Amazon’s AI Shopping Tool and Instagram’s Effect on Mental Health

Quantious Team

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Quantious

3 min readJul 19, 2024

Emerging Tech Roundup — July 19

The Quantious team’s top picks for timely trending news in the tech world.

This week in tech: Microsoft unveils software that allows LLMs to work with spreadsheets, Anthropic releases Claude app for Android, WhatsApp introduces ‘Favorites’ for quick access to contacts and groups, Amazon rolls out generative AI shopping tool Rufus to all US customers, Google brings AI agent platform Project Oscar open source, Instagram to help researchers study social media influence on teen mental health, and Salesforce debuts Einstein Service Agent.

Microsoft Unveils SoftwareThat Allows LLMs to Work with Spreadsheets

(Tech Xplore, July 16)

A team at Microsoft has developed SpreadsheetLLM, an AI tool that applies large language model (LLM) capabilities to spreadsheets, addressing a notable gap in LLM’s ability to handle spreadsheet data. The tool, based on SheetCompressor, reorganizes spreadsheets into a format that LLMs can interpret by implementing compression, translation, and data format aggregation functions. This advancement allows for enhanced data entry, analysis, and presentation — making spreadsheet data more accessible and useful.

Anthropic Releases Claude App for Android

(Tech Crunch, July 16)

Anthropic has launched its Claude Android app, aiming to attract users from ChatGPT by making its AI chatbot more accessible. The app mirrors the iOS version, offering free access to Claude 3.5 Sonnet, upgraded subscription plans, and features like cross-device conversation sync, real-time image analysis, and language translation. Enterprise customers can also access their Claude accounts on mobile through the new app.

WhatsApp Introduces ‘Favorites’ for Quick Access to Contacts and Groups That Matter Most

(Tech Crunch, July 16)

WhatsApp has introduced a “Favorites” filter to help users quickly find and connect with important chats and calls. This feature — rolling out to all users in the coming weeks — allows users to group chats from close friends or family for easy access and adds a “Favorites” section to the calls tab for quick dialing. Users can add contacts or groups to their favorites through the chats screen, calls tab, or settings menu.

Amazon Rolls Out Generative AI Shopping Tool Rufus to All US Customers

(Retail Dive, July 16)

Amazon has expanded Rufus — its AI-powered conversational shopping assistant — to all U.S. customers in the Amazon Shopping app. Rufus enhances the shopping experience by allowing shoppers to view previous orders, ask about product updates, compare items, and review product details. Named after a Welsh corgi from early Amazon employees, Rufus has already received millions of questions since its February introduction and is expected to help customers make more informed shopping decisions.

Google Brings AI Agent Platform Project Oscar Open Source

(Venture Beat, July 16)

Google has introduced Project Oscar, an open-source platform designed to assist development teams in managing software programs by using AI agents. Oscar aims to help monitor issues and bugs, initially focusing on open-source projects with potential future expansion to closed-source projects. Developers can create various AI agents for different stages of the software development lifecycle, allowing natural language interaction to manage tasks without rewriting code.

Instagram will Help Researchers Study if it’s Hurting Teen Mental Health

(The Verge, July 17)

Instagram is collaborating with the Center for Open Science (COS) to launch a pilot program that will allow select researchers access to its data in an effort to study the platform’s impact on mental health. Researchers will have up to six months of access to Instagram data, including metrics like the number of accounts followed and usage patterns, but not demographic information or content of posts. COS will select up to seven research proposals, with researchers required to recruit participants and obtain parental consent — aiming to enhance understanding of the relationship between social media and teen well-being.

Salesforce Debuts Einstein Service Agent, a New AI Agent for Customer Self-Service

(Venture Beat, July 17)

Salesforce has introduced the Einstein Service Agent, an AI-powered self-service tool designed to provide end-customers with a conversational interface to resolve issues. This generative AI service can handle actions such as product returns and refunds by leveraging approved company workflows within Salesforce. Initially aimed at customer service scenarios, Einstein Service Agent’s key advantage is its seamless integration with Salesforce’s existing customer data and workflows, with plans to expand its use to other Salesforce clouds in the future.