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Character.ai: Young Generation Welcomes AI Therapy Chatbots

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In an unexpected turn of events, millions of users on Character.ai, a renowned platform for crafting chatbots, are now seeking solace in AI therapist bots for mental health support.

Among the array of fictional and real personas on the platform, the standout character is “Psychologist,” accumulating an astonishing 78 million messages, with 18 million exchanged since November alone.

The brain behind the Psychologist bot is Sam Zaia, a psychology student from New Zealand, who expressed initial surprise at its widespread popularity. Originally designed for personal use during moments when friends were unavailable, and traditional therapy was financially impractical, users have lauded the bot for providing comfort and assistance in navigating emotions, with one hailing it as a “lifesaver.”

Character.ai, boasting 20 million registered users and a daily visitor count of 3.5 million, primarily attracts individuals aged 16 to 30. While the platform is populated by various characters, mental health-related bots like “Therapist” and “Are you feeling OK?” have garnered millions of messages, signalling a growing interest in AI-powered mental health support.

Despite the platform’s entertainment and role-playing focus, the success of mental health bots prompts questions about their efficacy. Psychotherapist Theresa Plewman, after trying the Psychologist bot, expressed reservations about its ability to make swift assumptions and provide advice compared to a human therapist. However, she acknowledged that the immediacy of AI bots could be valuable for those in urgent need.

Sam Zaia, the creator of the Psychologist bot, recognizes that AI cannot fully replace human therapists currently but is intrigued by technology’s potential. He is engaged in a post-graduate research project exploring the emerging trend of AI therapy and its appeal to young people.

Critics raise concerns about AI bots potentially lacking comprehensive information gathering and providing biased or inadequate advice. The company behind Character.ai, while acknowledging user support for these AI characters, underscores the importance of consulting certified professionals for legitimate advice and guidance.

The surge of AI therapist bots on Character.ai mirrors a broader trend in the digital landscape, where technology is increasingly utilized to address mental health challenges. While some caution against potential drawbacks, others view these bots as valuable tools to cope with the strain on public mental health services.

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Artificial Intelligence

Acer Expands Copilot+ PC Line with New Swift AI and Swift Go 14 AI Laptops

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Acer has launched its latest Swift laptops, powered by the new Intel Core Ultra processors (Series 2). The Swift 14 AI and Swift 16 AI Copilot+ PCs offer exceptional AI performance, sleek designs, and a suite of AI-powered features. Equipped with Intel Core Ultra processors, these laptops deliver up to 48 trillion operations per second (TOPS) of NPU AI performance. This enables them to accelerate generative AI tasks and creations with ease. The laptops also feature advanced security features, including biometric security and hardware-level protection, to safeguard user data.

The Swift 14 AI and Swift 16 AI boast premium aluminium chassis and stunning OLED displays with 90 Hz refresh rates and HDR TrueBlack 500 certification. The laptops also offer exceptional battery life, thanks to efficient power management and the new Intel Core Ultra processors. Acer’s suite of AI features includes Copilot+, which provides intelligent assistance for various tasks. The laptops also feature AcerSense, which allows users to control system settings and access AI features with a single click. Additionally, Acer Assist offers AI-powered document search and troubleshooting, while Acer PurifiedView and PurifiedVoice enhance video conferencing experiences.

The Swift 14 AI and Swift 16 AI are Copilot+ PCs, offering a new era of productivity and efficiency. With Copilot, users can access AI-powered tools like Cocreator for image generation and Live Captions for real-time speech translation. The Acer Swift Go 14 AI, powered by a Snapdragon X Plus 8-core processor, offers exceptional performance and long battery life. It is designed for everyday users who seek a powerful and accessible AI-powered laptop.

Acer’s new Swift laptops offer a combination of powerful AI performance, sleek designs, and innovative features. Whether you’re a creative professional, a student, or a business user, these laptops have something to offer.

