Author: Geek Planet

A personal hobby of mine is to ask two different chatbots the same question and see which one provides the best response. Like a professor quizzing students (which I sometimes do in real life as a volunteer), I evaluate whether the bot is hallucinating and making up facts or whether it provides an intelligent and coherent answer that is actually useful. “Intelligence” and “coherence” are not the words I’d use to describe what chatbots have usually generated when it comes to images. Known as AI slop, these strange concoctions — often with a blurred background, a perfect human with coiffed…

Supply-side platforms (SSPs) were originally built as publisher advocates. Their job was straightforward: get impressions into the market and take a cut. Then they decided to work with advertisers, a move that never sat easily with the publishers who built their ads businesses on them. The contradiction was obvious. An outfit meant to push prices up for sellers was now courting buyers trained to push them down.  SSPs brushed off the tension, arguing that better data and smarter buying would lead to higher publisher revenue. OpenX leaned into that pitch more than most, and the bet appears to be paying off. …

A recent prediction in a Fast Company article raised some eyebrows in the HR profession, proposing that by 2026 the traditional HR director title will begin to give way to another executive role: chief productivity officer.Rather than simply merging HR and IT, the newly created position of CPO (not to be confused with the already common chief people officer) is envisioned as the leader who orchestrates people and technology together to drive business outcomes. Moderna and the British government are among early adopters, but does the shift make sense for most other organizations? Some people management experts say yes — if…

LG has unveiled a new lineup of UltraGear evo gaming monitors that lean hard into two broader themes: higher resolutions and intense AI upscaling. The new lineup consists of three models: the 39-inch 5K2K OLED gaming monitor, another 52-inch 5K2K 240Hz gaming monitor, and the 27-inch 5K mini-LED monitor. To begin with, the 39-inch GX9 (39GX950B) is a curved OLED monitor that offers “5K-class clarity without requiring GPU upgrades,” which is the brand’s way of saying it’s gone all-in on AI upscaling. With real-time upscaling, AI Scene Optimization, and AI Sound, the monitor not only refines visuals but also audio.…

Guitar Center CEO Gabe Dalporto admits the chain’s store experience has had plenty of room for improvement. Some employees may know one genre or instrument type inside and out, but are deficient in other areas. Customers may walk into the store wanting an employee to help them, only to find the entire staff preoccupied with helping other customers. Or, in the past, store associates would spend a lot of time taking studio photos of used guitars to sell or manually processing sales-tax-free transactions. Dalporto sees AI as a key part of the company’s toolkit in addressing some of the challenges…

The e-commerce giant Amazon has announced a major expansion of its AI-based assistant, Alexa+, adding several third-party integrations. The assistant can now handle real-world tasks, such as booking travel tickets or reservations, hiring services, ordering food, and managing payments, all via natural language commands. The first wave of partners includes Expedia (travel planning and bookings), Yelp (local business information), Angi (home repairs and professional services), and Square (digital payments). Why Alexa+ finally feels useful So, instead of juggling multiple apps to do all these things, users can simply ask Alexa+ to do the work for them. For instance, one can…

As generative AI alters the algebra around advertising creative, more CMOs hope to lean on science, rather than art, to judge the value of campaign assets and drive media efficiency.British health and beauty retailer Boots has been working with creative data platform CreativeX to pool results from different third-party creative measurement tools and better monitor the value its ads are generating. The aim is to eliminate poorly performing creative assets before they go out, and boost high performing ones in ongoing campaigns, said Peter Grant, head of media effectiveness, Boots U.K. “The proliferation of digital content continues at pace. We…

The Korean tech giant Samsung has quietly rolled out a new AI-powered feature on Samsung TV Plus, focusing solely on one thing: old K-dramas. It has launched a dedicated channel that streams classic Korean dramas from the 2000s, but there’s a twist: they’re being upscaled to 4K using Samsung’s AI video processing technology. Instead of remastering each show (which would take an immense amount of time and resources), Samsung is applying its on-device AI upscaling technology across the entire channel, cleaning up old Korean dramas in real time. Making old shows watchable on big 4K screens So, expect to see…

Programmatic marketers may not understand AI but they’re even more unsure of themselves. That was the undercurrent at this week’s Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit in New Orleans.  Onstage discussions, offstage pow wows and the usually candid town halls all pointed to the same tension: everyone talking about AI, yet few felt equipped to shape what comes next. The dynamic landed with real force. This moment isn’t about automation muscling out humans. It’s about a shift in which influence sits — technical literacy is the real source of value. “We’re at an inflection point,” said Doug Paladino, head of programmatic at PMG. “Things…

Samsung is celebrating the finale of Netflix’s hit series Stranger Things with some cool new customization options for your Galaxy phone. Fans can now grab a free theme and wallpapers inspired by the show, bringing its iconic eerie vibe straight to their devices. The new Stranger Things theme and wallpapers are available through the Galaxy Store in 186 countries, but users have to download or launch the Netflix app to claim them. The collection is based on the fifth and final season of the franchise, and includes five wallpapers featuring fan-favorite characters and memorable settings from the show. Samsung says…