Anthropic has released a new tool called Interviewer available through Claude.ai to collect data on customer usage and preferences. Among the early findings are that “the general workforce wants to delegate routine work to AI but preserve the tasks central to their professional identity.” Anthropic plans to expand the scope of inquiry “through partnerships with creatives, scientists, and teachers” and says it will share the results. The company admits it wants feedback to develop better products, but “also because understanding people’s interactions with AI is one of the great sociological questions of our time.” Continue reading Anthropic Interviewer Explores Claude Users’ Views About AI

Amazon has added agentic AI capabilities to Amazon Connect, the neural text-to-speech tool that provides AI-powered customer service support and analytics in real time. Connect is capable of neural text-to-speech in more than 30 languages and also delivers automated speech recognition. Leveraging advanced speech models from Nova Sonic, the Connect agents “deliver natural, human-like conversations, responding with the right pace, tone, and understanding across multiple languages and accents,” Amazon says. The company has also integrated third-party automated speech recognition and text-to-speech solutions from Deepgram and ElevenLabs with Connect. Continue reading Amazon Adds Agentic AI to ‘Connect’ Customer Service Tool

Snapchat is adding community conversations under the header Topic Chats. Aiming to stimulate public discourse on news, events and other trending topics, Snap will be aggregating the threads across the app in the coming weeks for users in the U.S., Canada and New Zealand. Chat shortcuts, search, the Stories page, and Spotlight videos will feature “a big yellow button” that says “Join the Chat” inviting users to the parley. Profiles will stay private to those who a user is not friends with, a feature intended to help avoid unwanted friend requests and direct messages. “This is new for Snapchat, because we’ve primarily focused on supporting private conversations rather than public ones,” Snap notes. Continue reading Snapchat Is Testing Public Conversations with ‘Topic Chats’

Samsung has begun rolling out conversational AI in several languages for its 2025 TVs using Vision AI Companion, a generative AI-based version of the company’s smartphone virtual assistant Bixby. The move, announced in September, lets viewers ask questions about what’s onscreen — or any topic — and receive customized recommendations or help managing tasks using natural two-way dialogue. Samsung describes the experience as interactive viewing that brings a visual element to query sessions and says it turns the TV into a connected community hub for the household powered by models from Perplexity and Microsoft. Continue reading Samsung Debuts Conversational Vision AI Companion on TVs

Snap Inc. has secured San Francisco-based Perplexity as its new partner in artificial intelligence, with Perplexity’s AI-powered answer engine to become an in-app feature of social service Snapchat starting in early 2026. Snapchat’s community of over 943 million monthly active users will be able to converse with Perplexity, asking questions and getting “clear, conversational answers drawn from verifiable sources,” Snap explains. Perplexity will pay Snap $400 million over the next year through a combination of cash and equity, gaining access to Snap’s mobile-native audience, comprised of more than 75 percent of 13–34-year-olds in over 25 countries. Continue reading Perplexity Deal Will Bring Conversational AI to Snapchat App

Snapchat rolled out a host of new AR updates during Lens Fest, including new gaming tools, AR creation and monetization elements, and generative AI guidance Lens development. New Lens Studio AR creation options include “Realistic StyleGen,” which lets creators add more lifelike textures and lighting effects for virtual clothing, while “FaceGen” has been updated to provide more realistic digitally generated expressions. There is also a new 3D asset generator that turns people into digital representations, and “AI Clips” for the creation of image-to-video Lenses. In addition, Snapchat is debuting a “Lens Studio AI” chatbot to conversationally build AR lenses. Continue reading Snapchat Debuts FaceGen Expressions, Chatbot Lens Builder

Samsung — the number one television brand worldwide — has teamed with AI search firm Perplexity to bring an AI app to all 2025 Samsung TVs. The app comes with a free 12-month subscription to Perplexity Pro, normally $20 per month, aiming to elevate the TV to its place among the smartest devices in the house. And those that own 2024 or 2023 Samsung TVs won’t be left out, with the Perplexity AI app to be added via an OS upgrade before the end of the year. Samsung is the first to deliver this standalone Perplexity TV app, which enhances its own Vision AI companion. Continue reading Samsung Debuts Industry’s First Perplexity TV App for Search

