Science and Technology

If you don't have a Pixel phone, there's the similar "Talk to a Live Representative" experiment from Google Research Labs. It is available in the Google app for iOS and Android; tap the laboratory flask icon in the top left corner to access Search Labs. “Talk to a Live Representative,” active through the end of 2024, lists the 1-800 numbers of several airlines and other companies and lets you request a call and call you back when the representative is there. It's still experimental, however, and may not work consistently. Don't miss calls If you need to turn off the…

In a sign that the tech industry continues to get weirder, Meta soon plans to release a big update that will transform the Ray-Ban Meta, its video-shooting camera glasses, into a gadget only seen in science fiction movies. Next month, the glasses will be able to use new artificial intelligence software to see the real world and describe what you're looking at, similar to the AI ​​assistant in the movie "Her." The glasses, available in various frames starting at $300 and lenses starting at $17, were primarily used for taking photos, videos and listening to music. But with new AI…

An older voice assistant like Siri, which reacts to a database of commands and questions it has been programmed to understand, would fail unless you used specific words, including "What's the weather like in New York?" and “What should I pack for a trip to New York?” The first conversation seems more fluid, like the way people talk to each other. One of the main reasons people gave up on voice assistants like Siri and Alexa was that computers couldn't understand much of what they were asked, and it was difficult to figure out which questions worked. Dimitra Vergyri, director…

Artificial intelligence is giving machines the power to generate videos, write computer code and even carry on a conversation. It is also accelerating efforts to understand the human body and fight disease. On Wednesday, Google DeepMind, the tech giant's core AI lab, and Isomorphic Labs, a sister company, unveiled a more powerful version of AlphaFold, an AI technology that helps scientists understand the behavior of the microscopic mechanisms that drive cells on the planet. Human Body. An early version of AlphaFold, released in 2020, solved a puzzle that had plagued scientists for more than 50 years. It was called “the…

Keep organized If you don't already have software to consolidate travel information, your phone's default apps can help. Electronic boarding passes, hotel reservations, and advance tickets can be quickly added to your phone's digital wallet; a pragmatic paper backup hidden in your bag is insurance. Google and Apple offer the ability to automatically add reservations and events from emails and messages to your calendar. By adding tickets, passes and reservation cards to the digital wallet app on your phone, you keep them all in one place while you travel.Credit…Apple Free services like TripIt (and its phone apps), TripCase (also with…