Amazon launched the Echo, a smart speaker, on November 6th, 2014, marking the beginning of the smart speaker era and the voice-first technology revolution.

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Meta has made its open-source Llama AI model available to US government agencies and contractors for 'national security applications', excluding military, warfare, nuclear industries or applications, and espionage. The AI model can be used to streamline logistics, track terrorist financing, and strengthen cyber defenses. Collaborations with Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, Lockheed Martin, Oracle, and others are in progress.

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Amazon's Prime Video is introducing X-Ray Recaps, a generative AI-powered feature that creates text summaries of TV shows, episodes, and segments. The tool analyzes video and subtitles to generate detailed descriptions, with guardrails to avoid spoilers and keep summaries concise.

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Perplexity has launched an Election Information Hub that uses AI to provide voting information, including answers to questions, candidate summaries, and live vote counts on Election Day.

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Despite initial potential, Alexa has primarily remained focused on its original functionalities of music playback, basic inquiries, and weather updates, despite Amazon's efforts to expand its capabilities.

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Google has integrated Google Home controls into the Gemini app for Android users in the Public Preview program. This update allows users to control their smart home, such as adjusting lighting or turning on vacuums, using natural language prompts directly in the Gemini app. The extension currently supports smart lighting, climate control, window coverings, TVs, and speakers, but not all smart devices.

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Apple is reportedly gearing up for a big hardware push into the smart home, but its current smart home capabilities, such as garage door control, are limited.

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Google's ChromeOS 130 update includes Quick Insert, Focus Mode, Welcome Recap, and other features, with exclusive special features for Chromebook Plus models.

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Anthropic's Claude AI chatbot now has a desktop app available for download on Mac and Windows, and support for dictation on Android and iOS apps is being rolled out.

Source: https://www.theverge.com/rss/ai-artificial-intelligence/index.xml