Tag: OpenAI

Tokyo , Japan – AI research organisation OpenAI has announced the establishment of a new office in Tokyo, Japan. This marks the first time OpenAI has opened an office in the Asian region. Moreover, it is also announced that they are releasing a GPT-4 custom model optimised for the Japanese language.

In a blog post by the company, it said that they are committed to collaborating with the Japanese government, local businesses, and research institutions in order to develop safe AI tools that serve Japan’s unique needs and to unlock new opportunities.

“We’re excited to be in Japan which has a rich history of people and technology coming together to do more. We believe AI will accelerate work by empowering people to be more creative and productive, while also delivering broad value to current and new industries that have yet to be imagined,” Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said.

As part of its Japan office opening, it has appointed Tadao Nagasaki as president of OpenAI Japan. In this new role, Nagasaki will lead the company’s commercial and market engagement efforts and help build its local team that will advance global affairs, go-to-market, communications, operations and other functions in serving Japan. 

“Our new local presence also gets us closer to leading businesses like Daikin, Rakuten, and TOYOTA Connected who are using ChatGPT Enterprise to automate complex business processes, assist in data analysis, and optimize internal reporting. ChatGPT also helps accelerate the efforts of local governments, such as Yokosuka City, which is leveraging the technology to improve the efficiency of public services in Japan,” the company said.

Singapore – The National Library Board has teamed up with LePub APAC to launch an innovative project called ‘Playbrary’ that turns books into games with the aim of reviving reading. 

In this game-changing initiative, books are literally transformed into interactive text adventure games, blending the timeless charm of storytelling with the engagement of digital gameplay. 

Through cutting-edge AI technology, Playbrary transforms conventional books into captivating text-based adventure games. Staying true to the book’s original storyline, these games offer dynamic interaction, enabling players to shape the narrative’s direction. Beyond adapting to player choices, the AI enriches the experience by generating vivid images to complement the text, resulting in a fully immersive and multisensory experience.

Playbrary is in partnership with OpenAI, integrating it seamlessly with ChatGPT and allowing users to engage with these literary adventures directly through the platform. 

Furthermore, Playbrary offers a free prompt generator, ensuring that everyone can enjoy the fusion of reading and gaming. Once kids ‘play’ a story, they can borrow the original from the National  Library Board, Singapore’s catalogue of books and eBooks. 

The Playbrary was born out of the challenge libraries globally face, which is keeping books relevant in an age dominated by digital distractions. More than just a digital library, Playbrary is an interactive journey through literature, where stories are not merely read but experienced. 

Moreover, beyond just entertainment, the initiative will also serve as an accessible educational tool for many. By gamifying the reading process, it presents a novel solution to the dwindling interest in traditional reading among younger generations. 

The National Library Board’s initiative hopes to solve the issue of younger generations losing interest in traditional reading.

Playbrary has the ability to turn any book in the public domain into a game since AI has read all of them already. With this, more than 1,000 classic books will be playable at launch, and LePub APAC is also inviting authors and publishers to add their books to Playbrary. 

Ng Cher Pong, chief executive officer of the National Library Board Singapore, said, “This is part of NLB’s ongoing efforts to make generative AI accessible to all. Our partnership with LePub APAC opens new, innovative ways for more people to read and learn. Through the gamification experience of Playbrary, we hope to encourage more Singaporeans to read these classics after playing the game. We also invite like-minded partners onboard to explore emerging technologies that inspire new ways of interaction with NLB’s resources, such as through GenAI.” 

Meanwhile, Cyril Louis, executive creative director at LePub APAC, shared, “As Playbrary begins its journey, it stands as a testament to Singapore’s innovative spirit and a potential beacon for the future of libraries in the digital age. Playbrary celebrates books through the lens of technology, inviting a new generation to rediscover the magic of stories in a format that resonates with their digital-first lifestyle. Once they’ve ‘played’ a story on Playbrary, many kids will be curious to read the original.” 

Hanh Kanssen, managing director at LePub APAC, also added, “Playbrary is an exciting project for LePub, which not only helps to rekindle a love for reading in young adults but is also a great educational resource. I am very proud of our great creative team behind this creation, who helped to make this project happen at the speed of light so that people all over the world can discover the joy of reading.” 

Singapore – Online fashion and lifestyle retail company Zalora, a part of Global Fashion Group (GFG), is adopting generative AI technology with the launch of its proprietary platform-as-a-service integration (PaaS) of OpenAI, TITAN. 

TITAN is used to drive new efficiencies in operations, improve online fashion customer experiences, and unlock growth opportunities for the company. It will also create more immersive and conversational online shopping experiences and data-driven recommendations for customers. 

