November 9th tech news roundup: Microsoft adds AI in Notepad and Paint, Amazon Prime Video’s AI will recap episodes, Google Maps AI will help you find places easily

Microsoft introduces Rewrite AI in Notepad and generative fill and erase AI in Paint

Microsoft has introduced AI features in two classic Windows apps: Notepad and Paint. The text editor in Windows 11 now offers capabilities to rewrite the text content, and is named Rewrite AI.  The AI has some generative capabilities and can help you shorten or lengthen the text content. It offers a variety of tone and format styles to choose from.

There are several limitations that may affect how users can interact with the AI, for starters, users will need to sign in to their Microsoft account to access Rewrite’s features. Rewrite AI may be useful for some users, but it comes at a cost, quite literally. Rewrite in Notepad is not free, users get 50 credits to access the AI features. According to some documentation on Microsoft’s website, these credits are replenished on a monthly basis for users who have subscribed to Microsoft 365 Personal or Family, or Copilot Pro.

Microsoft Paint is also getting new AI features for generative fill, and erase. These options are available for Copilot+ PCs and users.

X-Recaps in Amazon Prime Video will recap episodes, seasons

Amazon Prime Video is testing an AI feature called X-Recaps, which is designed to recap the events in TV shows, in a text summary that is easy-to-read. X-Ray Recaps is powered by Amazon Bedrock, it will analyze the content of videos along with subtitles, dialogue, etc., to generate a summary of the story. The tool will avoid spoilers, and only offer descriptions based on the content that you have watched. Users can access the option from the detail page while playing a video on Prime Video’s website. X-Recaps offers a tailored experience, you can choose to recap a specific episode, the whole season, or the previous season.

The AI features are currently available for FireTV users in the U.S.

Windows Control Panel was intentionally slowed by Microsoft

Microsoft had reportedly slowed down the Control Panel in Windows, on purpose. Eric Voirin, the developer of Win98 QuickInstall, has discovered some hard coded delays that affected the Control Panel in Windows 95 and 98. It would affect the launch time, by splitting it into two segments. The first delay was three-seconds long, while a second delay was five-seconds long. While it appears that the delays would initially display the name of the class or device, followed by the logo for the device, the actual reasons for coding these delays are unknown.

However, this has nothing to do with promoting the Settings app, since the app did not exist back then. The legacy app has survived the axe so far, even after the Settings app was launched when Windows 10 was released.Microsoft was planning to remove the Control Panel from Windows, but later clarified that it would not deprecate the legacy app.

Microsoft discontinues the Paint 3D app

Microsoft has retired the Paint 3D app. The app was launched in 2016, and meant to replace the classic Paint app. Microsoft Paint 3D supported 2D and 3D images. One would think this was a great idea, but the implementation was poor. Paint 3D had a terrible UI with huge icons, and was primarily designed for touch input. Paint 3D was not popular, it failed to replace Paint, and found itself on the deprecated apps list. The classic Paint app, on the other hand, has not only thrived but has been revamped over the years, and even has new AI features.

Microsoft Paint 3D is no longer available for download from the Microsoft Store. Users who wish to view 3D images should use the 3D Viewer app.

Google Maps is getting an AI

Google is bringing its Gemini AI to more apps. This time it has introduced its AI for Google Maps, Google Earth and Waze. Google Maps users can interact with the app to have a chat-like experience, the AI will respond to conversational requests using natural language processing. It will offer suggestions on places to go, offer summaries based on reviews and user responses. Google Maps will even suggest where you can park, and walk from there to the destination. It also supports Augmented Reality features, options to report weather disruptions, etc. Google says it plans to add more details in the coming months, including information about lanes in metropolitan areas. Gemini AI in Google Maps is currently available for users in the U.S. on Android, and iOS.

Similarly, Waze with Gemini AI has new options to report incidents and hazards on the road, and these options will be available later this year for Android and iOS. Google Earth is also powered by Gemini AI, and can process complex searches.

Apple acquires Pixelmator

Apple has acquired Pixelmator, the company that created a popular image editing tool of the same name for iOS, macOS and iPadOS. Pixelmator, which is based in Lithuania, also created the Photomator app. Both apps offer a variety of powerful image editing tools such as support for RAW image formats, background removal, super resolution, and artificial intelligence with machine learning capabilities.

Apple discontinued Aperture in 2014 to focus on the Photos app, but the latter lacks the tools that were available in the former. And now that Apple has bought Pixelmator, some users have raised the question whether Aperture would be available for macOS, or whether Pixelmator’s features would be integrated in the Photos app.

Meta’s Llama 2 AI is not truly open source

Llama AI is open source, that’s what Meta claims. But, the OSI (Open Source Initiative) disagrees with it. An article that explains how artificial intelligence is classified as open source, states that a system must not require permission to be reused.

OSI says that Llama AI does allow access to the data that is used for training the language model, or its databases, and is hence not transparent. Meta, which is the parent company of Facebook, restricts the way Llama can be used, especially for commercial purposes.

While OSI says Meta needs to correct its mistake, Meta has denied the allegation. A spokesperson for the company said that there is no single definition of open source AI, and that it is a challenging task because it is a complex and rapidly evolving industry.