China’s sophistication in some of its chip technology is approaching three years behind that of top chip manufacturer Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co. (TSMC) despite the best efforts by the US to delay advancements through a broad strategy of trade restrictions.
Analysis done by a Tokyo-based company called TechanaLye found a processor from a new Huawei smartphone released in April rivals TSMC chips in processing capability, according to the findings reported in Nikkei Asia. TechanaLye makes it their business to disassemble electronic devices and analyze their component technology.
TechanaLye CEO Hiroharu Shimizu showed semiconductor circuit diagrams for two application processors for Huawei smartphones to Nikkei; one was from Huawei Technologies’ Pura 70 Pro, released in April, and one from a top Huawei smartphone model from 2021, according to the report.
Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon designed the Kirin 9010 chip from the Pura 70 Pro; it was mass-produced by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC), a major Chinese contract chipmaker. The other chip design analyzed and presented was a Kirin 9000 chip, also designed by HiSilicon but produced by TSMC.
SMIC’s 7-nanometer (nm) mass-produced chip is 118.4 square millimeters, while TSMC’s 5-nm chip is 107.8 sq. mm, according to the report. In general, a smaller nanometer size means higher performance and a smaller chip. However, TechanaLye found that TSMC’s Kirin 9000 chip and SMIC’s Kirin 9010 chip were nearly comparable in performance, though a difference in yield still exists.
Are US trade restrictions failing in intent?
The findings demonstrate that despite the Biden administration’s ban on exporting certain chip technology to China in an effort to stymie development there–fearing the nation’s growing geopolitical power—the nation continues to evolve its processor technology, buoyed by a surge of activity by in-country manufacturers, Shimizu noted.
“The US regulations so far have only slightly delayed Chinese innovation, while sparking efforts by the Chinese chip industry to boost domestic production,” he told Nikkei Asia, according to the report.
Indeed, HiSilicon, which designed about 14 of 37 semiconductors in the Pura 70 Pro, also is demonstrating improvements that show Chinese progression, according to Shimizu. Other device chips — such as those for memory, sensors, power supply, display, and other functions — were from other Chinese and foreign manufacturers, with the bulk of them, or 86 percent, produced in China.
Last October, the Biden administration issued new export controls that block US companies from selling advanced semiconductors as well as equipment used to make them to certain Chinese manufacturers unless they receive a special license.
Then in mid-December, the administration expanded those restrictions to include 36 additional Chinese chip makers from accessing US chip technology, including Yangtze Memory Technologies Corporation (YMTC), the largest contract chip maker in the world. The purpose behind the regulations, according to officials, is to deny China access to advanced technology for military modernization and human rights abuse.
The results of TechanaLye’s analysis show that US restrictions may only end up affecting cutting-edge processors for servers aimed at advancing technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and not trickle down to technology such as smartphones, according to Shimizu.
“As long as the chips do not pose a military threat, the US is probably allowing their development,” he told Nikkei.
Further advancement would cause a ripple effect
Though it’s too soon to know if and when China will catch up to TSMC and other top manufacturers in its development of processors, if it does, it would “represent a significant shift in the global semiconductor landscape,” noted Akshat Vaid, partner, Everest Group. This likely would cause a ripple effect on global competition, geopolitics, technology, and economics.
“Such a development would diversify the semiconductor supply chain, reducing reliance on a few vendors and lessening the impact of regional disruptions,” he told Computerworld.
China’s advancement in the space also could tip the geopolitical balance in technology and trade, and create even more competition and conflict between China and Western nations, “given the strategic importance of the semiconductor industry and its broader implications for other sectors,” Vaid said.
This ultimately could spur disruptive changes in semiconductor supply-chain strategies and new policies to support domestic semiconductor industries or regulate technology transfer, security, and trade concerns, he added.
According to credible rumors, Snap and Meta will soon unveil their next-generation AI glasses.
Snap might introduce its fifth-generation Spectacles at the Snap Partner Summit on Sept. 17. Features like a wider field of view and improved battery life could grace a production run of fewer than 10,000 units for developers. (The current 4th-generation Spectacles are also for developers only; Snap never sold them to the public.)
Meanwhile, Meta could well unveil its “Orion” project at its Connect conference, scheduled for Sept. 25-26. According to the latest tech chatter, Orion glasses are expected to be highly advanced augmented reality (AR) glasses with immersive technology and a design that makes them look like standard glasses. While Orion glasses won’t be available for sale right away, Meta is prepping around 1,000 units for demonstration and early developer exploration.
Both companies hope to kickstart a third-party developer ecosystem for high-quality AI-driven AR glasses that anyone can wear every day in polite society as ordinary eyeglasses. And while the developers are working on apps, the companies will work hard to bring down the costs of manufacturing the products.
This generation of glasses combines an AI voice assistant with AR holographic visuals plus all the features and functionality of Bluetooth earbuds (calls, podcasts, etc.). In theory, this is the Holy Grail of wearables — fantastic power, rich user interfaces, and invisible and inaudible to everyone around you. Wearing such glasses will make you feel like you know everything and are constantly aided by powerful AI.
Meanwhile, Meta’s Ray-Ban Meta glasses are the surprise hit of the year. The glasses look more or less like regular Ray-Bans but offer multimodal AI and an audio interface. They’re inexpensive because they don’t attempt visual output, only sound.
While the Ray-Ban Meta glasses are well-designed and well-made and equipped with quality speakers and microphones, the basic concept is easily replicable. Chinese companies accessing lower-cost components can make much cheaper glasses containing batteries, Bluetooth connectivity, speakers, microphones, and an app that connects to the hardware and gains access to generative AI (genAI) chatbots through APIs.
