It's Getting Hot...
I'm not talking about the temperature in the Southwest. I'm talking about the AI revolution. This week's newsletter is but a fraction of what I read this week.
Whose Going to Lose Their Job? And When?
While nobody really knows what the future holds, every good trendspotter (yes, KG, that was for you) tries to write an article that predicts how the AI revolution will shake out. If your job is asking you to extrapolate about upcoming trends, you should read this article from Sequoia Capital.
And if you have a background in economics and you want to take an even deeper dive, you’ll enjoy this article from Benedict Evans, AI and the Automation of Work.
Generative AI For Executives
Do you need to get your boss up to speed on the latest AI trends? Send him to this free course from Shelly Palmer, Generative AI For Executives. While it has a creepy synthetic human in it’s video, the short content and quiz format is really helpful. Better yet, you take the class and you’ll look like the smartest person in the room. Allow about an hour for completion.
Goodbye Prompt Engineering?
Until recently, I was still interested in becoming a Prompt Engineer, lured by the promise of a $335K salary…I mean, why not me, right? But the more I read into this, the more I think it’s a flash in the pan. Writing the prompts will become commonplace, and the real skill will come from those who can define the problem.
Dr. Brandeis Marshall says focus on skills that will make you “un-AI-able”, such as contextual awareness, conflict resolution, and critical thinking.
And Jakob Nielsen, the OG Godfather of usability and the founder of the Nielsen Norman group says that we’re approaching the first new UI paradigm in 60 years, but says:
Prompt engineers exist to tickle ChatGPT in the right spot so it coughs up the right results. But if you’re considering becoming a prompt engineer, don’t count on a long-lasting career.
How Good is Stable Diffusion XL?
Really good, almost as good as Midjourney now. If you have a lot of patience, and can fiddle with a more complicated UI, and you can keep trying, and you don’t mind waiting. Midjourney still delivers amazing results right away, but SDXL is closing the gap. Read this article to get started because free and open source is better than $30 a month. And while you’re at it, head over to Stable Doodle, where you can include a quick reference sketch with your prompt to try and squeeze the result in the right direction. Your mileage may vary.
Who Is Anthropic’s Claude?
According to Anthropic, Claude 2 performs better, can give longer responses, and has improvements when it comes to coding, math, and reasoning. Claude 2 can also handle a lot more information, which means it can process and generate anything from simple questions to complex reports. I like it better than Chat GPT, why not give it a test drive?
Think of Claude as a friendly, enthusiastic colleague or personal assistant who can be instructed in natural language to help you with many tasks.
I Can’t Wait for Googles NotebookLM
So I cannot actually give you a review of this because I’m still on the waiting list. All I can do is breathlessly regurgitate their marketing copy because it’s exactly what I want for my research. Read more and/or sign up here.
NotebookLM is an experimental product designed to use the power and promise of language models paired with your existing content to gain critical insights, faster. Think of it as a virtual research assistant that can summarize facts, explain complex ideas, and brainstorm new connections — all based on the sources you select.
Midjourney Roundup
How to create Corporate Illustrations in Midjourney and then turn them into vectors with Vectorizer. Two excellent articles by Christine C.
More Amazing Midjourney landscape prompts from Andy Wood
Midjourney Cheat Sheet and mastery of prompting syntax (if you’re ready to get serious) by Tristan Wolff.
And just for the WOW factor, Rufus Blackwell is creating scenes in Midjourney and bringing them into AfterEffects. Read about it here or just watch the video below.
I hope your summer is going really well. Make sure you get outside and experience nature, but also stay inside and learn about the latest generative tools. I hope you’re getting some value out of this newsletter. I’d be really grateful if you shared it with a friend!