🧙‍♂️ Lore AI Issue #20: ControlNet buzz + Elon Musk wants to rival OpenAI

Good morning ☀️

Nathan called it earlier this week when he said Elon Musk would create his own rival to OpenAI... but it definitely happened a lot sooner than we expected.

What else happened in genAI? Let's dive right in.

🎉

This issue is brought to you by

Solace Vision

In today's issue:

• 💡MOST INNOVATIVE PRODUCT: Simplified.com

• ✨ SOLACE VISION (Sponsored)

• 📰 AI NEWS: Elon Musk working on OpenAI rival, Snapchat launches AI chatbot, Instagram co-founders launch AI-powered news app, Nvidia leads AI chip race

• 💰WHO GOT FUNDING THIS WEEK: Typeface, Colossyan, NeoSwap, Envisionit Deep AI, Voicemod, Source.ag, Brevity Pitch, Vouched.id, Robin AI

• 🤯 COOLEST THING: ControlNet for Stable Diffusion

• 🧠 LEARN SOMETHING NEW: Send AI gifts to friends and family

• 📖 FURTHER STUDY: Additional industry links and resources

Simplified

💡MOST INNOVATIVE PRODUCT

Try It

AI tools are getting better and better. Here's an all-in-one platform for graphic design, writing, video & animation, and social media planning.

It's won some awards, plus we think it's pretty cool: check out Simplified.com 🤯

Solace Vision

Text-to-3D creation tool powered by AI and natural language. (Sponsored) 

Alpha Sign-Up

🚩Sponsor spotlight🚩

Solace Vision is a new startup that is developing a novel approach to text-to-3D creation. Instead of a diffusion-based system, Solace Vision is focusing on procedural generation technology which outputs commercial-ready 3D model assets that are editable with text.

🚗 They just released their Alpha where you can generate and edit a 3D car model from scratch using text.

Solace Vision is based on object class generators, and the current generator they've released is for cars. They plan on releasing new object generators based on user request over the next few months, with some of the highly requested generators being for weapons, buildings, and environments.

To chat with the Solace Vision team, join their Discord here.

Key features

• Create 3D model prototypes that can be exported.

• Use text input to edit your 3D model creations.

• Does not currently use external data, making it an ethical generative AI technology platform.

📰AI NEWS

Elon Musk working on OpenAI rival, Snapchat launches AI chatbot, Instagram co-founders launch AI-powered news app, Nvidia leads AI chip race

Elon Musk hires team to develop OpenAI rival

After co-founding OpenAI in 2015 and later cutting ties with the company, Elon Musk is now working on his own flavor of generative AI — apparently in an attempt to combat the "wokeness" of OpenAI's safeguards.

Interesting read: The nonprofits accelerating Sam Altman’s AI vision — read article

Snapchat launches AI chatbot powered by GPT technology

Snapchat announced “My AI,” a new chatbot running OpenAI’s GPT technology, as an experimental feature for Snapchat+. My AI was trained to have a unique voice and personality that plays into its values about “friendship, learning and fun." CNBC | TechCrunch

AI-powered news app launched by Insta co-founders

The co-founders of Instagram have launched a new AI-powered news curation app called Artifact which is now publicly available.

Nvidia results show its growing lead in AI chip race

As the AI boom takes off, Nvidia is expected to emerge as the biggest winner among chipmakers. The company reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings last week (in stark contrast to a projected loss and dividend cut from rival Intel).

Related: Hard Times for AI Chip Startups — read article

In other news

• Notion AI is now publicly available.

• Jasper AI can now generate images.

• Aleph Alpha, a European rival to OpenAI, is in talks amid AI boom to raise up to $100 million in new funding, sources say — read article

• Bosch partners with AI firm for $100M fund to empower Web3 development — read article

• Anthropic begins supplying its text-generating AI models to select startups — read article

Who got funding this week

• Typeface raised $65M for its genAI Application for enterprise content creation.

• Colossyan raised $5M for its text-to-video platform.

• NeoSwap raised $2M for its AI-powered NFT trading platform.