In other words, good-enough AI glasses are relatively easy and inexpensive to produce. That’s why the success of Ray-Ban Meta glasses has Chinese companies taking notice.
Wait, what’s happening in China?
Smaller Chinese companies are focused on the growing market for AI-powered smart glasses, aiming to compete directly with Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. They’re coming from companies you probably never heard of:
Superhexa: Backed by Xiaomi, Superhexa is a Chinese startup that has launched “Jiehuan” branded AI glasses that provide access to large language models (LLMs) and offer voice-guided navigation and AI chat features.
Solos: Hong Kong-based Solos has introduced its AirGo Vision smart glasses, which enable voice access to Open AI’s ChatGPT. The glasses also have a detachable camera, which enables multimodal AI via GPT-4o.
Even Realities: This Shenzhen-based startup makes G1 glasses featuring LED microdisplays. Although they don’t have speakers, they do output information in the form of visible green text.
Liweike: Based in Hangzhou, China, this company developed smart AR glasses, unfortunately branded as Meta Lens S3 glasses. They integrate sports functionality with AI-powered voice interaction with the company’s AI chatbot. One standout feature is an integrated 120-degree ultra-wide 2K high-definition sports camera.
Sharge: This company’s OptoX AI Glasses have a camera, speakers, and all the trimmings. Users can access ChatGPT-4o by talking and listening. Also, they can function like a dashcam, constantly recording and deleting while retaining only the last 30 minutes of video, which you can watch or keep.
As you can tell from this list, some companies are making audio-only AI glasses, some of which will cost less than $100. Other glasses add holographic heads-up displays, which could cost a few hundred dollars a pair. At least two of these products offer both cameras and interaction with the advanced GPT-4o chatbot, able to essentially do all the stuff from the May 13 OpenAI Spring Update (everything, of course, except get Scarlett Johansson’s voice), but through glasses instead of a smartphone.
Great glasses or cheap glasses?
To oversimplify the coming AI glasses market, the American companies will make them great, and the Chinese companies will make them cheap. The result will be an incredible selection of variable features, quality, and styles.
As a result, we’ll quickly arrive at a place where the question won’t be, “Why buy AI glasses?” It’ll be: “If you’re going to buy glasses, why wouldn’t you buy AI glasses?”
The AI glasses revolution will also eviscerate the in-the-ear earbud market and might damage the smartwatch industry. With audio in your glasses, why put plastic in your ears? And with apps, notifications, and information hovering holographically in space in front of your eyeballs, who needs it on your wrist.
Smartphones could even be affected. If a big holographic display in the lenses provides the main interface, then a big-screen smartphone might be unnecessary.
The emergence of AI glasses as a ubiquitous category creates interesting and valuable possibilities for enterprise and business apps running on the platforms, everything from factory training and instructions to board room presentation teleprompters.
Beyond that, we might eventually see the rise of BYOG — bring your own glasses — policies. Companies will also need to cope with this generation of glasses’ privacy and security implications. The prescription glasses employees rely on to see clearly will often have cameras and microphones capable of secretly recording anything. (Even Ray-Ban Meta glasses have a bright light that indicates when the camera is taking a picture or recording video, a system easily foiled, according to hundreds of how-to videos on TikTok.)
Social implications will abound. Today, we’re still trying to figure out the social norms around looking at a smartphone during a conversation. What happens when people can be looking right at you but secretly distracted by online content only they can see?
AI glasses are about to significantly impact business, society, and culture. This will become clear when Snap and — more importantly — Meta will likely demonstrate the future of AI glasses to developers and the public.
Salesforce, which offers cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) software, is eyeing a new pricing model that would require customers to pay per AI chat every time Salesforce’s AI-based services are used for a conversation, According to The Register.
Speaking to investors, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has said that his goal is for the company to introduce 1 billion AI agents into the user environment through the Agentforce AI platform by the end of fiscal year 2026. And thinks the price per call will be around $2.
The pricing model is designed to reflect the value Salesforce believes its AI services offer and to give customers greater flexibility.
Apple isn’t paying OpenAI to carry support for the generativeAI (genAI) firm’s Chat GPT within Apple Intelligence, but it might instead invest in the Microsoft-backed company.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple is in talks to take part in a new funding round for OpenAI. If it follows suit, it will join Microsoft, Nvidia, and Thrive Capital in making an investment in the company, which would have a value of more than $100 billion.
A growing sense of union?
Such an investment would strengthen Apple’s existing partnership with OpenAI, announced at WWDC with the news that Apple Intelligence will integrate with ChatGPT, which will provide services Apple does not.
The relationship meant Apple Fellow Phil Schiller briefly (almost) joined Microsoft on the OpenAI board, though in the end both Cupertino and Redmond stepped down from those seats.
Microsoft has allegedly invested $13 billion to acquire a 49% stake in OpenAI since 2019 and uses ChatGPT within its Copilot software. ChatGPT itself now has more than 200 million weekly users, a number that’s expected to swell once Apple ships iOS 18 this fall.
iOS 18 is expected to deliver Apple Intelligence (beta) support to US English users a few weeks after the iPhone launch, with Apple introducing additional AI features over time. With Apple Intelligence, Apple’s partnership means users can access ChatGPT from its devices, with the added security of no user requests or IP addresses being stored.
(It is interesting that OpenAI chose to release its ChatGPT desktop app first on Macs shortly after the iOS integration was announced.)
That compromise between utility and privacy will protect average users, while for business users Apple will introduce MDM support that lets access to such features be disabled on managed devices; that’s something many in IT felt necessary in some data protection scenarios.
