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This design agency used Midjourney to design a campaign from scratch

Also: Is AI generating an ‘averaged’, one-sided, view of art history?

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AI KATANA
July 03, 2023

Welcome!

Today we have some exciting stories from the world of AI. First up, we're diving into a fascinating use case of AI in design, where Design Army harnessed the power of AI for a brand campaign for Georgetown Optician. We also explore how AI tools like ChatGPT are transforming human productivity across businesses. The evolving role of AI in the gaming industry comes into focus with Valve's stance on copyright-infringing AI artwork. In the realm of art, we discuss AI's potential biases in presenting art history. Our AI tools update section unveils Humane's first AI gadget, while in Venture Capital updates, we bring news about significant funding rounds for Slang.ai and Alfie Health. Stay tuned as we explore the multifaceted developments in AI and its increasingly prevalent role in various industries.

Sliced and ready to go:

  • 👩🏻‍🎨 This design agency used Midjourney to design a campaign from scratch

  • 👩🏻‍💻 How new AI tools like ChatGPT can transform human productivity in the enterprise

  • 🎮 Valve won’t approve Steam games that use copyright-infringing AI artwork

  • 🖼️ Is AI generating an ‘averaged’, one-sided, view of art history?

Design Army, a renowned design studio known for its typographic, fashion-oriented output for clients like Adobe, Disney, Netflix, and PepsiCo, tested the capabilities of AI in a practical design context for a campaign for Georgetown Optician. The eyewear retailer, preparing to open a new store, requested a creative campaign on a tight timeframe of four weeks. With limited time and budget, Design Army decided to use AI to create the entire campaign. The studio used an AI platform called Midjourney, using prompts to guide the AI's creative process, eventually creating a campaign titled "Adventures in A-Eye" which showcased the brand's eyewear in a surreal, sci-fi, martian landscape. The models and most elements in the campaign were generated by the AI, with only the type and eyeglasses being real. The process was both challenging and rewarding, leading to a campaign completion in weeks instead of the typical months. Despite the hurdles, Design Army sees potential in AI's place in the future of design and believes that the ability to work with AI will be a key skill in the industry.

AI tools like generative AI models and conversational agents such as ChatGPT, have emerged as transformational forces in business, reshaping industries and unlocking unprecedented opportunities for growth. These technologies can streamline operations and optimize workflows by automating repetitive tasks, allowing employees to focus on strategic work, such as implementing generative AI for content creation, which can lead to a significant reduction in time spent on writing product descriptions. AI also facilitates intelligent data analysis, enabling businesses to process vast amounts of data, uncover valuable patterns, and provide actionable insights, leading to improved productivity and quicker decision-making. Furthermore, AI can augment decision-making processes by providing real-time, data-driven recommendations, improving decision-making accuracy, and enhancing resource allocation. AI technologies can also enhance collaboration among employees by facilitating seamless knowledge sharing, scheduling meetings, and transcribing conversations. Lastly, AI can foster skill development by providing personalized learning experiences, thereby enhancing employee productivity and performance. The use of AI technologies can result in substantial efficiency improvements and cost reductions, emphasizing the transformative potential of AI in revolutionizing human productivity.

Contrary to earlier reports that Valve's Steam platform would cease publishing games with AI-generated content, the company has clarified that it is not seeking to discourage AI use but is working to integrate it into existing review policies. Valve's PR representative Kaci Boyle stated that while developers can use AI technologies in their work, they cannot infringe on existing copyrights. Steam's developer submission rules already prohibit content that developers do not own or have adequate rights to. If games are rejected due to AI copyright issues, Valve will refund app-submission credits as the company refines its review process. The advent of AI has complicated copyright discussions and led to lawsuits over uncredited open source code usage and copyright infringement, making Valve's proactive approach to the issue unsurprising.

The use of AI in image generation, art making, and research has been criticized for perpetuating biases and misrepresentation due to flawed training data that often reflects social inequities. A significant issue is the predominance of Western perspectives, which arises from the greater availability of Western art and images online and the concentration of internet users in English-speaking regions. This bias is evident in AI models trained on datasets like LAION-5b, which tend to produce images reflecting Western art archetypes. The skewed representation risks marginalizing non-Western art histories and visual cultures. Artists and cultural institutions are actively working to counter this trend, with some artists incorporating AI in their practice to introduce more diverse representations, and institutions like the National Gallery Singapore offering their collections for AI training. As AI technology evolves, the need for more specific, curated models that reflect a broad range of narratives and perspectives is recognized. However, this requires grappling with existing biases in the art world and technology to build new tools that can truly represent diverse voices.

🛠️ AI tools updates

Humane, a company founded by ex-Apple employees, has announced its first AI gadget, the 'Humane Ai Pin', set to launch later this year and powered by an advanced Snapdragon platform in partnership with Qualcomm. The company remains largely secretive about the Ai Pin's functionality and appearance. The last public display of the device was at a TED conference, where co-founder Imran Chaudhri demonstrated its use as a voice assistant, among other functions. It is speculated to be a wearable, given its name and Chaudhri's demonstration.

💵 Venture Capital updates

Slang.ai, a New York City-based company that offers an AI-powered phone answering product, has raised $20 million in funding. The Series A funding round was led by Homebrew, with contributions from Stage 2 Capital, Wing VC, Underscore VC, Active Capital, Collide Capital, as well as prominent industry angel investors like celebrity chef Tom Colicchio and Scott Belsky, the founder of Behance. Other participants in the funding round included executives from tech companies such as Snap and Zoom.

Alfie Health, a New York-based virtual obesity management clinic, has garnered $2.1 million in funding for its AI clinical decision support technology. Founded by Alexander Singh and COO Rohit Rustagi in 2022, the clinic uses a holistic approach to help patients sustainably lose weight. Its proprietary ObesityRx system employs AI to generate a metabolic profile of patients and optimize treatment strategies. The technology, developed with insights from obesity specialists from Mass General and the Cleveland Clinic, examines patients' medical histories, lab data, and patient-reported outcomes.

🫡 Meme of the day

⭐️ Generative AI image of the day