Latest news with #Sparky
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Byte-Sized AI: Perfect Corp. and Nvidia Team Up; LuminX Gets Seed Round
Byte-Sized AI is a bi-weekly column that covers all things artificial intelligence—from startup funding, to newly inked partnerships, to just-launched, AI-powered capabilities from major retailers, software providers and supply chain players. AI platform LuminX announced early this month it had closed a $5.5 million seed round, supported by 1Sharpe, GTMFund, 9Yards, Chingona Ventures and the Bond Fund. More from Sourcing Journal Chain Reaction: Dispatch Science CEO Arthur Axelrad on Turning Logistics into a 'Customer Experience Engine' Inside VivaTech: LVMH Spotlights AI and Sustainability at Innovation Awards Study Finds Machine Learning Can Cut Fabric Dyeing Waste The San Francisco-based startup aims to create efficiency for logistics, supply chain and warehouse management functions. LuminX uses a combination of hardware and AI systems to allow the cameras it deploys to understand what's occurring in a facility in real time. The devices can be used at docks, on forklifts and more. The devices have the ability to identify products and pallets, track their movement through the warehouse, understand the condition of packages and more. From there, the devices' findings are processed through an AI system that communicates with a human operator about the state of the warehouse. LuminX contends that the technology can decrease the amount of manual work necessary and provide direct recommendations for reducing errors and inefficiencies. The startup plans to use the funding to add roles to its engineering team, scale up its go-to-market operations and refine the development of its technology for edge deployment. Alex Kaveh Senemar, the company's CEO and founder said the seed round will help expand LuminX's footprint in the supply chain and logistics realms. 'This pivotal funding allows us to scale our next-generation AI models, transforming how warehouses operate,' he said in a statement. 'Our edge-based vision language models represent a massive step forward, acting as an intelligent core for warehouse operations. They deliver new levels of automation and insight, helping to turn previously opaque processes into transparent highly efficient systems.' Walmart announced last summer that it was developing and beta testing a consumer-facing shopping assistant, designed to better guide consumers' e-commerce journeys. The retail giant announced last week that the assistant, which it calls Sparky, is now publicly available to consumers using its app. Sparky seems akin to Amazon's version of a shopping assistant, which it calls Rufus. The e-commerce behemoth made Rufus publicly available in September 2024, and the two companies continue to compete over technology—both that directly aiding consumers and the systems optimizing their operations behind the scenes. Sparky capitalizes on several of Walmart's existing AI capabilities, including review summaries. If a consumer asks Sparky whether a sundress will help keep them cool, the assistant can query existing reviews to give the consumer an idea of what other consumers have previously said about the dress' breathability and comfortability. Walmart also previously enabled AI-assisted search, which Sparky further takes advantage of; instead of starting their shopping journey in the app's search bar, consumers can ask Sparky for product recommendations. For instance, a consumer might ask, 'Could you please help me find the best back-to-school styles for my third grader?' In its announcement, Walmart contends that it intends to enable Sparky with agentic capabilities at some point. 'Ultimately, Sparky will solve everyday problems, freeing up time for what matters most. 'What's for dinner?' becomes a week of family-approved meal plans with ingredients automatically added to cart,' the company said. ''I need party ideas!' sparks a complete event planning session—theme, decorations, food and gifts—all highly personalized and coordinated within budget.' Those types of queries—'What's for dinner? Add the ingredients to my cart,' for instance—when posed to Sparky today, prompt a message telling the user that the assistant isn't able to help with the request. While discussion around planning for agentic AI is on the rise, many companies lack execution on agentic to date. Perfect Corp. announced this week that it has inked a computing partnership with technology giant Nvidia. Perfect Corp. offers virtual try-on, AI-powered recommendations, beauty simulation tools and other related applications to companies looking to make the e-commerce journey easier for their customers. But today, one of the most difficult pieces of generating real-time imagery like this is that it doesn't always fully reflect how a product will appear in real life. The new partnership with Nvidia is meant to help bridge those gaps, helping Perfect to achieve better color representation, more accurate renderings, faster performance and more. The company will leverage Nvidia TensorRT to speed up the rendering process, making the results feel near instant to consumers. It will also use Nvidia GPU capabilities, which help the models better create inferences about what a product will look like on an individual, helping to avoid the paper doll-esque virtual try-on experiences that so many consumers face in their e-commerce journeys. Alice Chang, CEO and founder of Perfect Corp., said she expects the partnership to accelerate the company's impact on the fashion, retail and beauty industries. 