Introducing shopping research in ChatGPT

In today’s email:

👀 Altman describes OpenAI’s forthcoming AI device as more peaceful and calm than the iPhone
🔮 New Apple study shows LLMs can tell what you’re doing from audio and motion data
☠️ Google begins showing ads in AI Mode (AI answers)
🧰 9 new AI-powered tools and resources. Make sure to check the online version for the full list of tools.

Introducing shopping research in ChatGPT

Key Takeaway: OpenAI is adding a new “shopping research” mode to ChatGPT that does deep, personalized product research for you—turning messy online shopping into a guided conversation and tailored buyer’s guide.

More Insights:

New “shopping research” experience lets you describe what you want (budget, use case, preferences), then builds a curated buyer’s guide instead of just listing links.
It pulls live data from across the web—prices, availability, specs, reviews, and images—and lets you refine results with feedback like “more like this” or “not interested.”
Available on web and mobile for logged-in Free, Go, Plus, and Pro users, with nearly unlimited usage through the holidays (and integrated into ChatGPT Pulse for Pro).
Powered by a special GPT-5 mini model trained with reinforcement learning specifically for shopping, tuned to read trusted sites, compare options, and meet detailed constraints.
Results are organic (no paid placement), chats aren’t shared with retailers, but users are warned to double-check final details like price and stock on the merchant’s site.

Why it matters: As search, shopping, and AI blend together, this shifts power from “who shouts loudest on page 1 of search results” to “who best understands what you actually need”—and that could quietly rewrite how we discover products, how brands compete, and how much mental energy we spend just trying to buy a vacuum.

Join Derek Jeter and Adam Levine

They’re both investors in AMASS Brands. And you can join them. Why invest? Their rapid growth spans everything from organic wine to protein seltzers. So with consumers prioritizing health in the $900B beverage market, it’s no surprise AMASS earned $80M+ already, including 1,000% year-over-year growth. They even reserved the Nasdaq ticker $AMSS. Become an AMASS shareholder and secure limited-time bonus stock by Dec. 4.

Invest in AMASS Brands Now

_{This is a paid advertisement for AMASS’s Regulation CF offering. Please read the offering circular at}_{https://invest.amassbrands.com}

Altman describes OpenAI’s forthcoming AI device as more peaceful and calm than the iPhone

Key Takeaway: OpenAI’s upcoming, Jony Ive–designed AI device is a simple, screenless, pocket-sized gadget meant to feel peaceful and context-aware, in stark contrast to the noisy, distracting world of smartphones.

More Insights:

Sam Altman says people’s first reaction to the device is: “That’s it? It’s so simple.”
The hardware is a collaboration between OpenAI and legendary ex-Apple designer Jony Ive, following OpenAI’s acquisition of Ive’s startup, io.
Altman compares today’s devices to walking through Times Square — constant notifications, noise, and distraction.
The new device is meant to feel like “a cabin by a lake” — calm, filtered, and only surfacing information at the right time.
Ive says the goal is something almost naive in its simplicity: a sophisticated tool you can use “almost without thought,” with no intimidation.

Why it matters: If this works, it could mark the start of a post-smartphone era where our primary device isn’t a slot machine in our pocket but a trusted, quiet assistant that knows when to speak and when to shut up—forcing us to ask whether “more screen, more apps, more alerts” was progress or just very profitable chaos.

Character.AI is cutting off access for teens, citing mental-health concerns

Key Takeaway: Character AI is cutting off open-ended chatbot access for under-18s after teen suicides and addiction concerns, leaving many teens grieving the loss of what felt like real friends, and exposing how emotionally powerful—and risky—AI companions have become.

More Insights:

Character AI introduced a two-hour daily limit for minors in November, and is now fully blocking ongoing chats for under-18 users, citing mental-health and safety concerns.
The move follows at least two teen suicides linked to use of the app and growing scrutiny from regulators, parents, and mental-health experts.
Many teens say their bots were sources of comfort, creativity, and emotional support when they couldn’t talk to friends, family, or therapists—some literally cried for days over losing them.
Company leaders found that long, open-ended chats made it harder for safety rules to hold, and that teens often pushed conversations into risky or restricted topics.
While some adults welcome the ban as overdue (and admit they feel addicted themselves), teens now face a painful transition from AI companions back toward real-world connections and support systems.

Why it matters: This isn’t just about one app; it’s a preview of a future where people form deep emotional bonds with algorithms, and we have to decide how much “perfectly responsive” companionship is healthy before it quietly replaces real relationships, resilience, and the messy human stuff we actually need.

Other stuff

Google begins showing ads in AI Mode (AI answers)
An MIT Student Awed Top Economists With His AI Study—Then It All Fell Apart
OpenAI learned the hard way that Cameo trademarked the word ‘cameo’
Google tells employees it must double capacity every 6 months to meet AI demand
New Apple study shows LLMs can tell what you’re doing from audio and motion data
Trump aims to boost AI innovation, build platform to harness government data

Win 1 year free Superpower ChatGPT Pro🤑

Take ChatGPT to the next level 🎉

Add folders and subfolders, prompt manager, prompt optimizer, image gallery, side-by-side voice mod, PDF export, reference chats, chat notes, and many more features.