 |
|
|
|||||
Think youve got game? Time to put it to the test with Tinders latest launch in collaboration with OpenAI. On Tuesday, Tinder rolled out The Game Gamea new experience designed to help users practice their flirting skills by chatting with an AI voice, powered by OpenAIs GPT-4o model. Players are dealt a stack of virtual cards, each introducing a different AI persona and a hilariously exaggerated rom-com scenario (think: a luggage mix-up at the airport or accidentally crushing someones sunglasses on the beach). Your challenge? Charm your way through it. The bot makes the first move, and users respond in real timeearning feedback on their game as they go. Nail the convo, land a date, and you win. But dont get too cozy with your digital crush: Each session is capped at three minutes, and users are limited to five plays per dayjust in case you forget Tinder is still about connecting with real people. While The Game Games April 1 launch date might raise eyebrows, its no prankits just not that serious. Using speech-to-speech AI, the game delivers absurdly funny scenarios designed to make you laugh more than sweat. Our Future of Dating report found that 64% of young singles are totally fine with a little cringe if it leads to a real connection, Hillary Paine, Tinders VP of product, growth, and revenue, tells Fast Company. We didnt want it to feel overly polished or intense. Instead, we leaned into humor, awkwardness, and low-pressure moments to help users practice flirting in a fun, playful, and judgment-free way. Tinder has built in safeguards to ensure that conversations stay appropriate and follow community guidelines. And no, theyre not trying to create an AI companion (this isnt Her). The goal is to blur the line between the digital and the real worldsomething Tinder has been exploring with events like the Single Summer Series, Chaotic Singles Party, and Swipe Off. According to a Forbes Health survey, 79% of Gen Z reported feeling dating-app burnout in 2023. Tinder is betting that a little fun might just reignite the spark. Our mission has always been to spark real connections by making dating feel less like a chore and more like something to look forward to, Paine says. At a launch event hosted at OpenAIs New York City office, I got to try The Game Game myself. Lets just say my gym meet-cute didnt exactly end in a rom-com-style kiss in the rain. Humbling, to say the least. The Game Game is now live for U.S. Tinder users on iOS for a limited time.
Category:
E-Commerce
Gadgets sold without batteries. Toys sold in slimmed-down boxes or no packaging at all. More household goods that shoppers need to assemble themselves. These are some of the ways consumer product companies are retooling their wares to reduce costs and avoid raising prices as President Donald Trump levies new import taxes on key trading partners as well as some materials used by American manufacturers. The economic environment in which the president has imposed, threatened and occasionally postponed repeated rounds of tariffs is more precarious than during his first term. U.S. consumers are feeling tapped out after several years of inflation. Businesses say tariffs add to their expenses and eat into their profits, but they are wary of losing sales if they try to pass all of the increase on to customers. Instead, some companies are exploring cost-cutting options, both ones that consumers likely would notice in time remember shrinkflation? and ones that exist too far down the supply chain for them to see. The changes may help minimize price increases, yet won’t be enough in every case to offset them completely. These are some of the strategies retailers and brands have in mind: A kink in the supply chain After putting an extra 20% tariff on all goods from China, as well as a 25% tariff on imported steel, aluminum and automobiles, Trump said he would announce on Wednesday the targets of reciprocal tariffs that mirror the taxes all other nations apply to certain U.S. exports. He argues the tariffs will spur domestic manufacturing, among other goals. Also on the horizon: twice-delayed tariffs on most goods from Canada and Mexico, and duties on copper, lumber and pharmaceutical drugs. Kimberly Kirkendall, president of supply-chain consulting firm International Resource Development, has told clients U.S. makers of shelving, home goods and food products that given all the uncertainty, this is not the time for long-term moves like seeking factories outside of China. She encouraged them to focus on the short term, particularly the need to scrutinize product lines from every angle for possible savings. Youve got to collaborate and work together with your suppliers in this situation to be able to bring costs down,” Kirkendall said. Sourcing concerns are not only a worry for big companies that rely on Chinese manufacturers. Sasha Iglehart, founder of a small online clothing company called Shirt Story, has a collection of upcycled mens shirts that sell for around $235. She said she typically gets her vintage buttons from an Austrian supplier and knows Trump has talked about taxing goods from the European Union. I will continue to look for local vendors and collectors here in the States as back up, said Iglehart, whose company is based in Connecticut. Reworking a product For many companies, evaluating which components or details they can remove from their products or replace with less expensive ones is the go-to move for absorbing the potential financial hit from tariffs. Los Angeles-based toy company Abacus Brands Inc., which designs science kits and other educational toys, has most of its products made in China. By using slightly thinner paper in an 80-page project book that comes with two of its kits, the company expects to avert a $10 retail price increase, President Steve Rad said. Three or 4 cents here, Rad said. Seven or 6 cents there. Two more pennies over there. All of a sudden, you’ve made up the difference. Aurora World Inc., known for its plush pets and toy vehicles, is looking at using fewer paint colors as a way to counteract tariff costs, according to Gabe Higa, managing director of the California company’s toy division. All of Aurora World’s toys come from factories in China. This is something that makes it a little bit simpler so that theres less manual