Amazon's AI-generated shopping experts now let you ask questions

Rejoice: The Amazon app now lets you ask real shopping questions to its fake podcasters — it's an addition to the "Hear the highlights" AI feature the company introduced last year. Before, the short audio summaries were generated from an unalterable script. Now, the dialogue can adapt to your spoken or typed questions.

Amazon says Hear the Highlights is now available for "millions of products" in the company's mobile app. You'll see a button beneath the product image for supported listings. Choosing this will launch a short (usually a minute or two) AI-generated audio snippet.

The recordings star a "host" and an "expert" of which chat about aspects of the product. What's new is the ability to interrupt the AI broadcasters for a Q&A. After starting the audio, tap the raised hand icon in the audio pop-up, then type or speak (using the mic button) your ...