Author: NY TIMES

Amazon entered the consumer chatbot fray on Thursday, announcing a new artificial intelligence personal shopping assistant as the company races to catch up with other tech giants.Customers can ask the tool, Rufus, product questions directly in the search bar of the company’s mobile app, Amazon said in a blog post. The A.I. will then provide answers in a conversational tone. The examples provided in the announcement included comparing different kinds of coffee makers, recommendations for gifts and a follow-up question about the durability of running shoes.Rufus will be available starting on Thursday to a “small subset of customers,” according to…

The doctor is in. So is the yogi.A sharp shift in health care is taking place as more than one-third of American adults now supplement or substitute mainstream medical care with acupuncture, meditation, yoga and other therapies long considered alternative.In 2022, 37 percent of adult pain patients used nontraditional medical care, a marked rise from 19 percent in 2002, according to research published this week in JAMA. The change has been propelled by growing insurance reimbursement for clinical alternatives, more scientific evidence of their effectiveness and an increasing acceptance among patients.“It’s become part of the culture of the United States,”…

Venisha Jardin, 17, said she appreciated that Ms. Swift had spoken out in the past about some political matters, but that her endorsements had not swayed her opinions. (Ms. Jardin, from Florida, will turn 18 just a few weeks too late to vote in the 2024 election.)Mickayla LeMaster, 22, who lives in Anchorage, said she hadn’t always agreed with Ms. Swift’s endorsements, but that did not dissuade her from supporting the artist’s music. She said Ms. Swift’s endorsement of Mr. Biden in 2020 left her feeling “indifferent.”“I thought it was interesting that she was on Biden’s side of things,” said…

Iran projects its military power through dozens of armed groups across the Middle East, but how much does it control their actions?That question has taken on new urgency as the United States considers its next steps after an attack by an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia on an American base in northwest Jordan. The attack on Sunday killed three soldiers and injured dozens of others.Iranian-backed groups have varying histories and relationships with Tehran, but all share Iran’s desire for the U.S. military to leave the region, and for Israel’s power to be reduced. Iranian rhetoric, echoed by its allied groups, often goes…

In the 2000 film “Almost Famous,” Cameron Crowe’s comedy-drama about rock musicians in the 1970s, the character played by Zooey Deschanel at one point gives her younger brother some advice. “Listen to ‘Tommy’ with a candle burning, and you’ll see your whole future,” she says.I’m going to borrow that thought for today’s newsletter: Stare at this annotated map with — or without — a candle burning, and you’ll see your whole future.Created by my colleague Lauren Leatherby, a Times visual journalist who has been reporting on the world’s demographic shifts, the graphic shows how the number of working-age people around…

Madonna performed at Madison Square Garden on Monday night as part of her Celebration Tour, a lavish stage spectacle devoted to her catalog of hits as the Queen of Pop. During “Like a Prayer,” she sang from a spinning carousel filled with jumbo crucifixes and shirtless men. When she performed “Vogue,” she invited Kelly Ripa onto the stage to join her in judging the ballroom moves of her dancers with scorecards.“I don’t know when I’m going to be back here playing again, but I’m doing this show like it’s my last show,” Madonna, 65, told the crowd. “And I’m doing…

With its streamlined curves and glow-in-the-dark sound system, the silver Lamborghini Huracán Performante was the stuff of teenage fantasy: $350,000 of aerodynamic metals and lightweight upholstery, packed into a taut and powerful body. Ben Armstrong loved it dearly.When he started shopping for a Lamborghini, Mr. Armstrong, a cryptocurrency evangelist with more than one million YouTube subscribers, worried that he’d have to spend months searching. “I think I have to go to Italy to get the Lambo I want,” he texted a business partner. “I don’t want to compromise.” But fate smiled on him. In the fall of 2021, a car…

As Twitter, the social media company struggled to find its influencer niche. While YouTube had pranksters and beauty gurus, and Instagram had fashionistas and travel bloggers, Twitter had grouchy journalists, political flame wars, and niche humor. Before Mr. Musk took over, the company dabbled in different ways to attract creators. It provided funding for aspiring podcasters to create shows on its audio discussion feature, Spaces, and made an appeal to digital artists during the 2022 NFT boom.“We are all in a war for people’s time,” Mr. Weitz said.Some of the creators who X hopes to woo have been skeptical about…

Background: Global warming is intensifying both threats.As humans warm the planet, both heat waves and wildfires are becoming more severe and longer-lasting in the American West. That also means they are more likely to overlap. Researchers have estimated that two-thirds of California’s land area experienced broiling heat and heavy wildfire smoke concurrently at some point during the state’s record fire year of 2020.Both hazards are harmful to health on their own: Heat stress increases cardiac strain, and inhaling wildfire smoke can aggravate lung conditions. The new study, led by researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of…

Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music company, said it would revoke the licenses for its vast catalog of songs from TikTok after its current contract expires on Wednesday if the two companies could not reach a new deal addressing Universal’s concerns over artist compensation, artificial intelligence and other issues.In an open letter posted late Tuesday, Universal accused TikTok of responding to its requests with “indifference, and then with intimidation,” creating a public squabble in the remaining hours of the two companies’ existing contract. If the talks fail, TikTok users would be unable to use music by Taylor Swift, Lady…