Talking heads…
Reaction to Apple’s potential investment is interesting. Bank of America pointed out that, “a large direct investment by Apple into OpenAI could raise concerns on a potential AI partnership as a long-term alternative to Google search.”
The bigger picture is even more interesting. Apple Intelligence will be made available across all Apple’s big computing platforms: iPhones, including iPhone 15 and iPhone 16, and also M-series iPads and Macs. This wide array of supporting devices means the feature will be available to tens of millions of systems from day one, which also means ChatGPT will be natively supported on them.
This has led to a series of highly positive predictions from analysts. Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives predicts a historic AI-driven iPhone upgrade cycle, arguing that 25% of the world (based on his estimates) will be engaged in AI requests using Apple devices.
Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring also sees Apple Intelligence unleashing pent-up demand and estimated the potential upgrade market is around 40% larger than it was prior to the last hugely successful iPhone release, when 5G was added to the system. This also follows some relative weakness in recent iPhone sales as consumers await the new AI phone.
Will it still be US-only?
Of course, one wildcard to these events is availability.
At present, Apple Intelligence is limited to the US, or to users outside the US willing to set their devices to US English. That means iPhone shoppers outside the US will not gain access to this integrated AI, which will limit the upgrade frenzy. Apple may already have a plan for this, perhaps extending the service to other English-speaking nations.
However, the regulatory environment around these tools remains in flux, with new regulations emerging from nations worldwide; that state of uncertainty has already prompted Cupertino to announce \ it won’t ship these features into the EU until clarity over regulations is in place.
It’s quite possible, if Apple gets this right, that its platforms could end up providing the privacy and security users and business need to fully exploit the potential of AI across every viable computing platform. With such a prize in sight, don’t be too surprised to see activity — and M&A — intensify in the coming months.
Meta’s open weights Llama family of large language models (LLMs) has seen a ten-fold rise in downloads year-on-year, showcasing the popularity of the models since it was first launched 18 months ago, the company announced in a blog post.
“Llama models are approaching 350 million downloads to date (more than 10x the downloads compared to this time last year), and they were downloaded more than 20 million times in the last month alone, making Llama the leading open source model family,” Ahmad Al-Dahle, vice president of generative AI at Meta, wrote in a blog post.
The downloads number was taken from Hugging Face — a company that provides or lists various LLMs for enterprises to use across multiple use cases.
Llama models are referred to as open or open weights as there is no true definition of what an open source LLM should mean, and Meta doesn’t allow free commercial use of its models.
Also, Meta is providing the number of downloads as a figure for showcasing the popularity of its models because they don’t have any other metric, such as monthly or weekly active users, to keep track.
The rationale here is that open source or open models can’t keep of track of users as they are providing the datasets and model weights for enterprises and users to download in contrast to rival closed or proprietary model providers such as OpenAI.
OpenAI, also, reportedly has dropped its latest user figures. According to a report filed by The Information, the OpenAI has 200 million weekly active users of ChatGPT.
The surge in the number of model downloads can be attributed to a variety of factors, including the newer releases of the model and the company’s efforts to increase partners or distributors of the model.
The recent 20 million downloads could be seen as an effect of the company’s Llama 3.1 update that included a 405 billion parameter model as well as 70 billion parameter and 8 billion parameter variants — all of which performed better on various benchmarking tests, such as MATH and HumanEval.
“Hosted Llama usage by token volume across our major cloud service provider partners more than doubled May through July 2024 when we released Llama 3.1,” Al-Dahle wrote, adding that the company’s largest variant of LLM, the 405 billion parameter variant, was also gaining traction.
Separately, Meta has been actively trying to increase the number of partners that either host or distribute the Llama family of models. These partners include the likes of AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Databricks, Dell, Google Cloud, Groq, NVIDIA, IBM watsonx, Scale AI, and Snowflake among others.
“We’ve grown the number of partners in our Llama early access program by 5x with Llama 3.1 and will do more to meet the surging demand from partners,” Al-Dahle wrote, adding that new partners, such as Wipro, Cerebras, and Lambda would be added soon. Additionally, Meta’s vice president said that companies such as Accenture, DoorDash, Goldman Sachs, Shopify, and Zoom were actively using Llama models for their generative AI use cases.
There has been some concern that Windows 10 gathers too much private information from users. Whether you think Microsoft’s operating system crosses the privacy line or just want to make sure you safeguard as much of your personal life as possible, we’re here to help. Here’s how to protect your privacy in just a few minutes.
Note: This story has been updated for Windows 10 version 22H2. If you have an earlier release of Windows 10, some things may be different. If you have Windows 11, see “How to protect your privacy in Windows 11.”
In this article:
Turn off add tracking
Turn off location tracking
Turn off Timeline
Curb Copilot
Ditch a Microsoft account for a local account
Change your app permissions
Control and delete diagnostic data
Use Microsoft’s Privacy Dashboard
Get granular in the Settings app
Tips for the truly paranoid
Turn off ad tracking
At the top of many people’s privacy concerns is what data is being gathered about them as they browse the web. That information creates a profile of a person’s interests that is used by a variety of companies to target ads.
Windows 10 does this with the use of an advertising ID. The ID doesn’t just gather information about you when you browse the web, but also when you use Windows 10 apps. Your advertising ID isn’t synced to other computers, and it operates independently of your Microsoft account, if you’re using one.
You can turn that advertising ID off if you want. Launch the Windows 10 Settings app (by clicking on the Start button at the lower left corner of your screen and then clicking the Settings icon, which looks like a gear) and go to Privacy. Click General on the left. On the General pane in the main window, you’ll see a list of choices under the title “Change privacy options.” The first controls the advertising ID.
