Jay's Brief

Three things to know this week, from a free fake-photo checker to a food order

A person sits at a kitchen table beside a steaming coffee cup, holding a magnifying glass over a photo of mountains and a sun displayed on a propped-up phone.

A free checker for AI-made files, an AI helper that does small jobs, and a cheaper way to order dinner.

You can now

  1. Check a photo for AI marks

    You can now check a suspicious image, video or audio clip at synthid.com, which Google opened to everyone on October 7. It's free, though you need a Google, OpenAI or Apple login, and it's English only for now. It looks for a hidden watermark left by Google's tools and those of partners OpenAI, NVIDIA and Kakao, so a yes means something. A no means much less, because a fake made with other tools carries no marker and comes back clean.

    Source

  2. Try Meta's new Muse agent

    You can now text an AI agent that is built to do small jobs for you, not just answer questions. Meta's Muse is free for most uses, and it's rolling out in the US on iPhone, Android and muse.ai, and in WhatsApp. Meta says it can book travel, fill out forms and negotiate to lower a bill, and that it asks before it sends an email or buys anything. Start with something small, like turning a saved recipe into a grocery list, and skip connecting your email or card.

    Source

  3. Order dinner through ChatGPT

    You can now order food straight from a restaurant inside ChatGPT, using a small startup's service. In one test, an order that cost about $70 on DoorDash came to about $57 this way. It only covers about 300 restaurants in the Bay Area so far, so most people can't use it yet. DoorDash is pushing back, so it's worth watching, not counting on.

    Source

The word of the week

Watermark

A watermark is an invisible pattern an AI tool hides inside a picture, video or sound file it makes, so a checker can spot it later.

One thing we got wrong

Nothing this week, as far as we know. Tell us if you spot something.