Guides to artificial intelligence
Choose the question that caught your attention. Each guide helps you understand a technology, a new development or a change AI is bringing to everyday life.
Most people interact with AI as a back-and-forth conversation: you ask, it answers, and the exchange ends there. AI agents work differently — they receive a goal, break it into steps, use external tools, and keep working through cycles of reasoning and action until the task is done or they hit a limit. The shift from answering to acting changes what AI can accomplish, and also what can go wrong without you noticing.
Some convenience stores, casinos, and online platforms now use cameras and software to estimate a customer's age from facial features alone, without requesting an ID. The system does not identify who you are — it only tries to infer whether you are old enough to purchase a product or access restricted content. Understanding how this technology works and where it falls short helps you make more informed choices when you encounter it.
Custom GPTs in ChatGPT combine saved instructions and reference files for a repeated task. Learn how to configure and check one, who can still create new GPTs, and what the announced retirement changes.
You ask a hard question out loud, and the assistant pauses instead of replying right away. That pause is the point: Gemini 3.8 Live Extended Thinking works through several possible answers before it speaks.
Meta's Muse Realtime Avatar lets you join a video call as a lifelike animated face that speaks in your own voice and reacts as the conversation unfolds. It runs on neural rendering at 60 frames per second, so the mouth, eyes and expressions move along with what is being said. Here is how the system turns your speech into a moving face in real time.
Meta's Muse Charm is a small keychain with a fingerprint reader that wakes an AI assistant without a screen. You press your finger, speak, and hear the answer through a tiny speaker. Here is how the pieces fit together, and what to check before trusting it with private requests.
Smart glasses now carry a camera that streams what you see to a voice assistant. Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3 pairs that view with Muse, an AI that answers out loud while you keep your hands free. Here is what the glasses actually send, what comes back, and where the picture gets blurry.
ChatGPT Plus costs $20 a month and handles everyday writing, voice chats and quick searches. The newer Pro 500 tier multiplies that usage limit by 25 so long-running agents can keep working around the clock. Here is what actually changes when you pay more, and when the cheaper plan is still enough.
You have the ideas, the deadline is close, and the blank slide is staring back at you. A few free AI tools can turn a rough outline into a full deck you can edit. Here is what each one does well, and where you still need to step in.
You need a poster with a readable shop sign and a hand that doesn't look like a claw. Midjourney, DALL-E and FLUX each handle that differently. Here is what each one does best, and where you still need to check the result.
Both Apple and Samsung now build artificial intelligence directly into their flagship phones, but they take opposite approaches. One keeps most of the work on the device and promises privacy; the other leans on cloud partners for a wider set of features. Here is what each one actually does, and how to choose.
Both tools translate in a blink, but they fail in different places. One keeps your contract's tables and formal tone intact; the other reads menus and road signs in over 130 languages. Knowing which to open saves you from embarrassing mistakes.