Supermarket Swag

Check out ALDI Australia’s latest move – they’re diving into the fashion scene with their very own streetwear collection, ALDImania, landing in the middle aisles at your nearest Aldi Supermarket on Saturday, April 13th.

Renowned for its budget-friendly approach, ALDI is cashing in on Australia’s love affair with the German supermarket brand – and with nabbing a bargain – by offering Aussies the chance to score all the essentials for kicking back in style without busting your budget.

The ALDImania collection boasts 23 items, all priced under $20, including slides, socks, bucket hats, fleece hoodies and trackpants, and crisp white sneakers. Shoppers can expect a mix of comfort and style, with options to suit various tastes and preferences.

Belinda Grice, ALDI Australia’s Buying Director for ALDImania says it’s all about giving Aussies quality threads that won’t cost an arm and a leg, with the collection incorporating sustainably sourced or recycled materials for mix-and-match styling.

If you’ve got your eye on scoring the whole kit, ALDI is also giving away five complete sets of the merch (plus you can check out the gear) via the ALDI Australia Facebook Group so you can do your groceries in style. The competition opens on April 3.

Virtual Stylist

Google has introduced a new feature (currently only available for US shoppers), allowing them to rate items with thumbs up or thumbs down icons in search results – similar to how you might do for Netflix. This feature, called Style Recommendations, aims to help users find more of the products they like by learning their preferences.

Shoppers can refine their searches and specify preferred brands, leading to more tailored results. Additionally, Google has implemented AI tools like image generation for finding similar items and virtual try-on features for clothing.

These innovations follow the trend of e-commerce platforms using AI to enhance the shopping experience, with Amazon also adopting similar tools. However, despite the potential benefits, there are concerns about the accuracy and clarity of AI-powered shopping features.

Google’s been experimenting with some new AI tools. Back in November, they tested out an image generator on their Search Generative Experience which spits out images of jackets and other clothes that match what you’re looking for based on your prompts. They also tested a virtual try-on allowing you to see how clothes will look on real human models, with the ability to select models with different skin tones, ethnicities, hair types, and body shapes. They’ve got models ranging from XXS to 4XL, so you can find one that matches your own body type and ideally get a realistic idea of how clothes will fit and look on them before making a purchase. Both features are now live on Google Shopping.

Musky Business

Elon Musk has announced that his artificial intelligence company xAI is gearing up to release its chatbot Grok-1.5 to the public sometime this week. This chatbot, which has recently become open-source, is set to enter the competitive AI chatbot market. Musk hinted at the development of Grok 2 as well.

Grok 1.5 comes with enhanced capabilities, including improved reasoning and the ability to handle longer contexts, with a capacity of 128,000 tokens. Musk seems confident that Grok 2, currently in development, will surpass existing AI models in performance.

Musk launched xAI in July last year to compete with OpenAI. The first version of Grok was released in November, and Musk quickly merged his AI firm with the social media platform X. Initially, Grok was exclusive to X Premium+ users, but Musk announced plans to open-source it to all users in March.

The AI chatbot landscape has been bustling with activity, especially since the introduction of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in November 2022, followed by Google’s Bard in March 2023. However, Google’s subsequent release, Gemini, faced criticism due to inaccuracies in generated images, prompting Musk to criticise Google’s AI arm on his social media platform X, branding it as “racist.”

How does Grok differ from ChatGPT?

Well, Grok has access to real-time info via the X platform, plus it will answer “spicy” questions rejected by most other AI systems – that is, it will deliver some humour and wit in its answers, and provide answers to more controversial questions.

It’ll be fascinating to see how xAI’s Grok performs amidst stiff competition, especially with the decline in X’s users since Musk’s acquisition of the app formerly known as Twitter.

Will you give it a go?

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