15th issue: A new midjourney version has arrived 📣

The new midjourney version, the AI in Dropbox and more

Author

Minjie Shi
June 25, 2023

🌯 Wrap for the week

A close look at all the main headlines in AI

Midjourney got its “generative fill” and much more 🤯 

Midjourney v5.2 has finally arrived and it is looking amazing!

Here are three key takeaways from their announcement:

  1. Zoom Out: Imagine having a camera that not only takes stunning shots but can also expand those shots into broader scenes while keeping your subject in the spotlight. That's precisely what Midjourney's new "Zoom Out" feature promises. While similar to the outpainting technique of OpenAI's DALL-E 2 and Adobe Photoshop's Generative Fill feature, the current caveat is that it only works on images generated within Midjourney.

  2. Aesthetic Overhaul: The Midjourney team has been hard at work on an aesthetic overhaul, claiming it will boost image quality. They've beefed up the "--stylize" command, so users can really push the boat out on how unrealistic an image can appear. Coupled with the newly activated "high variation mode," this update aims to add extra zest and variety to image generations.

  3. "/Shorten" Command: With their "/shorten" command, they've made it easier for users to keep their image prompts concise, allowing for quicker assessment and trimming of non-essential words.

Personally, the Zoom Out feature is the most interesting one as generative fill has been all the craze for weeks and it is good to see Midjourney’s answer to that. The following is my try to test the Zoom Out feature and put that into a little gif 👇️ 

P.S. The tool I used to create the above video is from here. If you need a tutorial about how to create this, give me a shout!

I will do a deep dive into the other features in the upcoming issue of AI Art Thursday. So, stay tuned!

Dropbox is getting some AI power-ups!

Dropbox is making a smart move here. It is setting a course for the future of work with AI, bringing a pair of potentially game-changing tools.

  1. Dropbox Dash: Ever wished you could have a single search bar for all your work files, no matter the platform? That's what Dash promises. It's an AI-powered universal search that links all of your tools, content, and apps in one spot. It features 'Stacks' for smart link collections and a 'Start Page' for easier navigation of your workday. Oh, and it gets smarter the more you use it.

  2. Dropbox AI: Imagine being able to understand large documents or videos with just a click. This is the next step for Dropbox with AI for file previews. It's designed to summarise your content into a precise explanation, and you can also ask it questions to retrieve specific information without having to manually search through massive files. The good news? It's in alpha and already available to all Dropbox Pro customers in the U.S.

In addition, Dropbox is not just launching new tools, they're also launching dreams. Dropbox Ventures is a $50M initiative aimed at propelling AI startups into the future. And what is in the package? Financial support and mentorship to build new AI-powered products.

If you feel the text is a bit dry, check their video presentation about the news:

Let's hope these new tools make our work life much easier.

Other top AI headlines for the week

The top 5 countries in terms of affected user numbers are India, Pakistan, Brazil, Vietnam, and Egypt. If you are using ChatGPT in these countries with an email and password combo, you might want to check if the combo has been leaked or not.

Well, it is another good reminder that some good password hygiene would always help.

It does sound a bit like Plugin Store 2.0. It is interesting to see how this would be in the future.

Well, this is another great example of how AI can help make our lives better. Although, personally, I am not a big fan of dubbing. Subtitles all the way baby!

🎬️ Guess that movie

Adding a bit of fun to your weekend reading, let’s guess the famous movie from the 10-emoji description created by ChatGPT:

🏨👨‍🍳💼👵🖼️🔫🚓🏔️💌👨‍⚖️

If it is a bit hard to figure out, you can find the answer with some explanation from ChatGPT at the end of this newsletter.

🧰 Toolbox

Check out this week’s tools and resources that give you more superpowers with prompt crafting!

1. 🔧 Aviary
Now you have heard about all these new open LLMs. Just in case you are curious about their performance of them, Aviary is a great tool to allow you to see the results from these open LLMs and see the potential cost of tokens when using them.

2. 📺️ How to let GPT control anything & 10x powerful | 8 mins tutorial about GPT function calling
If you have been curious about the new feature, function calling, from OpenAI and want to see a hands-on tutorial, this is a great resource!

3. 📚️ GPT-4 Outperforms Humans in Pitch Deck Effectiveness Among Investors and Business Owners
I haven’t dug quite deep into the methodologies of this research yet, but I am quite interested in the findings. A good validation on a SaaS tool to generate a pitch deck using AI though.

👋 Your next Twitter friend

Connect with great people in the industry to supercharge your growth

Well, this guy has a way better result in creating that sort of zoom effect video. Check the tutorial out:

🖼️ Image of the week

This is definitely the top news in Tech. Let’s get ready to rumble 🥊 

P.S. Midjourney is not happy with me generating pictures about this 😅 

🎬️ Guess that movie - answer

The answer is "The Grand Budapest Hotel" 🥳 

Did you guess that right? Here is ChatGPT’s explanation:

🏨👨‍🍳💼👵🖼️🔫🚓🏔️💌👨‍⚖️

This summary captures the main elements of the story: the hotel (🏨), a concierge (👨‍🍳), a suitcase (💼), an old woman (👵), a painting (🖼️), a gun or crime (🔫), police (🚓), the mountain setting (🏔️), a love letter (💌), and a trial or legal proceedings (👨‍⚖️).

That is it for the week!

Until I see you next time, stay awesome my friend!

Cheers,
Minjie

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