You can turn off Windows 10’s advertising ID if you want.
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Move the slider from On to Off. You’ll still get ads delivered to you, but they’ll be generic ones rather than targeted ones, and your interests won’t be tracked.
To make absolutely sure you’re not tracked online when you use Windows 10, and to turn off any other ways Microsoft will use information about you to target ads, head to the Ad Settings section of Microsoft’s Privacy Dashboard. Sign into your Microsoft account at the top right of the page.
Then go to the “See ads that interest you” section at the top of the page and move the slider from On to Off.
Turn off location tracking
Wherever you go, Windows 10 knows you’re there. Some people don’t mind this, because it helps the operating system give you relevant information, such as your local weather, what restaurants are nearby and so on. But if you don’t want Windows 10 to track your location, you can tell it to stop.
Launch the Settings app and go to Privacy > Location. Underneath “Allow access to location on this device,” click Change and, on the screen that appears, move the slider from On to Off. Doing that turns off all location tracking for every user on the PC.
Clicking the Change button lets you turn location tracking on or off for every user on the Windows 10 device.
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This doesn’t have to be all-or-nothing affair — you can turn off location tracking on an app-by-app basis. If you want your location to be used only for some apps and not others, make sure location tracking is turned on, then scroll down to the “Choose which apps can use your precise location” section. You’ll see a list of every Windows 10 app that can use your location. Move the slider to On for the apps you want to allow to use your location — for example, Weather or Maps — and to Off for the apps you don’t.
That doesn’t cover desktop apps, though. So after you turn on location tracking, go to “Allow desktop apps to access your location” and turn the slider to On. When you do that, a list of desktop apps that use location tracking appears. Move the slider to On for each of the apps you want to use your location and Off for each app you don’t.
When you turn off location tracking, Windows 10 will still keep a record of your past location history. To clear your location history, go to the Privacy Dashboard, sign in, scroll down to the Location setting, and click it. You’ll see a list of your most recent location data; to see all of it, click Show all activities. You can click Clear all activities to delete all the data, or delete any individual entry by clicking the trash can icon at its far right.
There’s a lot more you can do to protect your privacy when you’re there. For details, see “Use Microsoft’s Privacy Dashboard” below.
Turn off Timeline
Timeline is a Windows 10 feature that lets you review and then resume activities and open files you’ve started on your Windows 10 PC, as well as any other Windows PCs and devices you have.(Although Timeline has been removed from Windows 11, it still lives in Windows 10.) So, for example, you can switch between a desktop and a laptop, and from each machine resume activities you’ve started on either PC.
In order to do that, Windows needs to gather information about all your activities on each of your machines. If that worries you, it’s easy to turn Timeline off. To do it, go to Settings > Privacy > Activity history and uncheck the box next to Store my activity history on this device.
Here’s how to turn off Timeline so that Microsoft doesn’t gather information about your activities on your PC.
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At that point, Windows 10 no longer gathers information about your activities. However, it still keeps information about your old activities and shows them in your Timeline on all your PCs. To get rid of that old information, go down to the “Clear activity history” section of the screen and click Clear.
Note that you’ll have to take these steps on all of your PCs to turn off the tracking of your activities.
Curb Copilot
Microsoft’s generative AI chatbot Copilot is the most powerful new feature Windows 10 has seen in recent years. Some people believe it can also be a privacy invader. That’s because your chat requests and responses are sent to the cloud, where they are processed — and they’re kept there as well.
If this worries you, there are things you can do about it. Start with the most basic. If you’re extremely worried about your privacy and don’t think Copilot offers anything for you, simply don’t use it. Keep in mind, though, that you’ll be losing out on its benefits, including the ability to get detailed information fast.
There is a middle ground between doing nothing to protect your privacy in Copilot and not using Copilot at all. First, don’t share your personal data when interacting with Copilot — things like specific financial information, your place of work, and so on.
Next, delete your Copilot chat activity on a regular basis. You can delete individual chats or all of them en masse. To delete individual chats, go to https://copilot.microsoft.com/ and log into your Microsoft account. On the right-hand side of the page, you’ll see your most recent chats. Move your mouse over any you want to delete, then click the trash icon next to it. To see more chats, click See all recent chats.
If you instead want to delete all your Copilot chats, go to the Microsoft Privacy Dashboard, log in, click Browsing and search, and scroll down to the bottom of the page, to the “Copilot activity history” section. Click Clear all Copilot activity history and search history. You’ll have to do this on a regular basis if you want to keep your activity as private as possible.
Here’s how to delete all your Copilot activity at once.
Here’s how to delete all your Copilot activity at once.
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Here’s how to delete all your Copilot activity at once.
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Ditch a Microsoft account for a local account
When you use your Microsoft account to log into Windows 10, you’re able to sync your settings with all Windows devices. So, for example, when you make changes to your settings on a desktop PC, those changes will also be made on your laptop the next time you log in.
But maybe you don’t want Microsoft to store that information about you. And maybe you want to cut your ties as much as possible to anything Microsoft stores about you. If that’s the case, your best bet is to stop using your Microsoft account and instead use a local account.
To do it, go to Settings > Accounts > Family & other users. Then click Add someone else to this PC. From the screen that appears, select I don’t have this person’s sign-in information. On the next page, select Add a user without a Microsoft account and follow the instructions to create and use a local account.
Keep in mind that when you do this, you won’t be able to use Microsoft’s OneDrive storage or download and install for-pay apps from the Microsoft Store. You can, however, download and install free apps from the Microsoft Store.
