Turns out that all the razzle-dazzle associated with Google’s recent release of its new AI software ‘Gemini’ was just that.

Writer Alex Blake reports much of Google’s ballyhooed video walk-through of Gemini was staged.

Observes Blake: “Google modified interactions with Gemini in numerous ways in order to create the demonstration.

“For instance, the video’s YouTube description explains that ‘for the purposes of this demo, latency has been reduced and Gemini outputs have been shortened for brevity.’

“In other words, it probably takes a lot longer for Gemini to respond to queries than the demo suggested.

“And even those queries have come under scrutiny.

Plus, “It turns out that the demo wasn’t carried out in real time.”

Bottom line: At this point, its anyone’s guess just how powerful Gemini really is — and whether or not Gemini will be able to best the AI of its primary competitor, ChatGPT.

In other AI-generated writing news and analysis:

*Sneaky Petes: Students Now Using AI to Mimic Their Writing Styles: Increasing numbers of ever-wily students looking to cheat using ChatGPT and similar are using the tools to mimic their own writing styles.

The ruse: If an AI-written essay or homework assignment is rendered in the same writing style a student normally uses, it’s much tougher for a teacher or prof to smoke-out the cheat.

Observes writer Alyson Klein: “Enterprising students can put their own writing into these tools and direct it to emulate their voice and style — even adding in some spelling and grammar mistakes to make the cheating less obvious.”

*”Robo News Anchors Reporting for Duty, Sir!”: Channel 1 AI is planning to roll-out a news service in 2024 that will use AI-generated anchors to present the news.

Like many AI news sites, the company plans to gather the work of human journalists who post on the Web, homogenize their work — and then present the synthesized product as Channel 1 AI news.

As a consolation, human editors and producers will be checking the synthesized news for accuracy and clarity, according to writer Savannah Fortis.

*Some News Publishers Fear AI-Powered Search from Google Will Be a Traffic Killer: A new, in-development tool from Google — dubbed ‘Search Generative Experience’ — is expected to wreak havoc on the search traffic news publishers now get from Google, according to lead writer Keach Hagey.

The beta tool, which uses ChatGPT-like AI to offer written responses to search engine users, is expected to answer many searchers’ questions in full — and discourage them from clicking through to the full news article detailing the response to their query.

Says Mathias Döpfner, CEO, Axel Springer: “AI and large language models have the potential to destroy journalism and media brands as we know them.”

*ChatGPT-Maker Cuts Deal to Summarize News: OpenAI is partnering with publisher Axel Springer to produce summaries of the publisher’s news stories.

Their plan is to offer users of ChatGPT summaries of selected news content from the publisher’s news brands — including Politico, Business Insider, European Bild and Welt.

Moonshot reports that some jobs at Axel Springer will be ‘eliminated’ as the news summary service ramps up.

*High Five: Grammarly Brings Auto-Rewrite to Your Palm: Smartphone users looking for help rewriting the texts and emails they generate can now get a leg-up from Grammarly.

The popular AI-powered writer/editor has added a rewriting feature for users of iOS phones and is promising the same service for Android phone users in early 2024.

Observes Grammarly media contact Jennifer Dakin: “Grammarly’s new generative AI-powered mobile features help people quickly rewrite text in their favorite applications, empowering professionals to do their best writing even from their phones.”

*From Scribbles to Polished Thought: Google has updated its AI note-taker app with Gemini — a new AI software engine rolled-out earlier this month.

With the upgrade, users will be able to organize curated notes into structured writing projects — including scripts, email newsletters and marketing copy.

The upgrade will also allow users to auto-summarize select passages, auto-refine their writing and prompt the AI for ideas to help strengthen their writing.

*ChatGPT a Slacker? Say It’s Not So!: If you feel that ChatGPT has been phoning-it-in lately, you’re not mistaken.

The tool’s maker, OpenAI, acknowledged on X that ChatGPT has in fact been getting lazier, given that its underlying software has not been updated since early November.

OpenAI’s promise made on X: We’re on it and we’ll fix it.

*Microsoft: Expect a Major AI Upgrade of Windows in Late 2024: Observes writer Zac Bowden: The big focus of the enhancement will be on “next-generation AI experiences that are being woven and integrated throughout the OS.

“According to my sources, Microsoft’s blockbuster new feature will be the introduction of an AI-powered Windows Shell, enhanced with an ‘advanced Copilot,’ that’s able to constantly work in the background to enhance search, jumpstart projects or workflows, understand context and much more.

“Sources say these AI features will be ‘groundbreaking.'”

*AI Big Picture: AI Headed for Regulation in European Union: EU policymakers have agreed in principle on a sweeping new law to regulate AI, according to writer Adam Satariano.

Observes Satariano: “The law, called the AI Act, sets a new global benchmark for countries seeking to harness the potential benefits of the technology — while trying to protect against its possible risks, like automating jobs, spreading misinformation online and endangering national security.

“The law still needs to go through a few final steps for approval.

“But the political agreement means its key outlines have been set.”

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–Joe Dysart is editor of RobotWritersAI.com and a tech journalist with 20+ years experience. His work has appeared in 150+ publications, including The New York Times and the Financial Times of London.