feature, it can make the operating system more convenient. This future Windows update will allow you to generate QR codes when sharing links, making transferring websites from computer to phone much easier. You won’t have to email links to yourself or wait for Microsoft Edge to sync your history.

Save energy

Microsoft is working on expanding the existing power-saving module to more devices, namely desktops, which traditionally don’t rely on rechargeable batteries. The new energy saver is expected to trade more performance for battery life and allow you to reduce power consumption as you reach a certain battery life.

More lock screen widgets

The lock screen in Windows 11 will soon show more useful information. As you know, the current version allows you to place the weather widget, and future updates will add more options such as stocks, traffic, sports games, and more. This part is optional and you will be able to use the traditional and clean lock screen on your PC.

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A group of technology companies, including Intel, Google, Arm, Qualcomm and Samsung, created the Unified Accelerator Fund (UXL) alliance, through which they will work together to remove the advantages that NVIDIA has as a dominant player in the artificial intelligence market, reports The Verge.

The alliance will undertake the mission of developing an open-source software package that will allow AI professionals to break away from NVIDIA’s technology. Additionally, the code that developers create will be able to function on any machine with any chip.

The Unified Acceleration Foundation is still in the design phase, but is expected to begin operations by the beginning of the second half of the year. UXL currently supports the OneAPI open standard. It was created by the Intel company.

Members of the alliance believe that it will remove restrictions on developers using specific programming languages, code sets and any other tools intended to bind developers to the use of certain architectures. For example – NVIDIA’s CUDA platform, which strives for this.

After focusing entirely on making chips for AI models like the H100, the company reached $2 trillion in market capitalization last month. This secured NVIDIA’s top spot among chip makers. The company is also planning to release new AI models soon – H200 GPU.

The chips that NVIDIA manufactures require developers to use the CUDA architecture, which supersedes all other chip manufacturers’ architectures by leaps and bounds. Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, also shared that 4 million developers use CUDA.

However, technology companies are not giving up and continue to try to create alternative architectures of their own to displace the dominant one in the market.

For now, the creators of UXL intend to support NVIDIA hardware and code. Initially, the project will aim to develop options for AI applications.

The group of tech companies that make up the alliance is looking to collaborate with other powerhouses like Microsoft and Amazon to make sure the solutions they provide can be built into any chip or hardware.

According to the Chrome Platform Status webpage, the lack of custom text rendering settings has been an issue that users have been mentioning since 2015. With Microsoft’s intervention, Chrome will finally be more user-friendly.

Some time ago, Microsoft made changes to text rendering in Edge, and the main goal was to achieve nicer fonts, with improved range and contrast. Thanks to the ClearType Text Tuner settings in Windows that Edge uses, the browser has changed its look to a much better one, and the text has become easily readable.

Microsoft’s ClearType font technology has long been used in Windows to improve the display of text on screens, with the goal of making text look like it’s printed on a piece of paper.

Microsoft engineers have integrated ClearType Text Tuner support into Chrome so that it picks up any changes in contrast and gamut, just like most other Windows apps.

Curt Cathy-Schmidt, a senior software development engineer at Microsoft, is leading the effort in this area. In recent months, he has been involved in improving the text image in Chromium-based browsers, with a focus on improving accessibility in Edge and Chrome.

More than five years ago, the company switched to Chromium in its own Edge browser. At the time, Microsoft announced that it would “bring our Windows platform expertise to improve the performance of all Chromium-based browsers on Windows,” and that promise was kept. Microsoft contributed to improving scrolling in Chrome and many other features.

This marks the biggest change to the computer keyboard in decades. Although the tech giant isn’t the biggest seller of PCs – that distinction belongs to Lenovo – it runs the most popular Windows operating system. Lenovo has announced its own computers with Copilot keys, as have Dell and HP.

When users type a few words into Copilot, which uses artificial intelligence models from OpenAI, servers in remote data centers do the necessary computational work to produce a response. Microsoft named the new machines as AI PCs.

The key that allows users to open the Copilot panel at any time on the right side of the screen helps with this. Each computer has an Intel processor
Core Ultra, which contains a dedicated neural processing unit, or NPU.

Surface computers have had NPUs since 2019.

When these NPUs are in a computer, the benefits include faster responses and better security. Recently added artificial intelligence features in Windows 11, such as automatic audio transcription and eye contact simulation during video calls, are run by the NPU, which frees up the rest of the chip for other tasks.

“We’re excited to bring to market devices that deliver great AI experiences for our customers,” Microsoft said.

The company reports that this is just the first part of its quest to provide consumers and organizations with improved devices that will not only boost their productivity, but also save some of their time on certain tasks.

The button’s introduction comes two weeks after Apple unveiled the MacBook Air laptops, which feature an upgraded Neural Engine accelerator in the custom M3 chip.

