Meta starts testing its AI shopping assistant

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1:00One free breakfast item per box for one year while subscription is active. Meta starts testing its AI shopping assistant. Before we get into that, Anthropic is bringing another paid feature to Claude's free tier. The next time you chant with Claude, you'll have the option to have it reference your previous conversation to inform its outputs. Anthropic first made its chatbot capable of remembering past interactions last August, before giving it the ability to compartmentalize memories in the fall. Making memory a free feature is well timed. Earlier today, Anthropic made it easier for users to import their past conversations with a competing chatbot to Claude. If after enabling memory, you decide to turn it off, you can either pause the feature, preserving Claude's memories for use down the road, or completely delete them so they're not saved on Anthropic servers. Claude is enjoying newfound popularity, having recently jumped to the number one spot in the app stores free app charts. This comes while Anthropic is engaged in a high-stakes contract dispute with the US government

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4:05Meta has started rolling out an experimental AI shopping tool to some users in the US according to Bloomberg. At the moment, it's reportedly only showing up on desktop browsers when select users visit Meta AI on the web. They'll know if they have access to the feature if they see the shopping research button inside the queried text box. The company has confirmed that it was testing the feature Bloomberg said, but it didn't say when a wider release will happen. When users ask for product suggestions, the chatbot will show them a carousel with product images and their pricing, along with a link to the e-commerce website and information about the brand. Meta AI will also include a short explanation why it recommended the item. If Meta AI can see a user's information, such as their gender and location data, it can tailor responses for them. Bloomberg said, it replied with a selection of women's puffer jackets from shops that ship to New York, based on the tester's profile. Users cannot check out from within the Meta AI interface, but they can click on the

5:05links it provides to shop online. Mark Zuckerberg previously told investors that Meta is launching agentic shopping tools during an earnings call earlier this year. It doesn't come as a surprise that the company is working on them when rival AI companies already offer the same tools. Open AI rolled out a dedicated shopping assistant for ChatGPD just before Black Friday last year. Shortly after Google launched its own shopping tools for Gemini, perplexity also released an AI shopping assistant at the same time. Thanks for listening to the show. Make sure to rate, review, and subscribe on Apple Podcast. Today's show feature journal is invited contributor, Mario LeMoon, and was produced by spoken layer. Shake and we'll talk more tomorrow.