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Amazon puts Alexa inside the shopping search bar in AI push

The Japan Times

Amazon is hoping that AI-powered answers will help keep shoppers from defecting to other sites or chatbots. Artificial intelligence algorithms are coming to some of the most valuable real estate in retail: the Amazon.com Queries typed into Amazon's website and mobile app will soon reply, depending on the context, with product comparisons or suggestions generated by AI large language models, the online retailer said Wednesday. The new tool -- called Alexa for Shopping -- supplants Rufus, the shopping assistant bot that summarized product reviews and suggested purchases. To invoke Rufus, users had to click a blue and orange icon. The new search experience will appear by default, beginning this week for users in the U.S. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.


Amazon rolls out its new 30-minute delivery option in a number of cities across the US

Engadget

Amazon is rolling out its ultra-fast delivery service, Amazon Now, in dozens of cities in the US, promising deliveries of groceries and household essentials in 30 minutes or less. Amazon says the service is also now widely available in Atlanta and Dallas-Fort Worth, and will rapidly expand into Austin, Houston, Minneapolis, Orlando, Phoenix, Denver, Oklahoma City and more throughout the rest of 2026. If Amazon Now is available in your area you'll see a 30-Minute Delivery option in the Amazon app or on the homepage when you're in a browser. Amazon Now offers will also be highlighted when you're browsing products. You can search by category, and as well as groceries and basic household items such as eggs, diary and laundry detergent, you can also order select electronics on the service, which Amazon says operates 24 hours a day in most places.


The new Bose Lifestyle Collection is whole-home audio that won't take up your whole room

Popular Science

Gear Audio Speakers The new Bose Lifestyle Collection is whole-home audio that won't take up your whole room Featuring a soft-edged speaker, soundbar, and subwoofer, the new WiFi-connected series wants to sound big without looking imposing. More information Adding us as a Preferred Source in Google by using this link indicates that you would like to see more of our content in Google News results. We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. In a townhouse on New York's Upper West Side, Bose revealed its new Lifestyle speaker collection through a multi-story demo involving quite a few stairs and equally ascending audio. From a company so well-known for actively canceling noise, this was about generating buzz.


We Love the Bose QuietComfort Ultra 2, Especially at 50 Off

WIRED

The Bose QuietComfort Ultra 2 have the best active noise cancellation on the market, and they very rarely get cheaper. Bose's QuietComfort Ultra 2 earbuds are the best noise-canceling earbuds you can buy. Right now, they're $50 off, which matches the best price we tend to see outside of special events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. If you want to wait until November, they might hit $200 again, but otherwise $250 is a very fair deal--especially since they pop back up to $300 regularly. The discounted price applies to all five color options, including Black, Deep Plum, Desert Gold, Midnight Violet, and White Smoke (another rarity, as usually only the vivid colors go on sale).


Amazon is clearing out last season's Hisense TVs for up to 40% off

Popular Science

Gear Home Theater Televisions Amazon is clearing out last season's Hisense TVs for up to 40% off Get an upgraded 55-inch TV for less than $300 right now and enjoy the upcoming World Cup the way it deserves to be watched. This is a great price on a TV with impressive specs. We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. Amazon is running limited-time deals on Hisense's full 2025 TV lineup, with up to 40 percent off the brand's newest Mini-LED models. The standout deals are in the QD7 series -- Hisense's flagship 2025 Mini-LED QLED line -- which pairs quantum dot color with a native 144Hz panel, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, and Fire TV built-in.


Ditching ads on Amazon Prime Video will cost more soon

PCWorld

Amazon is replacing its $2.99 ad-free Prime Video add-on with'Prime Video Ultra' at $4.99 monthly, representing a 66% price increase for ad-free viewing. PCWorld reports that 4K streaming will become exclusive to Ultra subscribers starting April 10, 2025, while standard Prime members lose 4K but gain Dolby Vision support. The Ultra plan includes five concurrent 4K streams and 100 offline downloads, significantly raising costs for users wanting premium streaming features. It's been a little more than two years since Amazon started charging extra for ad-free Prime Video streaming, and now that we've gotten used to the extra fee, it's time for a price hike. Amazon just announced that its $2.99-a-month add-on for removing ads from Prime Video is morphing into a new plan called Prime Video Ultra, which will set you back $4.99 a month. That's a 66-percent price hike for monthly subscribers who formerly opted for the cheaper ad-free add-on. An annual subscription for Prime Video Ultra costs $45.99, a 23-percent discount compared to the new plan's monthly rate. Slated to arrive April 10, Prime Video Ultra will come with a few added benefits besides stripping away most ads (live sports and other programming will still have commercial breaks), including up to five concurrent 4K streams (up from the original limit of three) and up to 100 offline downloads (up from 25). At the same time, standard Prime members (who get Prime Video with ads included in their subscriptions, which cost $14.99 a month or $139 a year) will see some changes too, including added support for Dolby Vision HDR, an additional concurrent video stream (for a total of 4) and double the amount of offline downloads compared to the former 25-download limit.


AI scams drove UK reports of fraud to record 444,000 last year

The Guardian

Most of the account takeover scams reported last year were for mobiles, online shopping and credit cards, Cifas said. Most of the account takeover scams reported last year were for mobiles, online shopping and credit cards, Cifas said. Criminals are increasingly exploiting AI technology to take over people's mobile, banking and online shopping accounts, the UK's leading anti-fraud body has warned. Last year, a record number of scams were reported to the national fraud database, fuelled by AI, which allows for large-scale deception on "industrialised" levels, according to Cifas, the fraud prevention organisation. Its report showed 444,000 cases of fraud were reported by its members last year - a 6% increase on 2024.



ShoppingMMLU: AMassiveMulti-TaskOnline ShoppingBenchmarkforLargeLanguageModels

Neural Information Processing Systems

However,existingmodelsand benchmarks are commonly tailored to specific tasks, falling short of capturing the full complexity of online shopping. Large Language Models (LLMs), with their multi-task and few-shot learning abilities, have the potential to profoundly transform online shopping byalleviating task-specific engineering effortsandby providing users with interactiveconversations.


Amazon's latest round of layoffs will affect 16,000 workers

Engadget

Apple could unveil Gemini-powered Siri in Feb. Amazon's latest round of layoffs will affect 16,000 workers The news was first leaked in an email mistakenly sent early to workers. Sydney, Australia - 2022-07-22 Amazon prime boxes and envelopes delivered to a front door of residential building. Amazon has confirmed that it's letting go of 16,000 workers and employees across its organization. In an announcement by company SVP Beth Galetti, she explained that Amazon was going through organizational changes to reduce layers and remove bureaucracy. Affected employees in the US will be given 90 days to look for another internal role and will receive severance pay if they do not find any.