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It was only a matter of time before they found a way to use AI agents as corporate shills. On Tuesday, Snapchat rolled out AI Sponsored Snaps, a "new way for brands to show up in Chat through AI agents." Or, put another way, it's conversational advertising. (Yay?) AI Sponsored Snaps will appear in the app's Chat tab (with a light gray "Ad" notation next to the brand name). After opening the chat, you can ask the agent questions about the brand it represents. Snap showed an example from its first partner for the initiative, Experian. The bot offers to answer your questions on saving money, improving your credit score and — there it is — exploring loans and credit cards. Whether through credit card offers or other means, the AI agent will presumably try to guide you toward behavior that makes money for the sponsor. So, it isn't clear why this would be better for consumers than asking a general-purpose chatbot like Gemini or Claude the same questions. Maybe the answer is as simple as, "It isn't… but they know people will use it anyway." Snap "Conversation is becoming the most valuable real estate in advertising," Snap's Chief Business Officer, Ajit Mohan, wrote in a press release . "AI is accelerating that shift, turning chat into the place where people discover products, ask questions, and make decisions in real time. The real opportunity isn't just putting ads into those environments, it's designing formats that feel native to how people already talk." Snap says more than half a billion people have messaged its My AI feature since it launched three years ago. That was despite a shaky start, where the bot told researchers and journalists posing as young teenagers how to mask the smell of alcohol or cannabis and set the mood for sex. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/snapchat-is-rolling-out-sponsored-ai-agents-162720124.html?src=rss
Google is celebrating Translate’s 20th birthday by launching pronunciation practice, which the company says is one of the most requested features for the product. The feature is only rolling out on Android at the moment for English, Spanish and Hindi in the US and India. If it’s available for you, you’ll see a button at the bottom of the app that says “Practice,” which gives you the option to either “pronounce” what you’ve translated or to “listen” to how it’s actually pronounced by native speakers. If you choose the “pronounce” option, Translate will listen to you speak and then use artificial intelligence to analyze how you said the words to provide instance feedback. It will then show you a phonetic spelling of how specific words should be pronounced. In the example Google provided, for instance, the speaker pronounced the Spanish word for juice as “jugo” with the English “j” sound instead of with the Spanish “j” sound. So, Translate spells it out as “HU-go” in its pronunciation suggestion. Google said around third of users on mobile use Translate to practice speaking and listening in order to be able to hold real-world conversations, making this new feature a very useful addition. The company also revealed other stats about the app. Apparently, it now supports over 250 languages, including some endangered and indigenous ones, and has over 1 billion monthly user who have been translating over 1 trillion words every month. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-translate-uses-ai-to-help-you-practice-pronunciation-160000542.html?src=rss
It turns out you can go back again, especially if you win a pile of awards, mint a crop of stars and turn a potentially obscure sitcom into Apple’s biggest hit. The iPhone maker has today announced Ted Lasso season four will debut August 5, with new episodes arriving every Wednesday through October 7. This time out, Ted and Beard have returned to Richmond to take over coaching its women’s team as it languishes in the second division. Ted Lasso wrapped up its initial three-season arc back in 2023 , wrapping up its storylines in a fairly definitive manner. Despite this, Apple wanted to maintain one of its earliest breakout hits and so quickly started making moves to get an additional run under way. Jason Sudekis, Brendan Hunt, Hannah Waddingham, Juno Temple, Brett Goldstein and Jeremy Swift are all returning for the run. But, given the focus on the women’s team, there’s a whole new crop of cast members, including Sex Education’s Tanya Reynolds and Andor’s Faye Marsay. There are changes behind the scenes too, especially given showrunner Bill Lawrence’s split focus on his current hot streak of shows. Consequently, Jack Burditt, who created Last Man Standing , is taking the role of executive producer —- try not to worry, however, he also worked on Frasier, 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt . You should check out the teaser trailer below and wonder why Tracy Ullman, who is all over the footage, doesn’t even get so much as a namecheck in Apple TV’s press release. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/ted-lassos-fourth-season-starts-august-5-150337209.html?src=rss
Microsoft, OpenAI’s biggest financial partner, will continue to license the start-up’s technology but will no longer be its exclusive licensee.
