Generative AI for Everyone (and Everything)!

18 October 2023 | Issue #19

Welcome to all of the new readers! Whether you came in from Threads or the Creator For All Trades newsletter, welcome! Please let me know how I can help. You can view an archive of past issues here.

It was a wild week in AI and design. The biggest news probably came out of Adobe MAX.

Adobe Firefly, the company's generative AI engine, has been updated to offer more control and quality in image generation. The new Firefly Image 2 Model, for instance, allows for better image quality and more creative control, enabling designers to generate content that's safe for commercial use. Generative AI is getting deeper integration into tools like Photoshop and Illustrator. We've known about features like Generative Fill, but now there is Text to Vector Graphic.

For designers, the integration of generative AI into everyday tools is a game-changer. It allows for massive time savings and offers new ways to scale up content production while maintaining brand consistency. However, Adobe is also aware of the ethical implications and is advocating for modernized laws to protect creators from misuse of their style or likeness. Safeguards are being put in place to promote responsible use of generative AI technologies.

So, what does this mean for you as a designer? On the positive side, embracing these AI capabilities can significantly streamline your workflow, allowing you to focus more on creativity and less on manual tasks. However, there's a flip side. As generative AI becomes more prevalent, there's a need to be vigilant about the ethical use of these technologies, both for yourself and the broader design community. It's an exciting yet cautious step into a future where AI and human creativity coalesce to redefine the boundaries of design.

NEWS AT THE INTERSECTION OF MARKETING, DESIGN, & AI

🤖 Google's AI-Powered Search Experience Can Now Generate Images, Write Drafts

Google's Search Generative Experience (SGE) is leveling up with new features that allow it to generate images and offer a more customized writing assistant.

Image Generation: SGE can now generate images based on user prompts, a feature powered by Google's Imagen text-to-image model. This is similar to Bing's support of OpenAI's DALLE-E 3.
Customized Writing: The writing assistant feature within SGE can now be tailored to output different types of writing, either longer or shorter, and even change the tone to be more serious or casual.

Keep reading

👩‍💻 Forget Hiring a CFO, Your Startup Needs a CDO More

The article makes a compelling case for why startups should prioritize hiring a Chief Design Officer (CDO) over a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) to drive long-term growth and establish a unique company identity.

Design as Strategy: The article argues that design should be embedded into a company's DNA from day one, influencing not just aesthetics but also business strategy and operations. Speaking from experience, this can be a game changer.
User-Centric Growth: A design-first culture focuses on what users actually want, rather than what developers think they want, leading to more sustainable growth and brand loyalty.

Keep reading

🤨 Hey Designers, They're Gaslighting You

If you're a designer constantly told to "prove your value," you might be a victim of workplace gaslighting. This piece dives deep into the emotional toll it takes and offers ways to break free.

Gaslighting Tactics: Organizations often manipulate designers into questioning their own worth by setting unrealistic expectations for them to "prove their value."
Reframing Mindset: The focus should shift from trying to prove your value to owning it, and from seeing colleagues as adversaries to viewing them as partners.

Keep reading

NEW RESOURCES FOR YOU

Sooner or later, this will become a big story: AI requires a lot of electricity. We saw this concern rise during the glory days of crypto and NFTs.

A recent study has raised concerns about the environmental impact of the rapidly growing AI industry, predicting that by 2027, the sector could consume as much energy as entire countries like Sweden or the Netherlands. The study points out that the energy-intensive nature of training large AI models and generating content in real-time could lead to a significant spike in energy consumption. The researcher emphasizes that tech companies need to be more transparent about their energy usage and suggests a more mindful approach to AI development.

The study also delves into the supply chain of AI devices, particularly focusing on chipmaker Nvidia, which dominates around 95% of the market for AI chips. De Vries notes that a single AI server can consume as much power as more than a dozen UK households combined, highlighting the urgency for sustainable practices in AI development. He calls for greater transparency from tech companies and questions whether AI should be indiscriminately integrated into various applications, given its substantial energy footprint.

It's something to keep an eye on. I don't think this will slow down the adoption of AI, but it gives AI skeptics a talking point.