Change your app permissions
Windows apps have the potential to invade your privacy — they can have access to your camera, microphone, location, pictures and videos.
But you can decide, in a very granular way, what kind of access each app can have.
To do this, go to Settings > Apps. Below “Apps & features” you’ll see a list of your installed apps. Click the app whose permissions you want to control, then click Advanced options and set the app’s permissions by toggling them either on or off.
Setting permissions for Microsoft’s 3D Viewer app.
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Note, though, that not all apps have an “Advanced options” link. And of those that do, not all let you customize your app permissions.
However, there’s another way to change app permissions. To do it, go to Settings > Privacy and look under the “App permissions” section on the left-hand side of the page. You’ll see a list of all of Windows’ hardware, capabilities and features that apps can access if they’re given permission — location, camera, microphone, notifications, account info, contacts and so on.
Click any of the listed items — for example, Microphone. At the top of the page that appears, you can turn off access to the microphone for all apps. Below that you’ll see a listing of all the apps with access to the microphone, where you can control access on an app-by-app basis. Any app with access has a slider that is set to On. To stop any app from having access, move the slider to Off.
Control and delete diagnostic data
As you use Windows 10, data is gathered about your hardware and what you do when you use Windows. Microsoft says that it collects this data as a way to continually improve Windows and to offer you customized advice on how to best use Windows.
That makes plenty of people uncomfortable. If you’re one of them, you can to a certain extent control what kind of diagnostic data is gathered about you. To do it, head to Settings > Privacy > Diagnostics & Feedback. In the “Diagnostic data” section, you can choose between two levels of diagnostic data to be gathered. Note that there’s no way to stop Microsoft from gathering diagnostic data entirely. Here are your two choices:
Required diagnostic data: This sends information to Microsoft “about your device, its settings and capabilities, and whether it is performing properly.” If you’re worried about your privacy, this is the setting to choose.
Optional diagnostic data: This sends the whole nine yards to Microsoft: It will “send info about the websites you browse and how you use apps and features, plus additional info about device health, device usage, and enhanced error reporting.” It also sends along required diagnostic data. If you’re worried about your privacy, don’t make this choice.
Go here to control what diagnostic data Windows 10 gathers.
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Next, scroll down to the “Tailored experiences” section and move the slider to Off. This won’t affect the data Microsoft gathers, but it will turn off targeted ads and tips that are based on that information. So while it won’t enhance your privacy, you’ll at least cut down on the annoyance factor.
Now scroll a bit further down and in the “Delete diagnostic data” section, click Delete. That will delete all the diagnostic data Microsoft has gathered about you. However, after you delete it, Microsoft will start gathering the data again.
Finally on this screen, consider scrolling up to the “Improve inking and typing” section and moving the slider to Off. That will stop Windows 10 from sending to Microsoft the words you input using the keyboard and inking.
One final note about diagnostic data. You may have heard about a tool Microsoft has been hyping, called the Diagnostic Data Viewer, which you can download from the Microsoft Store. Microsoft claims it lets you see exactly what kind of diagnostic data Microsoft gathers about you. Don’t believe it. It’s something only a programmer could love — or understand. You won’t be able to use it to clearly see the diagnostic data Microsoft collects. Instead, you’ll scroll or search through incomprehensible headings such as “TelClientSynthetic.PdcNetworkActivation_4” and “Microsoft.Windows.App.Browser.IEFrameProcessAttached” with no explanation of what it means. Click any heading, and you’ll find even more incomprehensible data.
Use Microsoft’s Privacy Dashboard
Microsoft has built an excellent, little-known web tool called the Privacy Dashboard that lets you track and delete a lot of information Microsoft gathers about you. As covered earlier in this story, here you can turn off ad targeting and delete your location and Copilot history. You can also view and delete your browsing history, search history, voice activity, media activity, and more.
(Note that for your browsing and search history, it only tracks your activity when you use Microsoft Edge or Internet Explorer. It doesn’t track data when you use other browsers, like Chrome or Firefox. And it only tracks your location history when you’re using Microsoft devices, not those that use iOS or Android.)
Microsoft’s little-known Privacy Dashboard is a great place to delete much of the information Microsoft gathers about you.
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To use it, head to the information you want to view and clear, then click the appropriate link — for example, to view and delete your browser history in Microsoft Edge. Note that in some instances, you won’t have full control over deleting and managing data.
In the dashboard you can also customize privacy settings for other Microsoft products, including Xbox and Microsoft 365.
Get granular in the Settings app
All this shouldn’t take that long and will do a great deal to protect your privacy. If you want to dig even deeper into privacy protections, launch the Settings app and click Privacy. You’ll see the same General pane that we covered in the first tip in this story. (If for some reason you’re in a different section of Privacy, click General on the left-hand side of the screen.)
Below the switch to turn off your advertising ID are three more privacy settings you can disable:
Language list: The list of languages you have enabled on your machine is your own business.
App launches: This is used to build the “Most used” list on the Start menu and influences search result order — likely not a must-have for the privacy minded.
Suggested content: This is used, in Microsoft’s words, to “suggest new content and apps you might find interesting.” Trust me, it’s unlikely you’ll find them interesting.
Turn all three of these off to further protect your privacy.
And there’s a lot more beyond the General pane. On the left-hand side of the screen, you’ll see additional areas where you can get even more granular about privacy — for example, in the “Inking & typing personalization” section you can change your global privacy options for inking and your typing history.
Tips for the truly paranoid
If you want to take privacy even further, there are a few more things you can do.