labor involved or less material cost, Higa said. (It) doesn’t have a lot of incremental value so it’s easy to take away. The company still may have to raise prices as long as the new tariffs are in effect, he said. Economy packaging Tweaking or reducing product packaging is another area where importers may cut back and carries the advantage of possibly appealing to eco-conscious customers. Basic Fun CEO Jay Foreman, whose company markets classic toys like Tonka trucks, Lincoln Logs and Care Bears, said he is presenting retailers with three different packaging options and asking them to decide which ones they prefer for the trucks and some other products that will be in stores next spring. The first is the current packaging, which consists of a box with a big open window that lets customers see what’s inside. The second option: no box, just a tray attached to the bottom of toys to hold them in place on shelves. The third: unwrapped but affixed with a simple paper price tag that features brand information. The second-tier packaging would reduce the toy company’s cost per item by $1.25, and the package-free version would yield savings of $1.75, Foreman said. Both would diminish the appeal of the products and would not come close to canceling out the tariff on goods made in China, Foreman said. He said he would make pricing decisions later this week after Trump provides details about his planned reciprocal tariffs. To further reduce its production costs, Abacus Brands is thinking of switching from plastic to cardboard for the package inserts that keep toy parts in place. Cardboard trays cost 7 cents per unit compared to 30 cents for the plastic version, according to Rad. The change requires finding a new factory to make the inserts, a move that did not make financial sense before now, he said. The various tariff-related modifications should be effective for fall and holiday deliveries to stores, Rad said. The compromises were making are things that do not matter to the consumer, he said. Forget the extras Shoppers will likely have to assemble more of their products at home as companies look to reduce shipping costs, according to Kirkendall of International Resource Development. One of her clients manufactures self-watering planters that are made in China. The product is undergoing a redesign so it can be shipped as seprate nesting components instead of fully assembled. Companies also are reevaluating the pieces of their products that are essential or extra. Chris Bajda, managing partner at online wedding gift retailer Groomsday, said accessories like batteries and decorative gift boxes may end up in the latter category. We now carefully assess whats truly necessary and avoid including items that dont serve a functional purpose for the customer, Bajda said. The return of shrinkflation? Reducing the size or weight of products without lowering prices proliferated as a business practice from 2021 through 2024 as companies grappled with rising costs for ingredients, packaging, labor and transportation. Edgar Dworsky, a consumer advocate and former assistant attorney general in Massachusetts, suspects the makers of consumer goods will embrace shrinkflation again to hide costs given the blast of new tariffs. The additional import tax on Canadian soft lumber, for example, might show up in smaller toilet paper rolls, he said. Shrinkflation has been a little quiet in the last few months, Dworksy said. But I would expect to see both price increases and product shrinkage.” Anne D’Innocenzio, AP retail writer
Category:
E-Commerce
NFL games are slow. Theyre 11 minutes of actual action, spread across a 3-hour-and-12-minute broadcast. You can blame that pace of the game on penalties, injuries, and, of course, commercials. But now, the NFL is teaming up with Sony to fix one of the games biggest time sinks: measurements. Beginning with the 2025 NFL season, all 32 teams will switch from human measurements to computer automation. Each stadium will be equipped with six 8K Sony Hawk-Eye cameras that track the position of the ball on the field. Its a significant upgrade to century-old technology. Chains have been used to measure the position of the football since they were first introduced in 1898, when rules mandated the ideal tool for measuring progress down the field was two light poles about six feet in length and connected at the lower ends by a stout cord or chain exactly five yards long. By 1906, the five-yard standard in football switched to its current ten-yard mandate, and the chain has gone relatively changed since. [Photo: Sony] Now, Sony cameras will replace the chain operatorswhat can frankly feel like an antiquated tool in the days of slow-motion replays and 3D recreations of the field. While the cameras are installed at stadiums locally, all the footage will be sent to New York, where digital calls are coordinated by the NFL’s Art McNally GameDay Central Officiating Center. Whereas it could take as long as 70 seconds for chains to measure the position of the ball, Sonys cameras do the job in 30. When that 40 seconds of savings is multiplied across the 153 average plays in a football game, thats a wild 102 minutes in savings. The game length appears to be cut in half. [Photo: Sony] Of course, all sorts of other things happen during those lengthy chain measurements. Every NFL broadcast is a masterclass in managing these logistics, juggling elements of the games narrative (wait, what penalty just happened?) and commercial cutaways (billionaire owners dont do this for charity). And so its unclear how much time these new automated measurements might actually save you on a Sunday afternoon this fall. While weve reached out to the NFL to clarify this point, is it too soon to bring up another sore point of fandom? Because in the face of so much amazing automated technology, the MLB is facing its own reckoning with the home plate umpire. This evolution certainly makes sense: I can see those strikes and balls better from my couch than they can from behind the batter! But at the same time, professional sports imbued with automated visual processing will face a tricky balance. While automation may improve the flow and accuracy of calls on the field, robots offer little in terms of suspenseful drama.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||