KAUST Hosts Annual International Conference on Smart Mobility

The conference is attended by a distinguished group of academics and others
The conference is attended by a distinguished group of academics and others
TT

KAUST Hosts Annual International Conference on Smart Mobility

The conference is attended by a distinguished group of academics and others
The conference is attended by a distinguished group of academics and others

The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) is hosting the International Conference on Smart Mobility - IEEE (SM'23) from March 19 to 21 on the university campus.

The conference is attended by a distinguished group of academics, technologists, equipment manufacturers, transportation service providers, and city planners to discuss topics related to smart transportation systems and services.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is organizing the conference in partnership with the Ministry of Transport and Logistics Services, the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, the Communications, Space and Technology Commission, the Transport General Authority, and the Royal Commission for the Holy City of Makkah and the Holy Sites.

The conference's objective is to share the most recent research, development, and publication findings of smart mobility systems and services, as well as to discuss their possible applications and challenging difficulties.

KAUST President Professor Tony Chan stated that "smart mobility" has become a field for innovative science and research applications, particularly since most cities worldwide are searching for sustainable solutions to mobility issues.

The conference is an excellent opportunity to bring together academics, government officials, the business sector, and startups to unify efforts and develop solutions, he said.



Alphabet to Roll out Image Generation of People on Gemini after Pause

A large Google logo is seen at Google's Bay View campus in Mountain View, California on August 13, 2024. (AFP)
A large Google logo is seen at Google's Bay View campus in Mountain View, California on August 13, 2024. (AFP)
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Alphabet to Roll out Image Generation of People on Gemini after Pause

A large Google logo is seen at Google's Bay View campus in Mountain View, California on August 13, 2024. (AFP)
A large Google logo is seen at Google's Bay View campus in Mountain View, California on August 13, 2024. (AFP)

Alphabet's Google said on Wednesday it has updated Gemini's AI image-creation model and would roll out the generation of visuals of people in the coming days, after months-long pause of the capability.

In February, Google had paused its AI tool that creates images of people, following inaccuracies in some historical depictions generated by the model.

The issues, where the AI model returned historical images which were sometimes inaccurate, drew flak from users.

The company said it has worked to improve the product, adhere to "product principles" and simulated situations to find weaknesses.

The feature will be made available first to paid users of the Gemini AI chatbot, starting in English and later roll out the model to bring more users and languages.

Google said it has improved the Imagen 3 model to create better images of people, but it would not generate images of specific people, children or graphic content.

OpenAI's Dall-E, Microsoft's CoPilot and recently xAI's Grok are among other AI chatbots that can now generate images.

The search engine giant also said over the coming days, subscribers to Gemini Advanced, Business and Enterprise would have access to chatting with "Gems" or chatbots customized for specific purposes.

Users can write specific instructions for particular purposes and create a Gem, saving them time from rewriting prompts for repetitive use cases.