Threads tests the ability to save posts as it continues to compete with X

by with No Comment Tech

Image Credits: Instagram Threads

Instagram Threads is getting a highly requested feature that puts it in closer competition with X/Twitter. The text-based social networking app is experimenting with the ability to save posts, allowing users to bookmark favorite posts to revisit them later.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced the feature in a Threads post on Wednesday, noting that the company just started the limited test.

Users with the test can find the new save feature under the three-dot menu in the top-right corner of a post. We’re not sure why Threads decided to hide the feature in the “More Options” menu since Instagram has its bookmarks icon easily accessible next to the like, comment, and share buttons. X recently moved its bookmark button on iOS to make it easier to find. Threads will likely continue testing the most optimal location for its new save feature.

Instagram has had a bookmarking capability since 2016, so it makes sense that Threads would also adopt the feature. The ability to save content for later is helpful when you want to look at a post — especially if it includes a link to a longer article — but don’t have time to read it now.

Since the debut of Threads last year, the app has continuously rolled out new features to appeal to users and take on rivals like X, Bluesky, Mastodon, Nostr, Post and Spill. Last month, the platform confirmed it was working on a “Trends” feature to surface trending topics.

During Meta’s fourth-quarter earnings report, Threads revealed that it has over 130 million monthly active users.

Threads now reaches more than 130 million monthly users, says Meta, up 30M from Q3

Google pauses AI tool Gemini's ability to generate images of people after historical inaccuracies

by with No Comment Tech

Sundar Pichai

Image Credits: Kenzo Tribouillard / AFP / Getty Images

Google says it’s temporarily suspended the ability of Gemini, its flagship generative AI suite of models, to generate images of people while it works on updating the technology to improve the historical accuracy of outputs involving depictions of humans.

In a post on the social media platform X, the company announced what it couched as a “pause” on generating images of people — writing that it’s working to address “recent issues” related to historical inaccuracies.

“While we do this, we’re going to pause the image generation of people and will re-release an improved version soon,” it added.

Google launched the Gemini image generation tool earlier this month. However examples of it generating incongruous images of historical people have been finding their way onto social media in recent days — such as images of the U.S. Founding Fathers depicted as American Indian, Black or Asian — leading to criticism and even ridicule.

Writing in a post on LinkedIn, Paris-based venture capitalist Michael Jackson joined the pile-on today — branding Google’s AI as “a nonsensical DEI parody”. (DEI standing for ‘Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.’)

In a post on X yesterday, Google confirmed it was “aware” the AI was producing “inaccuracies in some historical image generation depictions”, adding in a statement: “We’re working to improve these kinds of depictions immediately. Gemini’s Al image generation does generate a wide range of people. And that’s generally a good thing because people around the world use it. But it’s missing the mark here.”

Generative AI tools produce outputs based on training data and other parameters, such as model weights.

Such tools have more often faced criticism for producing outputs that are biased in more stereotypical ways — such as overtly sexualized imagery of women or by responding to prompts for high status job roles with imagery of white men.

An earlier AI image classification tool made by Google caused outrage, back in 2015, when it misclassified Black men as gorillas. The company promised to fix the issue but, as Wired reported a few years later, its ‘fix’ was pure workaround: With Google simply blocking the tech from recognizing gorillas at all.

https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/16/what-is-google-gemini-ai/