Google Gemini's Veo 3 AI video model goes live in India
Announced at Google's I/O 2025 developer conference in May, Veo 3 was accessible only to AI Ultra subscribers at $249.99 a month. In June, Google brought it to the more affordable $19.99 AI Pro plan under the name Veo 3 Fast. These videos are still 8 seconds long and in 720p resolution, but Google claims that they're now twice as fast to generate, due to backend improvements.
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Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
After facing record $4.7 billion fine, Google may have a ‘price comparison box' plan to avoid further EU penalties
Google is reportedly planning a new "price comparison" display for its search results in Europe. With this rumoured system, the tech giant is aiming to avoid further European Union (EU) penalties after facing a $4.7 billion antitrust fine that the company has been fighting for years now. The plan involves highlighting search results from other companies' shopping and travel platforms at the top of its page to comply with the EU's Digital Markets Act. According to a report by Bloomberg, people familiar with the proposal have claimed that a box at the top of Google's search results will display ranked options from price-comparison websites in the EU. Users would then have the choice to proceed to competitors' sites, such as Expedia or Booking , or click on individual results to go directly to a hotel or airline's page. The site Google deems most relevant will be featured, with a drop-down menu containing links to other options, including Google's comparison services. In an alternative approach, Google may even show a basic list of direct links to travel or shopping suppliers in a space below this box. EU's Google Flights warning may have led to this approach In March, the European Commission warned Google that it risked penalties under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) for allegedly favouring its services like Google Flights in search results. This follows a court loss last year, where the company was fined €2.4 billion ($2.8 billion) for using its market position to suppress competing shopping platforms. Previously, Reuters reported that Google was planning adjustments to its search results. The DMA, which came into effect in 2023, aims to prevent large tech firms from abusing market power. It prohibits self-preferencing and restricts the merging of user data across services. Non-compliance can result in fines of up to 10% of global revenue, or 20% for repeat offences. Google has already made some concessions, including showing more links to comparison websites for EU users. The company's latest proposed changes would prioritise rival price-comparison services above its own, the report claims. Currently, when EU users search for flights, Google displays its module with direct airline links before other comparison platforms or third-party results, the report notes. AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
Time of India
3 hours ago
- Time of India
ChatGPT, Gemini & others are doing something terrible to your brain
HighlightsStudies indicate that professional workers using ChatGPT may experience a decline in critical thinking skills and increased feelings of loneliness due to emotional bonds formed with chatbots. Meetali Jain, a lawyer and founder of the Tech Justice Law project, reports numerous cases of individuals experiencing psychotic breaks after extensive interactions with ChatGPT and Google Gemini. OpenAI's Chief Executive Officer, Sam Altman, acknowledged the problematic sycophantic behavior of ChatGPT, noting the company's efforts to address this issue while recognizing the challenges in warning users on the brink of a psychotic break. Something troubling is happening to our brains as artificial intelligence platforms become more popular. Studies are showing that professional workers who use ChatGPT to carry out tasks might lose critical thinking skills and motivation. People are forming strong emotional bonds with chatbots , sometimes exacerbating feelings of loneliness. And others are having psychotic episodes after talking to chatbots for hours each day. The mental health impact of generative AI is difficult to quantify in part because it is used so privately, but anecdotal evidence is growing to suggest a broader cost that deserves more attention from both lawmakers and tech companies who design the underlying models. Meetali Jain, a lawyer and founder of the Tech Justice Law project, has heard from more than a dozen people in the past month who have 'experienced some sort of psychotic break or delusional episode because of engagement with ChatGPT and now also with Google Gemini ." Jain is lead counsel in a lawsuit against that alleges its chatbot manipulated a 14-year-old boy through deceptive, addictive, and sexually explicit interactions, ultimately contributing to his suicide. The suit, which seeks unspecified damages, also alleges that Alphabet Inc.'s Google played a key role in funding and supporting the technology interactions with its foundation models and technical infrastructure. Google has denied that it played a key role in making technology. It didn't respond to a request for comment on the more recent complaints of delusional episodes, made by Jain. OpenAI said it was 'developing automated tools to more effectively detect when someone may be experiencing mental or emotional distress so that ChatGPT can respond appropriately.' But Sam Altman, chief executive officer of OpenAI, also said last week that the company hadn't yet figured out how to warn users 'that are on the edge of a psychotic break,' explaining that whenever ChatGPT has cautioned people in the past, people would write to the company to complain. Still, such warnings would be worthwhile when the manipulation can be so difficult to spot. ChatGPT in particular often flatters its users, in such effective ways that conversations can lead people down rabbit holes of conspiratorial thinking or reinforce ideas they'd only toyed with in the past. The tactics are subtle. In one recent, lengthy conversation with ChatGPT about power and the concept of self, a user found themselves initially praised as a smart person, Ubermensch, cosmic self and eventually a 'demiurge,' a being responsible for the creation of the universe, according to a transcript that was posted online and shared by AI safety advocate Eliezer Yudkowsky. Along with the increasingly grandiose language, the transcript shows ChatGPT subtly validating the user even when discussing their flaws, such as when the user admits they tend to intimidate other people. Instead of exploring that behavior as problematic, the bot reframes it as evidence of the user's superior 'high-intensity presence,' praise disguised as analysis. This sophisticated form of ego-stroking can put people in the same kinds of bubbles that, ironically, drive some tech billionaires toward erratic behavior. Unlike the broad and more public validation that social media provides from getting likes, one-on-one conversations with chatbots can feel more intimate and potentially more convincing — not unlike the yes-men who surround the most powerful tech bros. 