Friday, July 18, 2025
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Walmart Launches ‘Sparky’: The Next-Gen AI Assistant Now Available to All

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Walmart is introducing a new AI feature called “Ask Sparky” in its shopping app, utilizing generative AI to enhance customer experience. This feature allows users to find products and synthesize reviews across various categories. Customers can perform natural-language searches for information on sports games, weather, and outfit recommendations. Sparky leverages generative AI, enabling it to analyze large data volumes quickly, helping shoppers understand product features and make informed choices. Walmart plans to advance Sparky with agentic AI, which will not only analyze data but also automatically take actions based on results, such as reordering household essentials and booking services. The goal is to make Sparky a multi-modal assistant, capable of understanding text, images, audio, and video, thus personalizing the shopping experience and streamlining complex tasks for customers.

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Consumers Embrace Digital Banking, Shifting Focus to AI-Driven Innovations – Fast Company

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As consumers increasingly adopt digital banking, there is a growing interest in AI-powered features that enhance their experience. AI technology helps banks offer personalized financial advice, streamline transactions, and improve customer service through chatbots and virtual assistants. This integration not only enhances convenience but also provides users with tailored insights into their spending habits and financial goals. Additionally, AI tools can help detect fraudulent activities more effectively, ensuring a secure banking environment. As consumers prioritize efficiency and customization, banks are responding by incorporating innovative AI solutions into their platforms. This shift towards digital innovation signifies a broader trend where technology plays a pivotal role in transforming the financial landscape. Overall, the embrace of AI in banking is reshaping how consumers interact with their finances, making banking more intuitive and accessible than ever before.

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Tips to Keep Your Face Radiant and Flawless

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In two recent judicial review cases, the High Court highlighted the dangers of unverified reliance on generative AI tools in legal contexts. In the first case, Frederick Ayinde vs. The London Borough of Haringey, the claimant’s barrister submitted citations for non-existent cases, which raised suspicion of AI-generated fabrication. The court suggested that either intentional deceit occurred or the barrister lacked honesty regarding AI use, leading to a referral to the Bar Standards Board. The second case, Hamad Al-Haroun vs. Qatar National Bank, involved a claimant and solicitor who provided misleading citations, admitting to using AI without proper verification. The judgment emphasized the need for legal professionals to diligently check AI-generated information, as these tools can yield incorrect or fabricated outputs. The court’s findings raise questions about stricter AI usage guidelines in the legal industry, balancing the risks against potential efficiencies in practice. Ultimately, AI should enhance, not replace, legal expertise.

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Key Insights on Reasoning Models from Apple’s LLM Study

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Apple’s recent research paper, “The Illusion of Thinking,” examines Large Reasoning Models (LRMs) like Claude 3.7 and DeepSeek-R1, revealing significant limitations in their capabilities. By using structured puzzles instead of conventional math benchmarks, the study shows that while LRMs perform better than traditional Large Language Models (LLMs) on medium complexity tasks, they struggle with more complex puzzles. Notably, as task difficulty increases, these models exhibit a reduction in “thinking,” a critical flaw that undermines their supposed reasoning abilities. The paper argues that LRMs are not truly reasoning but merely enhancing LLM inference patterns. This lack of algorithmic logic representation is a fundamental barrier, which neither additional training nor new data can resolve. While the findings are not groundbreaking for the machine learning community, they clarify public misconceptions about these models’ capabilities, emphasizing the need for accurate terminology to avoid overestimating their abilities and the potential consequences of such misunderstandings.

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Identifying Ideal Business Use Cases for Generative AI

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Generative AI offers potential advantages for businesses but also presents challenges, including inaccuracies and logical difficulties. To effectively leverage this technology, organizations can follow a three-step approach outlined by MIT Sloan professor Rama Ramakrishnan during a webinar. First, they should break down workflows into discrete tasks to identify those suitable for automation. For example, some educational tasks can be automated, while others may not translate well. Second, companies must assess the generative AI cost equation, considering both obvious and hidden costs associated with automation. Third, they should pilot LLM-based applications while maintaining a rigorous evaluation process to ensure effectiveness. Best practices include careful monitoring, focusing on targeted use cases, and training internal talent. Ramakrishnan emphasizes prioritizing tasks with quick return on investment to learn from early implementations, advising organizations to start small and scale up as AI capabilities improve.