'We pioneer sustainable, high-touch, AI and AR-powered omnichannel beauty and fashion tech solutions that empower brands to enrich their relationships with customers,' Chang said in a statement. 'Our collaboration with NVIDIA is a pivotal step in pushing the boundaries of what's possible in beauty and fashion tech, allowing us to deliver even more immersive and personalized experiences to consumers worldwide.' PhotoRoom, which uses generative AI to aid sellers and brands in creating product images—in particular for marketplaces, like Depop—announced late last month it had acquired GenerateBanners. The financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition allowed the European startup to launch a new feature, called Visual Ads Automation. The tool allows PhotoRoom clients to easily generate advertisements for social, digital, email and more, customizing the content for individual consumer brackets or international markets. PhotoRoom allows customers to remove existing backgrounds and generate new backgrounds, add shadows and other details to match the new background and more. Now that it owns GenerateBanners, it has enabled clients to use those images to generate ads directly inside the platforms. Clients can load their own colors, fonts, logos and more to help the systems adhere to existing brand style, and the new tool can create batches of advertisements simultaneously. Matt Rouif, Photoroom's co-founder and CEO, said the platform's newly announced capabilities sweetens the deal for brands looking to reach customers and new markets in a scalable way. 'When you need the same product shot in ten languages and fifty formats, traditional creative workflows break.' Rouif said in a statement. 'Photoroom is becoming the AI creative agency for millions of businesses. Our new API lets teams generate on-brand visuals programmatically, at any scale, slashing costs and boosting performance.' The announcement of the acquisition comes several months after PhotoRoom announced a $43 million Series B round.
Associated Press
12-06-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Trans Canada Gold Corp. Ships 2,886 Barrels for the Month of May, From Its Lloydminster Multilateral Heavy Oil Well and Prepares for Upcoming Drilling Program
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA / ACCESS Newswire / June 12, 2025 / Trans Canada Gold Corp. (TSX-V:TTG)(OTCQB:TTGXF) ('Trans Canada' or the 'Company'), is pleased to announce that the Company has now completed another month of steady oil production for the month of May 2025, with trucking and oil sales to Altex. The Lloydminster multilateral well shipped 2,886 barrels (bbl) for the month of May and produced at an average daily rate of 96 bbl/d gross (20 bbl/d net) to the Company since being placed on production, representing its 18.75% working interest ownership in the well. Daily production and shipping sales were slightly impaired due to nine lost shipping days due to a routine pump change and routine equipment maintenance. Production shipping and sales commenced on the first newly drilled Multilateral well, a year ago on October 6th, 2023. Croverro Energy Ltd. is the Operator. The company is announcing the resignation of Christian Timmins as a member of the Board of Director's, with his decision pursue and focus on Pegasus Resources due to time commitment obligations. The Board wishes to thank Mr. Timmins for his contributions to the Company. DRILL PERMIT AND WELL LICENSE APPROVED The Company has now received formal approval for its new Lloyd 5-23-49-1W4 Well with the issuance of its well license and drill permit for the new 7 leg-multilateral well and drill program situated near Lloydminster, Alberta. The Company has agreed to participate to drill a 7 leg Sparky multi-lateral well with Croverro as operator for the Joint Venture. The newly proposed 5-23 multilateral well will be situated adjacent to the Company's successful 12-14 Multilateral Well, near Lloydminster, Alberta. Trans Canada has a 18.75% interest in the new well. This third multi-lateral horizontal well is expected to be similar to the company's successful 7HZ LLOYD 12-14-49-01W4 well, that was drilled in 2023 and encountered 2486 metres of oil pay in the Sparky Oil Formation. The 12-14 Sparky multilateral well has now produced over 100,000 barrels of oil and continues to produce consistently month over month. The newly permitted 5-23 multilateral well when drilled, is planned to open an estimated 3000 m of Sparky formation. The well is scheduled to be drilled later this summer subject to rig availability. Drilling, completion and equipping costs are expected to be $1.9 million ($350,000 net to Trans Canada). The well costs are fully funded out of production cash flow thereby preventing any share dilution. Commented Tim Coupland, 'We continue to focus on continued multilateral drilling success in the Sparky Zone, while navigating increased market volatility and lower energy prices in the oil sector. The company remains mindful of the current uncertainty within energy sector including tariff pressures and energy policy direction. We are expecting increased oil production for 2025 with our upcoming drill programs, and we are exploring additional exploration drilling and acquisition opportunities in both central Canada and the United States. The Company will continue with its newly adopted multilateral well drilling strategy for 2025-2026", using new state of the art multilateral well drilling techniques in Alberta and Saskatchewan, to create growth'. ABOUT