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Shop With a Bot 🛒🤖
What’s Appening: ChatGPT Shopping, Flip Phones, iTunes, Cursor Code
Newsletter
April 29, 2025
SHOP TILL YOU DROP WITH OPENAI
👀 TLDR
In this week’s What’s Appening, we cover the new shopping tool in ChatGPT Search, offering access to products and reviews while remaining independent from ads, sponsored products, commisions, and the like. Can it challenge the models of Google and Amazon in how we shop online? We also have news on the return of the Motorola flip phone (with added AI), the bold claim from Cursor’s founder on code generation, and we wish a happy birthday to the platform that revolutionized digital music sales - iTunes.
🎬 Our Top Take
🛒 🤖 OpenAI – ChatGPT Shopping Challenges Google & Amazon Models
If you were to design the perfect online shopping tool, you’d probably say you wanted personalized recommendations and access to the best deals, all the while not being bombarded with sponsored products and affiliate marketing tricks. OpenAI thinks it can do the former two things (like Amazon and Google) without needing to do the latter (which Amazon and Google certainly do). The upgraded ChatGPT Search has a shopping tool that can help you find a bargain, understand your personal tastes (like if you have flat feel or a tight budget), and point you to trusted reviews, yet OpenAI claims it will all be “independent” from all the commission-chasing that blights the online shopping experience. It is quite appealing on paper, even if the shopping tool feels like it is in an early stage (OpenAI will add more features). It also shows a potential direction of travel for GPT Search, but can OpenAI, which famously bleeds money, resist the allure of Google’s ad-driven financial blueprint? It's an important question, not just for ChatGPT, but for all AI search tools going forward. #AIShopping Read more here.
🗣️ Poll: Would You Trust ChatGPT with Product Recommendations? |
📲 App of the Week: 1Password
Thursday is World Password Day, which usually acts as an annual reminder that we, the human race, collectively suck at good password management. That said, there is an app for that, a 3Advance fav, 1Password. It stores passwords securely in a digital “vault” using strong encryption, automatically fills in login forms on websites and apps, and generates strong, unique passwords so you don’t have to remember them. It also allows you to share access safely with your work team or family members. It’s still the best password manager in the business. Download 1Password for iOS here and Android here.
🧐 Stat of the Week: 1B LoC
📈📉 Cursor – Founder Makes Huge Claim About AI Code Creation
The founder of Cursor, which is an AI code editor platform (a rival to GitHub Copilot), made a huge claim on X yesterday, saying that the platform creates nearly one billion lines of accepted code daily. It caused a furor in the comments section, with some saying that the claim was preposterous, given that the entire open-source community on GitHub probably creates tens of millions of lines a day. Yet, there is some merit in the claim, as Cursor is the fastest-growing SaaS product in history. The more pertinent question is, how useful is the code? #CodeClaim Read more here.
🗞️ Other Stories
📞 Back to the Future. It might feel like “noughties” news, but Motorola’s Razr flip-phone is back, complete with AI features from some big hitters like Meta and Perplexity. Story is here. 🇬🇧 Productive Brits. A Google AI efficiency pilot program across the UK found that workers could save 122 hours per year using AI tools. Bosses will give them the saved days off, right? More here. | 🕵🏻♂️ Authenticity Drive. Some interesting things are happening with Adobe and LinkedIn, working on cross-platform partnerships to verify creators’ identities. Full explanation here. 🎂 HB, iTunes. On April 28, 2003, the iTunes store launched, allowing us to buy a song for $0.99. It still exists as part of Apple Music, but the blueprint it left for digital purchases is its legacy. Story here. |
📍 Meanwhile at 3Advance
We’re counting down to the Digital Irish Washington DC Community Launch Mixer this Thursday, May 1st! Digital Irish has been at it since 2013 - connecting Irish professionals, entrepreneurs, and startups. After successful launches in London and Sydney, we’re hoping to bring that energy to DC! This launch is all about founders, innovators, and Irish-connected supporters coming together to make connections, and maybe even collaborate too. We’re excited to be pushing Digital Irish here in DC, and can’t wait to see what comes of it. So if you’re Irish, or you’ve got an interest in all-or-some things Irish, come on down. ☘️
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