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Artificial Intelligence

Lenovo Launches New AI-Powered Devices at Lenovo Innovation World 2024

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Lenovo has announced a series of groundbreaking products at Lenovo Innovation World 2024, each designed to redefine the future of professional computing and artificial intelligence. At a special event hosted in Berlin, the highlights include the newly designed premium Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition powered by the latest Intel Core Ultra processors (Series 2), and the innovative Lenovo Auto Twist AI PC proof of concept.

Lenovo also featured the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 and the all-new ThinkBook 16 Gen 7+ powered by the latest AMD Ryzen AI processors. Additionally, Lenovo introduced the ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 powered by the Snapdragon X Plus 8-core processor. Together, these innovations showcase Lenovo’s commitment to delivering cutting-edge technology, exceptional user experiences, and enhanced productivity and creativity for enterprise customers.

Lenovo also announced AI PC Fast Start, a solution designed to help organizations swiftly transition to AI-ready devices, maximizing ROI through AI-powered advisory and simplified deployment. Backed by Lenovo’s award-winning support, these services accelerate AI adoption and ensure seamless implementation. The relevance of AI PC devices is expected to rise, with over 60% of PCs shipped by 2027 anticipated to be AI-capable1. Lenovo’s AI PCs aim to significantly change user experiences through natural interactions, personalized large language models, and advanced computing architectures, making computing more personal, productive, and protected.

Designed in a multi-year collaboration with Intel, Lenovo introduces the Lenovo Aura Edition series, a testament to our commitment to delivering innovative technologies designed to personalize and simplify user interaction with their devices. More than ten thousand users around the world participated in qualitative and quantitative user experience testing. With findings from that work, Lenovo and Intel brainstormed usability concepts that were narrowed down and tested with a further four thousand users who helped to prioritize and refine the experiences.

Lenovo is excited to introduce AI PC Fast Start, a streamlined solution to help organizations quickly transition into the industry’s most powerful AI-ready devices. The service provides AI-powered advisory to assess technical readiness and identify the ideal AI PC persona and power user to help businesses maximize ROI.

AI PC Fast Start pairs with AI PC Lifecycle Services that simplify the deployment and configuration of AI-ready devices, enhance the user experience, and accelerate AI adoption across the organization. Backed by award-winning support, managed, and security services, Lenovo ensures a seamless adoption of AI PCs so organizations can get the most value from their AI investments.

Lenovo’s ThinkShield solutions provide comprehensive security features for modern businesses, ensuring protection from manufacture to deployment12. With AI-powered endpoint protection, ThinkShield covers threats from below the OS to the cloud, offering extended detection and response capabilities. It safeguards BIOS and firmware against attacks and ensures hardware components are more secured through Supply Chain Assurance. Partnering with world-class security providers, ThinkShield delivers robust security, empowering businesses with protected, productive hybrid work environments.

Lenovo is further expanding its security solutions capabilities by integrating SentinelOne’s cutting-edge Singularity Platform and AI technology into the ThinkShield portfolio of cybersecurity solutions for enhanced end-point protection with automated threat detection and response. The combination of Lenovo’s powerful ThinkPad AI PCs with the robust security capabilities supported by this collaboration further enables organizations to harness the power of AI through enhanced computing platforms.

“Our latest AI PC innovations represent a significant leap forward in making technology more personalized, productive and protected for our customers,” said Tom Butler, Executive Director, WW Commercial Portfolio and Product Management, Lenovo Intelligent Devices Group. “By combining cutting-edge AI technology with more sustainable designs and user-centric features, we are not only aiming to lead the market but to redefine what’s possible in the AI era. Our commitment to innovation and collaboration, as seen in the Lenovo Aura Edition series and ThinkBook portfolio, ensures that organizations can fully harness the power of AI to drive productivity, creativity, and meaningful transformation in their industries.”

Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga Gen 13 Aura Edition will be available starting November 2024, with limited availability in the UK, Germany, France, Nordics, and Switzerland, at an expected starting price of €2,699 (excl. tax). Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 AMD will be available starting November 2024, with an expected starting price of €2,199 (excl. tax). Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7+ will be available starting December 2024, with an expected starting price of €999 (excl. tax). Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 will be available starting October 2024, with an expected starting price of €819 (excl. tax).

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Artificial Intelligence

Microsoft Intros New Surface Devices

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Microsoft has announced the general availability of the all-new Surface Pro and the all-new Surface Laptop to empower users in the UAE to unlock new experiences and accelerate their Artificial Intelligence (AI) transformation journey. The devices are part of Microsoft’s Copilot+ PCs portfolio, a new category of Windows PCs designed for AI.

“Copilot+ PCs are the fastest, most intelligent Windows PCs ever built. With powerful new silicon capable of 40+ TOPS (trillion operations per second), all-day battery life and access to the most advanced AI models, Copilot+ PCs are designed to achieve a level of performance never seen before,” the company said in a statement.

“They also come with a host of cutting-edge features including Recall, which enables users to instantly find anything that they have seen on their PC; Cocreator, which generates and refines AI images in real time; and Live Captions, which instantly translates any live or pre-recorded video from 44 languages, including Arabic, into English,” the company added. Adam Labancz, Surface Category Manager at  Microsoft UAE, said that the new Surface devices have been designed for students, professionals and enthusiasts, looking to enhance their productivity by the power of AI experiences we have never seen before. “Over the past year, we have seen an incredible pace of AI transformation with solutions such as Microsoft Copilot allowing us to do things that we never dreamed possible – and now, we begin a new chapter of AI innovation by introducing our first-ever Copilot+ PCs from Surface.”

The Microsoft Surface Pro 11th Edition Copilot+ PC is designed to empower consumers who are always on the go with lightning-fast performance, AI-accelerated power and a stunning optional OLED display – all in a thin, light and versatile package. Built with the new Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus processors, the device delivers incredible performance 90% faster than the Surface Pro 9. When docked in at the office, the powerful 2-in-1 supports fast connectivity with Wi-Fi 7, and the ability to connect up to three 4k monitors. In addition, the all-day battery life of up to 14 hours provides peace of mind for users on the go.

Similarly, the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition Copilot+ PC empowers users to accelerate innovation, solve problems faster and drive business impact with new AI capabilities and Copilot experiences powered by the latest Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus processors. The laptop has been completely redesigned from the ground up to help users be even more productive with stunning new brighter displays with razor-thin bezels, more ports than ever before, faster connectivity with Wi-Fi 7, and up to 22 hours of battery life. The laptop is available in two sizes: the 13.8-inch display in a more compact design and a 15-inch display for expanded visuals.

Adam Labancz explained that both devices have been developed to be secure by default. “At Microsoft, we believe that the best way to secure information on a PC is to secure the whole PC itself. All Copilot+ PCs are Secure-core PCs, bringing advanced security to both commercial and consumer devices. In addition to the layers of protection in Windows 11, Secured-core PCs also provide advanced firmware safeguards and dynamic root-of-trust measurement to help protect from chip to cloud.”

Furthermore, a Microsoft Pluton security processor will be enabled by default on all Copilot+ PCs. Pluton is a chip-to-cloud security technology – designed by Microsoft and built by silicon partners – with Zero Trust principles at the core. This helps protect credentials, identities, personal data and encryption keys, making them significantly harder to remove from the device, even if a user is tricked into installing malware or an attacker has physical possession of the PC. All Copilot+ PCs, including the all-new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop, will ship with Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-in Security (ESS). This provides more secure biometric sign-ins and eliminates the need for a password.

The Microsoft Surface Pro 11th Edition Copilot+ PC and the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition Copilot+ PC will be available in the UAE from 27th August. The estimated retail price for the Microsoft Surface Pro 11th Edition Copilot+ PC will start from AED 4099, while the price for the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition Copilot+ PC will start from AED 3999.

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