Nothing About CES Here
The Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas
Generative AI Video
I’ll let the rest of the tech press cover that, I’ll just focus on the AI news of the week. I’ve been devoting a lot of time to AI generated video because I’m convinced it’s going to have a breakout year in 2024 and Im incorporating it into my Motion Graphics curriculum. Now is the time to be getting familiar with Generative AI tools for video so that you’re familiar with the paradigm. I predict that something like this will be baked into Premiere and AfterEffects by the end of the year. Currently, I’m working with RunwayML, PikaLabs and Leonardo.ai, and I’ll publish a comparison article on Medium later this week. Midjourney, however, is still a few months out as they said they would like to focus on quality and not rush it. You can read this article from Decrypt to learn more.
Adobe: Examples of Generative AI At Work
So this is straight from the Adobe blog, so of course it makes Adobe look good, but I would recommend watching a few of the 30 second videos where the profile real Creative Directors and we can hear their points of view. Also, props to Adobe for their international approach. Check it out
Also from the blog, so take this one with a grain of salt, but Time Magazine says that Adobe’s generative fill is one of the ‘Outstanding Inventions of 2023’. I agree with this one and I’m amazed at how quickly it’s become part of my daily workflow, as well as all the people I talk with. It feels like the clone stamp tool, as if I’d been using it for years. It’s hard to believe it only arrived last April. Check it out.
Figma Jumps Ahead with an AI Advantage
A month ago, I said that Figma was the real winner in the Adobe-Figma break-up as their $1 Billion severance can produce a lot of impact for a company of their size. I speculated that they would pour that money into AI features and this article from Fast Company seems to agree. If you’re stuck in a lot of boring meetings or your boss is asking you to show off all those “AI skills” you’ve picked up from this newsletter, you should really throw some Figjam into the mix. If you need instructions straight from the horse’s mouth, you can read Figma’s own getting started article here.
Perplexity: It’s Not Complicated
If you’re a fan of this newsletter, you know that I’ve been talking up Perplexity.ai for months. With all the drama about Open AI and Google Bard, it’s easy to overlook them, but they’ve been gaining a lot of traction, and funding, lately. If you have a lot on your plate, or you do research, or you just need a lot of answers, you might consider adding this to your stack.
“We want to communicate clearly to the end user that we're not here to sell you another chatbot and alternative to ChatGPT,” Srinivas told Decrypt. “We're here to help find answers to any question, and that's why we call [Perplexity] an answer engine.”
If you want to read the article on TechCrunch, Check it out
If you want to read the article on Decrypt, Check it out
Free Zoom Class on AI for Design Systems
Thanks to Hot Tipper, Andrew Gomez IV for this gem, The School of Visual Concepts is offering a free Zoom lecture, January 17 from 7-8 PM Pacific, on how to integrate AI into your Design System Work. Check it out
What AI, Machine Learning, and Deep learning are in simple terms and their role in building intelligent design systems
Where AI tools can be leveraged to assist design system development and maintenance
Examples of large organizations that are already bringing AI into their design systems
Resources for putting AI to work on your design system projects
Latest Midjourney News
How good is the new Midjourny V6? It’s absolutely mind blowing and this is just the Alpha realease; expect text rendering to improve in the coming weeks. See some great examples and read about why not everyone love it on Ars Technica
How much trouble are they in? Well, if the actually spreadsheet surfaces and shows the evidence that they explicitly used the work of 16,000 living artists, it could get ugly
That’s it for this week! I’ve had a huge wave of new subscribers lately, so if you’re new here, welcome. And if you’re one of those people sharing my newsletter, thank you so much for your support. And, as always, if you have any questions, suggestions, or hot tips, send me a message.