According to the latest report from The Verge, Microsoft is currently testing a new AI-driven chatbot designed to automate support tasks for its Xbox gaming platform. As the report notes, Microsoft is experimenting with an animated AI character that will assist in answering Xbox support inquiries. The Xbox AI chatbot is connected to Microsoft's Xbox network and ecosystem support documentation. It can answer questions and process game refunds from the Microsoft support website, all aiming to provide users with simple and quick assistance on support topics using natural language, drawing information from existing Xbox support pages. Training on Microsoft's enterprise data will help Microsoft reduce the AI model's hallucinations and instruct it to do only as intended.

As a result, the chatbot's responses closely resemble the information Microsoft provides to its customers to automate support tasks. Recently, Microsoft has expanded the test pool for its new Xbox chatbot, suggesting that the "Xbox Support Virtual Agent" may soon handle support inquiries for all Xbox customers. The development of the Xbox chatbot prototype is part of a broader initiative within Microsoft Gaming to introduce AI-powered features and tools for the Xbox platform and developer tools. The company is also reportedly working on providing AI capabilities for game content creation, gameplay, and the Xbox platform and devices. However, Xbox employees have yet to publicly confirm these more extensive AI efforts for Microsoft Gaming, likely due to the company's cautious approach to presenting AI in gaming. Nevertheless, AI will soon become an integral part of gaming consoles.

Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc. is inviting potential CRADLECOFFIN Drifters to participate in the upcoming SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada closed beta test, with registrations now open. The extraction shooter, set in a dystopian futuristic world where humans and AI must cooperate to survive, will have limited slots available for players to be among the first to venture into the ruins of Amasia to fight both environmental threats and human enemies, reap rewards, and escape with all the AO Crystals they can carry.

As a CRADLECOFFIN mech pilot, players will be able to bring their choice of Magus into battle—an AI companion that provides useful combat information including radar locations, resource tracking, combat assistance, and more. They can also select from a wide variety of chassis, arms, and legs, with two weapons as well to optimize their loadout for each sortie. The CBT for SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada will run March 28 through April 1 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam.

Creatures of Ava was announced during Xbox Partner Preview, and we're excited to confirm that it is arriving on Xbox Series X|S and PC in 2024. That's why we at Inverge Studios wanted to use this opportunity to tell you more about the beautiful world of Ava. Creatures of Ava is a Creature Saver game in which you will have to help creatures escape from an infection that is rapidly growing on the planet Ava, threatening to wipe out all living beings. Your goal is not to collect the creatures for your amusement nor hurt them—your goal is to save them.

One of our overarching goals when developing the game was to make it non-violent while remaining really fun to play. From the outset, we've been captivated by the notion of saving creatures from a distant planet, not for any utilitarian purpose, but simply because they're sentient beings deserving of compassion. With that vision in our mind creating a non-violent game was essential. However, this initially proved to be one of our biggest challenges, until we settled on the flute as one of the key mechanics in the game—that really helped us realize our goal. Let me explain….

The highly anticipated AORUS 16X, a brand-new 16-inch AI gaming laptop unveiled by the world's leading computer brand, GIGABYTE, is now available. Powered by the latest Intel Core 14th gen HX processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series laptop GPU, AORUS 16X sets a new standard for performance. Equipped with GIGABYTE AI Nexus technology, it optimizes power management and gaming performance while enhancing generative AI applications. Boasting patented innovations like the 4-sided Super-slim Bezel design and supporting Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision, it creates a cinematic audiovisual experience unparalleled in its class. It holds the TÜV Rheinland Eye Comfort Certification and Pantone Validated color accuracy certification, which provide high comfort and confidence for extended use.

The AORUS 16X is powered by the latest Intel Core i9 processor 14900HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 dedicated graphics card. With a maximum graphic power of up to 140 W, it provides unmatched performance for gaming and creative tasks. The inclusion of NVIDIA Advanced Optimus technology (DDS) ensures seamless switching between integrated and dedicated graphics for optimal performance. Additionally, the WINDFORCE Infinity Cooling technology features the Icy Touch design and 0dB Cooling, enabling efficient heat dissipat ion during heavy loads, or maintaining a noise-free environment during low loads.

