125: The last station, but not the end of the line
[AI for Artists and Entrepreneurs] Final projects spark a new beginning
Yesterday I finished the 15th of 15 modules for a freelance curriculum project. Last night we wrapped up the AI for Artists and Entrepreneurs course at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Later today we’ll wrap Persuasion and Marketing. And I just sent out invitations for my high school senior’s graduation party. It sure feels like everything is coming to an end. But it’s just a moment while new track gets laid out ahead.
When the AI for Artists and Entrepreneurs course began, I wrote, “This is an entirely new curriculum, and frankly, an entirely new set of tools and ways of thinking about art, design, and business. We've got a lot to cover, and uncover—but I have one goal for those coming along for the journey: To gain advantage.”
I think we achieved that goal.
Last night our students presented an inspiring diversity of final projects. Of course we got all manner of image, sound and video generation. But we also got to experience a handful of custom GPTs, a healthy dose of business analysis and strategy, and many insightful ways for combining platforms and tools.
Yes, we captured it all with video. I’ll be organizing then sharing their work over the next few weeks. Stay tuned.
AI+Creativity Update
🙋🏽 Looking for examples of generative AI use across the enterprise? Google’s Cloud Next ‘24 conference has you covered.
🤖🆀 Amazon AWS’ Q Business launched last week. It’s all of the generative AI things, but from Amazon. So, you know, “if an employee can’t access a data source normally, they can’t access it through Q either.”
🤖 Researchers at Cornell and Adobe proposed GS-LRM, a model which can create a 3D video from just two static images in less than a second.
✏️ Benedict Evans continues to ask wonderful questions about LLMs, the law, the point that LLMs are not databases, and our motivations with AI:
“We’ve already gone from buying magazines to browsing Instagram, but now, do I care if the images I ask for existed before I asked, or if they’re generated to my taste, when I open the app? We go from search to generative search to generative content. ‘Make me more images like this’ or, indeed, ‘make me more music like this’. Does authenticity or originality matter? It depends why you wanted it.”
🔬 Small things matter. Rishad Tobaccowala wrote another wise and beautiful observation, as he is want to do.
🤖🎥 The 2024 2nd Annual Runway AI Film Festival debuts this Thursday, May 9. “We’re looking for films (narrative or experimental) that embrace various emerging AI tools as a core component of the filmmaking process.” Here are the 2023 winners.
🤖🔍 AI infrastructure is expensive. Look for early stage generalist AI tools to refocus on customers with money. From Wired: “Tome’s homepage used to call the app a “collaborative AI partner,” an all-singing, all-dancing helper. Now the company markets itself as “the leading AI-native research and presentation platform for sales and marketing teams.”
🤖🎥 Adobe’s “Generative AI in Premiere Pro” preview has been out for a few weeks. Still worth a look. Amazing capabilities in the pipeline.