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Amazon CEO Andy Jassy speaks during an Amazon Devices launch event in New York City, U.S., February 26, 2025. 

Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters

Amazon, in an effort to infuse generative artificial intelligence across a wider swath of its e-commerce universe, recently began testing a shopping assistant and a health-focused chatbot with a subset of users.

AI has become a major area of investment across Amazon, including in its retail, cloud computing, devices and health-care businesses. Within the retail business, Amazon has already launched a shopping chatbot, an AI assistant for sellers and AI shopping guides.

The new services Amazon is testing appeared on its app or website in recent weeks. The shopping tool, called Interests AI, prompts users to describe an interest “using your own words,” and then it generates a curated selection of products. The feature lets consumers browse for products using more conversational language and is separate from the main search bar on Amazon’s website.

Amazon’s Interests AI feature lets users input more conversational search queries

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Within its core app, Amazon has a landing page for the feature.

“Describe your interest, like ‘coffee brewing gadgets’ or ‘latest pickleball accessories’ — and we’ll find relevant products for you,” the page says. Other suggested searches include “children books about persistence and dealing with failure,” and “brain teasers that are not too hard, made out of wood or metal.”

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said last month that employees have built or are in the process of building roughly 1,000 generative AI applications across the company. Its cloud unit offers a chatbot for businesses, called Q. In commerce, the company has rolled out services for consumers as well as its millions of third-party sellers.

Amazon is also exploring ways that AI can address medical needs. The company is testing a chatbot on its website and mobile app called “Health AI,” which can answer health and wellness questions, “provide common care options for health care needs,” and suggest products.

While Rufus, Amazon’s shopping chatbot, can suggest products like ice packs and ibuprofen, Health AI goes further, providing users with medical guidance and care tips, such as how to deal with cold symptoms or the flu. The site says the service can’t provide personalized medical advice.

Some responses feature a “clinically verified” badge, which denotes information that’s been “reviewed by US-based licensed clinicians,” Amazon says.

Health AI also steers users to Amazon’s online pharmacy, along with clinical services offered by One Medical, the primary care provider it acquired for roughly $3.9 billion in 2022.

Amazon recently began testing a health-related AI assistant that can provide medical guidance and suggest products.

Amazon

More consumers are embracing generative AI as a shopping tool, and with features like Health AI and Interests AI, Amazon wants shoppers to use its own services over rivals like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

With enough use, Amazon could gain valuable insights on the ways that people are interacting with AI assistants as the company prepares to overhaul Alexa, the digital assistant it launched more than a decade ago.

Amazon announced Alexa+, a new version of the technology embedded with generative AI, late last month. The company says that Alexa+, which has yet to roll out, is capable of handling more complex tasks and can serve as an “agent” by taking actions for users without their direct involvement.

Andrew Bell, an Amazon e-commerce manager for the National Fire Protection Association who also publishes research on Amazon’s patent filings and AI development, came across the new shopping and health features and recently posted about them on LinkedIn.

Bell said in an interview that Alexa+ could potentially draw upon models developed for Amazon applications like Health AI to answer queries.

“If there’s a health-related question, Alexa+ is going to maybe call on Health AI,” Bell said. “If there’s a product-related question, Alexa+ can call on Rufus.”

Amazon didn’t provide a comment for this story.

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Apple Watch getting redesigned blood oxygen feature following legal dispute

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Apple Watch getting redesigned blood oxygen feature following legal dispute

Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple Inc., during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) at Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California, US, on Monday, June 9, 2025.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Apple on Thursday announced a redesigned blood oxygen feature for some Apple Watch users, following a years-long intellectual property dispute over the capability.

Apple said the redesigned feature is coming to some Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 users on Thursday. The update was possible because of a recent U.S. Customs ruling, the company said.

In 2023, the International Trade Commission found that Apple’s blood oxygen sensors infringed on intellectual property from Masimo, a medical technology company. Apple paused the sale of some of its watches and began selling modified versions of the wearables without the blood oxygen feature.

“Apple’s teams work tirelessly to create products and services that empower users with industry-leading health, wellness, and safety features that are grounded in science and have privacy at the core,” the company said in a release announcing the feature rollout.

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Bitcoin touches record, ether almost makes new high before rolling over

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Bitcoin touches record, ether almost makes new high before rolling over

Ether and bitcoin.

Yuriko Nakao | Getty Images

Bitcoin hit a new record late Wednesday as ether climbed even closer to its all-time high.

