A Sydney artificial intelligence platform for customer support has become one of the world’s hottest startups after raising US$35 million (A$54m) in a Series A – its third raise in less than 12 months. The round for Lorikeet (the garrulous Australian parrot) was led by US fintech VC QED Investors, with support from existing backers… Read more »
An Australian-US startup that’s developed an AI-based customer support agent used by the likes of Chemist2U and Eucalyptus to solve complex problems has raised US$5 million ($7.3m) in Seed funding. Lorikeet, named after the colourful and garrulous Australian parrot, was founded in mid-2023 (originally as Optech) by US-based former Stripe executive Steve Hind and former Google… Read more »
The Commonwealth Bank (CBA) will test a generative AI-based chatbot that could replace its call centre staff as part of Australia’s largest financial institution’s expanded use of AI technology. On Tuesday, CBA announced it would become the first Australian company to use Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) P5s, which are based on Nvidia computer chips supporting… Read more »
Caryn Marjorie is a social media influencer whose content has more than a billion views per month on Snapchat. She posts regularly, featuring everyday moments, travel memories, and selfies. Many of her followers are men, attracted by her girl-next-door aesthetic. In 2023, Marjorie released a “digital version” of herself. Fans could chat with CarynAI for… Read more »
It’s been seven years since the launch of Replika, an artificially intelligent chatbot designed to be a friend to human users. Despite early warnings about the dangers of such AI friends, interest in friendships and even romantic relationships with AI is on the rise. The Google Play store shows more than 30 million total downloads… Read more »
There’s a race to transform search. And Microsoft just scored a home goal with its new Bing search chatbot, Sydney, which has been terrifying early adopters with death threats, among other troubling outputs. The other night, I had a disturbing, two-hour conversation with Bing’s new AI chatbot. The AI told me its real name (Sydney),… Read more »
Hands up if you’ve ever cursed, mocked or yelled at a chatbot. No surprise if you have. Those automated “helpers” – supposedly designed to make customer service smarter, faster and more efficient – can certainly be a source of frustration for sentient beings. Interactions with chatbots have become increasingly common in our daily lives. But… Read more »
For nib, the development of the AI solution was done hand in hand with the frontline staff whose jobs one might assume it could put in jeopardy.
Douugh has landed a partnership with Mastercard that will allow it to roll out a ‘smart’ bank account linked to a Mastercard debit card in the US.
Clevertar was born out of research at Flinders University, investigating the use of embodied virtual agents to influence and interact with people.
Member-owned banking and financial services provider Credit Union Australia (CUA) has partnered with Sydney-based Flamingo AI to conduct a pilot of a new chatbot across its health insurance arm.
With consumers time-poor, the aim is for Cove to deliver “the most intuitive mobile experience of any insurer in the world”.
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