Need to Know News - February 6th, 2025
In this week's Need to Know News edition:
🤖 11x more dangerous? The disturbing warning about DeepSeek that's making some AI experts panic...
🤖 The AI assistant wars heat up: Amazon, Mistral, and X all drop major updates...
🤖 Fast food gets an AI upgrade: How 25,000 restaurants are being transformed overnight...
And whole lot more!
Amazon's AI Revamp of Alexa Assistant Nears Unveiling
Amazon is unveiling its AI-powered Alexa upgrade this February in New York. The revamp—its first major overhaul since 2014—lets Alexa handle complex conversations. It taps Anthropic's AI tech to remember preferences and act independently for users.
Want to modify that food delivery? Just ask. Amazon's rolling out free access to select users first. A $5-10 monthly subscription may follow later. Classic Alexa stays free, while the new version tackles AI hallucination risks.
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Google Opens its Most Powerful AI Models to Everyone
Google just opened its most powerful AI suite, Gemini 2.0, to the public. The release includes three models—Flash for high-volume tasks, Pro for coding, and Flash-Lite for budget efficiency. Flash costs 10 cents per million tokens. The cheaper Flash-Lite runs at less than a penny.
This rollout marks Google's push into AI agents—programs that handle complex tasks independently. Tech giants like Meta, Amazon, and OpenAI are racing to develop similar autonomous capabilities.
'AI in Marketing' Market Set to Explode
Yum Brands Becomes the Latest Fast-Food Company to Lean into AI
Yum Brands just launched Byte. This new AI platform is changing how 25,000 restaurants operate globally. The system handles everything from mobile ordering to kitchen management and employee tools. All U.S. Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut locations now use Byte's digital ordering.
Early results show AI-driven marketing doubled customer engagement. The company plans to expand to five more markets in 2025. CEO David Gibbs says building an in-house tech stack, rather than relying on third parties, removes business friction.
Adobe Touts Acrobat AI Assistant For Contracts
Most people sign contracts without reading them fully—Adobe wants to fix that. Their new Acrobat AI Assistant turns complex contracts into simple summaries. The tool spots key terms and explains them in plain language. Users can compare up to 10 contracts at once to find differences.
Every AI explanation comes with proof—just click to see where the information came from. The service costs $4.99 per month and works with both free and paid Acrobat versions. Adobe keeps user documents private and never uses them to train its AI. The tool is available now in English, with more languages coming soon.
Poshmark is Introducing AI-Generated Product Listings
Poshmark unveiled Smart List AI to automate product listings on its platform. The tool changes seller photos into detailed product descriptions. It includes brand, size, style, and color. Sellers must still set prices and verify listing accuracy. The iOS launch comes this February after successful beta testing. Poshmark joins eBay and other retailers embracing AI for e-commerce efficiency.
X Adds New Elements to Its Grok AI Chatbot
X is making its Grok AI chatbot more helpful by adding personal touches. Users can now tell Grok about themselves—their job, interests, and preferred names—to get more relevant answers.
The chatbot's newest feature lets users upload files for analysis, making it more useful for different tasks. These updates are part of X's push to add value for Premium subscribers. X is also launching a standalone Grok app soon, expanding how people can use the AI assistant.
Some Experts warn DeepSeek is 11 Times More Dangerous than Other AI Chatbots
DeepSeek is raising major security alarms. Tests show it's 11 times more likely to be exploited by criminals than other AI tools. The chatbot skipped safety checks 45% of the time. And it created guides for illegal weapons and crime planning.
Despite these risks, 12 million users downloaded DeepSeek in just two days. Countries are responding quickly—Taiwan banned it, Italy launched investigations, and NASA blocked it on federal devices. Security experts warn the tool can be tricked into creating malware and dangerous hacking tools.
IBM’s Arvind Krishna Is Betting on Specialized AI
While tech giants spend billions on do-it-all AI, IBM is taking a different path. The company builds smaller, focused AI tools for specific business needs—and the strategy is paying off. IBM's AI software sales jumped 10%, pushing its stock to an all-time high of $240 billion. CEO Arvind Krishna says recent news proves smaller
AI models can succeed at a fraction of the cost. IBM is also investing heavily in quantum computing. Krishna believes we will see major breakthroughs by 2030. He believes this could make IBM the industry leader again, just as it was with personal computers.
Mistral Releases its AI Assistant on iOS and Android
Europe's leading AI company, Mistral, just launched its chatbot Le Chat on phones. The app matches competitors with image creation and web search, while claiming to be the fastest AI assistant—writing up to 1,000 words per second. Its image quality stands out thanks to Black Forest Labs' Flux Ultra model.
A new Pro version costs $14.99 monthly and uses Mistral's best AI model. And unlike other AI assistants, Le Chat can work inside companies' own systems—making it attractive for banks and defense firms.
Thanks for reading.
Until next time!
The AI Marketers
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