Opus No. 41 - Jazzy Tones by AI

For those that are new around here, this is weekly newsletter where I highlight new and innovative AI products that are worth exploring.

Hey hey!

Happy Friday folks!

In this week’s issue:

• Product of the week 🎶

• AI Things Happened 📰

• What I’m Excited About 📅😃❗

THE PRODUCT OF THE WEEK

In this week's edition of The AI Product Report, we take a ride on the wild side, experiencing the latest and greatest in high-fidelity digital audio technology. I’m thrilled to feature a groundbreaking tool that's music to my ears.

Meet StableAudio, our product of the week, which is blowing me away (hopefully to become the new standard) in the world of sound generation.

This technical magnum opus is designed for creators, enthusiasts, and anyone in between who's looking to explore audio creation through the simplicity of text prompts, or even humming and uploading a sample. Whether you're a seasoned producer or just starting out, StableAudio promises to transform your creative process into an effortless journey of discovery.

The usability of this product is amazing, and really is as simple as working with a chatbot. It's all about wording out your audio “vision “ and letting your creativity flow - kind of like having a jam session with your computer. You just "Click it, Prompt it, Wait it, Vibe it!" and voilà, you're off to the races. It's designed to be super user-friendly, so you don't need to be a tech whiz or a pro musician to get started. You get to play around and create up to three tracks a month for free, which is pretty cool for anyone just dipping their toes into music production.

And the part I’m still not over? You can start with just a text prompt or even hum a tune, and StableAudio turns it into something you can work with.

Due to StableAudio’s Terms of Service, I can only share this link to one of my musical experiments with you that came from the following TEXT prompt:

Prompt: “Frank Sinatra Big Band style song, warm brass tones, seductive crooning melody fresh from collaborations with Duke Ellington, clear acoustic drums, trumpets, trombone, french horn, baritones, piano, flutes,  jazz orchestration, saxophones for accompaniment, guitar”

I see producers using this to experiment with different known styles start rapidly breaking down genre barriers, while narrowing down their creative process to refine what they want to put out faster. This just might be the rapid development tool that helps kickstart a producer's work in making your next favorite top 40 hit… or at least your next trending audio suggestion on TikTok.

Getting into the technical end of the AI under the hood, there’s quite a bit to discover here. The folks at Stability AI aren't messing around—they've packed this machine with all the high-tech goodies you'd hope for in a top-tier AI. We're talking a beast of a model architecture that's as deep as it is complex. Think encoders, transformers, and even convolutive structures stepping into the mix, it's clear they've thrown everything but the kitchen sink into making StableAudio not just a tool, but a powerhouse for creativity.

Each piece of this technological puzzle works together to make something truly special. For anyone else geeking out on how AI can change the music game, diving into the details at Stability AI's site is like finding a hidden playbook. https://stability.ai/news/stable-audio-2-0 is where the creators have painstakingly detailed their work and copyright protection precautions they took into achieving this technological marvel. 

Remains to see if we can get this technology in the hands of Hatsune Miku’s production team, or any Vocaloid production team for that matter. If that happened, humanity would live to see a day where a Computer generated Idol  sings a computer generated song (ChatGPT used to write lyrics), with a computer generated backtrack (using StableAudio) for the enjoyment of humans… on their personal computers.

A quick word from today’s sponsor!

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Why the occasional ads? Keep the AI Product Report free has been a huge focus for me over the course of my time with the publication. I’ve made the decision to occasionally take on sponsors to start breaking even.

AI THINGS HAPPENED

Some other notable news and product launches from this week

• A pretty impressive study reveals an estimated $50 billion opportunity for insurers to revolutionize their operations with generative AI, promising unprecedented revenue boosts and cost reductions.

• Scienjoy's latest venture, Scienjoy Meta Technology, sets its sights on AI assistants that go beyond. With 2 new products: AI Mate & AI Vision, users can expect an assistant that uses Predictive Personalization of much of their habits, manages their calendar and much more. Let’s see where this goes!

• Regulatory stop of the week: The European AI Act has arrived, ushering in a new regulatory landscape aimed at governing the development and deployment of artificial intelligence.This now means that AI-powered systems need to be classified by their various risk profile, a new joint governing body is forming, and that news & other text content written by AI need to be labeled as such. From the looks of it, India agrees not just with the methods, but also the means, considering its central ministries are calling for a cross-departmental body to be established for developing AI regulation.

• OpenAI is playing it safe! The orgnaization treads cautiously with its advanced voice engine technology, highlighting the potential risks and ethical considerations of AI voice cloning.

• Google DeepMind's latest breakthrough, a superhuman AI system, sets new standards in fact-checking efficiency, cost savings, and accuracy, marking a significant leap forward for information verification technologies. With all these great advances coming out of DeepMind research labs these days, I’m definitely curious to see how these will be commercialized moving forward.

  Raises & Mergers Recap!

• A.WallachBeth Capital triumphs with Bullfrog AI's $8.4 million IPO, setting a new pace in the world of AI-driven healthcare solutions.

• With a fresh $50 million in funding, Hume aims to bridge the gap between artificial intelligence and human emotion, promising a new era of empathetic technology.

• Stanford Medicine and McMaster University break new ground with SyntheMol, an AI model poised to revolutionize antibiotic discovery and combat antibiotic resistance.

• Amid soaring ambitions and market skepticism, Cognition Labs (yes the exact ones I brought up a few weeks back when talking about their AI-Software Engineer Reveal) targets a $2 billion valuation, testing the waters of investor confidence in the booming AI sector. This venture has been backed in part by Peter Thiel, Founder of Palantir and numerous other ventures, so this is another one worth keeping in mind.

• Crossing the Pacific into Korea's startup ecosystem: local innovators are navigating challenges and seizing opportunities in the restaurant & hospitality industry looking to modernize the inner workings of Korea’s thriving food culture.
  

WHAT I'M EXCITED ABOUT

Stay well, and until next week.

-✌🏽 Sam

P.S. Interested in private feedback about a product you’re building? Send me an email: [email protected]