InsideTechWorld

Amazon has launched a new AI assistant, called Amelia, to help third-party sellers grow their businesses quickly by answering questions about their issues and metrics. The product is currently in beta and will only be available to US sellers. Amazon will release it globally later this year. The AI assistant will leverage a large language model to recommend products with specific features, to help sellers identify consumer shopping habits. The feature will also surface relevant product descriptions to customers who regularly search for certain keywords. Additionally, Amazon has introduced a video generation tool to assist sellers in quickly creating product videos. #Amazon #AI #Amelia #Tech #InsideTechWorld Image: Amazon

California residents can now use Apple Wallets to store driver’s licenses and state IDs, Apple announced on Thursday. This feature is an extension of the California DMV’s broader mobile driver’s license (mDL) pilot program, which launched last year. According to DMV and Apple, 1.5 million residents can participate in the program. iPhone users can add the IDs to their wallets by scanning the documents and then providing a scan of their face using a “series of facial and head movements.” The scans will then be made available to DMV for verification. Once authorized, the digital IDs can be used at “select TSA checkpoints” as well as business venues as a proof of identity. #Apple #DigitalID #California #Tech #InsideTechWorld Image: Apple

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has published a report examining the data collection and processing policies of social media companies and video streaming platforms. It highlights that platforms like Meta, TikTok, and Twitch often collect and store user data indefinitely. The report states, “Predicting, shaping, and monetizing human behavior through commercial surveillance is extremely profitable,” and emphasizes that “self-regulation has been a failure.” “These surveillance practices can endanger people’s privacy, threaten their freedoms, and expose them to a host of harms like identity theft and stalking,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said. The report also suggests that the FTC may consider imposing data management regulations on these platforms in the future. #FTC #SocialMedia #Privacy #Tech #InsideTechWorld Image: Getty

Apple has released public betas of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and MacOS Sequoia 15.1, which bring Apple Intelligence features for the first time to the public. The AI features include revamped Siri, text rewriting tools, and a ‘Clean Up’ tool that works similar to Google’s Magic Eraser for photos. Users will need to enroll in Apple’s beta software program website to access the new features. For now, the betas only support a few devices, including the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16 and 16 Pro, and iPads and Macs with M1 chips. The company plans to release complete stable builds in October. #Apple #AI #iOS #Tech #InsideTechWorld Image: Apple

LinkedIn has been training its generative AI models with user data without disclosing it to the general public first. 404Media reports that a section has appeared in the app’s data privacy settings called “Data for Generative AI Improvement.” Inside this section, there is a toggle that allows users to opt out of the program. 404Media further notes that normally companies update their privacy policies and notify users prior to implementing such a change. However, LinkedIn quietly opted accounts into training AI models. LinkedIn’s FAQs state that the data may be used by the company internally or by another provider, such as its parent company Microsoft. The FAQs also mention that LinkedIn does not use data of users living in the EU, EEA, or Switzerland. #LinkedIn #Privacy #AI #Microsoft #Tech #InsideTechWorld Image: Getty

Amazon is increasing wages for its more than 800,000 US warehouse and transportation workers and giving them Prime subscriptions for free. The company announced the pay increase along with an update to benefits on Wednesday. The company’s blog post reads that frontline workers will have free Prime for “as long as they are a part of the Amazon team,” which typically costs about $14.99 per month or $139 per year. As for pay, Amazon says its frontline workers will now get an average of more than $22 per hour, up from $20.50 an hour. The wage hike comes ahead of the company’s October Prime Day event. #Amazon #PrimeDay #Tech #InsideTechWorld Image: Getty

YouTube will soon add generative AI tools for creators to generate ideas, titles, and even full videos. Google announced the new series of features on Wednesday at its ‘Made on YouTube’ event in New York City. As part of the rollout, there will be a new Inspiration tab in the YouTube Studio app, which will suggest a concept for a video, its title, thumbnail, and even an outline for the video. After getting an AI inspiration, creators will be able to use Veo, a video model from Google’s DeepMind, to create videos. The clips will be watermarked using the SynthID tool so viewers are aware they are watching AI-generated content. #Google #YouTube #GenAI #Tech #InsideTechWorld Image: Getty

Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Pocketpair, Palworld’s parent company. “This lawsuit seeks an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages on the grounds that Palworld, a game developed and released by the Defendant, infringes multiple patent rights,” Ninetendo wrote in its press release. Palworld was launched in January 2024 and became an instant hit, selling more than 5 million copies in just three days. Some players described the game as “Pokémon with guns.” A few days after it came out, Nintendo announced it would investigate patent infringement and now it appears they have completed their investigation and have opted for legal action. #Pokemon #Palworld #Nintendo #Tech #InsideTechWorld Image: Pocketpair

Meta and Ray-Ban’s parent company, the eyewear giant EssilorLuxxotica, have extended their smart glasses partnership by ten years. The partnership started in 2019 and since then two Ray-ban smart glasses have been produced through it. “I’m excited about our long term roadmap ahead. We have the opportunity to turn glasses into the next major technology platform, and make it fashionable in the process,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a press release. In separate news, Meta is also expected to reveal its latest AR glasses at its Meta Connect 2024 summit which will be held in Menlo Park, California, next week. It is also reported that the glasses will not be available commercially. #Meta #RayBan #SmartGlasses #AR #Tech #InsideTechWorld Image: Meta

Apple is in negotiations with JPMorgan Chase for the bank to take over Apple Card business which is currently handled by Goldman Sachs, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. Goldman Sachs has issued credit cards for Apple since 2019, when the program was launched. In 2023, the bank decided to withdraw from consumer banking, thus announcing an end to its partnership with Apple. The negotiations with JPMorgan are still in a very early phase, an anonymous source close to the matter told WSJ. Key elements of the deal, such as price and certain features, are yet to be determined. #Apple #AppleCard #JPMorgan #Tech #InsideTechWorld Image: Apple