🗞 Google's AI Edge Gallery, Meta's Automated Reviews, and Microsoft's 3D Copilot

🔎 The Latest on the AI Frontier:

• Google Debuts AI Edge Gallery for Offline Mobile AI Processing

• Meta Plans AI Automation for 90% of Platform Risk Reviews

• Microsoft Experiments with 3D Avatar Feature for Copilot Assistant

• AI Data Centers Now Consume 1.5% of Global Electricity Supply

• AI Integration Threatens Traditional Web Publishing Revenue Models

• Samsung Considers Perplexity Partnership as Default Galaxy Assistant

• Other news you might find interesting

📱 Google launches AI Edge Gallery app allowing users to run AI models directly on Android phones offline, with iOS version coming soon, enabling image generation and code editing without internet connectivity.

• The app provides access to Hugging Face AI models that operate using phone processors rather than cloud computing, addressing privacy concerns about sending sensitive data to remote data centers and eliminating dependency on Wi-Fi or cellular connections.

• Performance varies significantly based on device hardware capabilities and model size, with Google warning that larger models require more processing time, while newer phones with powerful processors deliver faster results for AI tasks.

• The launch coincides with Google's broader AI transformation affecting search optimization, as the company's AI Overviews and AI mode fundamentally change how businesses achieve visibility by prioritizing conversational content over traditional keyword-stuffed pages.

🤖 Meta plans to automate up to 90% of privacy and societal risk assessments using AI, replacing human reviewers who previously evaluated potential harms from platform changes and new features.

• The shift allows product teams to receive "instant decisions" through AI-powered questionnaires rather than waiting for human risk assessors to approve updates to Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook affecting billions of users.

• Former Meta executives warn the automation could miss significant risks since "most product managers and engineers are not privacy experts," with one noting it creates "higher risks" by allowing "more stuff launching faster, with less rigorous scrutiny."

• The changes coincide with Meta's broader dismantling of content guardrails, including ending fact-checking programs and loosening hate speech policies, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg seeks to curry favor with President Trump following his election victory.

👤 Microsoft tests new Copilot Live Portraits feature that introduces customizable avatars for more personalized AI assistant interactions.

• The experimental feature offers portrait selections with placeholder voice views, suggesting Microsoft is developing 3D animated assistants for professional human-like exchanges rather than entertainment-focused characters.

• Internal "3D generations" references indicate real-time, visually expressive avatars powered by generative media, aligning with industry trends toward synthetic video avatars integrated into Copilot's web interface.

• The development may replace or merge with previously hinted Copilot Characters as Microsoft transforms Copilot into an embodied assistant experience spanning work and personal use, though no release timeline is disclosed.

⚡ AI energy consumption remains surprisingly complex to measure, with data centers now using 1.5% of global electricity—equivalent to the entire airline industry—and projected to reach 7.5% of US consumption by 2030.

• One ChatGPT query may use 10 times more energy than a Google search and potentially consume a bottle of clean water for cooling, though individual usage remains minimal compared to daily energy consumption of 34,000 Wh per person in the US.

• Generative AI tasks like image creation use significantly more compute than text classification, with multimodal tasks requiring the highest energy consumption, while newer data centers employ more efficient technology that may level consumption curves despite facility growth.

• Experts suggest focusing on larger climate actions rather than avoiding AI entirely, recommending users choose smaller models when possible, demand transparency from providers, and consider that AI's efficiency gains may offset some environmental costs through reduced traditional resource usage.

🕸️ AI technology is rapidly dismantling the traditional web ecosystem without a clear replacement plan, threatening the financial foundation that has sustained online content creation since the 1990s.

• Major browsers are integrating AI summaries and chatbot interfaces, with Firefox adding hover summaries, Arc's Browser Company pivoting to AI-powered Dia browser, and Google expanding AI Mode that allows users to get answers without visiting source websites.

• Publishers are experiencing significant traffic and revenue declines as AI chatbots intercept web traffic, while the web's vast content treasury accumulated through financial and reputational incentives may migrate behind paywalls or depend on unstable funding models.

• OpenAI and competitors plan to introduce advertising in AI chats, potentially further undermining web publishers unless AI companies share revenue with content providers, though billion-dollar data center investments and investor expectations may limit such arrangements.

📱 Samsung nears deal with AI-powered search startup Perplexity to make it the default assistant on Galaxy S26 phones, potentially replacing traditional search engines with deep device integration.

• The partnership could extend beyond software to Samsung becoming a major investor in Perplexity, with plans to preload the AI assistant on smartphones and integrate search capabilities directly into Samsung's Internet Browser by 2026.

• Samsung aims to enhance Bixby by incorporating Perplexity's technology and is exploring AI-powered operating systems for multi-agent platforms, representing a significant expansion of the company's AI ecosystem beyond current Google and Microsoft partnerships.

• If successful, the deal would give Perplexity access to Samsung's massive user base to compete with Google, ChatGPT, and Siri, while highlighting Samsung's strategy to actively shape AI technology rather than simply integrate existing solutions.

More news you might find interesting:

• Amazon programmers report that AI adoption has transformed their work into warehouse-like drudgery, with increased output demands and tighter deadlines despite reduced team sizes.

• IBM eliminates approximately 8,000 HR jobs as AI platform AskHR now handles 94% of routine tasks including vacation requests, payroll management, and internal documentation processing.

• NAACP sends emergency letter to Memphis regulators demanding immediate shutdown of Elon Musk's xAI supercomputer operations, claiming environmental rule violations at the 750,000-square-foot facility.

• AI's massive energy demands may force reliance on natural gas power plants for decades, potentially undermining climate goals despite tech companies' nuclear power promises.

• MIT researchers develop robotic table tennis system that achieves 88% success rate hitting balls at 11 m/s by predicting trajectories and dynamically adapting swing paths in real-time.

• Microsoft announces $400 million investment in Switzerland to expand cloud and AI infrastructure, targeting data sovereignty compliance and growing demand for AI services.

• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivers strong Q1 results with 69% revenue growth to $44.1 billion, reinforcing the long-term potential for AI integration across all industries and benefiting Amazon's cloud dominance.

• Laurene Powell Jobs endorses Jony Ive's mysterious AI device collaboration with OpenAI, having invested in his startups and positioned to profit from the $6.5 billion acquisition deal.

• New study reveals AI chatbots deliver minimal productivity gains, saving only 2.8% of work hours on average with little impact on wages or overall economic benefits.

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