Agents and androids

Ask the bot, then buy the Birkin: Luxury shoppers in the UAE and Saudi Arabia are itching to spend, and they’re checking with AI first. A whopping 93% of them use generative AI to research luxury purchases, way above the 79% global average, per a BCG and Altagamma survey unveiled at a Meta event in Dubai.

Their appetite to spend also beats every other established luxury market. Topping the wish list: Watches, jewelry, and handbags.

MEANWHILE- Anthropic has released new versions of its flagship Fable and Mythos models, bumping each to 5.2 with promises of all of the now-standard goodies it and other frontier labs offer when they roll out new goodies. You can read Anthropic’s note here.

WATCH THIS SPACE- OpenAI will soon follow suit with a new Sol 6.2 model that some on X, claiming to have early access, say trumps Anthropic’s respected Opus 5.5 on speed and price.

AND- Robots for sale: Speaking of big-ticket purchases, Dubai now has a showroom where you can buy your very own humanoid robot, The National reports. Lootah Robotics opened the UAE’s first robotics showroom on Sheikh Zayed Road on Friday, with price tags from AED 50k (USD 14k) all the way up to AED 3 mn (USD 817k). Commitment-shy? Renting a robot is an option. At the launch, five humanoids danced and played football with kids. Dubai wants 200k robots roaming the city by 2032, so get used to the company.

The hazy human-robot divide is well-trodden ground in films, from Blade Runner to RoboCop to Short Circuit, which, alas, hasn’t aged well. Ex Machina, from 2015, is an underappreciated gem.

That’s it for today! Like what you’re reading? Feel free to invite some friends. Or drop us a line at [email protected]. We’ll be back in your inbox on Thursday.