Yelp’s AI Can Now Recommend You a Burger


Your next lunch recommendation might not come from a human being. On Tuesday, Yelp released a new AI summary feature for its iPhone app.

The AI won’t just construct a review from whole cloth. Instead, it will use unspecified large language models to sum up existing user reviews in a single sentence.

It seems like these AI summaries will also be more descriptive than qualitative, helping to counter concerns that AI might flood the system with junk reviews not tied to real human experiences. For instance, the AI might call a restaurant a “Retro diner well known for its classic cheeseburgers and affordable prices.”

AI summaries are coming first to restaurant, food and nightlife business pages on the site, and will show up towards the top of each listing.

The move follows a similar feature on Amazon, which is also allowing companies to use AI to help write product descriptions.

AI summaries will come to Yelp’s Android app and desktop interface “later this year.” Alongside the new feature, the company also announced a new home feed that uses AI to help narrow down business recommendations to local options, plus a more photo heavy search.


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