Google updates Bard to improve math, logic responses

Google Bard just got an upgrade. By incorporating Google’s PaLM language models, Bard is now better at math and logic responses.

“Today I wanted to share that we’ve improved Bard’s capabilities in math and logic by incorporating some of the advances we’ve developed in PaLM,” Jack Krawczyk, the Google executive leading up Bard and Google’s AI efforts, said on Twitter.

What improved. Bard can now better understand and respond to your prompts and questions when they are in a multi-step word and multi-step math problems format, Krawczyk said.

Math improvements coming. Coding is coming soon to Bard, Krawczyk added.

The tweets. Here are his tweets with this announcement:

Google PaLM. PaLM stands for Pathways Language Model. It is a large language model developed by Google with 540 billion parameters. Researchers also trained smaller versions of PaLM (8 billion and 62 billion parameter models) to test the effects of model scale.

More on Bard. As a reminder, Google announced Bard was coming the day before Bing Chat launched but Bard did not open to general users until 10 days ago. The response Google received from Bard has been somewhat disappointing and underwhelming compared to that of Bing Chat and ChatGPT’s efforts. Even inside Google, employees urged the company to improve Bard.

But Google promises more is to come and Bard will get better.

Google intentionally launched a lightweight version of Bard and it will continue to get better over time, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in a New York Times interview published today.

Why we care. Mostly, it is fun and exciting to see how these AI assistants and tools improve and are improving rapidly in such a short period of time. Be it ChatGPT, Bing Chat, Google Bard or others, following this space is a lot of fun.

So give Bard another try and see if you find it to be any better today than it was yesterday.

The post Google updates Bard to improve math, logic responses appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Original source: https://searchengineland.com/google-says-bard-was-updated-to-improve-math-and-logic-responses-395127

How to claim money back if you hit a pothole

Reading Time: 3 mins

Can you claim money if you hit a pothole?

Hit a bump in the road? Potholes can be a nuisance to drivers and pedestrians alike. They can result in accidents, make roads difficult to navigate, and worse still, cause damage to your car.

Yet pothole damage is at a ten-year high in the U.K with thirteen million cars damaged by last year, costing a total of £1.7bn to repair, according to Kwik Fit Repairs.

This common problem on many UK roads costs approximately £40 to fix each one but as well as causing damage to vehicles, it can pose a safety risk to drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians alike.

But there is light at the end of the tunnel if you have experienced damage to your vehicle due to a pothole, you may be entitled to compensation.

are you eligible for compensation?

Firstly, it is important to note that not all potholes will be eligible for compensation. The local authority is responsible for the road but must have had prior notice of the pothole and have failed to take reasonable steps to repair it.

Therefore, if you hit a pothole that has only just formed and there was no prior notice, you may not be eligible for compensation.

If you believe you are entitled, the first step is to gather evidence of the damage caused.

gather evidence

Take photographs of the pothole if you can do so as safely as possible, and also include damage to your vehicle, including any tyre damage, wheel damage, or suspension damage. It is also a good idea to get a quote from a reputable garage for the cost of repairs as this can be used as trusted evidence.

Next, you should report the pothole to the relevant local authority as soon as possible. This can usually be done online via the council’s website or by calling their customer service team. You will need to provide details of the location of the pothole and the damage it caused. If you have photos this can really help.

After reporting the pothole, you should receive a reference number and the council will begin an investigation. If they agree that the pothole was a hazard and that they failed to take reasonable steps to repair it, they will likely offer you compensation to cover the cost of repairs to your vehicle.

what if your claim is denied?

If the council denies your claim, you can escalate the matter by submitting a formal complaint. This should be done in writing and should include all of the evidence you have gathered, including photographs and the garage repair quote. You should also include any correspondence you have had with the council regarding the matter.

If your complaint is still not resolved, you can take legal action against the local authority. However, this can be a lengthy and expensive process, so it is advisable to seek legal advice before pursuing this option.

There are some lawyers that will offer a no-win no-fee agreement for a claim but it is best to find out all terms and conditions prior to embarking on legal action as there may be some clauses depending on the law firm you use.

You could also make a claim on your comprehensive car insurance if all else fails but check that the claim is larger than the excess and you may lose some of your no-claims bonus.

Kwik Fit recommend keeping your car in tip-top condition and ensuring your tyres are correctly inflated which will act as protection should you hit a pothole or rock in the road and have regular checks on your car throughout the year.

The post How to claim money back if you hit a pothole appeared first on MoneyMagpie.

Original source: https://www.moneymagpie.com/make-money/how-to-claim-money-back-if-you-hit-a-pothole

Make money by listening to music

Reading Time: 6 mins

Here at MoneyMagpie we like to share good news and the fact there are ways that you can make money by listening to music is definitely good news.

Music is everywhere and part of our everyday lives. We listen while we work, play, drive, walk, exercise, clean, cook… you name it! These days we can access music wherever we are, create and share playlists instantly, discover new artists and book gigs whenever we want.

As the great Jimi Hendrix said, “Music doesn’t lie. If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music.”

Nicely put, Jimi. But did you know you can earn a little extra money on the side just by listening to music? Yes, really!  There are apps and websites out there that let you do just this. Some take a bit of effort on your part, others take a lot of effort but for a bigger reward.

