On craft and consistency in gen AI.

Krea launches AI Video. OpenAI rumored to launch search product on Monday.

Author

Tara Tan
May 10, 2024

Craft.

I often get asked what I look for when I look at generative AI startups. In a world where it’s easier and faster to create stuff, we start getting a deluge of content, some jaw-dropping, most mediocre.

Most generative AI products just isn’t consistent in their quality and output. And that presents a problem if you’re looking at using it in a professional workflow.

As we become increasingly desensitized to more complex aesthetics (like, how much generative images have this “flourish”), I actually find the opposite to be true: we become more sensitive to creative work that index high on craft. I’ve noticed that there is a higher sensitivity to image warping, accuracy in dimensionality, or sentence structures (“it’s not just [x], it’s [y]” is so chatcore).

Craft. Consistency. Quality. Originality. Shortchanging that would be shortsighted.

The Latest

  1. Design tool Krea AI launches its new Video product, which allows the editing of keyframes through text prompts. For example, you could hover across a certain point in the timeline and edit it based on a text prompt.

  1. Midjourney’s style reference (sref) codes are a quick way to create images in a certain aesthetic. Designer Dogan Ural curates a database of sref codes here, or search for “sref codes” on X. There are also hints that Midjourney might add an sref catalog to its web interface.

  1. All eyes on OpenAI, Perplexity, and Google as the battle for search heats up. Rumor has it that OpenAI plans to announce a competitor to search on Monday.

  2. Meta introduces more generative AI tools for advertisers. These updates, which build on the features first introduced last October, now enable advertisers to generate complete image variations and fancy text overlays. Previously, Meta's AI tools allowed for the alteration of backgrounds within ad images. The latest rollout, however, extends this functionality to include full image variations. Meta is also introducing text overlay capabilities, offering a dozen popular font typefaces for advertisers to choose from.

  3. Automation and agents seem top of mind for investors. Insight Partners released a research report on AI agents this week and Foundation Capital did a deep dive into the future of process automation.