DoorDash announced on Thursday that it’s launching a new AI chatbot that lets users order food and groceries with text prompts and photos in its latest AI push.

The chatbot, called “Ask DoorDash,” allows users to search the app for what they’re looking for in their own words instead of having to scroll through restaurants and stores to build a cart. You can tell the chatbot what you’re in the mood for, share a recipe link to find the items, or describe the reservation you’re looking for.

“Traditional search works best when you know the exact restaurant or table you’re looking for,” DoorDash wrote in the blog post. “Ask DoorDash is designed for the moments when you don’t.”

Food delivery apps and tech giants are betting that AI can help make shopping more conversational and personalized, as companies race to make AI assistants a standard part of everyday life. In February, Uber Easts launched an AI-powered “Cart Assistant,” while Instacart has rolled out an AI shopping assistant that grocers can offer to their customers.

DoorDash’s app can build your grocery cart based on a photo from a cookbook, a picture of your grocery list, or a recipe. DoorDash will then add all the items and their correct quantities to your cart. It will prompt users to check if they already have staples like sugar and butter, so they don’t buy something they already have.

You can also ask the chatbot to reorder your last grocery cart or suggest new items based on your previous orders, DoorDash says.

As for ordering food, you can tell the chatbot that you want a “filling dinner for a family of 4.” The app will then surface restaurants alongside a personalized blurb explaining why it matches your search. You can narrow the results even further with a query like, “Show me kid-friendly vegetarian spots with mild options.”

Once you select a place, you can ask DoorDash to build a cart with suggestions based on your dietary preferences, budget, group size, or past orders.

With Ask DoorDash for Reservations, users can ask the chatbot to find a “table for two downtown for a date-night dinner around 8 PM.” The app will then surface restaurants with availability. You can refine the results further by asking for something a little more intimate.

The chatbot is rolling out on iOS in select regions for restaurant search and grocery shopping, and within DoorDash Reservations. It will reach more users across the U.S. in the coming weeks, the company says.

Google Photos backups are getting a little less wasteful for people who use Takeout to keep their own copy of a photo library.

This is aimed at Google Photos users who don’t want Google to be the only place their photos live, especially anyone keeping a second archive on an external drive, NAS, or another cloud service. Google says Incremental Takeout for Photos will make recurring downloads faster and more efficient once the initial archive is complete.

The first run still includes all selected photos and albums, but later runs focus on photos and videos that were uploaded, backed up, created, or edited since the last successful backup. That’s a useful fix for anyone tired of downloading the same massive archive again and again, but the catch is built into setup, Photos has to be the only product selected in Takeout for the incremental option to appear.

Why does the first backup take everything

The first run is still the baseline, not a shortcut around the biggest download. Google says it includes all selected photos and albums, so longtime Photos users should expect the initial export to remain the heavy lift.

The payoff comes after that baseline is finished. Once Takeout has a successful backup to compare against, the next recurring export can skip unchanged files instead of packaging the whole library again. That should mean fewer duplicate downloads, less wasted drive space, and a backup process that feels less punishing over time.

Why does setup have one catch

Incremental Takeout only works when Photos is the lone product selected for export. Anyone who usually bundles photos with other Google data will need to create a separate recurring export just for the library.

That limit keeps the feature focused, but it also narrows who gets the full benefit. Takeout can make Photos backups less annoying, while broader Google account archives still need their own setup, schedule, and storage planning.

What should local backup users do next

The practical move is to set up a recurring Takeout export for Photos by itself, then treat the first download as the baseline archive. After that, each successful run should make the next one smaller by leaving unchanged items behind.

Google hasn’t provided a broader rollout date beyond the announcement, and exact regional availability isn’t stated. During setup, the key check is simple, the incremental option should appear only when Photos is the sole selected product.