Avalanche of AI News
Miss a little, miss a lot
ARK Report: 15 Big Ideas Changing the World
Okay, I had never heard of ARK Invest either, but based on this article from ZDnet, they seem to be pretty relevant and have done this before. You probably don’t have time to read their 160 page .pdf, but if you’re involved in strategy or long term decision making, you could at least skim it and steal some of their really cool graphs.
Google Opens Up the AI Image Generator Game
How much is a monthly AI image generating subscription worth these days? Especially when I can get world class images from Google for free, and in two locations. First of all, you can now quickly generate images in Bard, at no cost. And if you want to put in a little more effort, jump over to Google’s Test Kitchen where you can finesse your prompt with a series of dropdown menus and style suggestions. However, this tool is pretty stripped down, with no up-scalers, in-painting, or out-painting. Also, there is only a square format, and no way to change the aspect ratio. If you just need an image, and you need it quickly, it gets the job done. Google’s entry into the AI image generation space sends a warning to all the newcomers. I’ve test driven half a dozen different tools in the $12-20 a month range and I have yet to find one that I want to continue paying for except Midjourney. If you have only an occasional need for an AI image, Google’s got you covered.
If you’d like a more thorough exploration of what it can do, check out this article from ZDnet. And, if you’d like to do a deeper dive on all the different new AI tools from Google, check out this article from ZDnet
Midjourney Primer for the Newcomers
While I originally started this newsletter as a resource for my students, I now have a lot of new subscribers who I’ve never met before. So if you’re new here, welcome! And thanks for subscribing. And if you’re brand new to Midjourney, you’ll appreciate this beginners guide. If you’re an old timer, you can just move along.
Consistent Characters in Midjourney: Easy!
While there are many theoretical techniques to get consistent characters in Midjourney, none of them work…consistently. They frequently require endless patience and tinkering. However, if you’d like a fast often perfect result, just try adding these five words: two images side by side. I simply rerolled and added ‘smiling’ to my prompt for the second set.
Shelly Palmer Switches to Perplexity
If you’re a regular reader of this newsletter, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of Shelly Palmer ( Professor at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications; CEO of The Palmer Group) and a big fan of Perplexity.ai. So it should come as no surprise to you that I’m recommending you read his essay about why he has switched to perplexity as his primary search tool.
There you have it. I’m Shelly, a reformed Google user and Perplexity.ai convert. The move isn’t just about breaking away from the monopoly of a single search engine, but rather about embracing a smarter and more intuitive way to explore the vast expanse of the internet.
Jakob Nielsen’s Latest
In Jakob Nielsen’s latest newsletter, he goes into great detail about what AI can and cannot do for UX designers and reminds us why we need to start adding UX skills to your workflow. Specifically, he point out what AI is really good at, right now.
AI is more creative than most humans
AI is more productive than humans, especially at grunt work
AI creates content at scale, quickly too
AI is tireless and doesn’t suffer from blank page syndrome
AI is a better coder than you
AI is not you: it’s a free colleague, if a junior one.
Shopify Democratizes Product Photography
Regular reader Jedd Olmstead sent me a message the other day about AI generated backgrounds for product photography. While there are external many tools out there that can do this, Shopify now has one built directly into their interface. The tool can provide a new background based on your prompts or automatically make suggestions based on your products. This is great news for small business people who don’t have the resources to return to photographers and production studios for seasonal updates. However, it’s not great news for photographers and photo-shoppers who are seeing one more nail in the coffin in terms of demand for their craft. FYI, both Google and Facebook have internal tools like this as well. Check it out
That’s it for this today. I apologize for the delay in this post. I hit a point of paralysis with so many tools and articles to analyze. I’ll get back to my regular posting rhythm this week. I hope you pursuit of knowledge is going well and you’re getting some value out of this newsletter. As aways, keep those questions and comments coming.