Puffy Pontiff – fake AI images of Pope Francis went viral

🧥 Puffy Pontiff Pandemonium: AI-Generated Pope Francis Image Goes Viral!

🪄 Runway ML Gen-1 is now available

🚶🏻‍♀️ Levi’s to use AI-generated models for diversity

🚫 Baidu Backpedals on Ernie Bot Debut: Investors Left Puzzled, Shares Drop 2%

✔️ Elon Musk pushes paid verification blue checkmarks to combat AI bots

AI generated images of the Pope in puffy jacket goes viral

Over the weekend, AI generated images of Pope Francis wearing a puffy white coat went viral on Twitter. Many people believed the image was real.

The image was created using Midjourney’s v5 model.

Users quickly dismissed the image pointing out obvious image synthesis such as the crooked shadow on his glasses, the fuzzy image on the crucifix and the strange cup he seems to be carrying.

As AI image models get better and better, the obvious thought arises of how we’ll be able to verify the authenticity of media in the future.

Given blockchain’s non-fungible nature, is this where AI and blockchain meet? Did we finally find the right use case for blockchain? We shall see.

Runway ML Gen-1 is now available

This is not sponsored – just a really cool piece of technology that launched you must know about in the world of AI.

Runway ML Gen-1 has launched and so has all of their ‘AI Magic Tools’.

Things it can do:

• Generate videos – turn any image, video clip, or text prompt into a video.
• Generate images – text-to-image capabilities
• Infinitely expand images – Indefinite image expansion to endlessly expand any image with simple text prompts
• Train custom models – train your own custom AI model on specific subjects and styles
• Erase things from videos – remove anyone or anything from any video with a simple brush stroke
• Slow motion – turn any video into super slow-mo footage regardless of frame rate.
• Face blur – automatically blur faces in videos.
• Transcribe – transcribe spoken content into .SRT
• Green screen – replace the background of a video with a solid green background
• Upscale image – convert images from low-resolution to high with a few clicks

Try it for free!

Levi’s to use AI-generated models for diversity

According to PetaPixel Levi’s will be using AI-generated models to ‘Increase Diversity’. This opens up all kinds of questions in my mind such as:

What is the definition of diversity when it comes to AI?

What will happen to paid models if AI is just as good but less expensive?

How will this impact fashion trends?

Check out PetaPixel’s article, but below is the TL;DR.

What you need to know:

• Levi Strauss & Co has partnered with Lalaland.ai to create AI-generated avatars to increase diversity among its models.
• The avatars will enable the company to create hyper-realistic models of every body type, age, size, and skin tone to reflect its broad consumer base.
• The partnership will help the brand expand the number of models each line of clothing has to create a more personal and inclusive shopping experience for customers.
• While AI-generated models will not replace photoshoots, the technology will supplement them and enable the company to publish images of its products on a range of body types more quickly.
• The partnership is still in the early stages, with tests scheduled for later this year.

Baidu backpedals on Ernie Bot debut: investors left puzzled, shares drop 2%

On Monday, Baidu had planned to unveil its Ernie Bot, a competitor to ChatGPT and other large-language-models, but instead cancelled the event for a ‘closed-door communications meeting’.

Earlier this month on March 16th, the company initially showed off the Ernie Bot through a pre-recorded video broadcast. This caused Baidu’s shares to fall as investors were less-than-impressed by this presentation.

We will keep you posted on any further developments.

Elon Musk pushes paid verification blue checkmarks to combat AI bots

On Sunday, Elon Musk tweeted about AI’s ability to solve the ‘prove you’re not a robot’ test is getting simpler and simpler. He went on to explain that it is ‘trivial to spin up 100k human-like bots for less than a penny per account.’

Elon went on to push the paid verification as the way to combat AI bots. He stated, ‘Obvious conclusion: paid account social media will be the only social media that matters.’

While the idea of paid verification has some merit, there are also concerns that it could create a two-tiered system of social media, where only those who can afford to pay for verification are able to have a voice. This could have significant implications for free speech and democracy, as it would effectively silence those who are unable or unwilling to pay for the privilege of being heard. This is ironic given how vocal Musk is about free speech on Twitter.

Overall, Musk’s proposal highlights the growing concern around the impact of AI on society and the need for innovative solutions to combat its negative effects. While paid verification may not be the perfect solution, it is certainly an idea worth exploring further, as we continue to grapple with the challenges of a rapidly changing technological landscape.

Cool AI stuff

Today’s featured tools are a group of 3 AI tools for finance.

Paymefy – AI-powered debt collection tool that automates notifications and enables one-click payments, reducing operating costs and recovery time. Offers customization of notifications with user’s visual identity and receives actionable feedback from customers who refuse to settle debt. Can be integrated with ERPs and CRMs and offers multi-invoice and installment payment options.

Truewind – AI-powered bookkeeping and finance tool that simplifies and streamlines back office finance for startups. Offers a combination of AI and concierge service for accurate bookkeeping, detailed financial models, and faster monthly closes. Provides world-class support and a template style guide.

AlphaResearch – Platform that provides an AI-powered search engine to extract information from unstructured texts, filings, earnings call transcripts, and more. Offers document search, document alert & filing screener, trending topics & sentiment analysis, news watch, insider transactions & institutional ownership analysis, ETF & mutual funds holdings, note taking, and global fundamentals & estimates. Provides stock screening and data visualization tools, as well as an Excel & Google Sheets add-on, API access, and premium support.

Have a cool AI tool to share? Send it to us on Instagram, Twitter, or email and we’ll consider it for an upcoming publication!

Featured AI art of the day

Today’s featured AI art comes from the Midjourney showcase from user mart. What does your future living complex look like?

Prompt: Photography of cross section of a future living complex. Alien furniture and alien creatures.