Today, Microsoft launched Copilot Pro, bringing its AI-powered productivity features to mainstream consumers. Available as a $20 per month add-on to Microsoft 365 Personal or Home subscriptions, Copilot Pro injects AI directly into Office apps to help users write faster and work smarter. The key features include AI-generated text suggestions and summaries in Word, automated data analysis and graph creation in Excel, and even entire PowerPoint presentation generation from a text prompt. Copilot can also suggest email replies in Outlook and assist with other productivity tasks. What sets Copilot Pro apart from the free Copilot assistant is its tight integration with Office apps and ability to summarize long Word documents and generate entire decks. The Pro version also offers priority access to the latest AI models from OpenAI, Microsoft's key partner. The regular Copilot uses GPT-4 during non-priority times, while the Copilot Pro aims to serve its users with GPT-4 and GPT-4 Turbo all the time.

While regular Copilot is available to anyone with a Microsoft account, Copilot Pro is reserved for those with active Microsoft 365 subscriptions. However, it brings previously business-only AI capabilities like PowerPoint generation to mainstream users. Microsoft's Divya Kumar, global head of marketing for search and AI at Microsoft, stated in a discussion for The Verge that Copilot Pro will continue to expand over time: "Given that pattern we've been in, that rolling thunder, you can expect we're going to do the exact same thing for Copilot Pro." So, while the initial launch focuses on core Office apps, expect Copilot Pro to pop up across Microsoft's software and services eventually. For now, it aims to boost productivity for Office power users willing to pay a little extra for AI assistance.

The Xbox Series version of Baldur's Gate 3 was at risk of being delayed into 2024, thanks to Microsoft enforcing a policy of feature parity across S and X consoles. Larian Studios is reportedly still struggling to get split-screen co-operative mode running on Xbox Series S hardware, even with deployment of first party assistance. Swen Vincke, founder and CEO of Larian Studios, discussed these technical issues with Microsoft Gaming's head honcho at Gamescom last week—their tête-à-tête resulted in a positive outcome: "Super happy to confirm that after meeting Phil Spencer yesterday, we've found a solution that allows us to bring Baldur's Gate 3 to Xbox players this year still, something we've been working towards for quite some time." The game is due to launch—feature complete—on PlayStation 5 in early September, so Team Xbox appears keen to play catch up with its arch rival.

Vincke elaborated on the compromise: "All improvements will be there, with split-screen coop on Series X. Series S will not feature split-screen co-op, but will also include cross-save progression between Steam and Xbox Series." A firm release date has not been confirmed yet, but the official Xbox Twitter account later revealed that Microsoft engineers are committed to collaborating with the game's development team and resolve technical hurdles: "To answer some questions we're getting, we'll continue to work with Larian to explore the addition of split-screen on Series S post launch."

China electric vehicle maker XPENG Motors has announced its new G6 coupe SUV—featuring an NVIDIA-powered intelligent advanced driver assistance system—is now available to the China market. The G6 is XPENG's first model featuring the company's proprietary Smart Electric Platform Architecture (SEPA) 2.0, which aims to reduce development and manufacturing costs and shorten R&D cycles since the modular architecture will be compatible with future models.

The electric SUV also features the XPENG Navigation Guided Pilot (XNGP), a full scenario-based intelligent assisted driving system. It's powered by the cutting-edge NVIDIA DRIVE Orin compute and XPENG's full-stack software developed in-house. The XNGP system first made its debut in the EV maker's flagship G9 SUV, touting a safe, reliable, advanced driving experience behind the wheel.

This July, as part of Disability Pride Month, Team Xbox proudly celebrates players, creators, and community members with disabilities. More than 400 million video game players have disabilities worldwide, and we recognize the incredible contributions the gaming and disability community has made in making Team Xbox, and the broader gaming industry, more inclusive and welcoming for everyone.

Disability Pride holds a special place in my heart, as I am not only a Program Manager on our Gaming Accessibility Team, but also a person with disabilities. Most people wouldn't think of me as having a disability at first glance. In fact, I didn't know I had disabilities until I was in my 20's when I was diagnosed as being neurodiverse. Now I know that I have had Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Sensory Processing Disorder since I was a young child. And, as the years have gone by, I've acquired new disabilities due to illness, injury, and trauma. Chronic pain is now part of my life, as is hearing loss, and anxiety and depression related to complex post-traumatic stress disorder.

