Apple Approves Poke as the First AI Agent Inside iMessage
Imagine having an AI butler that lives inside your standard texts, doing actual chores instead of just writing poetry. Apple just let this happen, but of course, they found a way to tax it.
The startup Poke bypasses complex command-line interfaces like OpenClaw to let users run automation via simple text messages. Instead of navigating nested menus, users text their requests to handle daily tasks like scheduling meetings, managing smart home devices, and editing photos. The bot has already been lurking in SMS, Telegram, and WhatsApp, but now it is officially infiltrating Apple Messages for Business.
This business platform is designed so customers can interact with brands directly inside the default messenger. Because nothing says premium user experience like getting your flight delayed by a polite automated text instead of a screaming phone call. To get the green light from the tech giant, Poke had to promise that a real human can jump into the chat if the AI starts hallucinating too wildly, and redesign their interface to match Cupertino's strict style guide.
Co-founder Marvin von Hagen confirmed the startup will pay Apple a fee for every active user. While the exact tax remains secret, it is reportedly much lower than the heavy tolls Meta recently slapped on EU businesses using third-party bots in WhatsApp. Meanwhile, in a completely parallel universe of clunky corporate tools, Russian state-owned bank Sber launched public testing for its own enterprise AI platform called GigaCowork, designed to let office workers build bots for generating bureaucratic risk reports without writing code.
While Western startups are paying premiums to live inside sleek, native messaging apps, other regions are building digital cubicles for bots to generate endless corporate paperwork. It seems the future of AI is split between making life easier for the average texter and keeping middle management drowned in automated spreadsheets.
Source: TechCrunch
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