• Envisionit Deep AI raised $1.65M to accelerate access to healthcare across Africa.

• Voicemod raised $14.5M for its free real-time voice changer.

• Source.ag raised $23M for AI greenhouse agriculture.

• Brevity Pitch raised $2M to make sales pitches more engaging and prepare people for job interviews.

• Vouched.id raised $6.3M for AI identity verification.

• Robin AI raised $10.5M to make contracts simple.

Further reading on funding for AI startups

• The AI Goldrush: 51 AI Startups In Y Combinator's First 2023 Batch — read article

• Buzzy Storytelling Startup Tome Raises $43 Million From A Who’s Who In AI — read article

• EI-backed Sure Valley Ventures fund bags €30m for high-growth AI firms — read article

• Is AI the Next Gold Rush? Global Investment Skyrockets 633% — read article

🤯 COOLEST THING 

ControlNet

Everyone's talking about ControlNet right now — a game-changing neural network structure that adds extra conditions to Stable Diffusion models, enabling significantly better levels of control and solving the problem of spatial consistency in AI image generation.

Read this reddit post for an example workflow.

What else we found this week

Fake AI-generated LinkedIn profile of startup founder gets funding offer in 24 hours

Revamp your documentation with chat based search

New AI workflows using combined tools

🧠LEARN SOMETHING NEW

Send AI gifts to friends and family

Make personalized gifts using AI art

Bring your digital art into the physical world by getting it printed on anything from socks to phone cases.

How to do it:

1. Download your AI-generated image (you can use Canva to add text)

2. Upload design to your chosen product on a print-on-demand site like Printful or Printify

3. Ship product to yourself or a loved one

If you have a knack for business or an audience to monetize, this also is an easy way to create ecommerce products ✨

Further Study 📖

Long reads

• 2023 data, ML and AI landscape: ChatGPT, generative AI and more — read article

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) Marketing Benchmark Report: 2023 — read article

Keeping up with the AI industry

• Anthropic begins supplying its text-generating AI models to select startups — read article

• Generative AI's money game — read article

• ChatGPT hype sparks hopes and fears around AI — read article

• China tech companies are closely watching ChatGPT’s A.I. skills. Here’s what they’re doing about it — read article

• How blockchain-based AI can drive businesses growth — read article

• GPT-powered deepfakes are a ‘powder keg’ — read article

• Generative AI could be an authoritarian breakthrough in brainwashing — read article

• Australia partners with US on AI research funding — listen to podcast

• Telcos among the biggest adopters of AI, surveys find — read article

• AI writing tools could hand scientists the ‘gift of time’ — read article

• AI can help us build imagination machines — read article

• Sci-Fi Publishers Are Bracing for an AI Battle — read article

• Will China Create a New State-Owned Enterprise to Monopolize Artificial Intelligence? — read article

Crime prevention

• How AI can transform transaction monitoring and prevent financial fraud — read article

• Resistant AI links with anti-financial crime firm Client Fabric Tech — read article

• App to block child abuse images gets £1.8m EU funding — read article

Gaming

• Gaming innovation driven by Web3, generative AI, and more emerging tech — read article

• AI learns to outsmart humans in video games - and real life — read article

Investing

• How big investors are playing the latest AI trend overtaking Wall Street — read article

• AI is the next ‘supercycle’, says Mubadala’s head of ventures — read article

Healthcare

New app uses AI to interpret the emotions expressed by non-verbal individuals — read article

Business, M&A

• European VC firms Amadeus and Apex partner for €80M early-stage ‘deep tech’ fund — read article

• Wise and Monzo founders back legal generative AI startup’s $10.5m Series A — read article

Closing  

What did you think of today's newsletter? We'd love to hear your honest feedback.

See you next week!

-Nathan Lands & Michele du Toit

If you ❤️ Lore:

1. Subscribe & share this newsletter 🥰

2. Follow us on Twitter @NathanLands & @michele_dutoit.

3. Join our Generative AI communities on Twitter and LinkedIn.