The Tech Weekender | Top news from the world of technology this week

WhatsApp is rolling out two new features to its groups functionality, making it easier for people to see groups in common with others and giving admins more control over who can join a group, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said on March 21. He said that admins will now be able to see all pending requests to join their group in one place, making it easier for them to take a decision.

Meta-owned WhatsApp said on March 22 it has introduced a new desktop application for Windows with enhanced calling features and performance improvements built with an interface similar to the mobile application. The new application allows users to make end-to-end encrypted video calls with up to eight people and audio calls with up to 32 people, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Instagram. The company said it will continue to increase the limits on the number of people allowed in a group call over time.

Canva Inc, the Australian design software company, has introduced generative AI tools on its graphic design platform, Canva. News agency Bloomberg said the new tools will allow users to create presentations and slides by telling the AI what they want with a description. The idea behind the new tools is to make graphics, slides, and advertising materials accessible to those without professional knowledge.

Opera has announced a new sidebar integration, which allows users to choose between ChatGPT and ChatSonic generative AI to create content using prompts. Opera told Engadget that this was simply the first phase of a broader rollout of its Browser AI plans. The next stage would involve its GPT-based chatbot, which will be integrated with the sidebar as well.

Mozilla has announced that it is committing $30 million to build a new startup called Mozilla.ai. The focus of the new AI startup would be on creating artificial intelligence products that are open source and “trustworthy”. The vision is to make it easy for developers to create AI products that are responsible and privacy-centric. The company said that its suite of AI products will have "agency, accountability, transparency and openness at its core".

OpenAI has introduced plugin support for its popular online chatbot ChatGPT that will help it to update and expand its data banks, which are limited to news and events up to 2021. Plugins will allow developers to connect the artificial intelligence (AI) bot to the web, gather latest information and even retrieve knowledge databases. The initial plugin rollout will include support for web browsers, data retrieval and the ability to connect online to gather data.

OpenAI, the company behind AI chatbot ChatGPT, has said that a bug may have caused ChatGPT to reveal user payment information for some of the ChatGPT Plus subscribers. On March 23, OpenAI said a bug in an open-source library that the bot uses resulted in user conversation titles being visible to other people on the platform as well. The same bug may have also caused "unintentional visibility of payment-related information of 1.2% of the ChatGPT Plus subscribers who were active during a specific nine-hour window", it said.