Pick up, it's AI

Happy Monday! If you’re in the Berlin area, the Product Hunt team is hosting a meetup tonight. Join the team and other makers for a night of demos and fun. RSVP here. 

🤖 Google is preparing to launch a paid upgrade to its AI chatbot, Bard. 

💰 Open AI and Apple want to pay publishers to train AI on their content.

🎧 Samsung is launching an audio version of its Frame TV.

🎪 CES goes live this week, so keep your eyes peeled for some new products.

Google News search “telemarketing,” and you’ll find that various fraud lawsuits make up most of the search results for at least the first few pages.

And when Americans are not getting frauded, they’re not answering their phone. Pew itself said their response rates for telephone calls declined last year to a measly 6%, down from 36% in 1997. I’d go out on a limb to guess this is a universal experience.

Can AI save the dying industry? “Robocalls” don’t exactly have a good rap.

But one YC-backed company (and YC itself, obviously) is betting on the technology.

Bland AI launched its developer-first AI phone calling API in 2023 and recently introduced Bland Turbo, a conversational AI that “delivers sub-second responses, consistently, matching human speed and quality.”

Don’t believe it? You can try a demo call, which Chris Messina said “is wild.” I was personally impressed that the AI agent even caught on to my Google Voice prompt to state who was calling before pausing to connect me to the call.

Bland Turbo lets companies send or receive up to 500,000+ phone calls simultaneously. It can be programmed to your liking and trained on your company’s information. Applications stem from political campaign outreach to support agents, salespeople, and more.

What do you think? Give the demo a try, and let us know on the launch page if you think AI tech like Bland will change the telemarketing industry for good.

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