Larian Studios recently announced that the PlayStation 5 version of Baldur's Gate 3 is getting postponed by a week—from August 31 to September 6, with PC gamers happy to discover that they will be treated to an earlier release (adjusted to August 3). Xbox Series console owners were seemingly left out in the cold with last week's announcements—Larian is yet to confirm a solid launch date for current generation Microsoft systems. The studio admitted—earlier this year—that software engineers were struggling to get the split screen multiplayer mode in Baldur's Gate 3 running adequately on both Series X and S hardware: "We've had an Xbox version of Baldur's Gate 3 in development for some time now. We've run into some technical issues in developing the Xbox port that have stopped us feeling 100% confident in announcing it until we're certain we've found the right solutions—specifically, we've been unable to get splitscreen co-op to work to the same standard on both (systems), which is a requirement for us to ship."

Microsoft apparently enforces a policy that locks gameplay feature parity across Xbox Series X and S, and Larian has continued to struggle with technical issues, albeit now isolated to the lesser console (not that helpful given the circumstances)—IGN contacted studio head Swen Vincke for comment about this situation. Other development outfits have expressed their disdain for Series S launch requirements, with calls to drop the system entirely—but IGN discovered that Vincke was reluctant to aim criticism at Microsoft, since first party assistance has been roped in: "We had support from the ATG group. They've been doing great. They've been helping a lot. Everybody wants this out on Xbox. It's not that we don't want it out on Xbox. It's just that, our problem—and this is us, Larian—is that we just made a very big game. And it's a very complicated game...We're also not a developer with an infinite (number) of resources. We are constrained in the amount of time each platform version is tested. The more permutations you start adding to it on a platform, the more complicated that becomes." Given the high profile nature of Baldur's Gate 3, it would be in both parties' interests to get a decent port out of the door, so it is encouraging that Microsoft is pitching in (perhaps to save face).

We are pleased to announce that we have raised $450 million in Series C funding led by Spark Capital with participation from Google, Salesforce Ventures, Sound Ventures, Zoom Ventures, and others. The funding will support our continued work developing helpful, harmless, and honest AI systems—including Claude, an AI assistant that can perform a wide variety of conversational and text processing tasks.

Anthropic was founded to build AI products that people can rely on and generate research about the opportunities and risks of AI. Our CEO, Dario Amodei, says, "We are thrilled that these leading investors and technology companies are supporting Anthropic's mission: AI research and products that put safety at the frontier. The systems we are building are being designed to provide reliable AI services that can positively impact businesses and consumers now and in the future."

Alphabet Incorporated's Google AI division has today revealed a planned update for its Bard conversational artificial intelligence chatbot. The experimental generative artificial intelligence software application will become capable of assisting people in the writing of computer code - the American multinational technology company hopes that Bard will be of great to help in the area of software development. Paige Bailey, a group product manager at Google Research has introduced the upcoming changes: "Since we launched Bard, our experiment that lets you collaborate with generative AI, coding has been one of the top requests we've received from our users. As a product lead in Google Research - and a passionate engineer who still programs every day - I'm excited that today we're updating Bard to include that capability."

The Bard chatbot was made available, on a trial basis, to users in the USA and UK last month. Google's AI team is reported to be under great pressure to advance the Bard chatbot into a suitably powerful state in order to compete with its closest rival - Microsoft Corporation. The Seattle-based giant has invested heavily into Open AI's industry leading ChatGPT application. Google's latest volley against its rivals shows that Bard's has become very sophisticated - so much so that the app is able to chew through a variety of programming languages. Bailey outlines these features in the company's latest blog: "Starting now, Bard can help with programming and software development tasks, including code generation, debugging and code explanation. We're launching these capabilities in more than 20 programming languages including C++, Go, Java, Javascript, Python and Typescript. And you can easily export Python code to Google Colab - no copy and paste required." Critics of AI-driven large language models have posited that the technology could potentially eliminate humans from the job market - it will be interesting to observe the coder community's reaction to Google marketing of Bard as a helpful tool in software development.