AI Weekly: What Happened This Week (August 2024)
Another busy week in AI. Here’s what you need to know.
Big News
Stability AI Releases Stable Diffusion 3
The new version brings major improvements to image quality, especially for hands and text in images. Available through their API, with local versions coming soon.
Why it matters: Free and open-source image generation gets another leap forward.
Meta Llama 3.1 Now Available
Meta’s latest open-source model matches GPT-4 on several benchmarks. Available for local use and commercial deployment.
Why it matters: Open-source AI continues closing the gap with proprietary models.
Claude Gets Artifacts
Anthropic added a new “Artifacts” feature to Claude, letting it create and preview code, documents, and designs in a side panel.
Why it matters: Makes Claude more practical for development and content creation tasks.
Tool Updates
- Notion AI added database Q&A - ask questions about your data
- Canva Magic Studio improvements for video editing
- Midjourney web interface now in beta for more users
- ChatGPT memory features rolling out to more accounts
What We’re Testing
This week we’ve been hands-on with:
- Claude Artifacts for coding projects
- Ideogram 2.0 for image generation
- Perplexity’s new Pro Search features
Full reviews coming next week.
Quick Tips
Claude Artifact trick: Use “create an interactive [x]” to get Claude to build runnable code demos.
Midjourney web beta: If you have access, the new editor tools are worth exploring.
ChatGPT memory: Check Settings → Personalization to see what ChatGPT remembers about you.
Numbers of the Week
- 2 million: New users of Claude since Artifacts launched
- $200M: Runway’s latest funding round valuation
- 40%: Drop in API costs for Anthropic’s Claude models
What to Watch
Next week we’re expecting:
- More details on OpenAI’s next model
- Potential Google Gemini updates
- New features from Perplexity
Stay tuned.
Want weekly updates in your inbox? Subscribe to our newsletter.