Apart from testing Meta AI chatbot with users in countries like India on WhatsApp, the company is also experimenting with putting Meta AI in the Instagram search bar for both chat with AI and content discovery.
The search query in the search bar leads you to a conversation in DM with Meta AI, where you can ask questions or use one of the pre-loaded prompts.
Separately, a few users TechCrunch talked to were able to ask Meta AI to search for Reels suggestions.
Meta confirmed its Meta AI experiment on Instagram with TechCrunch.
You can find a ton of posts about the quality of Instagram search.
On the panel, Megan Thee Stallion said she loved the app because it allows her to curate exactly what she wants to see and listed topics ranging from puppies to makeup and workout videos.
Megan Thee Stallion talking about her favorite app being Pinterest during ADWeek’s Social Media Week event.
pic.twitter.com/mQ1l5jbaJm — Stallion Stats (@MegansStats) April 10, 2024Megan thee Stallion did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
Megan Thee Stallion has a vested interest in Pinterest, having previously worked with the company.
It’s true many of them have brand profiles, but it’s likely they also have their own private accounts, like Megan Thee Stallion insinuated during her panel.
AI agents are the new hot craze in generative AI.
On Tuesday at Google Cloud Next, the company introduced a new tool to help companies build AI agents.
“Vertex AI Agent Builder allows people to very easily and quickly build conversational agents,” Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said.
In this case, it’s relying on Google Search (which in reality could or could not be accurate).
“We’re now bringing you grounding in Google Search, bringing the power of the world’s knowledge that Google Search offers through our grounding service to models.
With the aim of identifying criminal suspects, U.S. police departments are increasingly relying on a controversial surveillance practice to demand large amounts of users’ data from tech companies.
So-called “reverse” searches allow law enforcement and federal agencies to force big tech companies, like Google, to turn over information from their vast stores of user data.
Reverse searches effectively cast a digital dragnet over a tech company’s store of user data to catch the information that police are looking for.
Microsoft, Snap, Uber and Yahoo (which owns TechCrunch) have all received reverse orders for user data.
Some companies choose not to store user data and others scramble the data so it can’t be accessed by anyone other than the user.
Google announced today that it will soon roll out on-device AI-powered features such as recording summaries and smart replies on the Pixel 8.
These features will be based on Gemini Nano, a small-sized model Google released last year, primed to run on devices.
The company announced these features last October during the Pixel 8 launch.
In January, Google introduced “Circle to Search” for select Pixel and Samsung Devices.
The company announced this week that more Pixel and Sasmung phones along with select tablets will get Circle to Search feature.
First up, Google is rolling out an update to its Search Generative Experience (SGE) that will allow users to build travel itineraries and trip ideas using AI, the company announced on Wednesday.
For now, the itineraries are just that: no options to buy and services or experiences on the spot.
But it points to how the company is experimenting with how and where it can apply its AI engine.
A lot of players in the travel industry may be eyeing up the role that generative AI will play in travel services in the coming years — some excitedly, some warily.
Google also announced that it’s making it easier to discover lists of recommendations in Google Maps in select cities in the U.S. and Canada.
The latter has made snake robots a compelling addition to search-and-rescue teams, as the systems can squeeze into spots people and other robots can’t.
That means a lot of ice, as NASA researchers are planning to send it to Saturn’s small, cold moon, Enceladus.
Twenty-first-century flybys from Cassini have revealed a water-rich environment, making the ice-covered moon a potential candidate for life in our solar system.
The eventual plan is to use the snake robot, Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor (EELS), to explore oceans beneath the moon’s crust and finally answer one of the universe’s big, open questions.
In fact, CMU spinout HEBI Robotics designed the modules being used in this early version of the system.
Threads, the Twitter-like app from Instagram, is adding live scores for sports games.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Friday that Threads has started testing live scores for NBA games, and that the platform plans to add support for additional leagues in the future.
The launch of the feature comes as Threads continues to take on X, which has had live scores for sports games for around a decade now.
Threads isn’t just adding live scores — users will also be able to tap a team’s logo to be redirected to the conversation about that team, and connect with other users who follow them.
The addition of live scores marks Threads’ latest effort in building out a platform to rival X.
The Browser Company, which makes the Arc browser, has raised $50 million in a round led by Pace Capital at a $550 million valuation, TechCrunch has learned exclusively.
However, in January, the company released the Arc Search app on iOS, focusing on putting AI-powered search at its center.
This is ingrained in the DNA of The Browser Company.
Paul Frazee, who built a decentralized browser called Beaker, said that scaling a browser product is hard as people are set in their way and making them switch is tough.
The Browser Company has a big ambition to build an “internet computer” for users.
A new app from a startup called Cherry is aiming to transform the online shopping experience with its AI assistant that allows users to discover products across the internet using just a screenshot or image.
Cherry helps you find products that you’ve come across while scrolling through social media or have seen in real-life.
“My motivation for creating Cherry stemmed from a personal frustration with the time-consuming process of finding and comparing products online,” Kim told TechCrunch.
Plus, users can also share their search results with their friends or on social media.
“While Google Lens offers general image-based search capabilities, Cherry is specifically tailored for the shopping experience,” Kim said.
