ChatGPT has proven to be useful in all sorts of surprising situations, but could the AI chatbot really handle my holiday shopping list? The challenge came from my wife, Tracey, who enjoys finding flaws with AI and frequently teased our Google Nest and Apple HomePod mini smart speakers over obvious errors. The results this time, however, were impressive, even if I ChatGPT couldn't quite do my shopping unassisted. For the tech lover who has everything (that's me), ChatGPT took a few seconds before acknowledging that finding a unique gift could be a challenge. Nevertheless, it came up with several interesting ideas.

Amazon Lookout for Vision provides a machine learning (ML)-based anomaly detection service to identify normal images (i.e., images of objects without defects) vs anomalous images (i.e., images of objects with defects), types of anomalies (e.g., missing piece), and the location of these anomalies. Therefore, Lookout for Vision is popular among customers that look for automated […]

The retail industry continues to be a hotbed of innovation, with activity driven by supply chain optimisation, technology, and risk mitigation, and the growing importance of technologies such as robotic inventory management and smart checkout. In the last three years alone, there have been over 133,000 patents filed and granted in the retail industry, according to GlobalData's report on Artificial Intelligence: AI-assisted surveillance. However, not all innovations are equal and nor do they follow a constant upward trend. Instead, their evolution takes the form of an S-shaped curve that reflects their typical lifecycle from early emergence to accelerating adoption, before finally stabilising and reaching maturity. Identifying where a particular innovation is on this journey, especially those that are in the emerging and accelerating stages, is essential for understanding their current level of adoption and the likely future trajectory and impact they will have.

Python is one of the most popular programming languages in the world--consistently ranking at the top of the TIOBE programming community index. Its popularity is no surprise: Python is easy to learn, elegant, and powerful. It offers many possibilities and is used in popular technologies like the Raspberry Pi and computer games like Minecraft. In addition, Python is the ideal introduction to the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning. This comprehensive Python compendium familiarizes you with basic and advanced techniques so that you have a good foundation for your professional Python projects.

Amazon SageMaker Autopilot automatically builds, trains, and tunes the best machine learning (ML) models based on your data, while allowing you to maintain full control and visibility. Autopilot can also deploy trained models to real-time inference endpoints automatically. If you have workloads with spiky or unpredictable traffic patterns that can tolerate cold starts, then deploying the model to a serverless inference endpoint would be more cost efficient. Amazon SageMaker Serverless Inference is a purpose-built inference option ideal for workloads with unpredictable traffic patterns and that can tolerate cold starts. Unlike a real-time inference endpoint, which is backed by a long-running compute instance, serverless endpoints provision resources on demand with built-in auto scaling.

IKEA announced its latest Sonos collaboration today, a Symfonisk speaker that doubles as a floor lamp. The lamp/speaker combo will launch in January in IKEA stores and online. The floor lamp's $260 price makes it the most expensive speaker in the Symfonisk lineup. Current models range between $120 for a bookshelf speaker (with less than stellar audio) and $250 for musical wall art. And your investment in the floor lamp could creep even higher if you want something other than the included bamboo shade, as alternative lampshades run from $39 to $49.

When Svetlana Kordumova was studying for her doctorate in AI and computer vision, she grew frustrated by the process of looking for items to buy online. Search results were often inaccurate, and she knew the tech she was learning could improve the experience. Pixyle AI was launched in 2019 to improve product discovery on e-commerce sites and today announced a €1 million seed round (about $1.05 million USD) from South Central Ventures. The startup, which has offices in Amsterdam and North Macedonia, now works with over 20 clients, including Depop, Otrium and Minto. Over the past three years, it has tagged more than 250 million images and says its increased conversions for its retail customers by 10% on average.

The popularity of online shopping is steadily increasing. At the same time, fake product reviews are published widely and have the potential to affect consumer purchasing behavior. In response, previous work has developed automated methods utilizing natural language processing approaches to detect fake product reviews. However, studies vary considerably in how well they succeed in detecting deceptive reviews, and the reasons for such differences are unclear. A contributing factor may be the multitude of strategies used to collect data, introducing potential confounds which affect detection performance. Two possible confounds are data-origin (i.e., the dataset is composed of more than one source) and product ownership (i.e., reviews written by individuals who own or do not own the reviewed product). In the present study, we investigate the effect of both confounds for fake review detection. Using an experimental design, we manipulate data-origin, product ownership, review polarity, and veracity. Supervised learning analysis suggests that review veracity (60.26 - 69.87%) is somewhat detectable but reviews additionally confounded with product-ownership (66.19 - 74.17%), or with data-origin (84.44 - 86.94%) are easier to classify. Review veracity is most easily classified if confounded with product-ownership and data-origin combined (87.78 - 88.12%). These findings are moderated by review polarity.

If you've been looking to pick up a smart display, today looks like a decent time to take the plunge, as Walmart has our favorite option on the market, Google's Nest Hub, down to $39. That's the lowest price we've seen to date for the second-gen model. Notably, the discount includes a basic Philips Wiz smart bulb for no extra cost. For context, the 7-inch smart display technically has an MSRP of $100, though we frequently see it on sale for $50. The deal covers both the "chalk" and "charcoal" versions of the display, but the former looks to be out of stock as of this writing.

The Echo Show 5 is one of Amazon's most versatile Alexa devices thanks to its 5.5-inch display, it's relatively solid sound quality and it's compact size. The online retailer discounted the smart display to $35 for the holiday shopping season, but it also has a deal on a bundle that would make a good smart-home starter kit. You can pick up the Echo Show 5 with a Blink Mini for a total of $50, which is 58 percent off the normal price of the bundle. Amazon's nightstand-friendly smart display paired with a Blink Mini security camera is 58 percent off right now. Amazon last updated the Echo Show 5 in 2021, giving it a 2-megapixel front camera that will slightly improve the quality of your video chats.