Among the areas being powered by TITAN is its smart search discovery to handle a wider array of spelling variations and errors and better identify, present, and sort customers’ results, reducing the chances of experiencing zero search results. 

TITAN also powers their conversational shopping assistant, which includes smart prompts and improved real-time interactive features; their production automation to unlock automation across different functions and improve employee productivity gains; and their internal chatbots, which improve employee experience and productivity. 

Gunjan Soni, Zalora CEO and Global Fashion Group COO, said, “With a history of innovations under our belt, we are excited to embrace the future with Generative AI and leverage it to deliver the best ‘tailored for fashion’ e-commerce experience for our customers both during and post-purchase.With TITAN we will once again be the first in the region to offer these innovations to our growing loyal base.” 

Zalora’s drive to innovate is paired with the responsibility to safeguard the millions of customers it serves as well as their personal data. The company is committed to using AI and TITAN in a responsible way, having developed a series of principles to guide responsible innovation, and implementing several measures to protect customers’ data. 

Meanwhile, Sumit Jain, Chief Technology Officer at Zalora, also shared, “ZALORA is excited to leverage the potential of OpenAI via TITAN, our AI platform, to reimagine eCommerce and create a truly ‘wow’ customer experience. The future of retail will be driven by technology innovation, and the extent to which we prioritise ensuring a safe and seamless experience for customers.” 

“By building on OpenAI technology through our proprietary platform, TITAN, we intend to lead Fashion E-commerce innovation in maintaining a safe and seamless experience for customers and taking the online shopping experience to the next level,” he added. 

Zalora’s introduction of TITAN, its proprietary integration of OpenAI technology into its platform, comes alongside a series of new tech advancements the company plans to roll out this year. This includes the development of their conversational shopping assistant and Warehouse Management System (WMS), both of which are still in the early phases of development. 

TITAN will also serve as a gateway for ZALORA and its parent company, Global Fashion Group, to scale new heights in Southeast Asia and replicate this technology across the Group’s different regions, including Latin America, Australia, and New Zealand.

Singapore – Customer engagement platform Twilio announced that it will enable companies to create personalized, customer-aware experiences powered by OpenAI.

Through this integration, Twilio clients will be able to use OpenAI’s GPT-4 model to fuel new generative capabilities in ‘Twilio Engage’, the company’s multichannel marketing solution built on the segment customer data platform, as a result of this integration. 

This collaboration with OpenAI will formalize opportunities that many in Twilio’s community of more than 10 million developers have already been experimenting with. For instance, it’s possible to build a ChatGPT plugin for Twilio, which gives users the ability to access Twilio directly from ChatGPT’s interface, creating a new channel for brands to serve their customers better.

Furthermore, developers can create voice-activated chatbots, and feature capabilities can even range to build  serverless SMS chatbots. These builds validate the potential of OpenAI and Twilio’s ongoing and aligned efforts, and the value it can bring to customers looking to enhance customer engagement strategies.

Talking about the integration, Jeff Lawson, CEO of Twilio, said, “Experiences like ChatGPT are coming to the enterprise to power groundbreaking experiences in sales, service, content, marketing and more. Twilio CustomerAI enables companies to build customer-aware interactions – giving the language models context about the customer they’re helping. Without customer-awareness, any ChatGPT-like experiences would be generic and unhelpful. But with CustomerAI, companies can transform LLMs into the most helpful, knowledgeable agent imaginable at scale.”

Meanwhile, Brad Lightcap, COO of OpenAI, commented, “As AI drives down the cost of intelligence, it is increasingly possible for companies to deliver a deeply personalized experience for every customer. We know how much people want this, and we’re happy to be working with Twilio to bring it to the world. Twilio’s customer data platform will enable today’s and tomorrow’s large language models to unlock deep personalization at scale for every business.”

Singapore – Software-as-a-service (SaaS) company Zendesk has announced that it has integrated OpenAI across its software suite to expand AI-powered customer experiences for businesses.

At the moment, Zendesk has proprietary foundational models, which are customised and trained against decades of Zendesk customer experience (CX) data and industry-specific insights.

The combination of these models, Zendesk‘s industry-leading knowledge management solutions, and OpenAl enables businesses to save even more time by leveraging the power of generative Al to more effectively and efficiently resolve customer service cases. 

Moreover, the company’s software suite already includes many Al-powered CX features right out-of-the-box, such as conversational messaging, bots, knowledge management, advanced analytics, and self-service tools. The addition of OpenAl will provide businesses with a unique solution to enhance their customer experience and scale to levels that were previously unattainable. 

For Cristina Fonseca, head of Al at Zendesk, artificial intelligence can help business teams be more consistent, better understand customers, and derive insights from data.

