We have recently participated in one of WebWednesday Asia’s panel discussions on tech and business. It was held in Club Dao in Hong Kong last December 6, 2023, and hosted by Napoleon Biggs, WebWednesday Asia’s founder. The recent talk was about generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) and its importance as a tool that enhances productivity. A huge part of the discussion was also about its relevance and impact in the future.
It was an opportunity for a combined beta test and promotion of our newly launched generative AI product called InstantStudio. “It’s all about image generation using Stable Diffusion,” said Adeh Desandies, CTO of InstantStudio. “We’ve built our own Stable Diffusion cloud so we can run image generation tasks in the cloud, for API. One of the things you can do with that is training the AI on what you look like. Then you generate pictures however you want.”
Free Christmas portraits
As a sort of demo, and as a way to show off the technology, we built this consumer app. It echoes what many have probably seen as ads on Instagram or YouTube. But for this event we made it free for the guests. The images generated have a little WebWednesday logo on it, and we’ve also added Christmas cheer photos. “You won’t have to buy any Christmas cards,” said Biggs.
A powerful marketing content tool
There’s a movie that came out recently during the French Film Festival that has Bigg’s first name as its title, Napoleon. He brought the audience to laughter when he talked about having waited so long for this moment. Now that it’s here, he used the Gen AI tool to create his portraits in the likeness of a high-ranking general during the early 19th century. He then “spammed the internet as Napoleon”.
The ability of AI to generate unique images that can be shared over the internet is perfect for creating marketing content in business. The options are limitless. You can generate anything you can imagine. With text to image AI, you just describe what you have in mind, whatever you think is interesting to people, and you’ll end up having beautifully crafted images that are not only catchy but also relevant. “I think when you’re doing technology, it’s very important to be topical, because content is what makes technology interesting,” said Biggs.
Our younger generation is AI-native
Kids have the best AI questions for today’s AI because they are AI-native and they’re the next generation; yet schools are always going slow. There needs to be more effort in the education front in order to teach people the proper ways of using AI. Exposing children to AI concepts and tools from a young age, through engaging and interactive activities, can foster a natural curiosity and understanding that will benefit them throughout their lives. This playful exploration can lay the foundation for responsible AI use in the future, ensuring they harness its potential for good.
“When people think of AI, they often feel fear and confusion,” said Kevin Pereira, Managing Director of Blu AI. “Part of the fear is Hollywood, you know, Terminator Skynet. I think the other half of the fear is ‘it’s going to come and take away my job.’” He finds AI education as one of the solutions for this fear and confusion.
Finding the right way to use Gen AI
When it comes to educating people about AI, Pereira believes that it’s about the mindset, that you can’t only teach it in the sense of what it is, but also in the sense of what it could be. Where rubber really meets the road with AI is in ‘what is the right way to use it’. There’s an ethical component which he thinks involves a lot of education. There’s also a business component. So the idea is to ask how students can think about this, then encourage them to think about AI as a tool.
Pereira explains that the best way to use AI, as a tool, is when you have domain expertise. He says as an example that a doctor diagnosing a person with hallucination would know straight away when the LLM suggestions for its treatment are incorrect; whereas a normal person without any healthcare experience will look at it and say, ‘oh yeah that sounds about right’. In the future, there will be AI tools that are domain-specific, and they will provide more accurate and useful answers.
This works the same in other domains such as creative visual arts. The artists use the AI as a tool to enhance what they do. For instance, graphic designers can leverage gen AI to spark creativity. The tool does this by suggesting color palettes or typeface ideas. Then the designer refines these suggestions to fit their unique artistic vision and project needs.
Collaborating with Gen AI
In terms of the fear of losing your job, “AI is not the competitor. It is a part of your arsenal, as opposed to being the thing you fight. If AI can do all the tasks in your job, then you’re in trouble; but if AI can do some tasks, and you can do some tasks very well, then that’s the right thing to think about,” said Pereira.
Photo credits: IS Illustrator by InstantStudio Enterprise
