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Slack rolls out its AI tools to all paying customers

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Slack just rolled out its AI tools to all paying users, after releasing them to a select subset of customers earlier this year. The company’s been teasing these features since last year and, well, now they’re here.

The AI auto-generates channel recaps to give people key highlights of stuff they missed while away from the keyboard or smartphone, for keeping track of important work stuff and office in-jokes. Slack says the algorithm that generates these recaps is smart enough to pull content from the various topics discussed in the channel. This means that you’ll get a paragraph on how plans are going for Jenny’s cake party in the conference room and another on sales trends or whatever.

There’s something similar available for threads, which are smaller conversations between one or a few people. The tool will recap any of these threads into a short paragraph. Customers can also opt into a daily recap for any channel or thread, delivered each morning.

Slack AI in use.Slack AI in use.

Slack

Another interesting feature is conversational search. The various Slack channels stretch on forever and it can be tough to find the right chat when necessary. This allows people to ask questions using natural language, with the algorithm doing the actual searching.

These tools aren’t just for English speakers, as Slack AI now offers Japanese and Spanish language support. Slack says it’ll soon integrate some of its most-used third-party apps into the AI ecosystem. To that end, integration with Salesforce’s Einstein Copilot is coming in the near future.

It remains to be seen if these tools will actually be helpful or if they’re just more excuses to put the letters “AI” in promotional materials. I’ve been on Slack a long time and I haven’t encountered too many scenarios in which I’d need a series of auto-generated recaps, as longer conversations are typically relegated to one-on-one meetings, emails or video streams. However, maybe this will change how people use the service.

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Amazon stops paying bonuses to Alexa developers

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Amazon has cut paid perks for Alexa developers. With a bigger focus on generative AI, the voice assistant’s third-party apps (skills) aren’t a priority. An Amazon spokesperson told Engadget that the “older programs have simply run their course, so we decided to sunset them.”

Launched in 2017, when Alexa was all the rage, the program paid developers bonuses for skills that resonated with users. It was part of Amazon’s quest to turn Alexa Skills into a booming app store. (Did that happen?)

At the company’s fall 2023 devices event, Amazon previewed its next-gen version of Alexa, with ChatGPT-like generative AI abilities. With AI powers, Alexa appeared versatile enough to address all sorts of queries and requests without creating apps and skills manually. Alexa isn’t going anywhere; Amazon is just making it think for itself.

— Mat Smith

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Magic Eraser, Photo UnBlur, Magic Editor and more will be widely available in May.

Free Google Photos users get enhanced editing features without paying $20+ annually. This means all users will get a few of Google’s AI-powered tools, such as Photo UnBlur, Magic Eraser, and Magic Editor. I can attest: Photo UnBlur is a game-changer when taking shots of toddlers that will. Not. Stay. Still.

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It works on T-Mobile and AT&T’s networks.

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Engadget

Amazon has the Nothing Phone 2 on sale for the first time since its launch. The offbeat mainstream smartphone alternative is $74 off its usual price, down to $625. The deal includes the version with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and it’s ready for activation on T-Mobile or AT&T.

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The game is also getting Contra DLC in May.

Hit retro bullet-hell-rogue-ish Vampire Survivors is coming to PlayStation — possibly the only platform it hasn’t been on yet. The game is also getting a batch of crossover DLC on May 9. Vampire Survivors: Operation Guns brings Contra characters and weapons, so expect a lot more guns. 22 of them, in fact.

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