Monthly Archives: October 2025

Pinterest has its own AI assistant now

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Pinterest is adding a new way to find clothes, furniture and other sources of aesthetic inspiration through its app. It's called Pinterest Assistant, and it's an AI-powered search and recommendation tool that uses knowledge of your Pinterest activity to tailor its responses.

Whereas other search features work best when you have a specific thing you're looking for in mind, Pinterest says the Pinterest Assistant is meant to handle more open-ended requests. Asking for pillows that match your "living room decor" is supposed to be enough for the AI to surface interesting results. To do that, the Pinterest Assistant looks at the items you've saved and the boards you've created (for example, a board full of living room decor inspiration), compares it with the things Pinterest users with similar taste have saved and displays visual results tailored to you.

Three screenshots showing the Pinterest Assistant mic icon, what you see when you dictate a prompt and results provided by Pinterest Assistant.
You start a search with Pinterest Assistant by tapping on the mic icon.
Pinterest

Pinterest appears to be specifically interested in the multimodal aspect of this new feature. The main way the company imagines you'll interact with Pinterest Assistant is via a mic icon in the Pinterest app that starts a voice search. The AI assistant then takes that audio prompt and uses it to filter and analyze visual content to find the best fit. Besides surfacing items you might not have found on your own, Pinterest says the whole process should be "closer to how people shop in real life."

Rolling out its own AI features puts Pinterest in an interesting place when it comes to AI content on its platform. Users have complained that the growing amount of AI-generated material on Pinterest has made it hard to find real things to buy or add to a board. In May, the company started labeling AI content in the app to make finding real items easier, and earlier in October it added a way to "dial down" the amount of AI generated content users see in the app. Pinterest Assistant isn't necessarily a solution for an AI slop problem the company is struggling to solve, but it might help users who are sick of sifting through AI content anyway.

Pinterest Assistant begins rolling out in beta today to users in the US who are 18 and over, with wider availability coming in the next weeks and months.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/pinterest-has-its-own-ai-assistant-now-160000183.html?src=rss

Threads is making it easier to hide replies you don’t like

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Social media conversations can be vastly more enjoyable when you pick and choose who you're talking with. Today, Threads is adding more controls that let users determine who can reply to their posts. 

One new feature is Reply Approvals, where the user will get a first look at responses before allowing them to appear publicly. The approval option can be turned on for individual posts rather than as a blanket policy for more granular control over replies. Threads is also adding new filters for viewing post replies. Now you can look at replies just from other Threads users you follow or sort them by mentions.

Threads has already had a busy week. Earlier this week, the social network introduced its take on ephemeral "ghost" posts, akin to the limited-time visibility features on Instagram Stories and many other platforms. According to parent company Meta's third-quarter earnings call, Threads has grown to 150 million daily active users.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/threads-is-making-it-easier-to-hide-replies-you-dont-like-154500456.html?src=rss

Lexus LS Van Concept is a future-ready motorhome for digital nomads

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Lexus is retiring the LS sedan after 2026, marking more than three decades of trust and user convenience. The Japanese luxury brand has not, however, given up on the LS moniker as it debuts a trio of concepts at the Tokyo auto show that includes a six-wheeled van, a self-driving three-wheeled robotaxi concept for cities, a larger-than-life catamaran, and a more conventional coupe.

None of these concepts is slated for a production run anytime soon, and the idea here looks to preserve the legacy of the LS division, which has served the brand well all these years. Toyota’s luxury brand debuted these interesting creations at the mega auto show with positive response from automotive pundits and motorheads alike.

Designer: Lexus

LS Van Concept

Lexus sells vans in the Asian and European markets, but not yet in the American market. The LS Van Concept takes that idea to the next level with a design that reassures its usefulness for digital nomads. The LS here signifies the Large Space aesthetic of the van, complemented by the luxury amenities that’ll never leave anyone longing for more. The vehicle has six wheels courtesy of an extra axle, giving the van more room for increasing the interior space. That means the vehicle can easily accommodate four to six people on extended adventure trips. In the relaxed mode, the two front seats can be rotated to face the rear for a more socializing layout when parked.

Rather than being a four-door saloon, the van is stretched out to revive the charm of spacious vans. The sliding door opens to reveal the interior space that is unlike any Lexus before this one. The airy cabin has large windows and a couple of skylights that are adjacent to each other for a panoramic view outside and to enjoy the night sky in its full glory. The seating configuration inside can be done in multiple configurations, including the large captain-styled seats or the reclining bench layout that can double as a nighttime sleeper for an adult. Up front, the luxury van has a curved digital display behind the yoke steering, which shows all the vitals HUD elements.

LS Micro Concept

The LS Micro Concept is a single-seater, three-wheeled commuter tailored for tight spaces. To make the city travel a less stressful experience, the vehicle is self-driving and seems less likely to enter the production lines anytime in the future. The inside cabin can be opened up when there is more space freedom, but in the normal configuration, the vehicle seems quite claustrophobic.

It’s more like a moving pod that’s loaded with a business-class-seat layout, much like the other Lexus cars. Unlike the LS Van, this one has a very closed configuration, with blacked-out translucent windows that signify the privacy aesthetic of the car. The trike is more suited to individuals who like to move solo and prefer a private setup to not get disturbed by the bustle of the city.

The post Lexus LS Van Concept is a future-ready motorhome for digital nomads first appeared on Yanko Design.

SanDisk’s microSD Express card for the Switch 2 is cheaper than ever thanks to this early Black Friday deal

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If you already picked up a Switch 2, you're probably looking for deals that can help you kit out your new console without spending too much money. While maybe not the most exciting thing, a microSD Express card will be a key component for long-term gaming bliss. SanDisk's 256GB microSD Express Card for the Switch 2 is on sale for the first time ahead of Black Friday, down to $60 right now. This model is also available in storage sizes of 128GB and 512GB, but at the moment, only the 256GB model has a discount.

This particular model easily made our list of the best microSD cards for the Nintendo Switch 2. It even made our list of the best Switch 2 accessories. It just gets the job done. We loved the speed on offer here. It was the fastest of all the cards we tested when transferring games and loading games.

We also found that it performed admirably at just about every test we threw at it. The card was always consistently right near the top, thanks to outstanding sequential read and write performance. This was backed up by benchmark testing with PC tools like CrystalDiskMark.

The Switch 2 only works with SD Express cards, so this covers that. Luckily, this card isn't just for Nintendo's latest console. It'll work with just about everything, if you ever find it outstays its usefulness as a storage container for Mario and friends.

A couple of other microSD Express cards are also on sale at the moment: PNY's 128GB card is down to $40 and the 512GB Lexar Play Pro microSD Express card has dropped to $105.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/sandisks-microsd-express-card-for-the-switch-2-is-cheaper-than-ever-thanks-to-this-early-black-friday-deal-151331021.html?src=rss

AI Agents, LLMs & Economic Growth : Karpathy’s Surprising Predictions

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AI Agents, LLMs & Economic Growth : Karpathy’s Surprising Predictions

What if the most profound insights from a 2.5-hour conversation with one of AI’s brightest minds weren’t the ones making headlines? Andrej Karpathy, a co-founder of OpenAI and a leading voice in artificial intelligence, recently shared his thoughts on the state of AI during a podcast with Dwarkesh Patel. While much of the buzz has […]

The post AI Agents, LLMs & Economic Growth : Karpathy’s Surprising Predictions appeared first on Geeky Gadgets.

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