Stop using OneDrive
If you don’t like the idea of syncing your data to Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud storage service, you can stop using it. (There’s no way to uninstall it.) Right-click the OneDrive icon on the notification tray at the bottom right of the Windows desktop and select Settings from the menu that pops open. In the OneDrive Settings window, go to the Account tab, then click the Unlink this PC button. Next, click the Sync and backup tab and uncheck Start OneDrive when I sign in to Windows.
Unlinking OneDrive so it no longer syncs.
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Don’t sync Windows settings across devices
In addition, you can say no to syncing your Windows settings among different devices. When you sync your settings, the way you’ve customized and set up Windows 10 will be synced to Microsoft’s servers. If you want to turn it off, go to Settings > Windows Backup and move the slider from On to Off in “Remember my preferences” and “Remember my apps.”
Turn off app diagnostics
Changing this setting isn’t a particularly big privacy-enhancer, but if you’re a real privacy fiend, every bit helps. It doesn’t affect desktop apps like Word or Excel, and instead targets built-in Windows apps and the apps you download from the Microsoft Store. Turning off app diagnostics stops any of those apps from getting details about other apps — things such as their internal names, package names, the user name of the person running the app, and techie details such as memory usage. Developers use this information all the time, but your garden-variety apps shouldn’t need any of it.
To turn it off, select Settings > Privacy > App diagnostics, and in the “Allow access to app diagnostic info on this device” section, click Change. When a slider appears, move it to Off.
Turn off app diagnostics to prevent built-in Windows apps and Microsoft Store apps from getting details about other apps.
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Don’t share Windows updates
Finally, you can change the way Windows updates. In Settings > Update & Security > Delivery Optimization, turn off the switch next to Allow downloads from other PCs. When turned on, this function lets your Windows 10 system share its update files with other Windows 10 computers on the internet through peer-to-peer distribution.
These steps can take you a long way towards making sure that Windows 10 doesn’t cross the line into gathering data you’d prefer remain private.
This article was originally published in January 2016 and most recently updated in August 2024.
Large language model (LLM) providers OpenAI and Anthropic have signed individual agreements with the US AI Safety Institute under the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in order to collaborate on AI safety research that includes testing and evaluation.
As part of the agreements, both Anthropic and OpenAI will share their new models with the institute before they are released to the public for safety checks.
“With these agreements in place, we look forward to beginning our technical collaborations with Anthropic and OpenAI to advance the science of AI safety,” Elizabeth Kelly, director of the US AI Safety Institute, said in a statement.
The agreements also include the entities engaging in collaborative research on how to evaluate capabilities and safety risks, as well as methods to mitigate those risks.
The agreements come almost a year after US President Joe Biden passed an executive order to set up a comprehensive series of standards, safety and privacy protections, and oversight measures for the development and use of artificial intelligence.
Along with Dioptra, the NIST had also released several documents promoting AI safety and standards in line with the executive order.
These documents included the initial draft of its guidelines for developing foundation models, dubbed Managing Misuse Risk for Dual-Use Foundation Models, and two guidance documents that will serve as companion resources to the NIST’s AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF) and Secure Software Development Framework (SSDF), targeted at helping developers manage the risks of generative AI.
Agreements support collaboration with the UK’s AI Safety Institute
The agreements with the LLM providers also include a clause, which will allow the US Safety Institute to provide feedback to both companies on potential safety improvements to their models in collaboration with their partners at the UK AI Safety Institute.
Earlier in April, the US and the UK signed an agreement to test the safety LLMs that underpin AI systems.
The agreement or memorandum of understanding (MoU) — was signed in Washington by US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and UK Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan and the collaboration between the AI Safety Institutes is a direct result of this agreement.
Other US measures around AI safety
The agreements signed by OpenAI and Anthropic come just as the California AI safety bill goes into its final stages of turning into a law. The bill could establish the nation’s most stringent regulations on AI and may pave the way for similar regulations across the country.
The legislation, known as the Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act (SB 1047), proposes rigorous testing and accountability measures for AI developers, particularly those creating large and complex models.
The bill, if enacted into law, would require AI companies to test their systems for safety before releasing them to the public.
Earlier this month, OpenAI opposed the bill for at least five days before pledging support for it last week.
The NIST has also taken other measures, including the formation of an AI safety advisory group in February this year that encompassed AI creators, users, and academics, to put some guardrails on AI use and development.
The advisory group named the US AI Safety Institute Consortium (AISIC) has been tasked with coming up with guidelines for red-teaming AI systems, evaluating AI capacity, managing risk, ensuring safety and security, and watermarking AI-generated content. Several major technology firms, including OpenAI, Meta, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Intel, and Nvidia, joined the consortium to ensure the safe development of AI.
Nope — it’s a touch so small and simple, Google hasn’t so much as even mentioned it in any of its Pixel 9 promotions. Hardly anyone else has talked about it, either. Heck, you might not even notice it when using the phones.
But goodness gracious, is it ever worth your while to chew over. The feature of which we speak is a new device-wide reminders system that makes it impossibly easy to capture a reminder around anything you’re doing, anywhere on your phone, and then have it come back to demand your attention at exactly the right time.
It’s hands-down my favorite new Pixel feature and something that might just inspire me to make the leap to a shiny new Pixel 9 model, despite the fact that my current personal Pixel 8 Pro phone is perfectly fine and otherwise quite similar.
I’ve found this feature so forkin’ helpful during my time with a Pixel 9 review unit, in fact, that I decided I had to find a way to recreate it in a way that everyone could appreciate and benefit from — no matter what type of Android device you might be using at the moment.
