RunwayML is the New AI Video King
Another week, another Sora Killer
Tuesday, June 18
I don’t normally write this newsletter two days in a row, but another week, and another Sora AI video competitor emerges. Two weeks ago we saw Kling teased from China as the ‘Sora Killer’, (if you have a Chinese phone number) and last week Dream-Machine launched from Luma Labs, only to break the internet from pent up demand and leave us waiting for 10 hours for each video generation. Perhaps re-emergence is the proper term, because RunwayML has been the industry leader for much of the last year. While I have scoffed at their product in the past, clearly they were playing the long game and now look like they have the best tool that you can use right now…or by the end of the week at least. Still, probably sooner than Sora. You can read this article on PetaPixel, or checkout these demos on X, or read the RunwayML blog post. The quality and coherence look mind-blowing, I hope it comes out soon.
Mira Murati and David Droga are Here to Ease Your Worries
At Cannes, OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati will join advertising legend and Accenture Song CEO, David Droga, on stage to discuss this two-sided coin and how it will impact the overlapping industries of advertising, marketing, and media.
A new report from United Talent Agency, which surveyed more than 500 creative professionals across advertising and entertainment, found that 75% say they are creating higher-quality work by using AI. But the technology comes with a cost: A 2023 Forrester study predicted up to a third of U.S. ad agency jobs would be lost to AI by 2030.
Comic Book Writer Calls Out AI
Daniel Kibblesmith, perhaps best known in the world of comics for his Loki series, but who has written a number of comic books for Marvel and who has also written for television and who has also written for television (including The Late Show With Stephen Colbert ) has a scathing takedown of the AI industry.
The conversation that we should be having about A.I. art is "that people who don’t make or care about art or understand its origins or purpose are replacing it to line their own pockets like they did with retail, food delivery and cabs."
"People who don’t know how to invent anything except fundraising are using computers to create a world where they can insert themselves as middlemen and pretend they invented everything we already had."
I can’t imagine anything I’d enjoy more than a computer generated novel by a guy who didn’t want to put any effort into it. You solved a problem that didn’t exist and eliminated one of the few remaining human joys. And, I guess, proved a computer can copy a person. That’s gotta be worth a billion dollars right."
Free Accessibility and Inclusive Design Workshop
Yeah, I know that it’s hard to get excited about another 3.5 hour Zoom class in September, but it’s from Smashing Magazine so it’s content will be first rate. So if you think that accessibility and inclusion matter, or you just want to become more employable, I think you should check it out.
Free Workshop, 3h + Q&A • Tue, September 24, 2024 09:00 am – 12:30 pm PT
We’ll explore how to design for people with neurodiversity, young children and older adults, how to consider deafness, dyslexia and autism. And: we’ll make sense of EU Accessibility Act (EAA) and WCAG 2.2. The workshop is free for everyone, so save your spot, and invite your friends to join, too.
Quickies
Google DeepMind announces research on a ‘video to audio’ that can generate a soundtrack just by analyzing the video plus reading the text prompt. And then you can just re-prompt and make infinite variations. Check it out
If you’re a Subject Matter Expert (SME) and you’d like to read about how to make a custom GPT out of your own body of work, this article from Sarah Cordivano was really helpful. Custom GPTs are now free to everyone, so I’ll be building one for my students in the fall. Check it out
After being quickly let go in the beginning of the AI revolution, some copywriters are getting hired back to edit the AI generated copy that, it turns out, isn’t that good. However, the new jobs don’t pay as well as the old ones. Check it out
Did you need yet another reason to hate Adobe? Did you know that you’ll pay a hefty termination fee if you ever cancel your Creative Cloud subscription? Apparently the Federal Trade Commission didn’t like it either, so they’re suing Adobe.
During enrollment, Adobe hides material terms of its APM plan in fine print and behind optional textboxes and hyperlinks, providing disclosures that are designed to go unnoticed and that most consumers never see," the U.S. said in the complaint, adding that Adobe infringed on several consumer-protection laws.
Okay, that’s it for today. I’m making great progress on my ‘Big Fake Deep Foot’ AI video project. I haven’t had this much fun in years. I hope you’re having fun with your creative endeavors. If you’re building something you’re excited about, send me the link
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