Yelp will use AI to tell you if that burger’s any good

From The Verge: Yelp is joining the wealth of platforms expanding their use of AI, as it’s rolling out a new feature on iOS that rounds up and summarizes user reviews in a blurb that appears near the top of a company’s Yelp page.

The new feature uses large language models (LLMs) to parse through user feedback to highlight “what the business is best known for based on first-hand reviews,” Yelp says. That may include a mention of a location’s atmosphere, popular dishes, amenities, and more. One example (as shown in the image at the top of this article) describes a restaurant as a “retro diner well known for its classic cheeseburgers and affordable prices.”

It sounds similar to what companies like Amazon and Newegg are doing to summarize reviews, but Yelp’s version is a bit less comprehensive as it doesn’t pick out any pros and cons cited by users.

Yelp senior vice president of consumer product, Akhil Kuduvalli Ramesh, tells The Verge the AI summaries will show up depending on a “reliable number of recent reviews” recommended by the software the company uses to highlight user feedback. The AI-powered summaries are only available for companies in the restaurant, food, and nightlife industries.

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