Welcome back to Daily Zaps, your regularly-scheduled dose of AI news ⚡️ 

Here’s what we got for ya today:

• ChatGPT is now a personal AI shopper

• Altman ‘rough vibes’ due to resurgent Google

• Google Nano Banana Pro update

• White House and state laws on AI

Let’s get right into it!

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BIG TECH

ChatGPT is now a personal AI shopper

OpenAI has launched a new shopping research feature in ChatGPT to help users find products and deals ahead of the holiday season. Available for all logged-in users on web and mobile, it acts as a free AI personal shopper that uses GPT-5-mini, trained specifically for shopping, to find, compare, and recommend items based on your needs. Users can describe what they’re looking for (e.g., “a phone under $1,500 with 18-hour battery life”), and ChatGPT will search trusted sources, ask follow-up questions, and create a personalized buyer’s guide with links to retailers.

The process is interactive, allowing users to “like” or “dislike” products to refine results, similar to a swipe-based interface. The tool can also find lookalikes, budget options, or gifts for others. OpenAI emphasized that it doesn’t share chat data with retailers and filters out low-quality or spam sites. Early testers found it intuitive and fun, particularly for personalized searches and gift ideas, though not a full replacement for hands-on shopping.

BIG TECH

Altman ‘rough vibes’ due to resurgent Google

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told employees that Google’s rapid AI progress could create short-term “economic headwinds,” as its new Gemini 3 model shows major advances in automation and coding. He admitted OpenAI’s lead over Google and Anthropic has narrowed, with competitors catching up in key areas like model training.

Despite OpenAI’s rapid growth and $500 billion valuation, its massive spending on AI development has raised investor concerns, especially compared to Google’s far stronger financial position and improved AI strategy under CEO Sundar Pichai.

Altman acknowledged Google’s strong results in pretraining and said OpenAI is addressing its own challenges with a new model called Shallotpeat. He urged staff to stay focused on long-term goals like automating AI research and advancing reinforcement learning, even if OpenAI temporarily falls behind.

BIG TECH

Google Nano Banana Pro update

Nano Banana Pro is Google’s AI model for image generation and editing, designed to create realistic, high-resolution visuals, infographics, and graphics with accurate text and real-world grounding through Google Search integration. The latest update rolls Nano Banana Pro into Google Workspace tools such as Slides, Vids, NotebookLM, and the Gemini app.

In Slides, it now powers “Help me visualize” and introduces “Beautify this slide,” which instantly redesigns existing slides into polished visuals. NotebookLM users can turn insights into high-quality infographics and complete slide decks, while Vids users gain multi-turn prompting for refined, production-ready imagery.

Workspace customers get promotional access with higher usage limits for at least 60 days, making Nano Banana Pro a major leap in Google’s push to blend generative AI directly into everyday productivity tools.

GOVERNMENT

White House and state laws on AI

The White House has paused a draft executive order that would have allowed the federal government to override state artificial intelligence laws through lawsuits and by withholding federal broadband funds. The proposed order, which would have created an “AI Litigation Task Force” led by Attorney General Pam Bondi, aimed to challenge state-level AI regulations that companies like Google and OpenAI argue hinder innovation.

The plan drew bipartisan opposition from state officials, who said it threatened states’ ability to protect residents from AI-related harms like fraud and deepfakes. Lawmakers from both parties, including Marjorie Taylor Greene and Amy Klobuchar, denounced the draft as an attack on federalism and consumer protection, calling it unlawful and potentially harmful to rural broadband funding.