New Use Cases Show the Potential of Generative AI
PLUS: MIT and Harvard introduce SmartEM, an AI-powered microscope that speeds up imaging.
Casey Clifton
November 08, 2023
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Welcome back. Today is Wednesday, November 8th and we're looking at Figma enhancing its FigJam whiteboard with AI features and PopSockets unveiling an AI-powered product customizer. New to The Intelligence Age? Sign up here.
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News & Insights
Figma Sweetens FigJam Whiteboard Tool With New AI Features
Figma, not content to rest on laurels, amps up FigJam, its popular online whiteboard tool. Three generative AI features have been added, each one a response to user challenges.
FigJam users, two-thirds of them not designers, found starting a project daunting and organizing ideas cumbersome. Figma's solution? AI prompts to kick off a new board, thematic grouping of digital sticky notes, and a summarizing ability that distills a sea of stickies into a digestible snapshot. The AI power comes from OpenAI, tweaked to comprehend Figma-specific concepts.
Intriguingly, Figma is testing a warning system to flag potentially harmful or inappropriate content—going above and beyond the controls OpenAI already provides. techcrunch
PopSockets Unveils A Photo Case And Accessory Designer, Powered By AI
PopSockets, the smartphone accessory creator, is shaking things up in the customization sector with its new AI-driven feature, Stable Diffusion XL (SDXL). Customers can now design their cases, grips, and wallets by inputting a creative prompt, generating a unique, personal image. The AI Customizer is built on a large-scale model engine, delivering high-resolution, detailed, and realistic images ready for print.
But, like other generative AI, it's not flawless. While it can deliver spot-on results, sometimes it misses the mark. For example, a photographic unicorn request resulted in a two-horned white horse. However, adding more details to prompts, like 'futuristic New York with neon signs and flying cars,' can yield more varied and accurate results. [techcrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2023/11/07/popsockets-unveils-a-photo-case-and-accessory-designer-powered-by-ai)
Why does this matter?
As generative AI continues to seep into the consumer goods realm, could we see a shift in buying behavior where customers favor products they've had a hand in designing? After all, personalization can be a powerful tool to foster deeper connections between brand and consumer.
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Research Review
Using AI To Optimize For Rapid Neural Imaging
Researchers from MIT and Harvard have introduced an AI-powered electron microscope, SmartEM, which significantly cuts down imaging time and costs. It's an upgrade from traditional electron microscopy, with a machine-learning model running on an embedded GPU, directing the microscope's focus to relevant, complex pixels - a process akin to animal inspection of their world.
MIT Professor Nir Shavit likens this to human eye control, stating, "This lets the microscope dwell longer in areas that are harder to understand until it captures what it needs." This step mirrors the selective attention of our visual system, enabling rapid understanding of images. For instance, as Yaron Meirovitch, the lead architect of SmartEM, points out, "When we immerse ourselves in a book, we don't scan all of the empty space; rather, we direct our gaze towards the words and characters with ambiguity relative to our sentence expectations."
This progress represents a significant advancement in microscopy, potentially transforming scientific research by enabling quicker, more cost-effective, and detailed examination of materials at the microscopic level, which is crucial for breakthroughs in fields like materials science, biology, and nanotechnology.
Written by Isaac R. Ward, Casey Clifton, and Alex Brogan.
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