TRANS CANADA GOLD CORP. - OIL AND GAS PRODUCTION/REVENUE PRODUCING WELLS The Company is a discovery focused Oil & Gas Resource Development and Mineral Exploration Company that is currently focused on developing and drilling its' production of conventional heavy oil exploration properties, increasing production capabilities, and increasing future oil production revenues through responsible exploration. The Company identifies, acquires and finances with its working interest partners, the ongoing development of oil and gas assets primarily situated in Alberta Canada. The Company has qualified Senior exploration management and Geological teams of professionals, seasoned in exploration production, field exploration and drilling. The Company currently works with Croverro Energy Ltd., who has demonstrated proficiency, expected of an experienced oil and gas technical team that has proven oil production, and revenue success with large multi-lateral wells currently under their supervision. The Company has the necessary manpower in place to develop its natural resource properties and manage its production properties. The Company is committed to minimizing risk through selective property acquisitions, and responsible exploration drilling, and maximizing long term petroleum and natural gas resource assets. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Tim Coupland, President and CEO Trans Canada Gold Corp. Tel: (604) 681-3131 [email protected] Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider, (as the term is defined in the Policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE: Trans Canada Gold Corp. press release
Forbes
10-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Walmart Bets Big On Generative And Agentic AI With ‘Sparky'
Walmart last week unveiled Sparky, a genAI-powered shopping assistant embedded into the Walmart app. The new AI assistant, Sparky, isn't just another chatbot bolted onto an app. It's part of a much bigger plan to use autonomous agents to transform how people shop. Sparky isn't designed to just answer product questions. It can act. If you're planning a cookout, Sparky won't just list grill options. It'll check the weather, suggest menus, and help schedule delivery. If you're reordering household supplies, it remembers preferences, checks stock, and confirms shipping options. The idea is to reduce friction and turn shopping from a search problem into a service experience. Right now, Sparky can summarize reviews, compare products, suggest items for occasions such as beach trips or birthdays, and answer real-world questions such as what sports teams are playing. In the coming months, additional features will include reordering and scheduling services, visual understanding that can take image and video inputs, and personalized 'how-to' guides that link products with tasks such as fixing a faucet or preparing a meal. According to Walmart's own research, consumers may be more ready for the shift to agentic and generative AI-powered shopping than anyone expected. In the company's latest 'Retail Rewired 2025' report, 27% of consumers said they now trust AI for shopping advice, more than the number who trust social media influencers (24%). That marks a clear break from traditional retail playbooks. Influence is shifting from people to systems. AI already outranks influencers. AI's rapid emergence at the core of ecommerce transactions from LLM chats to embedded applications is clear. A core reason for the adoption of AI is that speed dominates. 69% of customers say quick solutions are the top reason they'd use AI in retail. Some of Walmart's internal research results are genuinely surprising. Nearly half of shoppers (47%) would let AI reorder household staples, but just 8% would trust an AI to do their full shopping without oversight. 46% say they're unlikely to ever fully hand over control. Likewise, data transparency matters. Over a quarter of shoppers want full control over how their data is used. So, Sparky isn't meant to replace human decisions. It's meant to take care of the repetitive stuff, and ask for help when the stakes are higher. Competitors like Amazon, IKEA, and Lowe's are also racing to launch AI assistants. But Walmart is going further. It's building a full agent framework, not just customer-facing bots. Sparky handles shopping. Wally helps merchants. Internal systems assist associates. It's a top-to-bottom AI rollout. Sparky's promise goes beyond convenience. Where recommendation engines once matched products to past clicks, Sparky looks to understand intent in context. If you say, 'I need help packing for a ski trip,' Sparky should infer altitude, weather, travel dates, previous purchases, and even airline baggage limits to propose a bundle, jacket, gloves, boots, and all. This leap requires multimodal AI capabilities including text, image, audio, and video understanding. Imagine snapping a photo of a broken cabinet hinge and getting the right part, DIY video, and same-day delivery. That's the Sparky roadmap. Walmart is also developing its own AI models, rather than relying solely on third-party APIs like OpenAI or Google Gemini. According to CTO Hari Vasudev, internal models ensure accuracy, alignment with retail-specific data, and stricter control over hallucination risks. The retail industry is saturated with automation at the warehouse and logistics layer, but AI agents at the consumer-facing layer are still new territory. Sparky might be the first mainstream proof of concept. But the real story is the architecture: a system of purpose-built, task-specific