Tech Landscape #335
Adobe goes all-in on AI, Apple Vision Pro goes social, synthetic music goes 7" length, plus platform updates and more.
Hello!
It was the Easter holidays last weekend, hence no newsletter. Sorry to disappoint you if you have a Monday morning routine.
As this week’s edition covers two weeks of news, I’m going to jump right into it.
Hope you’re well!
AI & Synthetic Media
Adobe is adding AI across its marketing stack.
At its annual Summit the company announced several AI-first tools including GenStudio for creating and managing synthetic images in marketing campaigns, and Firefly Services to bring its synthetic image tools into business workflows.
The really interesting component of Firefly Services is Custom Models, which lets businesses fine-tune the output of generated images with their own brand style and characters. This is something that the agency I work at is doing for customers right now, because there’s a huge demand to have more images, more quickly (and, over the long term, more cheaply).
Adobe also announced Structure Reference for Firefly, which applies the structure of a source image to generated images.
This gives more control over the output of images, and is useful for quickly riffing on styles and creating logo variants.
Images
Open AI added an edit button to DALL-E images, enabling regional variation (or inpainting). x.com/OpenAI
This was a feature of DALL-E 2, but was removed with the launch of DALL-E 3 in ChatGPT. It’s a very welcome return, as it enables quick editing of regions, meaning you can very easily make corrections or push images in a different direction.
Krea added real-time image prompting using its new HD model, and multi-image prompts to influence the style of an image in real-time. x.com/krea_ai, x.com/krea_ai
The common (misinformed) critique of AI image generators is that “it’s just typing a prompt into a box”. But as anyone who’s used them more than superficially will tell you, that’s simply not enough; it’s extremely hard to get the result you want by text alone. So it’s great to see more control tools, such as inpainting and structure reference, coming to the leading models. However, it’s the independent AI services (including Krea) that are leading the way in bringing innovative creation tools to consumers.
Audio
Stability AI released Stable Audio 2.0, an improved model that can generate high-quality music up to three minutes long and transform uploaded audio samples. stability.ai
It can now generate up to three minutes of (instrumental) music with more coherent song structure. The results aren’t about to bother the charts, but it’s going to be useful as a stock music library replacement.Open AI showed off its synthetic voice model Voice Engine, although won’t release it yet until it has sufficient safety guardrails in place. openai.com
Five years ago Open AI held back the release of GPT-2 claiming it “may be too dangerous”. Good to see the playbook hasn’t changed.
Assistants
OpenAI now allows anyone to use ChatGPT without an account, making it more accessible to a wider audience. openai.com
Lowering the barrier to get started will put ChatGPT more squarely up against rivals such as Perplexity and Google. It also this week gained a dynamic model option, which chooses between 3.5 and 4 automatically depending on the required output. “In practice, this means that GPT-4 will be used for most tasks. For easier ones, we may use GPT-3.5 to speed up responses.”Microsoft upgraded Copilot in Teams, with chat/transcript summaries and improved speaker recognition. microsoft.com
Disclosure
Meta will expand its policy of labelling AI-generated content, requiring creators on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads to disclose when AI was used to generate audio, images, and video. about.fb.com
Starting in May 2024. I’m generally in favour, but think we’re going to get into a lot of grey areas trying to define when something is synthetic.
Social Platforms
Instagram added a Notify sticker for Stories, which prompts viewers to sign up for notifications of new content. threads.net/@creators
Useful for creators, brand campaigns, and product launches.TikTok launched a dedicated feed for STEM content to users across Europe. newsroom.tiktok.com
”Please don’t ban us, we’re a force for good!”Facebook updated its video player, with a full-screen design and new controls. about.fb.com
The TikTokification continues…Snap expanded its creative options, with video length increased to 3 or 5 minutes, and new templates and lenses. newsroom.snap.com
The TikTokification continues…YouTube Shorts added remix a remix, enabling users to, well, remix a remix. youtube.com
The TikTokification continues…YouTube creators can offer member-only Shorts, with the option to schedule them to go public after a limited time. youtu.be
X (Twitter) made Communities available globally, and listed recent updates to discovery, moderation, and admin. x.com/HiCommunities
X (Twitter) raised the member limit on group chats, allowing up to 256 participants. x.com/enriquebrgn
Ads & Business
Snapchat launched Sponsored AR Filters, letting brands create interactive AR experiences that users can apply after capturing Snaps. forbusiness.snapchat.com
Reddit rolled out ad creation updates including generative AI copy suggestions for headlines. socialmediatoday.com
Telegram began revenue sharing with channel owners; public channels with over 1,000 subscribers get 50% of ad revenue. telegram.org
Telegram launched Business accounts, with features including opening hours, location display, and quick replies. telegram.org
Spatial & XR
Apple released a public beta of Spatial Personas for the Vision Pro, which build upon the existing Persona avatars by placing them directly in your virtual space, and enabling more immersive collaborative experiences. roadtovr.com
This should undoubtedly have been available at launch because it’s a big step towards making the experience of using the headset less isolating.8th Wall XR effects can now run on Apple Vision Pro, using its Metaversal Deployment system. x.com/the8thwall
Developers can build WebXR experiences that run in the browser and work anywhere, but if you’re an agency or brand 8th Wall is probably the best option for doing something multi-platform quickly and (relatively) affordably.
Google Products
Google added personalised shopping features, including style and brand recommendations. blog.google
Google Maps added new travel features, including curated recommendations and AI-powered place summaries. blog.google