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This holiday season, AI is helping Santa

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This holiday season, AI is helping Santa

This is the first Christmas season for many Americans, and if the topic of “artificial intelligence” comes up at the table, the majority of the family may be familiar with it.

However, don’t expect AI to take on Santa’s heavy lifting just yet.

This holiday season, more retailers and consumers are experimenting with technology thanks to the rise of generative AI and ChatGPT. However, for the time being, most of technology’s impact will be invisible to consumers.

Salesforce estimates that artificial intelligence will have a $194 billion impact on global online holiday spending. According to the software company that monitors consumer trends, artificial intelligence (AI) had a $51 billion impact on online sales during Cyber Week, which runs from Tuesday, November 21, through Monday, November 27, also known as Cyber Monday.

However, a large portion of that AI influence is derived from features that customers are already familiar with, like product recommendations based on previous purchases and searches made by customers just like them.

Future holiday seasons will have to wait for more revolutionary applications of AI, according to Rob Garf, vice president and general manager of Salesforce’s retail and consumer goods. However, he claimed that AI will eventually alter the clientele’s experience.

Retail employees could have more free time and patience for customers as they are able to automate more tasks in their offices, call centers, and retail stores, according to Garf. Furthermore, he stated that retailers will be able to customize websites and apps to create digital assistants that can make suggestions, respond to queries, and more as AI gets better at understanding natural language.

“We are still in early days,” he said. “Retailers are testing and learning, and it’s only a leading indicator of what to come.”

As more companies use AI, its limitations and risks have become more apparent, despite the fact that investors and companies alike are placing significant bets on the technology’s future.

These three prominent instances of AI during the busiest shopping season could serve as a look ahead:

An efficient and time-saving tool

Artificial intelligence might be to blame if you were taken aback to discover a well-liked toy in stock at your neighborhood store.

This season, AI is significantly assisting retailers in the background. Consider those routine but important chores like placing the proper inventory order, creating more targeted marketing emails, or creating thorough product descriptions for websites.

Artificial intelligence has helped Walmart make decisions regarding holiday inventory by forecasting demand for different products at various locations. Says Srini Venkatesan, executive vice president of U.S. omni platforms and technology at Walmart, “the tech can help the company identify a best-selling toy or sweater in a particular region and make sure more are shipped to nearby stores.”

Target is also utilizing AI to anticipate demand across multiple locations and identify items that are out of stock, allowing staff to restock shelves prior to them becoming empty.

In order to better understand what customers are looking for on its website and to determine the most effective routes to deliver online orders to customers’ doors on time, Nordstrom started utilizing AI. For example, it aims to improve language interpretation so that a customer searching for “romantic flowy dresses” finds the products that most closely resemble that style.

Retailers are also focusing on how to use AI to increase productivity, which may allow them to hire fewer employees or free up more time for staff to handle other duties that involve interacting with customers. Concerns about workforce reductions brought on by the advancements have also been addressed by CEOs like Doug McMillon of Walmart and Shantanu Narayen of Adobe.

In late August, Walmart introduced My Assistant, an internal ChatGPT version that more than 50,000 corporate staff members can use for a variety of tasks, including creating slide decks and email pitches. Walmart is training teams on the generative AI tool and suggesting use cases for it, according to a company spokesperson who declined to disclose the number of employees who have used it thus far.

Additionally, Amazon unveiled new time-saving tools for advertisers and sellers this fall. Third-party sellers don’t have to spend hours writing lengthy product descriptions; instead, they can write a few phrases and let generative AI handle the rest. In order to create aesthetically pleasing images to go along with a product, advertisers can also rely on a new tool.

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Apple has revealed a revamped Mac Mini with an M4 chip

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A smaller but no less powerful Mac Mini was recently unveiled by Apple as part of the company’s week of Mac-focused announcements. It now has Apple’s most recent M4 silicon, enables ray tracing for the first time, and comes pre-installed with 16GB of RAM, which seems to be the new standard in the age of Apple Intelligence. While the more potent M4 Pro model starts at $1,399, the machine still starts at $599 with the standard M4 CPU. The Mac Mini is available for preorder right now and will be in stores on November 8th, just like the updated iMac that was revealed yesterday.

The new design will be the first thing you notice. The Mini has reportedly been significantly reduced in size, although it was already a comparatively small desktop computer. It is now incredibly small, with dimensions of five inches for both length and width. Apple claims that “an innovative thermal architecture, which guides air to different levels of the system, while all venting is done through the foot” and the M4’s efficiency are the reasons it keeps things cool.

Nevertheless, Apple has packed this device with a ton of input/output, including a 3.5mm audio jack and two USB-C connections on the front. Three USB-C/Thunderbolt ports, Ethernet, and HDMI are located around the back. Although the USB-A ports are outdated, it’s important to remember that the base M2 Mini only featured two USB-A connectors and two Thunderbolt 4 ports. You get a total of five ports with the M4. You get an additional Thunderbolt port but lose native USB-A.

