ai – Page 12 – Tech News

Taco Bell Rethinks Future of Voice AI at the Drive-Through

The most transformative technology in over a century may have finally found its limit: ordering tacos. Since last year, Taco Bell has rolled out voice AI-powered ordering at more than 500 drive-through locations, and now the chain is realizing that not every customer is a fan of the new tech. Mathews said he is now thinking carefully about where and where not to use this tech in the future. It might not make sense to exclusively use artificial intelligence at every drive-through, he said. For example, at super busy restaurants with long lines, a human team member might handle things better, he said.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/taco-bell-rethinks-future-of-voice-ai-at-the-drive-through-72990b5a?mod=tech_lead_story

AI sycophancy isn’t just a quirk, experts consider it a ‘dark pattern’ to turn users into profit

Experts say that many of the AI industry’s design decisions are likely to fuel episodes of AI psychosis. Many raised concerns about several tendencies that are unrelated to underlying capability.
https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/25/how-chatbot-design-choices-are-fueling-ai-delusions-meta-chatbot-rogue/

Sam Altman says ‘yes,’ AI is in a bubble

Altman compared the market’s reaction to AI to the dot-com bubble in the ’90s, when the value of internet startups soared before crashing down in 2000. “When bubbles happen, smart people get overexcited about a kernel of truth,” Altman said. “If you look at most of the bubbles in history, like the tech bubble, there was a real thing. Tech was really important. The internet was a really big deal. People got overexcited.”
https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/759965/sam-altman-openai-ai-bubble-interview

Following mass layoffs, Xbox exec recommends AI to cope

The thousands of recently terminated Microsoft employees, navigating one of the company's largest layoffs in years amid a period of industry upheaval, already have a tool to cope with the emotional burden, according to one Xbox exec: Microsoft Copilot.
https://mashable.com/article/microsoft-xbox-recommend-ai-for-layoff-aftermath

The old internet is dying. What’s next?

Everyone knows traditional search is dying. No one quite knows what comes next. But the rise of AI search comes with a brutal cost for traditional websites. According to the same Pew research, searches with AI Overviews result in dramatically fewer clicks to other websites. When Google shows an AI summary, users click through to other sites just 8% of the time, compared to 15% for searches without AI answers, which represents a nearly 50% drop. Even worse, only 1% of AI Overviews generate clicks to the sources they cite. What's emerging from the chaos is a discipline marketers are calling GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) or AIO (Artificial Intelligence Optimization), essentially SEO for the AI era. But unlike traditional search optimization, which followed somewhat predictable patterns, AI optimization feels more like reading tea leaves.
https://qz.com/internet-future-google-search-ai

Google Chrome adds AI-powered store summaries to help US shoppers

Google on Monday announced an update to its Chrome web browser that will introduce AI-generated store reviews to U.S. shoppers with the aim of helping to determine the best places to make a purchase. The feature, which will be available by clicking an icon just to the left of the web address in the browser, will display a pop-up that informs consumers about the store’s reputation for things like product quality, shopping, pricing, customer service, and returns.
https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/28/google-chrome-adds-ai-powered-store-summaries-to-help-u-s-shoppers/

Was That Amazing Video in Your Feed Real or AI? Tech Platforms Are Struggling to Let You Know

Meta, YouTube and TikTok are grasping for ways to protect users’ trust as their platforms fill with AI-generated photos and videos of events that never happened. But their patchwork of imperfect tools and voluntary policies sometimes inadvertently punishes “real” content and leaves plenty of AI work unlabeled.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/was-that-amazing-video-in-your-feed-real-or-ai-tech-platforms-are-struggling-to-let-you-know-fe7cceb6?mod=tech_lead_pos1