“We provide the best Al tools that customers can start using in minutes. Our work with cutting-edge partners like OpenAl, helps us leverage the newest technology available to accelerate businesses’ ability to unlock the value of their customer interactions,” Fonseca said.

Mumbai, India – Software as a service (SaaS) company CleverTap has announced the integration of OpenAI with the CleverTap platform and the launch of its AI-generated content creator Scribe. This can generate campaign creatives, analyse emotions, and rewrite them keeping in mind a specific emotion that resonates with the brands’ users. 

The AI assistant can likewise interpret the emotion of messages and suggest the best alternative that users are more likely to engage with. Through Scribe, growth marketers can also auto-generate emotionally relevant copies and expedite content development by using just a few keywords. 

The technology also aims to enable brands and marketers to automatically determine the tone of their messages and leverage user engagement data based on emotion analysis to develop hyper-personalised content that is consistent with the brand and also resonates with the user. 

“Studies show that marketers only have 2 seconds to capture users’ attention in the digital realm. This gives marketers a very brief window to engage their users by tapping into the right emotions and AI enables brands to build these customized campaigns. These advancements in AI will open up the next frontier for marketers and bring back the ‘tech’ in MarTech,” said Jacob Joseph, vice president of data science at CleverTap.

He added, “We’re excited to launch Scribe – our very own OpenAI powered AI content creator to help our customers generate personalized, emotionally relevant messaging to stay connected with users and strengthen digital relationships.”

Scribe is currently available to CleverTap Enterprise Customers on an invite basis and will be rolled out to customers in April.

Previously, CleverTap has also launched CleverTap for Startups (C4S) that offers a full-stack retention platform to all smaller digital-native businesses that could assist in personalising and optimising all customer touchpoints.

Seattle, Washington – In addition to its artificial intelligence and machine learning-powered tools, global travel platform Expedia has announced the beta launch of its new in-app travel planning experience powered by AI chatbot ChatGPT. 

With the new feature, Expedia members can now start an open-ended conversation in the Expedia app and get recommendations on places to go, where to stay, how to get around, and what to see and do based on the chat. 

The new trip planning experience also brings in intelligent shopping by automatically saving hotels discussed in the conversation to a “trip” in the app, helping members stay organised and making it easier for them to start choosing dates, checking availability, and adding on flights, cars or activities.

Prior to this, Expedia built a plugin for ChatGPT that lets travellers start a conversation directly on the ChatGPT site and select the Expedia plugin to bring a trip to life, but the conversational trip planning is now brought directly in the Expedia app.

“Every great trip can be made or lost while planning and shopping. As the leader in travel tech, Expedia continues to build out the core operating system for the industry, constantly enhancing capabilities and making trip planning faster, simpler and even more informative,” said Peter Kern, vice chairman and CEO of Expedia Group.

Kern also mentioned that by integrating ChatGPT into the Expedia app and combining it with its other AI-based shopping capabilities such as hotel comparison, price tracking for flights and trip collaboration tools, the platform can now offer travellers an even more intuitive way to build their ‘perfect trip’.

This collaboration with OpenAI is currently in the beta testing phase, allowing Expedia to evolve the experience based on its app users’ feedback and interaction.

The conversational trip planning beta experience is rolling out globally in the English language on the Expedia iOS app.

Singapore – Customer relationship management (CRM) platform HubSpot has announced the launch of new AI-powered tools to aid its customers in saving time whilst creating better connections with their audiences.

The introduction of content assistant and ChatSpot.ai builds on HubSpot’s earlier investments in AI including conversation intelligence, data quality tooling, data enrichment, predictive AI, content optimisation, and more. Powered by OpenAI, content assistant and ChatSpot.ai create efficiencies for marketing, sales, and customer service professionals. 

The content assistant helps marketing and sales teams ideate, create, and share quality content in a matter of minutes. Some features include suggesting and generating a blog post about a product or service, writing other content for the business such as social media posts and web copy, and streamlining content marketing workflows into one place.

Meanwhile, ChatSpot.ai will help HubSpot customers complete a variety of tasks using a natural language chat-based user experience. Features include adding contacts and companies to the HubSpot CRM, creating custom reports related to marketing, sales and customer service, as well as drafting professional and effective sales emails personalised to the recipient.

Andy Pitre, EVP of product at HubSpot, said that the new products’ goal is to help companies connect more deeply with their customers. In addition, their new AI-powered content assistant will help their clients create quality content faster and easier, to better serve their customers.

“Advances in AI also have the potential to change the way people use and interact with software. We’re excited to launch ChatSpot.ai to experiment with how we can make our software even easier to use, and we’re inviting our customers to come along with us as we learn together,” Pitre said.