agents that talk to each other across user journeys, all tuned for high-volume retail complexity. That's a blueprint other enterprises will want to study, and possibly copy. With greater autonomy comes greater risk. Will Sparky recommend the wrong allergy product? Will it misread an image and send the wrong replacement part? Walmart is trying to stay ahead with built-in guardrails: human-in-the-loop confirmations, user approval on sensitive actions, and transparency around how data is used. But the challenge will scale. Sparky's real-world performance, not its launch sizzle, will determine if customers trust it to become a permanent fixture in their shopping lives. Walmart's Sparky is the company's most aggressive bet yet on autonomous digital agents. The trust delta between AI and influencers may seem small now, but it will only widen. The underlying implication? E-commerce interfaces are about to go away. Instead of clicks and filters, shopping becomes a dialogue.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Walmart's Sparky genAI assistant to enhance shopping experience
US retail giant Walmart has unveiled Sparky, a genAI (generative AI)-powered assistant designed to improve the shopping experience. Sparky compiles customer reviews, provides suggestions tailored to specific events and assists shoppers in organising, evaluating and making informed purchases. It is designed to remove the guesswork from shopping by answering product questions and comparing options. The retailer stated: 'Within the Sparky platform, a customer can ask what sports teams are playing that night or check the weather at the beach they're heading to — and get the perfect outfit recommended.' The assistant is set to become a multi-modal platform, understanding different forms of input to customise the shopping experience. The company states that it will 'seamlessly [weave] into customers' lives to unlock instant access to the products and services they need, whenever and however they shop'. The assistant will expand its capabilities, including reordering, service booking and processing text, images, audio and video. Customers can now engage with Sparky across all categories through the "Ask Sparky" button in the Walmart app. This GenAI assistant is part of Walmart's growing suite of AI-powered shopping capabilities, which includes enhanced search functionality, product review summaries and product comparisons. Walmart further added that 'Sparky is more than a feature — it's a foundation for what's next. Fuelling Walmart's trajectory into the future of shopping, Sparky isn't just revolutionising retail - it's paving the way for a new and improved customer experience. And this is just the beginning'. In early June 2025, Walmart partnered with Wing to scale up drone delivery services, broadening the reach to 100 additional locations within select markets. "Walmart's Sparky genAI assistant to enhance shopping experience" was originally created and published by Retail Insight Network, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
The Courier
02-06-2025
- General
- The Courier
Hunt for 'swearing parrot' Sparky who is missing from his Angus home
The hunt is on for an African grey parrot who has gone missing from his home in Angus. Sparky, known as the 'swearing parrot' for his liking of foul language, escaped from his home in Kellas last week. His frantic owner Wendy Lyon is desperate to get him home safely to be reunited with his partner Coco, who is missing him. Wendy said: 'Sparky managed to get out the window last Thursday when I was giving them breakfast. 'He landed on the decking outside and then took off in some very tall neighbouring trees. 'He was heard calling out that afternoon but there has been no sign or sighting of him since.' Wendy says Sparky and Coco came to her as a pair three years ago. Coco is 11 but she doesn't know how old Sparky is. However, Wendy says the parrots have been together all Coco's life. She said: 'They were both very badly treated and abused before they came to us as rescue parrots. 'They were regularly hit and burned with cigarette stubs. 'They were fed on KFC food and McDonald's and were in a really poor way. 'They both now look fantastic but Sparky remains very vocal and his language is vile. 'He regularly repeats language from the people who had him when he was abused and it is really bad. 'He constantly swears, using really bad language, and one of his phrases is 'Sparky is a p****.' Wendy says he also imitates other birds, cats and engine noises. He also regularly calls out for Coco. She said: 'There isn't a day goes by when he doesn't use vile language, so if anyone hears him it's pretty distinctive and easily recognised.' Sparky can also be quite aggressive and Wendy was unable to handle him when he first arrived. She said: 'We were initially hopeful he was okay but now we are beginning to lose hope a little bit. 'We were told by the Parrot Trust Scotland, who re-homed them with us, that if parrots survive in the wild they can travel up to a mile a day. 'However, the day he went missing it was very windy so he could have been blown further afield.' Sparky isn't ringed but he is micro-chipped. Wendy says that if anyone finds him and he is injured on the ground they should cover him with a blanket and get help. Otherwise, if he is spotted, the local vets can be contacted as they all know he is missing, or get in touch with Missing Pets, Dundee and Angus who have also been notified. 'We really hope we find him and he comes back home to us and Coco,' said Wendy.
