Apple’s putting together a team
Apple’s folly in chasing the AI dragon is a well-documented secret at this point, not least because it has hardly anything to show for its efforts. In a bid to catch up to the rest of the competition, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that the Big Fruit Company quietly formed a new team internally called “Answers, Knowledge, and Information” (or AKI) that was tasked with developing a “new ChatGPT-like search experience.”
A senior director by the name of Robby Walker is heading up the team, who, until recently, oversaw Apple’s Siri projects before getting the axe due to several internal delays on that end. The team and product are reportedly still in their formative stages, which will (hopefully) take the form of an “answer engine” before it eventually expands to serve features for Safari, Spotlight, and Siri.
The team isn’t quite as secret anymore. On Apple’s careers site, it mentions looking for recruits: “Our work fuels intuitive information experiences across some of Apple’s most iconic products, including Siri, Spotlight, Safari, Messages, Lookup, and more. Join us in shaping the future of how the world connects with information!”
Don’t expect anything from the AKI end anytime soon, if ever. The last we heard about Apple’s AI ambitions, it was exploring the possibility of getting another company to just… do it for them to better compete with the competition in a timely fashion. But if Apple’s AKI team can actually deliver results, Apple may feel confident enough to do away with outside help and get back on track internally.
Alexa+ isn’t even out yet, and ads are already coming
We’ll admit that we were curious (against our will, we might add) to see Amazon’s AI-powered Alexa in action whenever the retail company was ready to expand it everywhere. But after the Amazon CEO expressed an interest in deploying ads right into the service before it’s even landed outside the US, we immediately lost our appetite.
“People are excited about the devices that they can buy from us that has Alexa+ enabled in it. People do a lot of shopping [with Alexa+]; it’s a delightful shopping experience that will keep getting better,” said Jassy on the call with investors . “I think over time, there will be opportunities, as people are engaging in more multi-turn conversations, to have advertising play a role to help people find discovery, and also as a lever to drive revenue.”
So far, Amazon has only rolled out Alexa+ to a small subset of customers in the US as it tests the improved Alexa’s capabilities before trying its hand in other regions. When it does eventually arrive in SA and everywhere else, you’ll need to fork over a monthly fee to experience the supposedly smarter Alexa. If that’s not for you, Alexa will continue to operate exactly as it does now on your smart home Echo devices.
Ads aren’t just headed for the Alexa devices unfortunate enough to have a screen, either. Judging by Jassy’s comments, these ads will be built directly into voice conversations with Alexa, meaning everyone will be subjected to the type of ads you’d see in The Truman Show. Jassy hinted at the idea of introducing more tiers into the mix — likely a more expensive one that’ll rid your account of ads for good. Either way… we’re out.
YouTube’s found another way to feed you more Mr Beast videos
If you, like us, wondered how Mr. Beast managed to infiltrate your subscriptions page this weekend despite not being subscribed, it’s probably got something to do with YouTube’s new collaboration feature. Mimicking collaborative posts on Instagram, the feature allows multiple channels to slap their channels onto the same video, allowing both to reach a larger audience everywhere.
The test is currently limited only to a small field of creators, which of course includes YouTube legends Mr Beast and Mark Rober, whose recent collaborative efforts in a new video at least explain how the former’s low-effort thumbnails turned up on our feed yet again. Tapping on the video’s poster will bring up a list of the channels involved, as seen in the image above (captured on mobile).
Google’s brief mention of the feature on a YouTube Help forum doesn’t say when the feature is expected to be expanded to more creators, but that it’ll keep us posted on any updates going forward.
Darksiders 4 is real, and it’s coming out…
After a slightly disappointing Nintendo Direct that didn’t instil much confidence in the state of gaming going forward, THQ Nordic quickly upped our spirits with a very unexpected announcement of Darksiders 4. There’s even a teaser trailer tha briefly showed off the future of the hack-and-slasher series.
Still, it’s given us plenty to work with and get hyped for. Instead of focusing on a singular Horseman, Darksiders 4 is bringing all four of them together, and you’ll have the choice of who to play with. If we were to guess, we’d imagine the game will allow players to swap between the four Horsemen on a whim to take advantage of the different strengths each offers.
Expect “fast-paced, visceral action blending melee, fluid traversal, and supernatural abilities,” but with 2025 hardware and flair that can take the Darksiders series to new heights. The developers also confirmed that 4 will pick up “where the original Darksiders game left off,” meaning it can finally resolve the years-long cliffhangers players had to contend with when Darksiders 3 arrived in 2018.
It’s arriving on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC… sometime. THQ Nordic failed to offer any sort of release window, much less a definitive date. From this, we’d keep those expectations low and just be happy to get a brief update in the coming months.