Salesforce is reimagining Slack as a conversational AI assistant with agentic capabilities that can also serve as the gateway to third-party agents within the operating system. The upgrade, which is expected to be complete by the end of the year, will feature native AI experiences built into Agentforce for Sales, IT and HR Service, Tableau and more. Salesforce’s Slack redesign could position the app to compete with Microsoft’s Copilot and Teams as the conversational AI layer inside an enterprise’s daily workflow — the place to talk to both people and agents, accessing and interacting with a company’s data. Continue reading Salesforce Retools Slack as Agentic AI Assistant for Enterprise

OpenAI has added parental controls for ChatGPT’s Web interface, with mobile controls coming soon. The controls give parents the ability to reduce or remove certain content and dial down personalization by turning off ChatGPT’s transcript memories. At the same time, OpenAI has added the ability to restrict image generation with the launch of Sora parental controls for ChatGPT-connected teen accounts. There are also controls for sending and receiving direct messages through the app. OpenAI says the changes aim “to give families tools to support their teens’ use of AI.” To activate control access, parents must have their own accounts and teens will need to opt in. Continue reading OpenAI Rolls Out New Parental Controls to Help Protect Kids

Apple has reportedly developed a ChatGPT-like iPhone app for internal use in testing its AI overhaul of Siri. Apple’s AI unit is using the app to assess new features for its famous conversational assistant, putting it through its paces for tasks like sifting through personal data, including documents, audio and emails, and performing actions including photo and video editing, according to reports. Called Veritas, Latin for “truth,” the developmental software is garnering attention as a pivotal tool in Siri’s highly anticipated AI makeover, expected to make its public debut next year. Continue reading Apple Creates an AI Chatbot to Help Train the Next-Gen Siri

Google TV is introducing Gemini as a conversational AI assistant to help find content and get more information about a favorite TV show or movie. Gemini on Google TV goes beyond the simple queries and commands of Google Assistant, which has been around since 2017, and allows “free-flowing conversations with your big screen,” the company explains. “Just say ‘Hey Google’ or press the microphone button on your TV remote” to tap into Gemini for TV to activate the new feature. Gemini is now available on the TCL QM9K series, with more TCL models coming onboard later this year. Google says additional functionality for Gemini on TV is coming soon. Continue reading Google TV Adding Conversational Intelligence with Gemini AI

The Microsoft Store has an update to Microsoft Copilot that extends the capabilities of Copilot Vision. Rolling out initially to members of the Windows Insider Program, Desktop Share allows Copilot Vision to see a user’s desktop, enabling real-time conversation with the AI app, which will be able to answer questions about what it sees using text or natural language. Copilot Vision “can help analyze content, provide insights, and answer your questions, coaching you through it aloud,” according to Microsoft, offering things like “tips on making improvements to your creative project, help with improving your resume, or guidance while navigating a new game.” Continue reading Microsoft’s Copilot Update Includes Vision AI Screen Sharing

YouTube is adding an AI-powered search results carousel that serves up video suggestions and topic descriptions. A search for “best beaches in Hawaii,” for example, could generate a carousel listing video clips and information on an assortment of snorkel spots and volcanic beaches. YouTube Premium subscribers in the U.S. can try the feature now on searches related to shopping, travel or location-based activities. The Google-owned platform is also expanding its test with conversational AI to some non-Premium users in the U.S. Premium members have been using it for search, recommendations and as a study aid. Continue reading YouTube Adds AI Search Results Carousel for Premium Subs

ElevenLabs is bringing its powerful AI voice tools to mobile. Previously, the company’s apps and voice libraries were only available via the Web. Now iOS and Android users can tap ElevenLabs tech on the go with a “faster, intuitive, more powerful experience built natively for mobile” rather than awkwardly through a mobile browser. Combining mobility with creativity, the app lets users create realistic voiceovers for social media or narrate video using ElevenLabs’ text-to-speech models — including Eleven v3, now in alpha, which lets users fine-tune vocalizations using tags. The company has also introduced a new voice assistant, 11ai. Continue reading ElevenLabs Text-to-Voice AI Tools Now Available for Mobile

Google has launched Search Live with voice-input, a two-way conversational query function for exploring online resources. Presently available via the Google app for Android and iOS to U.S. users enrolled in Google Labs’ AI Mode experiment, Search Live is designed to handle complex, multi-part questions. Google suggests the new feature is “perfect for when you’re on the go or multitasking, like if you’re packing for a trip.” The discursive voice feature follows Google’s general rollout of AI Mode, recently launched to compete against products such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT Search and Perplexity AI. Continue reading Google Search Live Features Conversational Voice Capability