3D Map View can be used in all countries where SmartTings is available. It is characterized by being able to control smart home devices. It does this by collecting and rendering interactively through the 3D devices in the user’s property.

How does 3D Map View work?

The new 3D Map View uses AI and LiDAR sensors in Samsung devices. Among the sensors used is the Bespoke Jet Bot, which serves to produce a precise map of the home. In the SmartThings app and through the map of their home, users can see more clearly what their home looks like and what its shape is.

“Samsung is constantly working to enable customers to control their home devices without any inconvenience at any time and place, and Map View is the result of these efforts,” said Seungbeom Choi, Head of Device Platform Center at Samsung Electronics.

The improved map view makes it more efficient to monitor and control certain devices. Samsung also says that for a smarter home experience, they will add AI characters by the end of the year.

“We will continue to introduce a variety of relevant services and features so our customers can enjoy optimal smart home experiences with a better life,” adds Seungbeom Choi.

Map View gives SmartThings users the ability to use the new 3D mapping features. To be able to make Map View reach apartments and offices, Samsung is collaborating with construction companies. Samsung also plans to create a more optimized UX for apps.

The components currently being released are Smart Paste, Smart TextArea and Smart ComboBox.

The .NET Smart Components are pre-built end-to-end AI features that you can incorporate into your existing application user interfaces, thereby increasing user productivity,” writes Daniel Roth, program manager at Microsoft, in a blog post.

Still, .NET Smart Components is a trial feature that is available in Blazor, MVC and Razor Pages with .NET 6. In the future, the company plans to add support for .NET MAUI, WPF and Windows Forms.

“Flink’s high performance, low latency, and strong community make it the best choice for developers to use for stream processing”, said Shaun Clowes, chief product officer at Confluent.

Data stream processing allows experts to use new data as it arrives, rather than working on older data that has already been processed.

“Stream processing allows organizations to transform raw streams of data into powerful insights”, added Shaun Clowes.

Confluent says Apache Flink is designed to help detect fraud. It can also manage a supply chain in real time.

How can be Apache Flink used?

“With Kafka and Flink fully integrated in a unified platform, Confluent removes the technical barriers and provides the necessary tools so organizations can focus on innovating instead of infrastructure management”, shared Shaun Clowes.

Typically, Apache Flink is used to maintain data. It supports the activity of data processing experts in case of overload. The company points out that when starting a business, customers will face challenges such as: upfront costs and maintenance efforts.

Apache Flink enables users to quickly launch a business through monitoring, security and management services provided by Confluent. Apache Flink is currently available through AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure.

DBOS (Database Oriented Operating System) reports that the initial amount invested in the product is $8.5 million, with the financing process led by the following companies: Engine Ventures, Construct Capital, Sinewave and GutBrain Ventures.

The activity of DBOS is expressed in the implementation of operating system services on high-performance databases. The company creates a fault-tolerant and secure cyber foundation for cloud-based applications. In addition, the organization provides the ability to save information in SQL tables.

The first product the company offers is DBOS Cloud. This is a FaaS platform. Its appearance marks an extraordinary advance for developers who are determined to explore the capabilities of the DBOS operating system.

What is DBOS Cloud for?

The purpose of DBOS Cloud is to make it easier to create applications and work on serverless functions. Developing the DBOS-based platform enables developers to reach a framework designed to streamline processes while improving operational efficiency.

Linking the platform to DBOS makes the user experience different by simplifying traditional development operations. The benefits of using DBOS Cloud for developers is that they have the ability to work in an environment that aims to make the platform easier to use. In addition, developers are making progress in the field of cybersecurity.

“The cybersecurity implications of DBOS are truly transformative,” said DBOS co-founder and former Head of Cybersecurity Practice at BCG Platinion, Michael Coden.

These advantages lead to the conclusion that applications that are built on DBOS Cloud have protection against cyber-attacks. Also, they are adapting to the rapidly evolving digital environment.

“This collaborative initiative focused squarely at the developer-level signifies a pivotal step towards fostering and speeding innovation within the AI community. By bringing together leading developers and organizations, this Alliance is paving the way for impactful advancements in AI technology, transparency, and ethics,” said Matt Arcaro, research director for computer vision AI tools and technologies at IDC.

Clarifai announced that any organization that takes a “major role in shaping the future of AI technology and development” can be a member of the AI Developer Alliance.

Among the first members of the alliance are the companies: Postman, Coder, DBT Labs, LlamaIndex, DSPy, Deepgram, Weaviate, LangChain, New York University, Cleanlab, Tabnine, Sieve Data, Brev.dev, Cast AI, Ikigai, Last9, and Ycurb .

The activity of the union will consist of organizing events, conducting seminars, online forums, as well as holding events where companies will have the opportunity to present their experiences in the field of AI.

An advantage of the AI Developer Alliance is that through it all experts in the field of AI will receive and exchange information with each other much more easily. They will have faster access to sharing resources, case studies, research results in the field of AI development.