Instagram is reportedly considering spinning its Reels feature into a standalone short-form video app to take advantage of TikTok’s uncertain future in the US. Instagram head Adam Mosseri was overheard discussing the plans with staff this week according to an anonymous source cited by The Information.
https://www.theverge.com/news/620547/instagram-reels-video-app-tiktok-rival-service
Amazon showed off the upgraded Alexa+ at a press event in New York City, revealing it can choose from a whole collection of generative AI models to fulfill your requests in a more conversational way. “She’s smarter than she’s ever been before. But she’s also approachable, which is so important,” said Panos Panay, Amazon’s head for devices and services. “That intimidation factor of AI is gone. She’s useful. She can plan a date, book the restaurant, and text the sitter.”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/amazon-debuts-alexa-plus-a-smarter-but-potentially-pricer-assistant
A new experimental Google AI tool aims to help people explore career possibilities. Career Dreamer uses AI to analyze your past experiences and suggest potential new gigs. “Think of it like a helping hand to bridge where you’ve been and imagine where you could go next,” Google says.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/google-career-dreamer-tool-uses-ai-to-help-you-explore-career-options
Humane announced on Tuesday that most of its assets have been acquired by HP for $116 million. The hardware startup is immediately discontinuing sales of its $499 AI Pins. Humane alerted customers who have already purchased the Pin that their devices will stop functioning before the end of the month — at 12 p.m. PST on February 28, 2025, according to a blog post. The news brings an end to the short-lived, buzzy hardware startup. Humane made a splash in April 2024 by launching its AI Pin, which it positioned as a smartphone replacement. The Bay Area startup, founded by ex-Apple employees Bethany Bongiorno and Imran Chaudhri, raised more than $230 million to create the device.
https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/18/humanes-ai-pin-is-dead-as-hp-buys-startups-assets-for-116m/
Four major artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots are inaccurately summarising news stories, according to research carried out by the BBC. In the study, the BBC asked ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini and Perplexity to summarise 100 news stories and rated each answer. It found 51% of all AI answers to questions about the news were judged to have significant issues of some form. Additionally, 19% of AI answers which cited BBC content introduced factual errors, such as incorrect factual statements, numbers and dates.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0m17d8827ko
Previously, Adobe offered many of Firefly’s AI tools within its existing Creative Cloud subscriptions, letting users try the new tools for no added cost. Users could upgrade to pricier plans if they wanted more access to Firefly, but they didn’t have to. That system worked well for Adobe: Firefly’s generative fill feature, added to Photoshop in 2023, has become one of the company’s most popular new features of the last decade. Now, Adobe wants to see if users will also pay up for its Firefly AI models.
https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/12/adobe-launches-firefly-ai-subscriptions/
A report from The New York Times over the weekend highlights the small — but apparently growing — trend of users wearing their Apple Watches on their ankles. What’s becoming something of a viral sensation on social platforms like TikTok is the result of a pragmatic decision. Some Apple Watch owners’ wrists are simply too small to get a proper read with on-board sensors like heart-rate monitoring.
https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/10/tiktok-influencers-are-wearing-apple-watches-on-their-ankles/