Amazon Abandons AI Checkout Dreams, Reverts to carts

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Wednesday 3rd of April
Today we’ll cover

• TOGETHER WITH RYSE

• 🌠 Yahoo Acquires Artifact, the AI-Powered News App from Instagram Founders

• 🥤 Amazon Abandons AI Checkout Dreams, Reverts to carts

TOGETHER WITH RYSE

Missed out on Ring and Nest? Don’t let RYSE slip away!

Ring 一 Acquired by Amazon for $1.2B

Nest 一 Acquired by Google for $3.2B

If you missed out on these spectacular early investments in the Smart Home space, here’s your chance to grab hold of the next one.

RYSE is a tech firm poised to dominate the Smart Shades market (growing at an astonishing 55% annually), and their public offering of shares priced at just $1.50 has opened. 

They have generated over 20X growth in share price for early shareholders, with significant upside remaining as they just launched in over 100 Best Buy stores.

Retail distribution was the main driver behind the acquisitions of both Ring and Nest, and their exclusive deal with Best Buy puts them in pole position to dominate this burgeoning industry.

Secure your stake before the offer closes.

YAHOO AI
🌠 Yahoo Acquires Artifact, the AI-Powered News App from Instagram Founders

Acquisition Signals Yahoo's Commitment to Personalized News Curation

The Reverie

Yahoo has acquired Artifact, the AI-driven news aggregation and discovery platform created by Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger.

The Details

• Artifact will no longer operate as a standalone app, but its proprietary AI-powered personalization technology will be integrated across Yahoo's platforms, including the Yahoo News app, in the coming months

• Systrom and Krieger will work with Yahoo in an advisory capacity during the transition

• Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed

Why should you care?

The acquisition of Artifact reflects Yahoo's commitment to bringing trusted news and information to hundreds of millions of users while offering a more personalized experience for discovering content across platforms. By using Artifact's AI-powered recommendation engine, Yahoo aims to deliver even richer, more tailored news experiences to its vast user base.

This move is particularly significant in the context of the evolving digital news landscape. As traditional media outlets struggle to adapt to the digital age and compete with tech giants like Google and Facebook for advertising revenue, Yahoo's acquisition of Artifact signals a shift towards AI-driven personalization as a key differentiator. By leveraging Artifact's technology to deliver highly relevant content to users, Yahoo is positioning itself as a leader in the future of digital news consumption. Source

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Agent. AI
Written by Dharmesh Shah. Dharmesh Shah is co-founder and CTO of HubSpot, and writes in-depth, technical (data-science background) insights in how AI works. This is a great supplement to The AI Reverie:

AI Minds Newsletter
“Navigating the Intersection of Human Minds and AI”. This newsletters dives deeper into usecases, and features research papers and tools that help you become smarter about AI. Highly recommended reading.

AI CONSUMER TECH
🥤 Amazon Abandons AI Checkout Dreams, Reverts to carts

"Just Walk Out" tech proves too complex; smart Dash Carts to take over

The Reverie

Amazon is phasing out its ambitious "Just Walk Out" technology, which allowed customers to skip the checkout process entirely, from its Amazon Fresh grocery stores in the U.S.

The AI-powered system, which relied on cameras, sensors, and off-site human monitors to automatically charge customers, will be replaced by Amazon Dash Carts that have embedded screens and scanners.

Details

• Over half of the 40+ Amazon Fresh stores in the U.S. currently use Just Walk Out, but will be transitioned to Dash Carts

• Just Walk Out used computer vision to track items taken by customers, but relied on over 1,000 employees in India to review videos and ensure accuracy

• Dash Carts will still allow customers to skip the regular checkout line, but require scanning items as they are placed in the cart

Why Should You Care?

Amazon's move away from fully automated, surveillance-based checkout signals that the technology is not yet ready for prime time in large store formats.

While AI continues to make inroads in retail, the Amazon Fresh case shows that customer experience, cost efficiency, and privacy concerns remain key challenges. As "smart cart" tech improves, it could provide a more viable and gradual path to streamlining checkout. Source

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