People living in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will soon be able to use ChatGPT Plus for free. This makes the UAE the first country in the world to give free access to the premium version of ChatGPT to its entire population. 

The plan is part of a big partnership between OpenAI and the UAE government, which also includes building a huge AI data centre called Stargate UAE in Abu Dhabi. This project is a major step for both sides. OpenAI and its partners are working on building a powerful one-gigawatt AI computing cluster, with the first part — around 200 megawatts — expected to be ready next year.

According to Axios, Stargate UAE is part of OpenAI’s “OpenAI for Countries” programme, which helps other nations build their own AI systems and tools while working closely with the United States. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called the project “a bold vision” and said it’s a way to bring the benefits of AI — like better healthcare, modern education, and cleaner energy — to more places around the world.

The UAE deal also includes big names like Oracle, Nvidia, Cisco, SoftBank, and G42, an AI company from the Middle East supported by Microsoft. Together, they’re aiming to make the UAE a key location for AI in the region.

The project is not only about building large data centres. The goal is to bring AI closer to the people. Through OpenAI for Countries, OpenAI wants to create AI that fits each country’s local needs — such as working in their own languages and following their own rules. This also helps protect people’s data and makes sure AI is used in a fair and responsible way.

The UAE has also agreed to match its AI spending at home by investing the same amount in AI projects in the United States. Axios reports that this could add up to $20 billion in total investment, split between the Gulf and the US.

Looking ahead, OpenAI’s Chief Strategy Officer, Jason Kwon, will visit other countries across Asia Pacific to discuss similar partnerships. OpenAI says it hopes the UAE is just the beginning, and that it will soon help more countries set up their own AI systems. (India Today)

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One of the most popular AI tools on the web with around 13 million users per day,  ChatGPT has been hit with a major outage this morning, with users unable to access the app or website. 

According to DownDetector, hundreds of people globally have been affected since 8 am BST. 

OpenAI, the firm behind ChatGPT, has acknowledged the outage with a statement saying: ‘We are currently investigating this issue.’

People took to X (Twitter) to share their frustration at having to ‘think for themselves’ in the absence of the AI tool. 

Down Detector gets network status updates from various sources including social media and reports submitted to its website. 

According to the site, 79 per cent of those affected said they had problems with ChatGPT generally.

Meanwhile, others were more specific – 15 per cent said they had trouble with the app and 6 per cent were unable to use the website. 

On OpenAI’s official ChatGPT status page, the firm said: ‘ChatGPT is unavailable for some users.’

It continued: ‘We are currently investigating this issue.’ 

MailOnline has contacted OpenAI for further comment about the cause of the outage and how many people have been affected.  

With its ability to give human-like responses to a wide variety of questions, ChatGPT has proved a massive success since it was released in November 2022. 

It received an average of 13 million unique visitors per day in January 2023, according to Tooltester. 

It comes just a couple of weeks after a huge Microsoft outage took down ChatGPT, Bing.com and DuckDuckGo for thousands of users. 

OpenAI confirmed ‘a partial outage affecting ChatGPT’s web-browsing capabilities due to Bing being unavailable.’ (DailyMail)

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Google on Monday launched its ChatGPT competitor called Bard.

Bard is designed as an ‘experimental conversational AI service’ that answers users’ queries and participates in conversations. 

CEO Sundar Pichai said the soft launch is available to ‘trusted testers’ to get feedback on the chatbot before a public release in the coming weeks. 

While Google has yet to provide more details, the company shows that users can ask Bard queries, like ‘how to explain new discoveries from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to a 9-year-old’ or ‘plan a friend’s baby shower.’

The initial release of Bard uses the tech giant’s lightweight model version of LaMDA, which requires significantly less computing power, enabling us to scale to more users and allowing for more feedback.

‘We’ll combine external feedback with our own internal testing to make sure Bard’s responses meet a in real-world information,’ Pichai shared in Monday’s announcement.

‘We’re excited for this phase of testing to help us continue to learn and improve Bard’s quality and speed.’

He also stressed that the company wants Google’s AI services to be ‘bold and responsible’ as Microsoft’s ChatGPT has been controversial due to misuse.  

In December, ChatGPT came under fire after students were using it to cheat on tests and homework.

ChatGPT, trained on a gigantic sample of text from the internet, can understand human language, conduct conversations with humans and generate detailed text that many have said is human-like and quite impressive.

Bard, however, seems to be taking a slower path to the public.

Pichai shared that testers are ‘a demographically and geographically diverse group of people external to Google’ who will have first access to the AI.

These individuals will test the technology to help improve it and better understand how users will experience the chatbot.

‘Bard seeks to combine the breadth of the world’s knowledge with the power, intelligence and creativity of our large language models,’ Pichai shared in the blog post.

‘It draws on information from the web to provide fresh, high-quality responses. 

‘Bard can be an outlet for creativity, and a launchpad for curiosity, helping you to explain new discoveries from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to a 9-year-old or learn more about the best strikers in football right now, and then get drills to build your skills.’

The announcement of Bard comes less than a month of news that said Google executives were engaged in plans to ‘demonstrate a version of its search engine with chatbot features this year’ and unveil more than 20 projects powered by artificial intelligence.

The report from The New York Times also claimed these executives sounded a code red within the company as pressure to compete with Microsoft’s ChatGPT was mounting.

Google’s Bard may be a step into the AI race for the company, but it still has many hurdles to overcome to show it’s as powerful as ChatGPT.  

ChatGPT has hit 100 million users just two months after launch – by comparison, it took TikTok nine months to reach the milestone – and secured a $10 billion investment from Microsoft.

A judge recently used Microsoft’s chatbot in Colombia to help him decide a case involving an autistic child.

Judge Juan Manuel Padilla Garcia, who presides over a tribunal in the Caribbean city of Cartagena, announced that he had used the system in his January 30 ruling.

A week before, ChatGPT passed some of America’s most challenging professional exams, the United States Medical Licensing Exam and the Bar.

The report, by Wharton professor Christian Terwiesch, found that ChatGPT, while still in its infancy, received a grade varying from a B to B- on the final exam of a typical MBA core course. 

The AI chatbot has also sparked fears that artificial intelligence could automate millions of jobs out of existence.

Zak Saidi, creative director and AI Lead of creative agency IZSRI, which already uses AI to automate some writing tasks, says that the impact of AI will be felt across many sectors within the next three years.

He said he already uses ChatGPT to draft written content and other AI tools for attention marketing and detecting social media trends. (Daily Mail)

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