New features and launches in ChatGPT, Cursor, Perplexity and other AI tools, plus changes to pricing and availability.
Cloudflare just launched AI Audit to help site owners analyze bot traffic and block AI crawlers with a single click. The tool breaks down bot visits by frequency and purpose, with upcoming features set to let creators charge AI companies for accessing content. It basically gives publishers actual leverage in the AI scraping race.
GitHub just opened a preview bringing OpenAI’s o1-preview and o1-mini to GitHub Copilot and Models. Developers can now swap out GPT-4o inside VS Code’s Copilot Chat to tackle complex logic bugs and edge cases with deliberate reasoning. Why it matters: Coding assistants are moving beyond basic boilerplate autocomplete toward actual architectural problem-solving.
Apple just opened up its Apple Intelligence suite to public beta testers across iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1. The initial drop brings system-wide Writing Tools, a new glowing interface for Siri, and Clean Up in Photos. It is currently limited to U.S. English and newer hardware like the iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 16 series.
Amazon just rolled out an AI-powered Video Generator that turns a single product image into 6-to-9-second video ads in about five minutes. It creates four 720p variations at no extra charge, complete with customizable text and branding. Why it matters: It lowers the barrier for e-commerce video ads, though access is currently limited to select U.S. advertisers.
Amazon just launched Project Amelia, an AI business assistant built on AWS Bedrock to help sellers manage and grow their stores. Beta users in the U.S. can query sales metrics and customer traffic in plain English, with automated troubleshooting and task execution coming down the road.
Amazon just launched Enhance My Listing, a new generative AI tool powered by Amazon Bedrock that helps sellers automatically refresh and optimize existing product pages. It analyzes current shopping trends to suggest improved titles, bullet points, and missing details, letting merchants accept or decline changes with one click. It is currently rolling out to select U.S. sellers.
HubSpot just rolled out Breeze, a native AI suite embedded directly into its customer platform. It features an AI Copilot for sales, marketing, and service, four autonomous agents, and data enrichment backed by over 200 million company profiles. Why it matters: Instead of toggling between standalone AI tools, teams can now automate tedious tasks like lead scoring and video-to-campaign repurposing inside their existing CRM.
Google just rolled out major AI updates to Google Ads at DMEXCO, giving advertisers more creative control. Marketers can now supply up to five reference images to direct image generation, while Performance Max is gaining brand guidelines and campaign-level negative keywords by year's end.
Snapchat just rolled out an AI selfie feature that quietly opts you into having your likeness used in personalized ads by default. While Snap claims these ads are only visible to you and third-party advertisers can't access your data, users still have to dig into settings to turn the feature off.
Snapchat just updated its My AI chatbot with Google Lens-like visual smarts, letting users snap photos to translate foreign menus, identify plants, or decode complex parking signs. Snap is clearly pushing to transform My AI from a quirky novelty into a daily utility that keeps users inside the app.
Google just rolled out up to 10 different voice options for Gemini Live, allowing users to preview and swap tones anytime directly in the app. Why it matters: giving AI assistants a wider range of vocal personalities makes real-time voice conversations feel noticeably more natural and personalized.
Perplexity just rolled out a new reasoning focus mode in beta for Pro subscribers, tapping into OpenAI's o1-mini. It is built specifically for math, puzzles, and coding tasks, though it lacks web search integration for now and runs with strict rate limits.
Microsoft just announced that its Copilot Wave 2 features are rolling out to educators and students. School accounts now get free access to GPT-4o with enterprise data protection—ensuring prompts aren't used to train models—along with collaborative Copilot Pages and custom agents. Why it matters: It gives institutions compliant, walled-off AI tools instead of leaving teachers to bring their own.
Amazon is reportedly turning to Anthropic’s Claude to power its upcoming, smarter Alexa assistant after its in-house generative AI models struggled with basic prompt responses. The revamped assistant, dubbed "Remarkable Alexa," is expected to land around mid-October. Why it matters: Amazon previously poured $4 billion into Anthropic, and letting a rival's model take over its flagship consumer product proves that shipping a working agent beats maintaining corporate pride.
Plaud just launched the NotePin, a wearable AI device built for a single task: taking notes. Unlike ambitious gadgets like the Humane Ai Pin, it can be worn as a necklace, wristband, or clip to capture meetings and dictate memos, transcribing them with OpenAI's GPT-4o. Why it matters: scaling back from replacing smartphones to nailing note-taking might actually make wearable AI practical.
Google just brought Gemini straight into Chrome's address bar, letting users query the AI by typing "@gemini" followed by their prompt. While it puts generative AI just a keystroke away for millions, it currently lacks page context, meaning it can't analyze or summarize the tab you're actively reading.
Wyze just rolled out an AI-powered search feature for Cam Unlimited subscribers, letting users find footage by typing queries like "delivery person" or "cat in the backyard." Instead of scrubbing through hours of timelines, AI pulls up relevant clips directly. The feature is currently in testing for $9.99/month subscribers via Wyze's website.
Apple just rolled out its Clean Up tool in the latest iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS 15.1 developer betas. Powered by Apple Intelligence, it lets you tap, circle, or brush away photobombers and clutter while automatically filling in backgrounds and clearing shadows. For now, it is limited to devices set to English and the U.S. region.
Google just launched "Gems" for Gemini alongside its upgraded Imagen 3 image generation model. Subscribers can now build custom AI personas with plain-text instructions, while getting noticeably crisper, photorealistic visuals. Gems and human image generation are rolling out first to Advanced, Business, and Enterprise tiers.
Anthropic just made Artifacts generally available to all Claude.ai users, rolling out the interactive workspace to Free, Pro, and Team tiers across web and mobile apps. The feature lets you instantly render, iterate, and remix code, SVG graphics, flowcharts, and live prototypes in a dedicated side window without leaving the chat.
