Hi everyone, thanks for signing up to our regular email. I’m a bit loathe to call it a ‘newsletter’ as it’s not really going to be focused on news at all.
There are a lot of different AI newsletters out there. The problem I see is that these will often provide the latest Open AI drama, or showcase an assortment of niche tools that you aren’t really going to use.
From what I can gather, use of AI in workflows is not yet a priority for a majority of workers. Even I don’t use it every day. Meanwhile, there are 4,000 tools in our initial directory - how to make sense of this, and finding out which tools are actually important, is really our mission.
Here are some tools I use regularly, have subscriptions to, and why:
ChatGPT: For data analysis and, occasionally, for research.
HeyGen: For avatar video generation - you’ll see one of these on my LinkedIn profile every Wednesday.
Midjourney: For image generation for articles on our site.
Eleven Labs: For audio voice over and cloning, which is useful for video and audio production.
Runway: A useful video editing app for removing backgrounds, which can also generate video.
None of these tools are perfect. They all take time to learn and its often a learning of trial and error. Midjourney, for example, is now excellent at creating images - but you still need to learn how to write good prompts, with some basic prompt parameters, to get good outputs. Here’s an image I made recently for an article on our website, the prompt is the caption:
a concerned middle aged business leader, scratching her head while she considers the number of generative AI applications available to her, with generative ai icons, photorealistic stock photograph style —ar 16:9
Now I think that’s passable, but it’s far from perfect. If you look closely at the icons, then they are essentially gibberish! But nonetheless, it beats a stock image and spending a few hours on Photoshop for the end result.
What tools you use is entirely down to your specific role and remit. I follow a lot of people in generative video production on LinkedIn, and they are using about 10 different video generators and tools that provide specific outputs to get good results. Learning all that takes a lot of time and skill.
What we’re aiming to do with our email is to look at a specific theme or sector, and let subscribers know how generative AI is changing that. This could be productivity, image, video, audio, marketing and search. But what are the main AI trends affecting these sectors, and what are the best tools to use?
That should give all of our subscribers a bit more clarity on the important tools in the emerging trends. If you want a bit of additional flavour, then check out our Insights page.
Meanwhile, I’m in Washington DC at the moment working with The Telegraph on the strangely AI-less US election. We’re going into the busy period, so the email may not be every week just yet. When I’m out the other side, and whether the new President is Donald or Kamala, Adam, Harry or me will be sending one every week.
Thanks very much for subscribing,
James
