AI Models and Tools: Amazon’s New ‘Interests’ Tool for Shoppers; ChatGPT Gets Image Upgrade

Consumers are used to product recommendations from eCommerce sites that are based on their history of purchases. Amazon is expanding this concept to suggest a shopper’s next buy based on their passions.

Called “Interests,” this new tool will match shoppers with products and deals relevant to what they love to do. For example, avid golfers get a heads-up about the latest golf clubs, or book lovers will be notified about new novels from their favorite authors.

Shoppers create prompts to tell the artificial intelligence (AI) what they’re interested in and the assistant will be on the prowl looking for products and deals to suggest. Consumers can set price limits and preferences in natural language.

The feature is rolling out to U.S. customers in iOS and Android apps and the mobile website. Find Interests under the “Me” tab in the Amazon app.

The Interests feature uses large language models that can understand what shoppers are looking for. As an example, a consumer looking for top cosmetic brands will get product recommendations featuring the largest makeup manufacturers based on a web search by AI.

Amazon already uses generative AI in Rufus, its shopping chatbot, AI Shopping Guides, which proactively consolidates product features relevant to make a buying decision, and review highlights.

Damian Rollison, senior director of market insights at marketing platform SOCi, told PYMNTS that Amazon’s Interests feature is a step toward re-creating the in-store browsing experience and finding items serendipitously. He called this type of specialized AI, a “trend to watch.”

Read more: Amazon and Walmart Go Head-to-Head Over Logistics and AI

Claude Can (Finally) Search

Claude, the flagship generative AI model of Anthropic, can now access the internet, at long last providing a feature that had been available at its top rivals OpenAI, Gemini, Grok and Perplexity since as early as 2023.

Anthropic said Claude will also provide direct links to sources so users can fact-check. The results will be in a conversational format, just like ones already offered by other AI chatbots.

However, internet access is only available for paying subscribers of Claude’s subscription plan in the U.S. For users of its free plan and for overseas users, online search is “coming soon.”

Anthropic is backed by Amazon and Google, among other investors.

Read more: Anthropic Inks Deal to Bring Its AI Model to Databricks Platform

ChatGPT Upgrades Image Generator

OpenAI is rolling out its most advanced image generator to be incorporated into ChatGPT.

The image generator is embedded as part of GPT-4o, which is one of the model choices for ChatGPT, and replaces DALL-E 3, which had been the default option.

The startup said GPT-4o does a better job of rendering photorealistic images, rather than the cartoonlike images that have characterized DALL-E generations — a dead giveaway that they were made by generative AI.

GPT-4o also mitigates a persistent problem of image generators: the inability to spell correctly. According to OpenAI, GPT-4o “excels at accurately rendering text” and follows prompts precisely.

GPT-4o can also transform uploaded images or use them as a basis for inspiration and can generate up to 10 to 20 different objects, compared to five to eight that is typical for image generators.

These capabilities ensure users get exactly the image they want, according to OpenAI.

The startup said all generated images are embedded with metadata based on the C2PA standard to identify that it was AI-generated. It will also continue to block images requests that are harmful and illegal.

The improved image generator is currently available to Plus, Pro and Team subscribers and coming soon in Enterprise and Edu. Developers will be able to generate images using the API in the next few weeks.