🤝 Character AI, meet Alphabet

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Welcome back, Superhuman

Two of the biggest names in AI are teaming up. After a years-long hiatus, machine learning expert Noam Shazeer is headed back to Alphabet — and he’s bringing his hugely popular Character AI platform with him.

Today’s Insights

• Character AI, meet Alphabet

• Tutorial: Converting audio notes into summaries with AI

• How companies are using AI for product research

• Everything else you should know today

• 5 new AI tools to boost your productivity

• AI-Generated Images: Steampunk houses around the world

NEXT IN AI

Character AI’s founders are headed to Alphabet

It all comes full circle for Noam Shazeer. The machine learning researcher left a gig at Alphabet in 2021 to co-found Character AI, whose personality-driven chatbot platform has become one of the AI industry’s biggest hits. 

But on Friday, he announced he’s returning to Google, alongside Character’s other co-founder, Daniel De Freitas, and several of their employees. Alphabet will also license the startup’s models for use in its own products.

If that sounds an awful lot like an acquisition…that’s because it practically is. But there’s a reason Alphabet didn’t buy Character outright: The FTC and other regulators are getting stricter about AI mergers and monopolies. Still, it’s without a doubt one of the biggest shake-ups in the industry so far this year.

What’s in it for Google? While most AI models are geared toward productivity, Character realized early on that some users just want to have fun. It built a platform that lets anyone create and customize chatbots with different skill sets and personalities. Some are even based on fictional characters and historical figures. 

That unorthodox approach has paid off in spades: In terms of both site visits and overall engagement, Character AI frequently sits at the top of the charts, dominating better-known rivals like ChatGPT. So, it’s no wonder that Alphabet would want in on the action.

What will become of Character AI? You’d think Google scooping up its top leadership could spell doom for the company. But the deal might actually make Character’s position even stronger. It’s getting a big injection of funding, and most of its engineers are staying put. The deal’s non-exclusive, too, meaning Character will still be able to team up with other companies in the months and years ahead.

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THE AI ACADEMY

How to convert audio notes into concise summaries

• Go to Speech to Note’s website and log in with your account.

• Now select Note Format from the list. It has multiple formats including social media, education, professional writing, personal/casual, and more.

• Upload your audio file and wait for it to transcribe it in your preferred format.

• You will get your audio file transcription ready to be used.

For the example above, I have used an audio file about EV Cars and transcribed it into a technical format.

You can use it to convert any audio file into social media posts, blogs, Quora answers, business memo, technical papers, and much more.

Want to master AI and future-proof your skills? Access 100+ courses and tutorials at our AI Academy

AI & RESEARCH

Why product researchers are turning to AI for help

There’s one thing that every business needs to figure out: Who’s their primary audience? That question can be surprisingly tricky to answer, and there’s an art to exploring which new releases will resonate with which customers.

Researchers conduct surveys, interviews, and focus groups to narrow down the people who might be interested in a particular product. They also dig through all of the information that’s already out there — from topics trending on social media to current economic conditions.

A new study from digital analytics firm Amplitude and customer feedback platform Survicate shows how product researchers are starting to use AI to get more precise information about customers. Nearly two-thirds say they’ve already used AI for work, while just 35% have yet to give it a try.

How are they using it? More than half use it for user feedback analysis — parsing vast amounts of data to spot patterns. Meanwhile, around four in 10 ask it for help recommending products to people who might find them valuable. Roughly 17% are using LLMs to optimize prices, and 36% are using them to segment customers into different groupings.

But there’s still room for improvement: While around 21% of product researchers say they don’t have any concerns about using AI at work, nearly 40% are cautious about the quality of insights generated by LLMs. More than one in 10 are concerned about the ethics of using AI for product research, data privacy, and the cost of incorporating AI into their workflow. 

Finding a happy medium: Just like in other fields, product researchers are finding ways to automate the tedious, repetitive parts of their job — say, summarizing thousands of open-ended survey results — so they can spend more time analyzing and acting on those findings.

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AI & TECH NEWS

Everything else you need to know today

• Memory Lane: Chrome is introducing a trio of new AI features, including one that lets you scan and interact with your browsing history.

• Copyright Conundrum: AI music generators Sunio and Udio are defending themselves against lawsuits from several major record labels — claiming that their training methods count as fair use.

• Friend or Foe: Microsoft’s latest financial report now lists OpenAI as a direct competitor “in the search and news advertising fields,” a sign that the sometimes-partners could be turning into rivals.

• AI Test Kitchen: GitHub is launching a new interactive “playground” called Models that will let developers experiment with different AI models simultaneously.

• Need for Speed: Stability AI has released a speedier version of its 3D image generator that can create 3D images in roughly half a second — about 1,200 times faster than its predecessor.

🛸 Out of this World: A SETI astronomer and NASA researcher are teaming up to advocate for an AI model built explicitly to communicate with aliens. An LLM sent into space could be programmed to teach extraterrestrials more about life on earth — in a similar spirit to the 1977 Voyager probes, which included music, photos, and other media depicting humanity.

⏱️ Coming Soon: Figure AI has teased the next iteration of its bipedal robot, which founder Brett Adcock called “the most advanced humanoid robot on the planet.” The full unveiling is scheduled for August 6.

PRODUCTIVITY

5 AI Tools to Supercharge Your Productivity

✅ Toby: Speak fluently in any language with a two-way live translation tool powered by AI.

✅ QSourcer: Supercharge your talent sourcing on LinkedIn, GitHub, and other sites with an AI-powered search.

✅ Fleso: Automate administrative tasks and easily modify workflows so you can spend more time on what’s important.

✅ Mindsmith: A generative AI platform that makes it easy and extremely fast to create and share learning content.

✅ Martin: A personal AI you can text, email or talk to — integrated with calendar, email, and more.

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PROMPT OF THE DAY

One-Week Meal Plan

Prompt: Create a one-week meal plan with three meals and three snacks per day that amounts to [enter prefered amount of daily calories] calories per day with a macronutrient breakdown of 45% carbohydrates, 25% protein, and 30% fat for each meal.

You can adapt the prompt to your specific needs. For example, your macro breakdown may look different than the one shown above. Also, you can mention whether you prefer to have a few smaller meals throughout the day instead of the typical three. You can even ask the model to help you include hydration breaks and beverage options as well.

_{Source: Shape}

AI-GENERATED IMAGES

Steampunk Houses Around the World

Midjourney Prompt: a city block in [enter city name here,ex: Copenhagen, Tokyo, Moscow,...] with one house in a very steampunk style. 
--style raw --stylize 1000 --v 6

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🧞Your wish is my command

Thanks for reading.

Until next time!

Zain & the Superhuman AI team

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