Only Things You Should Know (Summer's Slipping Away)

Part One - Three Must Knows

1. EU AI Act Now in Effect

The EU AI Act is now in effect as of Thursday, August 1st. If your business operates in the EU or your customers are in the EU, this applies to you. I’ve covered this previously so I won’t rehash it this week. Just a friendly reminder.?

2. The Elusive Sora and the Booming Video AI Market

OpenAI announced Sora, their breakthrough video generation tool, the day after Valentine’s Day this year, February 15th, 2024. Here we are 169 days later and only a select few have seen it.?

Meanwhile, I’m about to publish a blog post on a new website showing head to head comparisons of TWELVE Generative AI video tools I’m currently testing. TWELVE!!! It seems like there’s a new one every day, none of them named SORA.?

Recent additions from Runway, Kling AI, and Vidu Studio are generating increasingly better video. And most of them have an image to video function. Kling and Runway have introduced new features since launching and continue to iterate.?

Sora the Explorer must be lost deep in the Kingdom of Boots. Anyone have a good Map for them? (I hope that’s my last Dora dad joke here, but no promises)

3. OpenAI's $8.5 Billion Gamble

Here’s the prompt:

“You’re an expert business analyst in the technology sector with a specialty in the Generative AI space, especially companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, Meta and Google. I’m planning a new venture to launch in September 2024. We will be a top 3 competitor by the end of fiscal year 2025. I plan to invest $8.5 billion dollars to stay competitive. This includes the following three major cost categories: $4 billion in training new models, $3 billion in server and compute costs, and $1.5 billion in wages. I’m estimating that I’ll make between $3.5 to $4 billion in revenue if everything goes as planned. I'd like you to do some research on the internet. Looking at my sector, see what you can uncover about what competitors in my space are planning to spend. What should I be prepared for?”

I encourage you to cut and paste that into ChatGPT and see what it tells you. In my instance, it’s telling me that Microsoft and OpenAI plan to invest $13 Billion this year collectively due to their partnership.?

What’s wrong with that? Just the part where Microsoft removed itself from OpenAI’s Board recently due to antitrust inquiries. Also the part where OpenAI announced they need $8.5 Billion of their own to do what they need to do in the next twelve months. Their “human factor” burns 17.7% of the coal, while the servers and training devour the rest.?

I’ve mentioned I’m starting to use Claude and other tools frequently, much more than I do ChatGPT. I’m hearing similar things from colleagues. The dominance of titans like Amazon and Meta came from their dominance and ability to hold competitive positions and still grow. That gave them time to figure out multiple monetization paths.?

For OpenAI, first mover status they gained by launching paid ChatGPT accounts way before anyone else may not be enough. They run the risk of hitting the same wall a number of tech companies have before. Enamored more with their own worldview than the broader picture, they could navel gaze themself down the drain.?

One of the titans will fall like a Friendster or Google+ during this current GenAI arms race. Have a horse in the race, let me know who you’re betting on?

Part Two - You’re Pivoting Already?

This section was originally intended to be a bi-weekly video of me acting as your Chief Digital Officer, answering questions like you’re one of my clients. Here’s the one “What’s the Problem?” video I successfully made a few weeks back.?

Since then I had a computer switch over and an apology video for that in the last edition. Now between a summer cold gone wild, new projects, and my personal learning curve with a host of new tools, I’m calling an audible.?

I mentioned earlier that I would be publishing a “Head to Head Test” of 12 of the leading AI Video Generators on a new site. As an introverted extrovert, I’ve never felt compelled to share behind the scenes of my work much. Self-promotion feels more awkward than a junior high dance, so I tend to avoid it.?

As a technologist, I’m compelled to break that mold and pull back the curtain. You’ve probably heard people in your network say software and tools are advancing faster than ever. You might be feeling it.

I’m seeing it, feeling it, and watching a new multiplying effect near daily. These aren’t crawling then walking types of progress ahead. It’s incremental jumps positively compounding in a way I’ve never seen.??

They’re leaps ahead by the week, spread across a variety of functions and tools. For myself and a few others, it’s opening up doors and capabilities we’ve been talking about for more than 30 years.?

Moving ahead, I’ll use Part Two of this newsletter for a recap of those learnings, with links to the new site when it’s appropriate.?

Here’s a preview of what’s to come early next week.

1. Sharing our experience and side by side comparisons of the latest GenAI tools for creating video, images, content, music and everything in between. (3 to 4 posts per week.)
2. Building a knowledge base of the GenAI Providers, Tools, and Services we’re evaluating, testing, or moving into production. (Ongoing, but will only covers tools we've personally trialed or beyond)
3. Detailed reviews from us to help build a larger community interested in exploring and visualizing the value of new tools with like minded colleagues. (Ongoing)

It will be our transparent playground to share what we’re doing, how we're comparing them, and document those learnings as we go.?

I hope you’ll follow what we’re doing there. Our goal is to make it as valuable as possible without asking for anything in return except feedback.?

Was this the pivot you're looking for?

I’d love to hear your reactions, thoughts or questions.

I'll be back in two weeks with the next edition. If you find this newsletter valuable, I'd appreciate you sharing it with your network.

Thanks again for your time, I sincerely appreciate you taking time with my thoughts.