And man, lemme tell ya: It wasn’t easy. Like most creative workarounds along these lines (hello, Pixel 9 Call Notes!), the solution for emulating a feature like this in an external environment is inevitably a little less seamless and native-feeling than the original — and also considerably more complicated to cook up.
But oh, does it ever get the job done and bring that same sort of universal reminder goodness onto whatever Android phone you’re caressing these days. And if you value organization and brain-aiding reminders as much as I do, you’ll absolutely appreciate the addition.
Before we get into the specifics, let me give you a quick reminder about what the Pixel 9 system we’re emulating actually accomplishes and how it works.
The Pixel 9 reminders system is tied directly into the Android screenshot function: Anytime you see anything you want to be reminded of later — a message you need to reply to at some specific future point, an email you want to revisit at the end of the day, or anything else you encounter anywhere on your phone and don’t want to forget — you simply snag a screenshot (by pressing the phone’s power and volume-down buttons at the same time or using any other Android screenshot shortcut).
As part of its standard screenshot confirmation pop-up, the Pixel 9 presents you with a new bell-shaped icon. Tapping that icon reveals a special new panel that lets you set a reminder around that screenshot for any specific future day and time you want.
Google’s Pixel 9 screenshot reminder icon, at left, and subsequent pop-up, at right.
JR Raphael, IDG
When that time arrives, the Pixel 9 serves up a notification that shows you the screenshot along with some added context about what the image contains.
The notification you see when a reminder arrives via the new screenshot-centric Pixel 9 system.
JR Raphael, IDG
Handy, no? So now, let’s look at how we can create something similar in concept on any non-Pixel-9 Android device you might be using.
You’ve got two possible paths to pick — the easy, minimal-setup route that works reasonably well and the slightly-complex-to-configure pure awesomeness option that automates everything and makes the ongoing reminder creation process almost as powerful as what’s present on the Pixel 9.
Choose your own adventure…
Pixel 9 screenshot reminder recreation: The easy path
First up is the easy-to-implement, minimal-hassle-requiring path that’ll be the right approach for most Android phone-owners.
For a super-simple, almost-effortless way to emulate the Pixel 9’s universal reminder system on any Android device, you need just one ingredient: the free and readily available Microsoft To Do appfor Android.
We want to use this app, specifically, because of the way it integrates with Android’s system-level sharing system and makes it especially easy to pass over info from a freshly captured screenshot and then create a reminder around it. Most other similar apps, including Google’s own generally excellent Keep Android note-taking service, don’t handle this particular feat quite as well. Microsoft To Do is the tool for the job.
Open up the app once and follow its prompts to sign in.
Approve any pertinent permissions, including the ability for the app to show you notifications and create reminders/alarms.
Got it? Good. Now, when you’re ready to capture a reminder of anything you see anywhere on your device:
Create a screenshot — again, by pressing your phone’s power and volume-down buttons at the same time or by using any other Android screenshot shortcut.
When you see the screenshot confirmation pop up, tap the share icon within it.
You should see “To Do,” with a blue checkmark icon, within the panel of sharing options that appears next. Press and hold your finger onto that icon and then tap the line that says “Pin Add to new task.”
That’ll cause the shortcut to show up at the very top of your system-level sharing list from that moment forward, for especially easy ongoing access.
Long-pressing the To-Do icon allows you to pin it — which then causes it to always show up at the top of the standard Android sharing menu.
JR Raphael, IDG
From there on out, whenever you want to capture a reminder about anything in the style of the Pixel 9 reminders system, you can simply take a screenshot — then tap the share button followed by the “To Do” icon.
That’ll summon a special little pop-up that looks a little somethin’ like this:
The Microsoft To-Do pop-up for creating a new screenshot-centric reminder.
JR Raphael, IDG
All that’s left is to tap the “Remind me” option within the horizontally scrolling line at the bottom of that pop-up and select whatever date and time you want the reminder to fire. You’ll need to type something into the “Add a task” text field, too. You could use a word or two to act as a title for the reminder or even just type in a single period or random character to fill the space.
Whatever you choose, your contextual reminder will then be set — and you’ll receive a notification with the info and the screenshot attached when the date and time you selected arrives.
A reminder created from a screenshot — just like what Google’s Pixel 9 reminders system offers.
JR Raphael, IDG
Like I said, it’s not quite as streamlined of a process as what the Pixel 9 gives you, and it takes a teensy bit of ongoing effort. But it gets the job done and gives you a super-simple framework for accomplishing the same sort of anywhere-on-Android, context-containing, screenshot-centric reminders.
If you want to make it even easier on yourself and don’t mind a more complex initial setup, keep reading.
Pixel 9 screenshot reminder recreation: The advanced option
The most satisfying way to give yourself a truly Pixel-9-like screenshot reminders setup is with a touch of crafty Android automation.
Now, fair warning: This path is really appropriate only for more advanced Android device-owners who don’t mind a little ambitious tinkering. Most people would be better off with the “lite” version of this setup that we just went over. But while the initial setup here isn’t exactly simple, you’ll only have to do it once, if you’re up for it — from that point onward, your screenshot reminders will be almost as easy and effortless as what the Pixel 9 provides.
For this path, you’ll need two core ingredients:
The same Microsoft To Do Android appwe went over in the previous section. If you don’t already have it, download it, open it once, and follow the prompts to sign in and grant it all the pertinent permissions.
A brilliant Android automation app called MacroDroid. It’s free with an optional $5 upgrade to eliminate ads throughout its setup interface and to enable some extra features (which aren’t required for anything we’ll tackle today).