Read on to find out how you can make money by listening to music…

Slicethepie

learning online

When we say music scout, we don’t mean a boy in shorts with his trusty Swiss army knife, warbling next to a campfire.

It’s simply what Slicethepie calls a music reviewer. They pay you to share your opinion on new songs before they’re released.

Luckily, you don’t need to know anything about music to write a good review! Explaining how it makes you feel and comparing it to the other artists and songs is enough to be useful. If you still feel a bit daunted, you can find some handy tips via this link.

  1. To review a piece of music, you need to listen to at least 90 seconds of the track before you can start writing. The more in-depth and specific your opinion, the better. However, you will need a minimum of 45 words in your review
  2. Next, you rate the track from 1-10
  3. Then, fill in a checklist for how you would describe the song if it was a person. For example, is the music funky? Playful? Sexy?

And you’re done! Just click ‘Submit’ to move onto your next review.

Getting paid…

The tricky bit is getting the maximum amount of money out of your review.

Rather than a flat rate, Slicethepie pays you depending on your star rating. This, in turn, depends on the quality of your reviews. Reviews are judged on the following criteria:

  • How close your rating of the track is to the average score the track has received from other reviewers. For example, you will have a low accuracy if you think a track deserves a 9 when most of the other scouts only gave it a 3.
  • Whether your feedback is detailed and meaningful, and will actually benefit the artist.
  • How active you are as a scout is also a consideration. The more reviews you do, the higher your rating. However, this doesn’t apply if you aren’t taking the time to correctly review the tracks.

Based on our tests, your rating goes up one star for every 30 tracks you review. That’s assuming that you listen to enough of the song and put effort into your reviews.

When you first register with Slicethepie, they’ll ask for your email address. This is important, because you must make sure it’s the same one as your PayPal account, which is how you get paid. (For some reason, despite it being a UK company, Slicethepie pays everyone in US dollars. But not to worry: you can convert it back easily with your PayPal account.)

Although it’ll be a little while before it starts mounting up, as soon as you hit $10, you can make a withdrawal and access your cash. Just remember to keep an eye on that star rating.

To sign up to Slicethepie, click here.

PLAYLIST PUSH

creating theme tunes

Spotify is pretty ubiquitous these days. According to Statista, over 30% of music streaming subscribers worldwide have a subscription to Spotify. That’s a lot of listeners.

You can’t actually earn money listening to music directly via Spotify itself, but for those of you with a big enough following on Spotify or TikTok, there are ways and means to earn money as a music curator by submitting reviews via Playlist Push.

On Spotify you need to meet these criteria:

Minimum of 1000 followers per playlist as well as playlists that are focused on genre or a specific band or artist; playlists with ‘follow me’ in the title; and a minimum of 30 active Monthly Listeners per playlist.

If you meet these criteria Playlist Push give you songs to review and include in your playlist. If they like your review you can earn up to $12 per track, paid weekly via bank transfer.

On TikTok you need to meet these criteria:

Be a TikTok video creator – Playlist Push will give you songs to use in your videos. You must have at least 30,000 followers to qualify as a creator.

This way you can earn up to $10 per TikTok video you make. Earnings have to reach a minimum amount of $20 before payments are made.

We won’t lie, it isn’t easy to earn money this way and it really is for the dedicated music aficionados amongst you – there is some serious effort involved to just get set up and maintain your listeners – but once you do there is the chance to make a decent amount.

Click here to find out more.

HitPredictor

Woman listening to music on a mobile phone

On this site, you can choose the music genres you want to listen to rather than getting a mix of anything and everything. Although this means that sometimes there won’t be much for you to review.

Whatever you write will be going to the artists, producers and record labels. So your opinions will be shaping the future of music.

Earn 3 points for every piece of music you listen to. Once you reach 500 points you can enter raffles for $50-$100 iTunes gift cards or free DVDs and CDs at 1,250 points. There’re also loads of contests to enter and other prizes you can win daily.

Hit it at this link.

Music xray

Man relaxing at home listening to music

As well as picking preferred genres, you can also tell Music Xray your favourite artists, so the site can use fancy software to pick music as similar as possible to what you love. This means that sometimes there’ll be lots of songs, other times – none. It depends on what the artists are uploading.

Music Xray helps connect potential success stories to record labels and producers, as well as set up fan bases for when the artists start solidifying their position in the music industry.

You’ll be paid a few cents to listen to 30 seconds of a song. You can withdraw the money from a PayPal account similarly to the way Slicethepie manages it.

Get jamming at this link here.

Earnably

Girl listening to music and writing

Earnably is an established online reward site that pays you to do things like complete surveys, review podcasts, download apps or play games, amongst others. It will also pay you to listen to music (often via radio stations) or watch music videos.

It’s quick and easy (and free!) to sign up to – you just need to fill out a quick demographics survey to get started.

Once you’re in you can scroll through and select whatever you want to do to earn. You will never make enough to live off, but it’s a nice little earner with payments made in points and then converted into cash either via a Paypal account or gift cards, such as an Amazon voucher.

Let us know how you get in the comments below!

 

The post Make money by listening to music appeared first on MoneyMagpie.

Original source: https://www.moneymagpie.com/make-money/make-money-listening-to-music