Depending on the M4 processor you select, those Thunderbolt connectors will have varying speeds. While the M4 Pro offers the most recent Thunderbolt 5 throughput, the standard M4 processor comes with Thunderbolt 4.

With its 14 CPU and 20 GPU cores, the M4 Pro Mac Mini also offers better overall performance. The standard M4 can have up to 32GB of RAM, while the M4 Pro can have up to 64GB. The maximum storage capacity is an astounding 8TB. Therefore, even though the Mini is rather little, if you have the money, you can make it really powerful. For those who desire it, 10 gigabit Ethernet is still an optional upgrade.

Apple has a big week ahead of it. On Monday, the company released the M4 iMac and its first Apple Intelligence software features for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. (More AI functionality will be available in December, such as ChatGPT integration and image production.) As Apple completes its new hardware, those updated MacBook Pros might make their appearance tomorrow. The business will undoubtedly highlight its newest fleet of Macs when it releases its quarterly profits on Thursday.

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Apple Intelligence may face competition from a new Qualcomm processor

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The new chip from Qualcomm (QCOM) may increase competition between Apple’s (AAPL) iOS and Android.

During its Snapdragon Summit on Monday, the firm unveiled the Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform, which includes a new, second-generation Oryon CPU that it claims is the “fastest mobile CPU in the world.” According to Qualcomm, multimodal generative artificial intelligence characteristics can be supported by the upcoming Snapdragon platform.

Qualcomm, which primarily creates chips for mobile devices running Android, claims that the new Oryon CPU is 44% more power efficient and 45% faster. As the iPhone manufacturer releases its Apple Intelligence capabilities, the new Snapdragon 8 platform may allow smartphone firms compete with Apple on the AI frontier. Additionally, Apple has an agreement with OpenAI, the company that makes ChatGPT, to incorporate ChatGPT-4o into the upcoming iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia.

According to a September Wall Street Journal (NWSA) story, Qualcomm is apparently interested in purchasing Intel (INTC) in a deal that could be valued up to $90 billion. According to Bloomberg, Apollo Global Management (APO), an alternative asset manager, had also proposed an equity-like investment in Intel with a potential value of up to $5 billion.

According to reports, which cited anonymous sources familiar with the situation, Qualcomm may postpone its decision to acquire Intel until after the U.S. presidential election next month. According to the persons who spoke with Bloomberg, Qualcomm is waiting to make a decision on the transaction because of the possible effects on antitrust laws and tensions with China after the election results.

According to a report from analysts at Bank of America Global Research (BAC), Qualcomm could expand, take the lead in the market for core processor units, or CPUs, for servers, PCs, and mobile devices, and get access to Intel’s extensive chip fabrication facilities by acquiring Intel. They went on to say that Qualcomm would become the world’s largest semiconductor company if its $33 billion in chip revenue were combined with Intel’s $52 billion.

The experts claimed that those advantages would be outweighed by the financial and regulatory obstacles posed by a possible transaction. They are dubious about a prospective takeover and think that Intel’s competitors may gain from the ambiguity surrounding the agreement.

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iPhone 16 Pro Users Report Screen Responsiveness Issues, Hope for Software Fix

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Many iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max users are experiencing significant touchscreen responsiveness problems. Complaints about lagging screens and unresponsive taps and swipes are particularly frustrating for customers who have invested $999 and up in these devices.

The good news is that initial assessments suggest the issue may be software-related rather than a hardware defect. This means that Apple likely won’t need to issue recalls or replacement units; instead, a simple software update could resolve the problem.

The root of the issue might lie in the iOS touch rejection algorithm, which is designed to prevent accidental touches. If this feature is overly sensitive, it could ignore intentional inputs, especially when users’ fingers are near the new Camera Control on the right side of the display. Some users have reported that their intended touches are being dismissed, particularly when their fingers are close to this area.

Additionally, the new, thinner bezels on the iPhone 16 Pro compared to the iPhone 15 Pro could contribute to the problem. With less protection against accidental touches, the device may misinterpret valid taps as mistakes, leading to ignored inputs.

This isn’t the first time Apple has faced challenges with new iPhone models. For instance, the iPhone 4 experienced “Antennagate,” where signal loss occurred depending on how the device was held, prompting Steve Jobs to famously suggest users hold their phones differently. Apple eventually provided free rubber bumpers to mitigate the issue.

To alleviate the touchscreen problem, using a case might help by covering parts of the display and reducing the chances of accidental touches triggering the rejection algorithm. The issue appears on devices running iOS 18 and the iOS 18.1 beta and does not occur when the phone is locked. Users may notice difficulties when swiping through home screens and apps.

Many are hopeful that an upcoming iOS 18 update will address these issues, restoring responsiveness to the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max displays.

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