SharePlusShopify announced an expansion of its agentic commerce strategy, allowing shoppers to configure their AI agents to browse and purchase products directly. This update gives more artificial intelligence agents access to over a billion listings across Shopify's extensive catalog, signaling a major shift in online retail.
The rise of consumer AI agents, such as Meta's Muse, highlights a troubling trend in surveillance technology. These tools request deep access to personal data, including bank accounts, messages, and contacts, to provide autonomous convenience. However, this widespread data collection extends beyond the consenting user to include friends, family, and acquaintances. Critics warn that this mass harvesting of third-party data creates serious privacy concerns and forces an unfair tradeoff between digital convenience and personal security.
Instinct launched in August with an invite-only model, minimal marketing, and a simple text message-based interface for handling daily chores. Despite its quiet rollout, it quickly became a viral sensation in the AI community, recently achieving a remarkable $10 billion valuation. However, the landscape has shifted dramatically with the introduction of Muse and Dots from larger technology companies. Founder Noah Shinn remains confident, emphasizing that Instinct's singular focus on personal life assistance sets it apart from competitors serving a broader range of customers.
Instinct is expanding its AI agent capabilities to include collaborative group chats, enabling friends to plan trips, organize carpools, and coordinate events together. A standout feature of the launch is that the AI agent can participate in these group settings even if some participants do not have an Instinct account. The company emphasizes that user privacy and data security remain protected. Personal Instinct accounts are strictly siloed from the group chats, and individual agents must explicitly request user permission before sharing any personal information or taking external actions.