This is the most exciting time in tech since the rise of the internet. The news has been especially exciting this week. Here is what's piquing my interest:
🤖 xAI announces Grok
🤖 OpenAI announces ChatGPT-4 Turbo
🤖 Figjam announces FigJam with AI
🤖 Google announces generative AI tools for ads
🤖 Former MySpace founders announce PlaiDay (text to video)
🤖 Meta is requiring disclosures for AI political ads
🤖 Gitbub announces Copilot Chat
Let's dive into this week's announcements (so far)
This week has been filled with exciting AI announcements that have kept the tech world buzzing. From Figma to the former founders of MySpace, the pace of innovation seems unstoppable. Let's take a closer look at some of the most notable announcements from this week.
🤖 xAI announces Grok
One of the major announcements kicking off the week was the launch of Grok, an AI chat LLM by xAI / Elon Musk that promises to outdo OpenAI's Chat-GPT. With its advanced algorithms and powerful analytics capabilities, Elon Musk is reporting that Grok can answer almost anything. He is saying it will give more up to date answers than ChatGPT, but that was before OpenAI made their announcement.
🤖 OpenAI announces ChatGPT-4 Turbo
Right on the heels of the Grok announcement came GPT-4 Turbo from OpenAI, the latest iteration of their popular large language model chat. GPT-4 Turbo is based on content from April 2023 (so it's no longer so out of date), boasts enhanced capabilities such as being able to parse 128k of text, which is about 300 pages, call APIs, handling of thread states, and the ability to generate human-quality speech - all with a price drop and copyright infringement protection.
🤖 Figjam announces FigJam with AI
In the realm of collaborative design tools, FigJam with AI stole the spotlight in the design community. FigJam, a visual collaboration platform, now integrates AI technology to enhance its capabilities. The addition of AI allows users to type in a prompt to quickly get a personalized auto-layout, or you can use the click-and-go prompts, and if you already have some sticky notes, FigJam can now offer a neat written summary.
🤖 Google announces generative AI tools for ads
Google also announced generative AI for ads, allowing users to create and edit headlines, descriptions, and accompanying images that appear in searches. This will be extremely helpful as a tool for agencies and businesses without in-house creative staff. Advertisers can iterate on the generated text and images using prompts until they find the desired result. Google guarantees that no two businesses will end up with the same images, avoiding any awkward duplicates.
🤖 Former MySpace founders announce PlaiDay (text to video)
Next up, Plai Labs (from the former MySpace founders) announced its free text-to-video generator, PlaiDay. PlaiDay offers the ability to personalize videos by adding your likeness via selfies. This is going to be an interesting trend that I can see really spiking on social platforms if they can get it right. I created a video using the prompt:
Here is what was generated:
Image Credits: PlaiDay
Things that stood out as issues to me:
- I did not like the look of fear in her eyes at the beginning of the clip
- I didn't specify that the woman should be white
- I was surprised by her large chest and definitely found that offputting
It's impressive technology but needs some more work with regard to default settings for women. I imagine this would apply to other people and stereotypes, as well, but I didn't test it for long enough to suss out all of the potential issues.
Image distortion is also an issue and PlaiDay says it is better for a single face versus a group, but I imagine this will improve quickly. The videos are just a few seconds in length, but if you want to see an animated version of yourself somewhere, you can try the text-to-video generator on the PlaiDay Discord channel. You will have to upload three selfies and wait as PlaiDay thinks before you can personalize any of the videos. You can also give it a prompt, like I did, to create your own video. If you try it out, ping me on LinkedIn and let me know your thoughts.
🤖 Meta is requiring disclosures for AI political ads
Come 2024, Meta will require disclosures for AI political ads. As part of their commitment to transparency, Meta has announced that advertisers running political or issue ads on their platforms will now be required to disclose any digital alterations made through the use of AI. Meta said it will require disclosures on ads featuring deepfakes, photo-realistic people that don't exist, events that never happened, and realistic events that are not true recordings. This new requirement will also extend to Facebook and Instagram ads related to elections, politics, and social issues. This move aims to ensure that users are aware of any AI-generated content and promotes a more transparent advertising environment. This should make for a really interesting election year ahead.
🤖 Gitbub announces Copilot Chat
Today, GitHub Copilot made waves with its AI-powered code completion tool. Per their site, it can "explain complex concepts, suggest code based on your open files and windows, help detect security vulnerabilities, and help with finding and fixing errors in code, terminal, and debugger."
That's not all folks~!
These are just a few highlights from the AI announcements made this week. The world of AI is constantly evolving, and with each new breakthrough, businesses are being disrupted and shaken up. If you need help defining your AI and governance strategy, book a call with us to learn from our team of experts with over 15+ years of experience helping enterprise organizations implement new technology, design software, and govern their information and data, or join one of our AI Governance & Center of Excellence workshop sessions.