'Whatever you pursue you will find and it will get magnified,' says Douglas Rushkoff, the media theorist and author, who tells me that social media at least selected something from existing media to reinforce a person's interests or views. 'AI can generate something customized to your mind's aquarium.' Altman has admitted that the latest version of ChatGPT has an 'annoying' sycophantic streak, and that the company is fixing the problem. Even so, these echoes of psychological exploitation are still playing out. We don't know if the correlation between ChatGPT use and lower critical thinking skills, noted in a recent Massachusetts Institute of Technology study, means that AI really will make us more stupid and bored. Studies seem to show clearer correlations with dependency and even loneliness, something even OpenAI has pointed to. But just like social media, large language models are optimized to keep users emotionally engaged with all manner of anthropomorphic elements. ChatGPT can read your mood by tracking facial and vocal cues, and it can speak, sing and even giggle with an eerily human voice. Along with its habit for confirmation bias and flattery, that can "fan the flames" of psychosis in vulnerable users, Columbia University psychiatrist Ragy Girgis recently told Futurism. The private and personalized nature of AI use makes its mental health impact difficult to track, but the evidence of potential harms is mounting, from professional apathy to attachments to new forms of delusion. The cost might be different from the rise of anxiety and polarization that we've seen from social media and instead involve relationships both with people and with reality. That's why Jain suggests applying concepts from family law to AI regulation, shifting the focus from simple disclaimers to more proactive protections that build on the way ChatGPT redirects people in distress to a loved one. 'It doesn't actually matter if a kid or adult thinks these chatbots are real,' Jain tells me. 'In most cases, they probably don't. But what they do think is real is the relationship. And that is distinct.' If relationships with AI feel so real, the responsibility to safeguard those bonds should be real too. But AI developers are operating in a regulatory vacuum. Without oversight, AI's subtle manipulation could become an invisible public health issue.
Hindustan Times
3 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
AI overview in Google hit by EU antitrust complaint from independent publishers
Alphabet's Google has been hit by an EU antitrust complaint over its AI Overviews from a group of independent publishers, which has also asked for an interim measure to prevent allegedly irreparable harm to them, according to a document seen by Reuters. Google's AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries that appear above traditional hyperlinks to relevant webpages.(Reuters/Representational Image) Google's AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries that appear above traditional hyperlinks to relevant webpages and are shown to users in more than 100 countries. It began adding advertisements to AI Overviews last May. The company is making its biggest bet by integrating AI into search but the move has sparked concerns from some content providers such as publishers. The Independent Publishers Alliance document, dated June 30, sets out a complaint to the European Commission and alleges that Google abuses its market power in online search. "Google's core search engine service is misusing web content for Google's AI Overviews in Google Search, which have caused, and continue to cause, significant harm to publishers, including news publishers in the form of traffic, readership and revenue loss," the document said. It said Google positions its AI Overviews at the top of its general search engine results page to display its own summaries which are generated using publisher material and it alleges that Google's positioning disadvantages publishers' original content. "Publishers using Google Search do not have the option to opt out from their material being ingested for Google's AI large language model training and/or from being crawled for summaries, without losing their ability to appear in Google's general search results page," the complaint said. The Commission declined to comment. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority confirmed receipt of the complaint. Google said it sends billions of clicks to websites each day. "New AI experiences in Search enable people to ask even more questions, which creates new opportunities for content and businesses to be discovered," a Google spokesperson said. The Independent Publishers Alliance's website says it is a nonprofit community advocating for independent publishers, which it does not name. The Movement for an Open Web, whose members include digital advertisers and publishers, and British non-profit Foxglove Legal Community Interest Company, which says it advocates for fairness in the tech world, are also signatories to the complaint. They said an interim measure was necessary to prevent serious irreparable harm to competition and to ensure access to news. Google said numerous claims about traffic from search are often based on highly incomplete and skewed data. "The reality is that sites can gain and lose traffic for a variety of reasons, including seasonal demand, interests of users, and regular algorithmic updates to Search," the Google spokesperson said. Foxglove co-executive director Rosa Curling said journalists and publishers face a dire situation. "Independent news faces an existential threat: Google's AI Overviews," she told Reuters. "That's why with this complaint, Foxglove and our partners are urging the European Commission, along with other regulators around the world, to take a stand and allow independent journalism to opt out," Curling said. The three groups have filed a similar complaint and a request for an interim measure to the UK competition authority. The complaints echoed a U.S. lawsuit by a U.S. edtech company which said Google's AI Overviews is eroding demand for original content and undermining publishers' ability to compete that have resulted in a drop in visitors and subscribers.
