Mind and Machine

OpenAI recently launched two new versions of its “reasoning” mod­els. An earlier version could ‘reason’ through tasks involving maths, coding and science. But its new versions, o3 and o4-mini, can handle both text and images.

A reasoning system is a different kind of AI system. It “reasons” and “thinks” through before responding to any question, instead of say ChatGPT, that provides instant answers. They are meant to reason the way we humans do, arriving at a solution through a series of steps, each one building on the last one. OpenAI’s model is part of a wider effort to build a more sophisticated AI. Others like Google, Meta and DeepSeek are also known to be developing such technologies.

While they are not without their prob­lems—OpenAI’s models are known to ‘hallucinate’ or make things up like other AI systems—but as this type of AI gets more developed, it is hoped, it will open the door for more complex problem-solv­ing and decision-making. Prabhat Ram from Microsoft gave the example of a NASA rover sent to explore Mars’ surface to MIT Technology Review. “Decisions need to be made at every moment around which path to take, what to explore, and there has to be a risk-reward trade-off,” he said. “The AI has to be able to assess, ‘Am I about to jump off a cliff? Or, if I study this rock and I have a limited amount of time and budget, is this really the one that’s scientifically more worthwhile?’”

INSTAGRAM’S TEEN DETECTOR

Instagram has started testing an AI tool that helps it detect whether a user is a teenager or an adult. According to Meta, this tool, currently being tested only in the US, will proactively find suspected teen users on the platform and place those accounts under its Instagram Teen Accounts settings. This tool is capable of determining the account holder’s age as it has reportedly been trained to look for various signals.

RUN ROBOT RUN

Twenty-one humanoid robots ran along with humans in Beijing. None of them were impressive. Out of the 21 robots, only six managed to complete the race, and just one of them made it under three hours. At two hours and 40 min­utes, the fastest is not good enough. But the robots managed to exhibit just how far the tech­nology has come. Earlier, even a slight movement was a talking point. Now some can even run, albeit poorly.

SIRI’S REBOOT

Apple had promised to give Siri, its digital assis­tant, a major upgrade. It never set a public dead­line, but it was widely reported that it was planned as part of the iOS 18.4 software update this April. The plan however got shelved because of what was reported as engineering issues and persistent software bugs. Reports now claim that the firm will be launching the upgrade with iOS 19 in June this year.

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