Office workers fretting about AI coming for their jobs might soon have a reason to warmly welcome it into their workday: Slack is introducing new features to keep channels in check.

The workplace hub will test a slew of new generative AI features in coming months, including channel recaps, thread summaries, and more detailed search answers, in addition to rolling out a new lists tool and workflow builder.

It’s all part of a bigger overhaul the Salesforce-owned company undertook this year as it seeks to turn the latest AI advances into productivity tools and move into areas beyond messaging, according to Slack Senior Vice President of Product Management Ali Rayl.

“Slack is a very different product than it was back in 2014. Primarily messaging, but now we have an entire suite of tools to help companies be more productive across lots of different avenues, angles, and ways that we do business,” Rayl told Tech Brew. “[These features are] the next things we’re bringing into the product to increasingly make it a productivity platform for anybody in a business doing any kind of work.”

Keep reading here.—PK

Still doubting the transformational power of AI and data? That ship has sailed—but projects still fail because of unnecessary friction. A whopping 63% of people working with AI tools find that their organization makes it more complicated than necessary. Altair’s AI solutions smooth out the process.

No matter what’s causing project hiccups, they steal your team’s hard-earned time and progress. To start building efficient and successful (and repeatable!) projects, teams have to understand the source of friction in their processes.

Altair’s 2023 Frictionless AI Global Survey Report explores the top areas of friction for organizations using AI. Check out the data from 2k respondents around the world to learn:

• how organizations are creating data and AI strategies
• three main types of AI-driven friction and how it impacts companies

It’s lookin’ like clear skies ahead. Download the full report here.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says he wants to ensure members of Congress get up to speed on the (still evolving) particulars of artificial intelligence. His planned nine-part AI bootcamp, aimed at helping his colleagues bulk up on their tech know-how, is set to kick off this month.

The first of Schumer’s “AI Insight Forums,” slated for next week, will feature a star-studded guest list that includes Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk, Axios reported.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai and former CEO Eric Schmidt are expected to be there, plus Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

Schumer first announced plans for the AI forums in June, and provided additional detail about what they would include at an event in IBM’s Manhattan office in July.

“Humility is our watchword,” Schumer told reporters. “I look forward to hearing your suggestions and suggestions of the broader community as to how we can create the best safe innovation anywhere and put it into actuality.”

The planned forums, including the kickoff event Sept. 13, will help Congress determine which AI regulations they should be prioritizing, Schumer said at the July event.

“We’ll see which ones lend themselves to broader consensus dealing with innovation and safety, and which are harder,” he said. “We’ll have to see.”—MA

California’s proposed “right to repair” law has a new and perhaps unexpected backer: Apple.

The iPhone (and, let’s not forget, augmented reality headset) maker reportedly sent a letter of support to the author of Senate Bill 244, which would require electronics manufacturers to allow consumers and third-party businesses to repair damaged devices.

For products priced at $100 or more—that’s pretty much everything Apple makes—the proposed law requires manufacturers to continue to provide parts and tools for repair for at least seven years after the product’s last manufacturing date. Great news for your dad, who’s still using an iPhone 6S.

Apple’s letter comes as something of a surprise, because the company long fought against efforts to democratize repairs, including lobbying against bills in Nebraska, New York state, and even previously in California.

The arguments Apple has raised in favor of repair monopoly have been varied, including that do-it-yourself consumers could hurt themselves, and that a free-for-all repair landscape would become a “mecca for hackers.”

But Apple has faced mounting pressure, and has softened its stance in recent years.

Keep reading here.—MA

Stat: 100%. That’s the percentage of car brands that received a “ding” from the Mozilla Foundation following research into 25 car brands’ privacy and security capabilities. And that’s not all: 84% of the brands reviewed share or sell your data, according to the foundation.

Quote: “Tesla is just a particularly egregious purveyor of smoke and mirrors.”—Gay Gordon-Byrne, the executive director of the Repair Association, to 404 Media regarding Tesla’s stance on “right to repair” legislation

Read: A $700 million bonanza for the winners of crypto’s collapse: lawyers (the New York Times)

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