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20 September 2023 | Issue #15

$200,000,000 annual revenue

14,800,000 users

40 employees

$0 from investors

These are the current Midjourney stats.

And it hasn't hit web browsers yet!

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How many people do you know that use Discord? Not many, right? According to Influencer Marketing Hub, Discord has just under 200m monthly active users globally. The average age of a Discord user is 16. They are predominantly younger due to the site's initial growth in the gamer market. Because of its original focus on younger users, there is a barrier of entry for others. There are things that are unintuitive about the Discord user interface. But with many apps aimed at younger people, this is a feature, not a bug.

In case your sister Tracey is wondering, Midjourney can only be used through Discord. So one of the top platforms for generative AI imagery is limited to usage on a platform that relatively few people use on a global scale.

With Midjourney v6, it is expected to be available on web browsers. This means high-quality genAI imagery will soon be available to anyone with a web browser.

Other platforms are already available on the web, but expect a wave of press to announce this new availability. Which will lead to more people trying it out. Which leads to more and more genAI imagery.

And Midjourney is expecting to have 3D images, high-resolution videos, and even video games created within Midjourney in the next few years. Considering how quickly Midjourney has evolved over the past two years, there's no reason to think it won't be able to create these additional assets in the near future.

​ NEWS AT THE INTERSECTION OF MARKETING, DESIGN, & AI

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🔥 Nearly Half of CEOs Believe AI Could Replace Their Own Jobs, Says New Poll

Isn't it something? Almost half of CEOs are contemplating the idea that AI could replace them. And get this, 47% of them actually think it might be a good thing!

• Enlightened View: The survey, conducted by edX, found that 49% of CEOs believe AI could replace "most" or "all" of their roles. Anant Agarwal, edX founder, calls this an "enlightened view" and thinks AI is going to be transformative, perhaps even bigger than the internet.
• Future of Work: C-suite executives said 49% of the skills that exist in their current workforce won’t be relevant by 2025, and 47% of their workers aren’t prepared for the future of work.

​Keep reading​

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🧾 Can You Name The Top 10 GenAI Apps?

Speaking of Midjourney, it came in at #8 on this list. It is interesting that it points out that Midjourney was more popular when it was free. Many of these tools are still in their "grow user base by offering the product for free for now" phase. As the space gets more mature, I wonder how the list will

• Who's Who: The list includes some familiar names like ChatGPT, CharacterAI, and Bard by Google, but also some specialized tools like Quillbot for paraphrasing and Photoroom for AI photo editing.
• Trends & Surprises: Two key trends are the rise of AI copilots for automating cognitive tasks and specialized AI solutions for niche tasks. A surprising entry is CharacterAI, which turns the AI's "hallucinations" into a feature, appealing to a younger audience.

​Keep reading​

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🎥 Meta Working on More Powerful AI System that Will Surpass OpenAI's GPT-4

To nobody's suprise, the digital giants are coming for AI. Meta is reportedly developing an AI system that's expected to outperform OpenAI's GPT-4, and it's going to be open-source!

• Next-Level Power: Meta's new AI system is expected to have twice the capacity of Llama 2, their latest AI model developed with Microsoft. They're even ramping up their investment in Nvidia's H100s chips to train this beast.
• Strategic Shift: Meta is making a big move into AI innovation, aiming to challenge not just OpenAI but the broader AI community. They're even planning to release AI chatbots with distinct personalities.

​Keep reading​

​ NEW RESOURCES FOR YOU

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Gartner Hype Cycle for Generative AI, 2023

I was excited to dig into this report. But, it turns out that it's not publicly available yet. As a Gartner subscriber, I can read the report, but I'll hold off on discussing it until others have a chance to consume it.

Sorry. Maybe next week

I've been doing the initial work for my first course this week. I hope to have something in the next few weeks to help with your career evolution.

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HOW CAN I HELP YOU?

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If you want to learn more about what's available, here are some links: ​Coaching​ ​Courses​ ​Articles​ ​What’s After Design​ ​ Thanks for reading! -Jim ​ ​Let's chat about your career growth

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