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Autodesk Unveils Groundbreaking AI Animation Tool for Maya

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Autodesk has introduced MotionMaker, an AI-enhanced animation tool for Maya, designed to simplify character motion animation for layouts, pre-visualization, and hero animations. Users can control characters similarly to a motion capture studio, utilizing key frames or motion paths to direct actions like walking or jumping. After generating motion, they can refine it with additional animation layers and tools within Maya. MotionMaker’s AI model, built from multiple neural networks, predicts poses frame by frame and is trained on three primary datasets: two featuring dogs and one for basic male and female human movements. Autodesk claims that a complex 10-second animation sequence that once took two weeks can now be completed in just a minute, thus enhancing customization efficiency. The tool is part of Maya’s animation editor, aiming to make the process more intuitive for animators. MotionMaker follows Autodesk’s recent efforts to integrate AI into its software suite.

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OpenAI Exposes Exploitative Uses of ChatGPT by Chinese Entities

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OpenAI has banned accounts using ChatGPT for generating political and geopolitical content related to China, following reports of increasing misuse by Chinese groups for covert operations. The company noted that while these activities have grown in scope, they remain small-scale and target limited audiences. Their actions included criticizing a Taiwan-oriented video game and spreading disinformation about political figures. OpenAI also revealed an influence campaign aimed at polarizing U.S. political debates by producing AI-generated content. Additionally, China-linked actors used AI for various malicious cyber activities, including generating fake resumes to secure jobs in the West. The Chinese foreign ministry responded to these claims, asserting there is “no basis” for them. Earlier, OpenAI had removed accounts from China and North Korea for similar misuse. With over 400 million weekly active users, ChatGPT remains a significant player in the AI space, with continual updates to enhance its capabilities.

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Hold On a Moment…

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The message prompts users to confirm they are human by pressing and holding a button until it turns green. This action is necessary to proceed, suggesting a security measure against automated systems. It also provides an option to contact support if users believe they have received this request in error. The message includes an IP address and a code for reference, indicating a potentially unique session or user request.

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Anticipate AI Innovations, AirPods Translation, and Gaming Apps—But No Discussions on Tariffs

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Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) is set for Monday in California, where significant announcements regarding new technology and devices are anticipated. The event comes at a challenging moment for Apple, facing competition in artificial intelligence (AI) and potential impacts from Trump-era tariffs. Speculation includes upgrades to Siri and the integration of AI into health apps, although AI is currently not a priority for smartphone consumers. Other tech companies like Samsung and Motorola are making strides in AI, increasing the pressure on Apple. Bloomberg reports Apple is also developing a dedicated gaming app to replace the Game Centre and might reveal a new yearly naming system for iOS, possibly launching iOS 26. Live translation features for AirPods may also be introduced. Analysts warn Apple must ensure a seamless user experience while navigating its strategic direction amid current economic uncertainties. The event will be streamed on Apple’s YouTube channel.

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Chinese Tech Firms Disable AI Tools to Combat Exam Cheating

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During China’s pivotal university entrance exams, known as the gaokao, major tech firms like ByteDance, Tencent, and Alibaba temporarily disabled certain AI functionalities to prevent cheating. Over 13.3 million students participated in the four-day exam beginning June 9, and services like Doubao and DeepSeek announced restrictions on question-answering capabilities. Users, frustrated by the limitations, took to social media to express their discontent. Authorities also implemented various security measures, including AI monitoring to identify abnormal behaviors, detailed inspections to prevent digital device usage, and even postponed public events to minimize disruptions for students. The restrictions on AI access underscore the challenges of ensuring fairness in education amidst rapidly advancing technology, highlighting the societal emphasis on the significance of the gaokao in determining students’ futures. Overall, these actions reflect a collective effort to uphold the integrity of one of China’s most critical educational assessments.

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