MIT App Inventor version nb193

News/Announcements
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Hello everyone,

We have released MIT App Inventor version nb193 on ai2.appinventor.mit.edu. This is a new components release that includes support for using generative artificial intelligence (i.e., ChatGPT and DALL-E 2) for text and image generation. You will need to update your companion app to version 2.67 on Android or 2.64.2 for iOS to use these new components.

The new AI components, ChatBot and ImageBot, can be found in the Experimental section of the component palette. By default, these components will use an MIT-provided API key that allows for a small amount of usage per developer per day for free. For releasing your own apps, you can provide your own OpenAI API key in the blocks using the corresponding setter block and the Obfuscated Text block, which will bypass the quota system.

Here are all of the changes in this release:

Features:

  • Add a ChatBot component (generative AI for chat)
  • Add an ImageBot component (generative AI for images)
  • Add a warning when loading a project with extensions on iOS (@Preston_Thorpe)
  • [iOS] Implement large font, alt text, and high contrast modes
  • [iOS] Enable camera use in split screen mode on iPadOS 16
  • [iOS] Implement list and math blocks introduced in nb191

Bug fixes:

  • Handle unknown component_method shape via mutation
  • Update documentation for Flung event (@DHRUV_PATIDAR)
  • [Android] Use file system for Map tile cache to prevent infinite reloading of some tiles
  • [Android] Bubble up errors from Spreadsheet to Screen if error handler not implemented
  • [Android] Add support in MediaUtil for android_asset URLs
  • [Android] Fix screen orientation artifacts in compiled apps
  • [iOS] Improve multiple screen handling
  • [iOS] Prevent some crashes by avoiding use of fatalError (@Dhruv_Shrivastava)
  • [iOS] Fix collision detection in ImageSprite
  • [iOS] Fix crash due to potential nil keyWindow
  • [iOS] Fix a logical bug in onboarding screen
  • [iOS] Fix a logical bug in IP address detection

Internal changes:

  • Report hostname in buildserver vars
  • Add a FUTURE category for components (@Diego)
  • Use platform-specific file separator in buildserver
  • Add the ability to store packaged apps in a different GCS bucket

We can't wait to see the amazing apps you build with these new features.

On behalf of the MIT App Inventor team,
Evan W. Patton, Ph.D.
Lead Software Engineer, MIT App Inventor

11 Likes
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What ChatBot told me about my dogs

corgi
corgi720×1600 186 KB

Thanks App Inventor,

Regards,
SteveJG

1 Like
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Is Wikipedia also intelligent?

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One should be careful with the chat bots. They often generate bogus results. From my experience, they get the overall stuff correct, but the details can be wrong.

For example, I asked ChatGPT who won the world series in 2004. It correctly answered the Boston Red Sox. However, when I asked for how each game went, it generated a totally bogus answer, claiming that it took all 7 games, and that in the end the Red Sox won 5 of the games (which is impossible, as after the fourth win, the series is determined). It made up the game locations and scores as well!

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Yes I know. I wrote quite a lot with the chat bot. It's easy for him to make false information that he will eventually confirm. He is also often wrong, there is some knowledge, but he is not 100% sure. In the news on TV I once heard that some lawyer based his court arguments on information from a chat bot that turned out to be false...:joy:

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image

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erm...not Beefeaters

for Beefeaters:

1 Like
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image

plausible, I guess.

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Is it possible to connect another chatbot like dialogflow to the new chatbot component instead of being specifically chatgpt?

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Not with the ChatBot component, no. We do also support Google PaLM but it is only for internal testing at MIT at this time.

Of course, any LLM that is made available using a HTTP-based interface can be integrated using the Web component.

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What do you mean? You are already using it!
(you cant just download a version like that, you can only have the latest one)

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There is no going back.

Why would you want an out of date version of AppInventor ?

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