The flagship cryptocurrency rose as high as $124,496, surpassing its July record of 123,193.63, according to Coin Metrics. Ether rose to $4,791.19 overnight, edging closer to its 2021 record of $4,866.01.

Both coins took a hit Thursday, however, after July’s wholesale inflation data came in much hotter than expected. Bitcoin was lower by 3% at $118,481.00 while ether fell 2% to $4,629.20.

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Bitcoin hit a new record overnight, surpassing its July all-time high

The initial gains were sparked by Tuesday’s cooler-than-expected July inflation report, which had lifted investor optimism for rate cuts from the Federal Reserve at the end of its September policy meeting. The coins rallied with the stock market for two days. On Wednesday, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq also scaled new records.

For the week, bitcoin is on pace for a nearly 2% gain, while ether has rallied more than 14%. Ether flipped bitcoin as the crypto market leader in June, gaining 85% since then thanks to heavy institutional buying, tightening supply and adoption from corporate accumulators – all under the backdrop of a friendlier regulatory environment for the crypto industry. Jake Kennis, analyst at Nansen, said the rally likely has more room to run given the flows remain strong.

“Bitcoin hitting a fresh all time high and ETH being on the verge of doing so means we’ve moved from speculative mania to a phase where institutional adoption, real-world integration, and global liquidity are driving price discovery,” said Ben Kurland, CEO at crypto research and trading platform DYOR.

“The fact that both assets are on the verge of breaking records in tandem signals broad market conviction, not just a single-asset rally,” he added. “Momentum this strong rarely burns out instantly, but it also tends to draw in latecomers who can fuel volatility. Right now the story is less about euphoria and more about validation. Crypto is graduating from ‘alternative’ to ‘essential’ in the global portfolio mix.”

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AI demand boosts iPhone maker Foxconn’s second-quarter profit by 27%, beating forecasts

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AI demand boosts iPhone maker Foxconn's second-quarter profit by 27%, beating forecasts

Foxconn Hon Hai Technology Group signage during the Nvidia GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in San Jose, California, US, on Thursday, March 20, 2025.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Taiwan’s Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics maker, reported Thursday that its second-quarter operating profit rose 27% year over year, on the strength of its growing artificial intelligence server business.

Here’s how Foxconn did in the second quarter of 2025 compared with LSEG SmartEstimates, which are weighted toward forecasts from analysts who are more consistently accurate:

  • Revenue: 1.79 trillion New Taiwan dollars ($59.73 billion) vs. NT$1.79 trillion
  • Operating profit: NT$56.596 billion vs. NT$49.767 billion

Second quarter revenue grew 16% from last year, coming in line with LSEG’s SmartEstimates. The company’s net profit for the second quarter came in at NT$44.36 billion, beating expectations of NT$38.81 billion.

Foxconn, formally called Hon Hai Precision Industry, is the world’s largest manufacturer of Apple’s iPhones, and has been looking to replicate its success in consumer electronics in the world of AI.

The firm manufactures server racks designed for AI workloads and has become a key partner to American AI chip darling Nvidia.

Sales of Foxconn’s server products made up the lion’s share of revenues in the second quarter at 41%, surpassing its smart consumer electronic products for the first time, which accounted for 35%.

In an earnings report, the company forecasted that its AI server business would continue to drive growth into the current quarter, with revenue expected to increase by over 170% year over year.

Foxconn said earlier this month that it expected overall revenue to grow further in the third quarter, but noted that the impact of “evolving global political and economic conditions” would be closely monitored.

At the end of July, Foxconn announced that it was taking a stake in industrial motor maker TECO Electric & Machinery in a strategic partnership to build more AI data centers.

The company has also shown its willingness to expand into new areas, including the assembly of electric vehicles and the manufacturing of semiconductors.

However, U.S. President Donald Trump’s global tariffs could impact Foxconn’s outlook this year. In response to Trump’s tariff threats, the company has already moved most of its final production of made-for-the-U.S. iPhones to India.

Taiwan has been hit with a 20% “temporary tariff” from the U.S., with trade negotiations said to be ongoing.

Last week, Trump also said he would impose a 100% tariff on imports of semiconductors and chips, but not on companies that are “building in the United States.”

While the details of these tariffs remain unclear, Foxconn Technology Co, a metal casing supplier owned by Hon Hai Precision Industry, announced plans to invest $1 billion in the U.S. over the next ten years as part of its North American expansion strategy, according to local media reports.

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