Adobe found that shoppers who reached retail sites through AI chatbots were 40% more likely to buy during Prime Day than those from search, email or social media — the first time AI-referred traffic converted best. Amazon has blocked rival shopping agents from its store while building its own assistant. Read More
SpaceX’s IPO filing includes new details about the Starlink satellite factory in Redmond. Jeff Bezos talks wealth, inequality, and AI on CNBC. And John turns to ChatGPT and Gemini when FIFA’s ticketing support falls short. Read More
Seattle-based mpathic released mPACT, a clinician-led benchmark that evaluates how leading AI models handle conversations involving suicide risk, eating disorders, and misinformation. Read More
Expedia CEO Ariane Gorin detailed the company’s AI strategy on its Q1 earnings call, describing booking integrations with ChatGPT and Claude, AI-powered customer support, and rising compute costs funded by cuts elsewhere. Read More
Zillow Group’s first-quarter shareholder letter made the company’s strongest case yet for its transformation into an AI-powered real estate platform, citing AI-driven productivity gains, a new consumer search mode, and AI tools for agents and property managers. Revenue rose 18% to $708 million. Read More
Customers can access the app by enabling it inside ChatGPT’s app directory. Start a conversation prompt with “@starbucks” to customize orders and choose a location to order from. Read More
OpenAI marked the grand opening its new office in downtown Bellevue, Wash., its largest outside of San Francisco, with room to grow to 1,400 employees. Read More
Amazon is letting Alexa+ users customize how the voice assistant communicates, choosing between Brief, Chill, and Sweet personality styles. It’s a first for Alexa. Read More
This week on the GeekWire Podcast: Newly unsealed court documents reveal the behind-the-scenes history of Microsoft and OpenAI, including a surprise: Amazon Web Services was the Silicon Valley AI lab’s original partner. We tell the story behind the story, explaining how it came to light. Read More
Microsoft is rolling out a new “Copilot Checkout” feature that lets shoppers complete purchases directly inside its AI chatbot, betting that its enterprise ties and retailer relationships can help it compete with OpenAI, Google and Amazon in the race toward AI-driven commerce. Read More
Kevin Scott says today’s AI tools are already powerful enough to most startup surprise founders. But extracting their value requires unglamorous product work, real customer feedback, and a willingness to experiment. Read More
Amazon has quietly started rolling out Alexa.com, bringing its AI-powered Alexa+ assistant to the desktop browser for the first time and completing a long-missing piece of its consumer AI strategy. The web portal offers point-and-click control over reminders, files, and smart home devices — a level of precision that voice commands can’t match. Read More
In a major expansion of its cloud partnerships, OpenAI signed a $38 billion deal with Amazon Web Services to train and run future AI models, reflecting both the scale of the AI boom and the increasingly complex ties among the industry’s biggest players. Read More
Zillow and Expedia are among the first companies to launch apps inside ChatGPT, joining OpenAI’s new platform for conversational software — and raising familiar questions about control, privacy, and platform power in the AI era. Read More
At the Madrona IA Summit in Seattle, OpenAI strategy chief Jason Kwon outlined how startups can avoid getting “Sherlocked” by the AI giant, while also offering insights on AGI, profitability, and the company’s new push into e-commerce. Read More
Microsoft and OpenAI announced a non-binding memorandum of understanding Thursday afternoon, signaling that they’ve agreed in principle on changing and continuing one of the defining partnerships of the AI era. Read More
Bill Gates talks about Microsoft’s 50th anniversary, parallels between AI and the early days of the PC, and where he sees the next big opportunities for innovation. Read More
