OpenAI is again experimenting with how its conversational AI assistant, ChatGPT, can help users as they shop online. On Thursday, the company announced the global launch of two new shopping features, including a way to virtually try on clothing and accessories and a new favoriting function that can help users save products they like for later reference.
https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/01/chatgpt-can-now-virtually-try-on-clothes-for-you
Meta is developing a handheld device dedicated to letting users access a Muse AI agent. The Charm highlights how Meta is framing Muse as an AI agent that can be easily personalized as a virtual assistant that’s unique to each user. For example, when you start using Muse, Meta encourages you to give it a unique name. Muse also appears as a friendly, furry creature, though you can change its appearance to your liking. That's a big contrast from ChatGPT or Google's Gemini, which converse as faceless chatbots.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/mark-zuckerberg-wants-to-sell-you-a-tamagotchi-meet-metas-muse-charm
According to a new report on New York City jobs data compiled by the nonprofit Center for an Urban Future — first reported by the City — job postings for entry-level roles in “computer and mathematical” occupations has plummeted by 49 percent since 2022, the latest indication that tech firms are using AI to justify a massive slowdown in new hires. Though computer science grads are bearing the brunt of the mayhem, tech jobs may just be the first domino to fall. As Urban Future’s executive director Jon Bowles told the City, “entry-level postings” overall have “fallen off a cliff, and the first rung of the ladder in tech is under pressure.”
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-eviscerating-entry-level-jobs-data-labor-nyc
An artificial intelligence researcher who quit AI firm Anthropic has said people working on the technology were "genuinely frightened" about the speed of its advancements and what it could mean for humanity. The 27-year-old's former boss, Anthropic head Dario Amodei, recently called for AI development to slow down – though some have questioned the motivations behind this.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1kx0gyje9wo
Generative AI menus have hit the restaurant business courtesy of models trained on a narrow, “pleasing” aesthetic that feels wrong even when you can’t articulate why. “The optimization of the datasets is for pleasingness, or you know, not being offensive, and so there’s a way that turns into homogenization,” Lee Rainie, director of the Imagining the Digital Future Center at Elon University, told TechCrunch. “What AI is known to do both in images and language is to shave off the edges.”
https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/03/the-sameness-problem-behind-those-unappetizing-ai-generated-menus
Norway’s Tung said there is a “clear trend toward combining artificial intelligence with cameras and microphones built into glasses, headphones, hats and other objects we use in everyday life.” “We must prevent this equipment from being used to monitor other people in public places,” said Tung, who added that this may include banning the use of facial recognition of other people in public places.
https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/02/norway-considers-ban-on-camera-enabled-wearable-pervert-glasses/
Instagram is finally taking steps to address the rise of fake AI-influencer accounts that have gotten harder to spot. It’s also renaming the “AI creator” label to “AI-generated profile” to make it clear when a profile features an AI-generated person that’s not a real human being. “We’ve heard that people don’t like seeing a profile that seems human, only to find out later that the person featured is AI-generated,” said Instagram in a blog post. “They want to know when a profile features an AI-generated person.”
https://www.theverge.com/tech/986593/instagram-addresses-fake-ai-profile-slop