Happy holiday season!

We’re excited to share another milestone -- Here.Now.AI has over 20,000 subscribers! What began as a mission to democratize AI knowledge has grown into a thriving community of curious, forward-thinking readers like you.

A heartfelt thanks to all of you who’ve shared our newsletter and supported our journey. The AI revolution is just getting started, and we’re proud to be your go-to resource for navigating this exciting frontier.

This week, we’re diving into chatbot holiday helpers, a teen’s tech-driven calorie counter, AI’s shakeup in the workplace, and Google’s innovative twist on learning. Let’s get started!

AI Shopping

Struggling with gift ideas this holiday season? AI chatbots are stepping up to help with major retailers integrating these virtual assistants to make shopping easier, faster, and more personalized. 

Amazon’s Rufus was launched earlier this year to simplify product discovery and comparison. Shoppers can ask conversational questions like “What’s the best coffee maker?” and get tailored recommendations. A select group of shoppers can try a similar chatbot at Walmart.com focused on toys and electronics, signaling Walmart’s interest in AI-powered solutions. The AI-powered search tool, Perplexity, now offers curated shopping suggestions across multiple retailers, including Amazon and Best Buy.

You can even ask ChatGPT, Claude, or Google Gemini for ideas.

How AI chatbots are helping

• Spot trends: Ask for ideas like “What gifts are trending this year for under $50?” or “Suggestions for stocking stuffers?” to discover popular picks.

• Tailored suggestions: Try brainstorming for personalized gift ideas—think “gifts for my Dad who loves golf” or “age-appropriate video games for a 10-year-old.”

• Compare options: Make informed decisions with prompts like “Compare fitness trackers” or “Vitamix vs. Ninja Pro blender.”

• Order tracking: With e-commerce sites like Amazon, you can keep tabs on holiday deliveries by asking, “When will my charcuterie board arrive?”

Check out this ABC news report on how you can use AI to help find the lowest prices.

Just remember-- these chatbots aren’t foolproof. They can misinterpret your questions or get recommendations wrong. It’s best to use them as a guide only and double-check your sources.

AI Health & Wellness

A 17-year-old from Long Island, NY, has transformed a tedious, time-consuming task—calorie counting—into a sleek, multimillion-dollar business.

Already a proven entrepreneur (he sold a hugely successful gaming platform to a global giant earlier this year), Zach Yadegari is now the co-founder and CEO of Cal AI, a nutrition-tracking app that’s redefining the space with cutting-edge AI, user-friendly features, and a vibe tailor-made for the TikTok generation.

Cal AI eliminates the grind of manual food logging. Its AI-powered image recognition scans your plate and estimates nutritional content with 90% accuracy—outperforming nutrition labels, which can legally be off by up to 20%. 

But it doesn’t stop there. Cal AI uses an extensive food database and features barcode scanning, meal scanning, and natural language inputs.

Since launching in May 2024, the app has racked up 1 million+ downloads, $12 million in revenue, and a 17-person team. Not bad for six months of work.

Right now, Cal AI is geared towards the 15-25-year-old crowd, but the company is eyeing the “wellness curious” older crowd. (That’s us!) We’ll keep you posted on Cal AI’s development and Zach Yadegari — he’s clearly going places.

AI and Work

AI is no longer just a buzzword; it’s on the way to becoming one of the most powerful disruptors since the Industrial Revolution. Justin Wolfers, a professor of public policy and economics at the University of Michigan, recently spoke at the World Knowledge Forum about AI’s growing role in the workplace.

His insights reveal how AI is transforming our jobs and what we can do to thrive in this new reality. You can watch his presentation here.

According to Wolfers, AI isn’t just another technological advance; it’s a “machine of the mind” poised to transform cognitive work. This shift will affect knowledge-based jobs more deeply than blue-collar ones. Wolfers sees AI impacting jobs unevenly:

• At risk: Roles focused on tasks that AI excels at—translation, financial analysis, copyediting—are vulnerable.

• Safe (for now): Physical jobs like construction, cleaning, and food preparation are harder for AI to replace.

• By the numbers: 80% of U.S. workers have roles where AI could automate at least 10% of tasks; 50% are in jobs where AI could handle half or more.

The real issue isn’t AI itself—it’s who controls it. If AI is monopolized, economic benefits will skew heavily toward a few companies. Ensuring competition in AI development is critical to distributing its gains fairly.

Wolfers advises individuals to focus on the skills that AI complements rather than replaces, such as critical thinking and problem-solving.

His recommendations (and ours, by the way)?  Experiment daily with AI tools like ChatGPT to find new ways it can enhance your work. Instead of listing what AI can’t do, figure out how to make it work for you. The question isn’t whether AI will change our lives—it’s how quickly it will, and whether we’ll be ready to seize its opportunities.

AI Learning

Google is out with its newest AI experiment to help you explore topics in a more engaging way.

Powered by generative AI, LearnAbout doesn’t throw links or lists of facts at you. Instead, it creates a ‘customized feed’ that guides you through the material and offers a range of interactive content, suggested topics, and images and videos to enhance the learning experience.

How it works: you can go directly to the page and type your question or prompt. You can also upload an image. Answers include interactive learning cards covering "common misconceptions," "stop and think" exercises and quizzes to test your knowledge.

We tried our own experiment using the history of blue jeans. LearnAbout offered an interactive timeline, a short introduction to Levi Strauss and his business partner, Jacob Davis, and additional sections on ‘building your vocab” (indigo), exploring related content and prompts to help you ‘go deeper.’ For instance, Why were miners and laborers drawn to wearing blue jeans? and Why were rivets used in the construction of blue jeans?

Google acknowledges LearnAbout is a work in progress. While it promises a richer learning experience, the tool may not always provide accurate answers. But we think it’s worth a try anyway. It’s an experiment that hints at a new era of engaging, personalized education tools, designed to bring the joy back into learning.

AI in the News (in case you missed it)

• Amazon Is Building a Mega AI Supercomputer With Anthropic. Read here.

• AI can now create a replica of your personality. Read here.

• AI spurs 'revolution' for some visually impaired people. Read here.

• 'I was shocked': Doctor describes finding AI outperforms diagnoses by doctor. Watch here.

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Here.Now.AI Editorial team: Lori, Justin, and Lisa