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Sesame, the Conversational AI Startup From Oculus Founders, Launches Its iOS App
Conversational‑AI startup Sesame, founded by Oculus’s original team, unveiled a public preview iOS app that lets users interact with four distinct AI agents. The app leverages fast parallel search and retrieval so the agents can pause, think and inject up‑to‑date information mid‑sentence, aiming for a more natural dialogue than typical chatbots. During its earlier research preview, Maya and Miles attracted over a million users, and the company recently closed a $250 million Series B round. The free app launches in 39 countries with features such as search cards, notes, texting, deep‑dive and incognito modes, while a waitlist remains and an Android version is promised.
Sneak Peek at New Siri App Reveals Apple’s Plans to Take on ChatGPT and More
Apple is preparing a dedicated Siri app that will sit inside the Dynamic Island and use Google’s Gemini AI to challenge ChatGPT and other chatbots. The update embeds AI‑powered search into Spotlight, letting users swipe down for instant, context‑rich answers,...
YouTube Adds New Podcast Features, Including an AI Recommendation Tool and ‘Auto Speed’
YouTube is rolling out three new podcast features for Premium subscribers: an AI‑driven recommendation engine, an Auto speed playback mode, and an on‑the‑go listening interface. The AI tool tailors suggestions by genre, mood and listening history, while Auto speed intelligently...
Airbnb-Backed WeRoad Raises $58M to Take Its Group Travel Platform to the US
WeRoad, the Milan‑based group‑travel startup, closed a $58 million Series C round led by Airbnb, pushing its total funding to roughly $100 million. The capital will fund its first U.S. rollout, beginning in Austin, as the company expands its IRL‑focused platform for Millennials...
Spotify Adds AI-Powered Q&A and Briefing Generation Features to Podcasts
Spotify is rolling out AI‑driven features that let users create personal podcasts from simple prompts, schedule daily or weekly briefings, and ask real‑time questions about episode content. A new desktop app, Studio by Spotify Labs, links to email and calendar...
Spotify Will Reserve Tickets for Top Fans of an Artists in a Bid to Drum up Engagement
Spotify is rolling out a new program that reserves two concert tickets for users identified as "top fans" of select artists. The platform will determine fan status using streaming data, shares and other engagement signals while filtering out bots and...
Amazon Launches an AI Shopping Assistant for the Search Bar, Powered by Alexa+
Amazon unveiled Alexa for Shopping, a new AI‑driven assistant that supersedes the earlier Rufus bot. Powered by Alexa+, it works via voice or text on mobile, desktop and Echo Show devices, delivering personalized product suggestions, price‑tracking and recurring‑order automation. The...
Poppy Debuts a Proactive AI Assistant to Help Organize Your Digital Life
Poppy, a new AI‑driven personal assistant, launched on May 15, 2026, aggregating calendar, email, messaging, health and other services into a single dashboard. The app uses large‑language models to infer what matters in real time, offering proactive nudges such as...
Google’s ‘Create My Widget’ Feature Will Let You Vibe-Code Your Own Widgets
Google announced "Create My Widget," a new Android feature that lets users generate custom home‑screen widgets by describing them in plain language. Powered by the Gemini generative‑AI model, the tool can pull data from the web, Gmail, Calendar and other...
Google Adds Gemini-Powered Dictation to Gboard, Which Could Be Bad News for Dictation Startups
Google unveiled Rambler, an AI‑powered dictation feature for Gboard that leverages Gemini multilingual models with code‑switching capability. The feature removes filler words, handles mid‑sentence corrections, and will initially roll out on Samsung Galaxy and Pixel phones before expanding to all...
Discord Launches Nitro Rewards, Giving Subscribers Access to the Base Tier of Xbox Game Pass for No Extra Cost
Discord unveiled Nitro Rewards, a new perk that grants Nitro subscribers free access to the base tier of Xbox Game Pass and rotating discounts on gaming hardware. The benefit applies to both Nitro Basic ($2.99/month) and Nitro Premium ($9.99/month) plans,...
Perplexity’s Personal Computer Is Now Available to Everyone on Mac
Perplexity has released its Personal Computer app to all Mac users, extending its AI‑agent platform from a cloud‑only service to a local desktop experience. The tool lets AI agents read and edit local files, interact with native macOS applications, and...
Tome, Another Goodreads Book-Tracker Rival, Shuts Down
Tome, a book‑tracking app built around the BookTok community, announced it will shut down on May 29. The platform let users log reads, share memes, playlists and quotes, but never grew beyond roughly 100,000 members. Facing high operating costs and fierce...
X Announces a Rebuilt Ad Platform Powered by AI
Elon Musk’s X has begun a phased rollout of a completely rebuilt advertising platform powered by artificial intelligence. The new stack introduces modern retrieval and ranking systems designed to give marketers tighter targeting and easier campaign creation. Industry forecasts from...
Meta Says Its Business AI Now Facilitates 10 Million Conversations a Week
Meta reported that its business AI tools facilitated roughly 10 million conversations per week in late March, a ten‑fold increase from the start of the year. The company expanded the beta of its AI assistant across the U.S., EMEA, APAC and...