How bots could help revive democracy

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

Rebel Cheese built and used AI tools to claw back thousands of dollars in overcharges from a large shipping carrier.

Match Group said that it's slowing its hiring plans for the rest of the year because AI tools "cost a lot of money."

DoorDash has launched a suite of AI-powered features aimed at reducing friction for restaurant merchants on its platform. Brian Tolkin, the company’s head of merchant product, said the new tools were designed to help merchants succeed from their first day on the platform through every subsequent order. The centerpiece is an AI onboarding tool that […]

Ask Jeeves, the popular search engine where users could enter questions using natural language, launched on June 1, 1997. Nine years later, it was rebranded as Ask.com — and ever since, the number of users has declined with each passing year. On Friday, the service shut down for a good — a move made necessary due to its inability to compete with new AI tools, according to Mashable. “We are deeply grateful to the brilliant developers and designers who have built and supported Ask over the decades,” reads the final message on the now-defunct search site. “And to you — the millions of users who turned to us for answers in a rapidly changing world — thank you for your endless curiosity, your loyalty, and your trust. The spirit of Jeeves will live on.”

Insider Brief Meta announced it is expanding the use of AI systems designed to identify underage users and automatically place suspected teens into stricter safety settings across Instagram and Facebook. The company said it is strengthening enforcement against users under 13 by using AI tools that analyze profiles, posts, captions and other account activity for […]

Every few centuries, changes in how information moves reshape how societies govern themselves. The printing press spread vernacular literacy, helping give rise to the Reformation and, eventually, representative government. The telegraph made it possible to administer vast nations like the US, accelerating the growth of the modern bureaucratic state. Broadcast media created shared national audiences,…

A new study from Harvard Medical School indicates that AI can outperform doctors in initial assessments in emergency care, according to The Guardian. The study, published in the journal Science, compared AI tools with doctors in triage situations — the process in which patients are sorted and prioritized, and where quick decisions must be made based on limited information. The results show that the AI system identified the correct or nearly correct diagnosis in 67% of cases, compared to 50% to 55% percent for doctors. When more detailed patient data was available, the AI’s accuracy increased to 82%, while the doctors’ accuracy ranged from 70% to 79%. The AI, based on OpenAI’s model o1, also performed better when it came to developing treatment plans. In a test using clinical cases, the AI achieved 89% accuracy, while doctors using traditional tools such as search engines reached 34%. However, the researchers emphasized that the results do not mean AI can outright replace doctors. The s