Microsoft Copilot Gets Own Keyboard Key; Facebook ‘Link History’; Steam Breaks Game Launch Record; ChatGPT Flunks Test on Diagnosing Child Medical Cases

Get ready for the first real Windows PC keyboard change in 30 years. Microsoft partners will soon be shipping PCs with a new Copilot key that will provide quick access to Microsoft’s AI-powered Windows Copilot experience straight from a keyboard button press. Theverge.com reports that The new Copilot key will replace the menu key (application key) that was introduced alongside the Windows key decades ago. It will be placed next to the right-hand alt key on most keyboards, with the placement varying by OEM and across different markets.  The Copilot key simply launches the Windows Copilot that’s built into Windows 11, offering up a ChatGPT-like chatbot that can answer queries or even take actions inside Windows.

You may have already seen a popup if you clicked on a link in Facebook…asking if you want to save that link. It’s a new ‘feature’ called “Link History”…really a new way for Facebook to track the websites you visit. According to Gizmodo.com, Facebook is casting the Link History as a useful tool for consumers “with your browsing activity saved in one place,” rather than another way to keep tabs on your behavior. With the new setting you’ll “never lose a link again,” they say in the little popup. Yeah, it’s really a way to track…introduced after both Apple and Google in its Chrome browser limited Facebook’s ability to track the sites you visit, cutting their revenue. If you care to dig into the settings…and they are pretty impenetrable…you can select several increments of less than the 90 days Facebook says it keeps your link history. As the old drug awareness slogan said, “Just Say No,” when you get the popup.

For the movie fans that get all excited about movies making $60, $100, $200 million or even a billion…it may be hard to swallow, but video games bring in vast hordes of cash each year. Now, gamesradar.com says as recorded on SteamDB, the Steam platform saw the release of 14,531 game titles, blowing past last year’s record by almost 2,000 games. That adds up to over 39 games released a DAY! Valve just released the first update to the handheld Steam Deck in the fall…and even if you could play through the top ten percent of all these games…which you can’t…never fear. The new game releases continue. They pumped out 36 on New Years Day 2024!

With all the freaking out over artificial intelligence and how it is coming for many jobs, one has to pull back and take a reality check. Arstechnica.com reports that it isn’t going to displace your family doctor any time soon. ChatGPT’s chatbot was already doing a terrible job at diagnosing challenging medical cases…getting it right only 39% of the time. Now, a study just out in the JAMA Pediatrics publication says the chatbot doctor wannabe is even worse for kids…it had an accuracy rate of just 17% when diagnosing pediatric medical cases. The authors of the study put it this way….”[T]his study underscores the invaluable role that clinical experience holds.” But it also identifies the critical weaknesses that led to ChatGPT’s high error rate and ways to transform it into a useful tool in clinical care. AI’s potential for problem-solving has raised considerable interest in developing it into a helpful tool for complex diagnostics…but for at least the next few years…the doctor is still in.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.