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what it is, how to use it and everything you need to know about this Internet-connected AI search engine

Faced with ChatGPT, there are those who have the same feeling as when they tried the internet for the first time, but the reality is that despite its great potential, OpenAI’s conversational chat has flaws and limitations, one of which is the lack of sources or that it does not connect to Internet to search for answers. But ChatGPT is not alone: ​​there are AI tools capable of looking face to face at OpenAI chat like Perplexity AI. If you are not sure what Perplexity AI is, what it can be useful for and how to starta good start can be reading this article.

What is Perplexity AI?


Perplexity AI is a conversational search engine, that is, an answer engine that provides precise answers to more or less complex questions using extensive language models. Thus, its accuracy is limited by the capabilities of artificial intelligence and search results.

As its creators warn, as a result it can generate offensive or dangerous content. Also, recommend not to provide personal informationgiven that like other AI algorithms, it is train with the use. That is, with your questions, their answers, feedback and analysis by the development team.

What difference then ChatGPT with Perplexity AI? If you’re just starting to try out these AI tools, you may have made a hodgepodge of what’s good for what and what to expect. We start with something as important as the internet connection: while ChatGPT is “limited” to its training and data (note, more than 175 million parameters, which are not few), Perplexity AI relies on the immensity of the internet to offer you answers , which allows you keep up to date with what is happening and search if needed to offer answers in real time.

The second big difference has to do with the sources and it is essential: What good is it that ChatGPT offers you an answer that seems true to reality if you can’t verify it unless you have a lot of experience in the subject? This is one of the reasons why it is so dangerous to use it for class work or even for programming, which is why its use is prohibited to solve Stack Overflow doubts. After you provide your answer, Perplexity AI lists where it got the information from, so you can check it yourself.

In any case, both ChatGPT and Perplexity AI stand out for their ability to contextualizewhich allows to maintain a conversation in the case of OpenAI chat or to chain a interrogation with Perplexity AI. For example, if you ask him about the latest Apple phone and then ask him “and the laptop?”, he is able to understand that we mean the Apple computer.

If we compare it with Google, the difference is abysmal: while the Mountain View engine is essentially limited to returning results in SEO order (although it increasingly places more importance on their suggestions and less on pure linking), Perplexity AI understands your question, looks for the answer and is able to write it, not as a copy-and-paste, but taking the sources that he considers most relevant and constructing a discourse with meaning and precision. For us to understand each other, it’s like doing a job old fashioned: document yourself, to understand and elaborate the answer using different concepts. At the end of the answer, your sources as a bibliography.

Regarding functionality, roughly Perplexity AI would be a kind of hypothetical child between ChatGPT and Google.

Perplexity AI is everything a Google search engine has to fear: a "ChatGPT" Conected to internet

How to use Perplexity AI?

After explaining its capabilities and operation, it is normal that you want to try it. Well, you can do it: although still in beta phase, It’s open to everyone and it’s free.. In addition, it is a good time to do it: it does not have traffic problems and its operation is fluid.

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An interesting point is that you don’t even need to registerSimply access their website https://www.perplexity.ai/ from any browser (it can be on a computer, tablet, mobile) and enter your question. The interface is very similar to that of the Google search engine.

As you may have seen in the Perplexity AI screenshots that we have posted to illustrate the article, the menus and texts on the website are in English, but you can ask questions in Spanish and he will also answer you in Spanish.

Screenshot 2023 01 21 At 9 43 30

A couple of interesting tidbits: When switching languages, you tend to opt for local fonts. We have also tested it in French and Basque and in both cases it is able to understand the question and answer it, but while in Spanish and French it returned the question in those same languages, in Basque it chose to answer either in English or in the language that we had formulated the previous question.

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Ideas for using Perplexity AI

Now that we are clear about what it is and how to use Perplexity AI, we may need ideas to put it into practice. Taking advantage of its status as an updated search engine, let’s go with a rabidly topical question: who is behind Netflix? Note: let’s remember that Reed Hastings has ceased to be CEO of Netflix a few hours ago.

Netflix CEO

As you can see, Perplexity AI is already aware of the current situation. So you can be useful to offer a summary of the newsavoiding several clicks, readings and headlines clickbait. The sources offer little objection: Netflix itself, Wikipedia and two reputable outlets such as CNBC and the Hollywood Reporter. In case of doubt of its veracity? You can always compare by pulling sources.

Thus, it is assumed that it will be fully up to date with competitions and statisticsFor example, which player has scored the most headed goals so far in the first league. But this was an easy statistic.

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If we ask him about the Chilean ones, he has no answer, since he is not able to find a source that offers him the data. However, regarding which player has scored more with his left leg, yes.

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only one source, Marca and its player statistics database, which means that it has not been able to cross this data with other information to compare it. And if Brand is not updated? So the answer will be wrong.

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Keep up to date with what is happening can be useful for issues that change frequently, such as knowing what will be the price of electricity in Spain tomorrowthus, without having to specify the day.

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As data, the price of electricity for tomorrow is provided by the Red Eléctrica de España (REE) the day before, so in practice yet (it is 8 am) it is not possible to know the concrete answer. In the concise answer Perplexity does not get wet, but in the detailed one it does give us some indications to know it and the sources to verify it. The reliability of the answers is not entirely accurate.

Or something that doesn’t change that frequently, for example novelties implemented in legislation or regulations. Another example: suppose the battery of my iPhone 13 Pro has deteriorated and I want to replace it in the Apple SAT, which has official prices. The problem? That these change from February 28. Will Perplexity know?

