Issue #11: Crazy GPT-4 creations, SEO guide, deepfakes for marketers and video editing on demand

Good morning,

As the AI rollercoaster continues, the AI Index Report for 2023 has been released by Stanford University.

The comprehensive document has good news for the marketing world:

• “The demand for AI-related professional skills is increasing across almost every American industrial sector...Employers in the United States are increasingly looking for workers with AI-related skills.”

• “The United States leads in investment in AI. In 2022, the $47.4 billion invested in the U.S. was roughly 3.5 times the amount invested in the next highest country, China ($13.4 billion).”

• “The proportion of companies adopting AI has plateaued, but the companies that have adopted AI continue to pull ahead. Organizations that have adopted AI report realizing meaningful cost decreases and revenue increases.”

• Marketing and Digital Ads was one of the few focus areas in AI that saw an increase in investment year-on-year (2021-2022) - almost doubling.

The message is clear: AI gives advantages. The window of opportunity to be part of the revolution is now.

Another step forward for Midjourney

The just-released “/describe” function in Midjourney takes you from image to text and back again in your content creation.

You can now upload an image, and Midjourney will generate 4 different text prompts to describe that image. It will then create images for each of those prompts at the click of a button.

Many experimenters have been seeing how close to the original image Midjourney can get, but you can also use it to:

• Provide a fertile ground for creativity.

• Train you in discerning what is (and isn’t) a good image.

• Develop your skills in prompting.

How marketers can and use “deepfakes”

The “Pope in a Puffer” image showed how even when most people know an image is AI-generated, it can still capture both our imagination and attention.

But they also pose new challenges and opportunities for us as marketers.

Is there an ethical way to leverage the benefits of so-called “deepfakes” for optimal impact with minimum effort? The Drum considers the issues and possible benefits for marketers.

Ads have made it into Bing chat

They may be subtle, but they’re there. It was only a matter of time.

In today’s issue:

• How to generate videos on command and turn that starry sky photo into a time-lapse

• Give your SEO an AI-powered boost with this guide

• 14 incredible GPT-4 creations

• The AI expert who says we’re just not ready for what’s coming

• Think you can beat the Turing test?

Let’s dive in.

BIONIC JUICE

GPT-4 is barely 3 weeks old. And yet what a significant contribution it has made to the evolution of multiple industries. Here are 14 incredible things created with GPT-4.

From cold to captivating

You can’t go online without being overwhelmed by the noise and sheer quantity of AI-generated content.

And the variation in quality is spectacular. Curation and filtration is reliant on highly developed skills in discernment. Knowing what to ignore and what matters.

One of the biggest complaints about AI-generated content is it can be a bit - robotic.

With infuriating inaccuracies and an impressive ability to verbal vomit (without a mouth!), ChatGPT’s output can be labelled as inhuman.

While GPT4 is here to help reel that in, you can also take advantage of generative technology, while retaining your authenticity with JD Spura’s latest guide, How to Humanize Your Content:

“Storytelling is a transformative journey from point A to point B. Machines regurgitate, but human beings craft stories that captivate you.”

In just a few steps, your articles will go from beep-beep-boop to effortlessly conversationalist prose.

These guys are at the top of their game in the law, business and counsel niches. No matter your industry, learn how to tailor your ChatGPT outputs to your audiences with their genius iterative approach.

8% revenue boost in just a few steps?

That’s the increase marketers have reported since adopting AI into their workflows. That spans the marketing stratosphere: automated cold pitching, community management, social media scheduling - you name it.

But what is AI’s best match?

SEO.

That’s the opinion of growth specialist Neil Patel. And he’s released a guide on using it to your advantage.

Think you’ve got your website’s SEO covered? Think again. Neil has left no stone unturned in this AI-powered website improvement guide.

Tailor your website and build your traffic with his machine-enhanced strategies:

• Opportunity discovery through targeted keywords and relevant backlinks

• Identify crucial content gaps

• Tailor the length of each webpage, using AI-powered data analysis

• Highlight duplicate content and rank higher in that all-important Google search.

LATEST DISCOVERIES

A few weeks ago we featured The Coming Ubiquity.

Written by Seth Godin, this guy knows a thing or 11 about emergent technologies.

His prediction for the future is simple: AI won’t replace therapists, doctors and artists. But it will be everywhere.

It’s already started.

One good indicator is the astonishing change in AI’s Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR).

Back in Issue #6, AI’s global CAGR was estimated at a respectable 17.8%.

This week, a report by MarketsandMarkets doubled that figure: they’ve updated and magnified those figures, placing generative AI’s estimated growth to reach 37% by 2027.

The release of ChatGPT-4 is a likely influence. Apps and social media platforms are also introducing generative technology into their UX. Just as Godin predicted - AI is going to be ubiquitous.

Adobe has brought the power of AI to digital creatives everywhere with Sensei - and immediately amplified their stock value.

Sensei has been part of the Adobe suite since 2017, but the most recent update has invigorated the content creation pipeline with OpenAI’s neural network.

Across Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, After Effects and more, Sensei can auto-generate subtitles, offer highly accurate content-aware selection, and instantly translates any sketch into a resolution-independent vector - in seconds.

