AI Shopping Assistants Are Here: Latest Updates You Need to Know.

AI Riddle:

I am always hungry, I must always be fed.
The finger I touch will soon turn red.

What am I?

Today’s Motive:

• 🛍️ Amazon reveals Rufus. Their new AI-powered shopping assistant.

• 👟 Google shopping undergoes a massive AI overhaul.

• 🎭️ A group of Harvard students showcase how easy it is to steal your information. How to protect yourself.

🤑 Checkout the latest AI deals below. 💸 

🛠️ Get the scoop on the latest AI tools at glance section.

AI TOOLS

 🛍️ Amazon shopping Assistant Rufus, setting a high bar in online shopping.

 🤑 Amazon’s AI shopping assistant, Rufus, is transforming the way customers navigate online shopping, integrating generative AI to offer a more personalized, streamlined experience. Checkout Amazon News for more information.

Summary:

• Conversational Shopping Approach: Rufus offers a conversational style of engagement to product queries, such as “What type of material is this jacket made of?” or “Is this coffee maker easy to clean?”

• Customer Summaries: Instead of manually sorting through dozens of reviews, users receive a concise summary that captures the overall sentiment of previous buyers.
  This feature significantly enhances decision-making efficiency by presenting the most relevant information at a glance.

• Shopping Trends: Customers can also shop based on current trends and new releases. Users asked questions like “What are the current trends in women’s fall fashion?” or “What is the latest Apple Tablet?”

• Criterial Shopping: Rufus also supports product comparisons based on personalized criteria. For example, customers might ask, “Which baseball glove is best for a 9-year-old?” The AI will curate a selection by analyzing previous recommendations and user preferences.

Getting Started:

To use Rufus, have the most up-to-date Amazon Shopping app, then tap the Rufus icon (represented by chat bubbles with sparkles) in the navigation bar. A chat box will open where users can ask questions or select from suggested prompts.
For desktop users, Rufus is easily accessible by clicking the icon at the top left of the screen.

The Motive:

Rufus enters a competitive market of AI-powered shopping assistants, such as Google’s Shopping Graph and Walmart’s Ask Sam.

AI tools have become more sophisticated, offering shoppers a blend of convenience, personalization, and efficiency. Amazon’s Rufus, with its conversational approach and real-time product insights, offers a more intuitive and customized experience.

For me, the ability to ask product questions is a huge hit instead of searching through reviews or product data.

Today’s top AI tool at a Fraction of the price.

See oncely.com for more deals on AI tools.

AI TOOLS

 🛒 Google Transforms Online Shopping with a Complete AI Overhaul: What Shoppers Need to Know.

 🛍️ Google Shopping has undergone a complete AI-powered transformation. Leveraging its vast Shopping Graph, containing over 45 billion product listings, Google now integrates Gemini models to deliver a personalized online shopping experience. See Google product news updates for more information.

The Google AI-powered shopping experience will be rolled out in the U.S. in the coming weeks.

Summary:

• AI-generated briefs: Google has made changes for a more relevant product search, accelerated and simplified research, top considerations on search history, and products that meet your specific needs.

• New Search Features: Instead of searching for a jacket, now search enables a more personalized approach, “shopping for a spring jacket for the Pacific Northwest.” Now, Google will show you clothing tailored to specific climates and give explanations.

• Dynamic Filters: Allows shoppers to refine results based on personal preferences, such as size or local availability. A personalized homepage offers product suggestions and videos based on individual preferences.

• Virtual try-on: Google’s AR and generative AI-powered virtual try-on tools enhance the shopping experience by letting users visualize how products fit before purchase.

• AI Deal finder: Shoppers also benefit from deal-finding features like price comparisons, insights, and tracking, as well as a personalized deals page.

The Motive:

Google’s AI-generated shopping is currently marked as “experimental,” Google encourages users to provide feedback to enhance the feature’s accuracy.

As Google transforms its shopping platform with AI, competition is heating up. Amazon’s extensive product search capabilities and Shopify’s AI-driven product recommendations are strong contenders.

However, Google’s integration of AR and AI for personalized shopping gives it a competitive edge in delivering a more engaging, tailored experience. It will be interesting to see how good the virtual try-on is going to be.

AI Tools at a glance:

• Usebramble.com: An AI-powered real estate broker in your pocket.

• Aiphone.ai: Use AI to translate live phone calls.

• Remini.ai: Transform old photos with incredible detail and elevate your content.

AI SECURITY

 🏫 A Group of Students at Harvard Showcase AI Identity Theft.

 👓️ Harvard student AnhPhu Nguyen and Caine Ardayfio show off their AI glasses that can produce anyone’s personal details. Check out the report here.

Summary:

• AI-powered smart glasses using Meta’s Ray-Ban can reveal an individual’s name, address, phone number, and more by simple face capture.

• This alarming development highlights the current capabilities of smart glasses, face search engines, large language models (LLMs), and publicly accessible databases.

• Thanks to the progress in LLMS, I-Xray can automatically analyze vast quantities of personal data, and make links by cross-referencing information.

• Once I-Xray extracts a name, a quick search on platforms like FastPeopleSearch can uncover further details such as the person’s home address, phone number, and even relatives.

How to protect yourself.

1. Remove your data from reverse face search engines:

   To protect your privacy, consider removing yourself from reverse face search engines. The two most accurate services, Pimeyes and FaceCheck.ID. 

   Pimeyes

   Facecheck ID

2. Opting out of people search engines:

   personal details like a home address, phone number, and family members’ names can be easily found through people search engines.

   FastPeopleSearch

   Instant Checkmate

3. Preventing Identity Theft from SSN leaks.

   Social Security Number (SSN) leaks can lead to significant financial damage. The most effective preventive measures include enabling two-factor authentication (2FA) for key accounts and freezing your credit.

   Freezing Your Credit (by Vox)

The Motive:

AnhPhu Nguyen and Caine Ardayfio created this to highlight how personal data can be extracted by everyday users. While the device is only used to showcase this ability, it leads to further questions.

If a couple of university students can create something like this, then what are the big corps and governments doing?