Apple’s New Accessibility Features: A Game-Changer for Users with Disabilities

Apple’s new accessibility features are pretty awesome! One of the highlights is the Personal Voice feature. It lets people who may lose their ability to speak create a synthesized voice that sounds like their own for communication. All they have to do is read some text prompts for 15 minutes and voila! They can even use it with Live Speech to have their typed messages read aloud using their customized voice. And don’t worry, Apple ensures user privacy through on-device machine learning. So no need to worry about Siri spilling your secrets!

There’s also Assistive Access, which streamlines core apps for users with cognitive disabilities. It simplifies apps to just the essential features and includes combined versions of Phone and FaceTime, modified Messages, Camera, Photos, and Music apps. They even have high-contrast buttons and large text labels for easier use.

And that’s not all! There are new features for users with visual impairments, an easier pairing of Made for iPhone hearing devices with Macs for deaf or hard-of-hearing users, a customizable Siri speaking rate (so you can finally tell her to slow down!), and Voice Control for phonetic suggestions during text editing. Apple really cares about accessibility and worked with disability communities to develop these groundbreaking features. They’re set to be released later this year, probably with iOS 17. Exciting stuff!

Rapid Rundown

• 🔥 Apple introduces Personal Voice, letting users create their own synthesized voice for communication. Privacy is ensured with on-device machine learning.

• 🎯 Assistive Access simplifies core apps for cognitive disabilities, featuring high-contrast buttons and large text labels. Exciting accessibility updates from Apple!

Sam Altman Recognizes AI Risks, Urges for Regulation

Sam Altman, the big cheese at OpenAI, had a little chat with US senators about regulating AI. He’s all for it, especially when it comes to preventing election misinformation and making sure users know when they’re dealing with AI-generated content. He also talked about the potential harms of AI and how it could mess with voters in the 2024 US elections.

He even suggested creating a new federal agency to keep an eye on those sneaky AI companies and issue licenses for AI products that play by the rules. Altman wants the US to lead the way in setting worldwide standards for AI through its control over the microprocessors that train and run AI systems. But there are concerns that following his suggestions could give even more power to the big players in the AI industry and make it harder for startups to compete.

Senator Cory Booker brought up these concerns and Altman agreed that any new laws shouldn’t hold back startups and smaller efforts. He suggested a two-tier system based on how much computing power an AI system uses or what specific capabilities it has. Senator John Kennedy even offered Altman the job of running the proposed agency, but he turned it down.

Rapid Rundown

• 👀 Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, supports regulating AI to prevent election misinformation and ensure transparency.

• 🏢 Altman suggests a new federal agency to monitor AI companies and issue licenses for compliant AI products.

From Struggling to Striding: Tesla Bots Take Huge Leaps Forward in Walking and Object Recognition

Have you seen the latest footage of Tesla’s Tesla Bots? They’re now walking forward without stumbling. And they can even pick up and recognize objects. Elon Musk showed off the video during a shareholder meeting event.

Remember when they first revealed the humanoid robot at Tesla’s AI Day event last year? It could barely walk back then, let alone do anything useful. But now, the robots are moving independently. Slowly but surely. The video shows some cool updates to the project like motor torque control, environment discovery and memorization, AI training from human movements, and object manipulation.

They even showed one bot picking up objects from one container and putting them in another. Baby steps! It’s been seven months and it looks like Tesla’s bot is on its way to becoming a product. Or at least something more than a guy in a suit. Production is expected to start after they deliver the first Cybertrucks. Whenever that may be.

Rapid Rundown

• 🚀 Tesla's Tesla Bots have made significant progress, walking smoothly and recognizing objects, showcased in a video during a shareholder meeting event.

• 👶 Tesla's humanoid robots have evolved with motor torque control, environment discovery, AI training, and object manipulation, inching closer to becoming a product.

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Hushl — Supercharge your LinkedIn, in less than a few minutes a week

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Between — Call in the same room without feedback or echo

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