To set this up — and again, remember, you’ll only have to do this once:
Open up MacroDroid and make your way through the app’s welcome screens and basic permission prompts.
On the main MacroDroid screen, tap the big “Add Macro” button in the upper-left corner.
Within the “Triggers” box, tap the plus icon, then select “User Input” followed by “Volume Button Pressed.”
Select “Use Accessibility Service” and tap “OK.”
Select “Volume Up + Volume Down (Long Press)” and tap “OK.”
Select “Retain Previous Volume” and tap “OK.”
At this point, MacroDroid will likely send you a notification informing you that it requires an additional permission in order to handle this part of the process. Swipe down twice from the top of your screen to find the notification, then tap it and follow the prompts to enable Android accessibility access for “MacroDroid Volume Button Monitor.” You’ll want to be sure to activate the top toggle for that option and not the “shortcut” option lower down on the same screen.
You’ll probably see a scary-sounding warning confirming that you want to grant the app this access. It sounds like a lot, but this is genuinely what’s required for MacroDroid — or any app — to be able to monitor your volume button presses and react to them in real-time. MacroDroid is a known and trusted app that’s been around forever, and its developer is adamant about the fact that no user data is ever shared or sold in any way.
Cool? Cool. Now, next:
Head back to MacroDroid and the setup screen we were just working on. It should now look a little somethin’ like this:
The MacroDroid reminder setup in its first-step state.
JR Raphael, IDG
This time, tap the plus icon within the “Actions” box, then tap “Screen” followed by “Read Screenshot Contents.” You’ll be prompted to enable Android accessibility access once more, this time for “MacroDroid UI Interaction.” Follow the same process as before to do this.
Once you’ve granted the necessary permission, you’ll probably have to tap that “Read Screenshot Contents” box once more to select it. Do that, then select “[New Variable]” and tap “OK.”
When prompted, type in md-screenshot for the variable name and tap “OK.”
It may look like a bunch of gobbledegook, but this setup will lead us somewhere spectacular.
JR Raphael, IDG
On the next three prompts that pop up, leave the default options selected and simply tap “OK.”
You should then see the main MacroDroid creation screen again with your newly added line present within the “Actions” area.
The Pixel-9-esque MacroDroid screenshot reminder setup — almost finished.
JR Raphael, IDG
One last time — almost done! — tap the plus icon within the “Actions” box, and this time, select “Device Actions” followed by “Share Text.”
In the pop-up that appears next, tap the first “…” button — alongside the “Enter text” field — then tap “OK” once, select “Local Variable” and tap “OK,” and select “md-screenshot” and tap “OK.”
Tap “OK” once more on the next prompt that shows up.
And last but not least, tap the second “…” button, under “Application Name,” then select “Add new task” and tap “OK.”
That should leave you with a box that looks like this:
The engine that makes our Pixel 9 reminder recreation work.
JR Raphael, IDG
Finally, tap “OK” — then tap the field where you see “Enter macro name,” type in Screenshot reminder, and tap the left-facing arrow in the corner of the screen and select “Save.”
The final MacroDroid configuration for Pixel-9-style reminder paradise.
JR Raphael, IDG
Aaaand, take a deep breath: Our initial setup for this is now officially finished — and that means you’re ready to test out your fancy new Pixel-9-inspired Android screenshot reminder system!
This is where the true beauty of this approach becomes apparent. Anytime you want to snag a new screenshot reminder, all you’ve gotta do is press and hold your volume-up and volume-down keys together for a second or so — no matter what’s on your screen or what else you’re doing on your device.
And, hey — wouldya look at that?!
srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/google-pixel-9-screenshot-reminder-automation.webp?quality=50&strip=all 700w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/google-pixel-9-screenshot-reminder-automation.webp?resize=288%2C300&quality=50&strip=all 288w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/google-pixel-9-screenshot-reminder-automation.webp?resize=669%2C697&quality=50&strip=all 669w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/google-pixel-9-screenshot-reminder-automation.webp?resize=161%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 161w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/google-pixel-9-screenshot-reminder-automation.webp?resize=81%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 81w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/google-pixel-9-screenshot-reminder-automation.webp?resize=461%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 461w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/google-pixel-9-screenshot-reminder-automation.webp?resize=346%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 346w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/google-pixel-9-screenshot-reminder-automation.webp?resize=240%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 240w" width="700" height="729" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px">Instant and automatic reminders, à la the Pixel 9’s screenshot reminder system — achieved!
JR Raphael, IDG
That special key combo — volume-up and volume-down together — is now your custom shortcut for snagging a screenshot and setting a reminder from it, from anywhere on your phone. Pressing those buttons together will automatically capture the screenshot, pull out the pertinent text from the screenshot, and share it into a new reminder within Microsoft To-Do.
(The text interpretation can be slightly hit and miss sometimes, depending on the context, but it’ll usually get enough of the gist to make it work. And you can always add in extra info on your own, too, if you want to expand or adjust it.)
All that’s left is tap that “Remind me” option to set the reminder date and time for whenever you want, then tap the up-facing arrow to save it.
And when whatever time you selected arrives — boom: Your reminder appears.
The final reminder, delivered at exactly the right time.
JR Raphael, IDG
A pretty powerful new productivity perk, wouldn’t ya say?
It may not be quite as simple, seamless, or elegant as what the Pixel 9 pulls off in this area — but if you aren’t getting a Pixel 9 series phone, it’s your next best option for a similar sort of universal contextual reminder system.
And it’ll absolutely get the job done and let you create easy and effective reminders around anything, anytime — with nothing but a fast press and tap from anywhere within Android.