Exciting stuff, right?

We’re not the only ones who think so. The move to embrace AI, rather than fight it, has seen Adobe’s stock value skyrocket: this year alone, ADBE shares are estimated to return a 30% gain.

In other news…

AI may not have a physical form - but it certainly has a face for radio.

And Spotify moved in quickly: they’ve taken the UX to the next level with a personalized disk jockey for each of your playlists.

Harnessing the power of Natural Language Processing, the DJ’s super realistic, honey-smooth voice comments on tracks and sets the mood, delivering a tailored experience for every listener.

They’re not the only ones using AI for more than project management.

Gamer-centric social platform Discord have released “Clyde”, a witty, knowledgeable and funny conversationalist designed to enhance the virtual gaming experience.

He doesn’t draft emails or tidy up your calendar - but he will banter with fellow gamers and crack jokes using apt emojis and relevant GIFs. Users can ask him to determine the real MVP in a game of Warzone.

He acts just like another server member, except with OpenAI’s knowledge bank behind him.

That’s right - you might just get roasted on your gameplay by a virtual personality.

Gen Z-ers are using TikTok’s latest AI to create hilariously realistic arguments between Donald Trump and Joe Biden for blowing up each other’s houses in Minecraft.

Multimedia giant Snapchat has hopped on board, too.

They’ve partnered with OpenAI to create My AI, a mobile-friendly, lightning-quick bot that can do all the usual ChatGPT tasks on a stripped-back scale.

AI’s growing presence across the Internet is a good indicator of its predictability of growth across any and all platforms.

Just like how our childhoods were defined by huge technological advancements - like the rise of the landline, the telephone and eventually the Internet, kids today will grow up alongside AI.

Funding:

$65M: AI-powered Typeface app aims to “reimagine” the content creation workflow. The tool can generate drafts, create visuals and output copy - all tailored to each brand’s image and voice.

$14.5M: Riding the AI sound wave, Voicemod is a synthetic generator that can create totally unique voices. The tool can be used as a virtual customer call representative - or as a serious game changer for your weekly karaoke night.

$4M: Autobound uses generative AI to create tailored sales emails, streamlining the sales process, increasing conversions and enabling sales teams to focus on building those crucial relationships.

BIONIC TOOLKIT

🤖 Generate videos on command

Create and edit any video or image you need using Genmo Chat, a creative copilot. It uses GPT-4 and a suite of generative AI tools to:

• Generate and edit movies from scratch.

• Animate existing images. For example, the user can upload a starry night and asks Genmo to animate the sky into a timelapse.

• Write a script and then generate a trailer.

The model helps create ideas you can critique iteratively. Genmo takes it from there to generate an edited video.

🤖 Do you ever wish you could go back to school and do it properly?

Unfortunately, time travel doesn’t exist - but Unschooler does.

This personal mentor identifies your career goals, outlines a strategy, suggests relevant courses and provides a full list of external resources to support your development.

Dive into a huge range of subjects, including:

• Social media engagement reach

• Developing your own ChatGPT-derived AI bot

• Javascript for games development

• Quantum physics

The app uses interactive learning and tailored algorithms that adapt each tutorial to your learning style. Unschooler can help you reach your career goals faster.

🤖 Think you can spot an AI-written sentence at a glance? Time to put your money where your mouth is.

Real or Fake Text is designed to test humans on their ability to identify machine-written prose. It’s essentially a modern Turing test.

If you’ve not heard of the Turing test, here’s a quick rundown for you: it was a test designed at the conception of the information age designed to determine if a computer is capable of thinking like a human being.

Real or Fake Text? is a fun and interactive way to keep yourself on top of the generative AI game.

And when you take the tests, you’re actively contributing to academic research to better understand neural networks.

Try for yourself - but prepare for a humbling. Some of the questions are really tricky!

THE LAST BYTE

As Italy bans ChatGPT under privacy concerns related to GDPR (OpenAI says it has complied with all privacy laws), the debate over the future of AI rages on.

Heavy-hitters in the tech space published open letter asking for a 6 month-long “pause” on the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.

But at this point, the genie is out of the bottle and won’t be put back.

That’s not stopping some from calling for airstrikes against potentially rogue AI systems.

Eliezer Yudkowsky leads research at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute and has been working on aligning Artificial General Intelligence since 2001.

In fact, he goes as far as to say “...the most likely result of building a superhumanly smart AI, under anything remotely like the current circumstances, is that literally everyone on Earth will die.”

He advises that more preparation and insights are needed for us to survive such advancements.

It can be easy to dismiss such extreme views while swept up in the excitement of experiencing a life-changing time. But don’t forget, the situation we find ourselves in is both thrilling and terrifying.

We need to face it with both courage and trepidation.

Spend time developing your discernment and judgement so you can cut through the noise and recognize genuine breakthroughs. Learn what’s wise and what’s witless.

Bionic Marketing will help guide the way, shining a light on the voices you need to hear so you can confidently act as a strategist, creative director and editor for your business and your clients.

See you next week,
Sam Woods
Editor