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Not only does he know this variation, but he also gives you advice so you can save some money by changing it to a different SAT that is listed as a source. It’s not the only one, but what good publicity.

This can be useful for long-standing processes with numerous changes, for example the emergency lights for V-16 vehicles. It must be taken into account that although initially there was talk of some requirements, at the beginning of last year there was a reform in the Roadside Assistance Regulations adding the need for it to be connected and with geopositioning.

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Be careful here because while in the extended version it does explain it, in the concise version it can lead us to error. It is not infallible.

As you can see, although the understanding of the question and the context is correct and the connection allows you to be quite up to date with the news, the reliability of the answers is subject to the number of sources with that data, their credibility and the comparison of data.

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Softwares

This open-source tool allows you to scale any image and video for free with AI: this is how Video2X works

if what you are looking for a free and easy to use tool for scaling images and videos, you have come to the right place. And it is that the app that we are going to talk about next is open source and it makes use of your computer’s hardware to increase the resolution of any image or video, very useful for those occasions in which we have photos or videos of better quality.

Video2X makes use of the capabilities of our graphics card to scale images and videos in poor quality. Besides, supports multiple formats, so it will be very useful to also scale GIFs or videos in MP4, MKV and more formats. Under these lines we show you how it works.

A free tool to scale images and videos

To use this tool, all you have to do is go to its official Github page and download its latest version. Once the ZIP file is obtained, we unzip and we will have a folder with two executable files and other dependencies. In our case we will choose the file ‘video2x_gui.exe‘, since it has a graphical interface to proceed with the scaling.

If you look closely, you will find a lot of options. However, the tool works without applying any initial configuration. Just select the file from your computer via the ‘Select File’ option and then select the output path of the file from the ‘Output’ section. You can also modify the output name in the bottom text box.


After having configured the previous steps, we select ‘Start’ and the process will start automatically. You should know that the scaling process will be long, especially for videos, since it makes use of our graphics card for it. Even if you have a decent graphics card (in our case we used an RTX 3080), depending on the size of the video it could take several hours.

To testify to the qualities of this tool, its creators have uploaded several videos on YouTube that show the quality of the scaling, like this trailer for ‘Spirited Away’, which goes from 360p to 4K.

spirited away

To scale the files, Video2X makes use of various techniques and algorithms. Through its documentation we can obtain information about which technique to use when scaling a file. For example, if we use ‘Anime4K’, the process will be faster than if we select ‘Waifu2x’, although the quality will be lower. However, if we use ‘realsr-ncnn-vulkan’, the process will be extremely slow, but the quality will be much better.

This powerful AI can restore any photo for free and scale its resolution: that's how it works

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The techniques described above rely on frame interpolation processes, machine learning and artificial intelligence, which is why good hardware is required to complete the scaling efficiently. However, in case we do not have a decent graphics card, we can always make use of Google Colab and use a powerful graphics through the cloud to carry out the process.

Although we have mentioned before that the tool works without the need to enter the configuration section at any time, it is worth taking a look at all the options, since we will find sections to modify the level of noise applied, the size, quality and cropping of the file and much more. These options can be modified for each driver used.

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This app beeps every time your browser sends data to Google. And it’s non-stop

Bert Hubert —developer, creator of PowerDNS and online privacy activist— has presented an application with which he intends to show how much data our computer sends to Google throughout a browsing session. And, so that we keep it in mind at all times, and we can relate what kind of actions trigger said shipments, alerts us by beeping every time this happens.


(more…)

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That e-mail that has come to you asking for a quote is the first step in a cyberattack

The Central Information Security Brigade of the National Police has issued an alert about a recent wave of cyberattacks directed against Spanish architecture companies (but which “may expand to other sectors in the future”) through a ransomware campaign that they describe as “of high sophistication”.

This attack, which resorts to spoofing, is using Scam emails posing as Fotoprix companya well-known photographic company.

Cyber ​​criminals send messages from a fake domain, “fotoprix.eu”, requesting budgets for reforms in their facilities. The sophistication of this strategy lies in the fact that the messages are extremely consistent and appear to be legitimate, which reduces the suspicions of the victims.

After several email exchanges, the attackers propose to set up a meeting to finalize the budget. However, before the meeting, they send the victims an attachment containing details about the alleged reform.

By downloading and running this file In their systems, company terminals are automatically encrypted, leaving victims without access to their files and data.

Once the files are encrypted, cybercriminals demand a rescue to unlock the data. Instructions for making the ransom payment are included in a text file that is copied to affected systems.

This extortion tactic is characteristic of other ransomware attacks, where attackers seek financial gain in exchange for restoring access to victims’ files.

The high level of sophistication of the campaign makes it difficult for victims to suspect the hoax until they have already been affected.

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Tips to consider

The Central Cybercrime Unit of the National Police continues to work to track and contain this threat, but it is essential that companies remain vigilant and take proactive measures to protect themselves against these types of increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks.

Faced with this situation, the Police have developed the following basic recommendations to avoid being a victim of these attacks:

  1. Beware of unknown emails: Do not open e-mails from unknown senders or those that have not been previously requested.
  2. Avoid suspicious downloads: Do not download email attachments from unknown senders.
  3. Keep systems up to date: Always keep the operating system and antivirus software updated to mitigate possible vulnerabilities.
  4. Make backups: Make backup copies periodically and in independent systems, so that in the event of an attack the data can be recovered without the need to accept the payment of any ransom.

Via | Ministry of the Interior

Image | Marcos Merino through AI

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