OpenAI’s o1-preview ‘excels’ at coding and thoughts can now control Alexa

Welcome to ZDNET’s Innovation Index, which identifies probably the most modern developments in tech from the previous week and ranks the highest 4, primarily based on votes from our panel of editors and consultants. Our mission is that will help you establish the developments that may have the largest affect on the long run.

In first place this week is brain-computer interface firm Synchron for permitting Amazon Alexa’s community of house units to be managed by a consumer’s ideas. The event comes just some weeks after the corporate introduced an identical functionality for Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional. With the assistance of Synchron’s mind implant, an individual with ALS directed Alexa by guiding a cursor utilizing his ideas as a substitute of his voice or contact, one in every of which is often required to make use of most client tech, together with house techniques. Approaching the heels of Apple’s modern work on listening to aids, the discharge from Synchron and Amazon continues a long-overdue development towards boosting accessibility in tech. If this development continues, hundreds of thousands of individuals may benefit from on a regular basis conveniences, which bodes effectively for much more impactful upgrades down the road. 

Coming in second is OpenAI, whose storied new o1-preview mannequin appears to be dwelling as much as expectations. Just some months after its Might GPT-4o launch, the corporate launched a mannequin that has “excelled” at ZDNET resident mannequin tester David Gewirtz’s coding assessments, offering detailed explanations of what it constructed — a major step additional than earlier fashions. This element is because of o1’s reasoning capabilities, which Gewirtz discovered a bit “chatty”, however the output is spectacular nonetheless. The development may sign the appearance of a way more dependable, accessible copilot for complicated duties — at the least for ChatGPT Plus and Staff customers. 

At #3 is Meta for implementing a brand new guardrail: making teen Instagram accounts personal by default. The social media platform’s new Teen Accounts will embody protections for unsafe contact, bullying, and display time for customers underneath 18, though customers 16 and up can regulate some settings with parental permission. Meta AI will consider an account’s exercise to find out whether or not there is a teen behind it earlier than asking the consumer to confirm their age and activating restrictions. Does that make getting pinged an insult or a praise? 

Regardless, whereas there are execs and cons to instituting parental controls on instruments youngsters use to specific themselves and discover group, the transfer will definitely form social media use in future. 

Closing out the Index this week is United Airways, which introduced a free onboard Wi-Fi partnership with Starlink. The thought appears virtually apparent: theoretically, satellites ought to be capable of present planes with a considerably extra constant connection than land-based towers. The airline will begin testing connectivity on planes early subsequent 12 months and hopes to increase the function to its total fleet. The proof might be within the in-flight streaming, but when it really works, United may set a brand new (if long-overdue) customary for air journey that different airways will hopefully observe.