What’s Sizzling in AI: Burgers, Storms, and Budget-Friendly Bots

Hello, from AI Smart! Hopefully you survived the software update gone wrong last Friday! Today, we’ll cover a bit of that plus some other news in the world of AI.We’ve been getting a lot of requests for the replay of last week’s mastermind on The All-In-One Sales Pipeline – powered by AI. Here is the replay link:

Enjoy!

This Week’s Insights ???

Shake Shack’s Secret Sauce: AI + Reddit

Shake Shack just gave its advertising a juicy upgrade with generative AI. Using Known’s Reddit-focused gen AI chatbot, The Big Lebotski, Shake Shack combed through 80,000 subreddits to find chatter about chicken sandwiches. Targeting phrases like “healthy lunch on Sunday” and “gourmet fast food,” they honed in on 30 subreddits to promote their Chicken Shack Sundays giveaway. The result? A 31% increase in ad clicks and a boost in Sunday sales. This smart targeting shows how brands like Zipcar and Diageo are using AI not just for show but to drive real ROI, making sense of Reddit’s vast, quirky user data.

Transcribe Your Audio for Free With Whisper

Before AI was generating videos and coding programs, it was mastering spoken language. OpenAI’s Whisper offers unlimited transcription for free. Head to Whisper on Hugging Face, upload your audio file, check the Transcribe box, and click Submit—no account needed. Your text will appear on the right, and you can trim clips with the pen icon. You can even transcribe YouTube videos by pasting the URL. For faster results, install Whisper locally on your PC. Whether it’s meetings, interviews, or voice notes, Whisper has got you covered. GPT-4o Mini Just Released In a bid to stay ahead in the fiercely competitive AI market, OpenAI just rolled out a budget-friendly model called GPT-4o mini. This new offering is 60% cheaper than the company’s least expensive current model but still promises higher performance. The move aims to democratize AI access while countering the rising popularity of free and open-source models like Meta’s Llama 3. By refining the model architecture and training data, OpenAI has made it easier for businesses and developers to harness advanced AI without breaking the bank. Will GPT-4o mini redefine the AI landscape? Stay tuned! Frantic Friday A disastrous software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike sent the world into a tailspin last Friday. Flights were grounded, surgeries canceled, and computers everywhere stuck in a doom loop. The update affected Microsoft Windows systems, causing chaos from airports to grocery stores. CrowdStrike’s CEO issued a hasty apology as teams scrambled to fix the mess, highlighting just how much of our world is connected – and how quickly things can go awry when technology fails.

STORM

Imagine if AI could predict disasters before they hit—well, meet STORM, the latest brainchild of Marco Codastefano and the World Food Programme. After flash floods blindsided Malawi’s Nkhotakota district, sweeping away infrastructure and endangering lives, Codastefano knew we needed more than a heads-up. Enter STORM, building on DEEP, an AI tool that turns drone and satellite imagery into instant damage reports. STORM takes it up a notch, using advanced algorithms to predict floods and fortify vulnerable spots in advance. Currently piloting in the Dominican Republic, STORM aims to shift disaster response from reactive to proactive, turning potential crises into mere weather events. As Codastefano says, “The power of technology is not just in predicting the storm but changing the forecast of its impact.”

AI Lab Visual Vault ???

Use Case: Creating Personalized Thank You Cards for Customers

Objective: Help business owners create custom, branded thank you cards to enhance customer relations and loyalty.

Step-by-Step:

1. Select a Theme: Focus on a warm, appreciative theme that resonates with your brand and audience.
2. Prompt for Midjourney: Use a detailed prompt to describe the thank you card you want. For example, “A stylish card featuring a bouquet of flowers. The card should have a space to include a personalized message and a company logo. Use a color palette of soft pastels with [insert brand colors here].
3. Generate the Image: Run the prompt in Midjourney to generate your custom thank you card image.
4. Personalize the Card: Use a simple graphic design tool (like Canva) to add your company logo and a personalized thank you message. You can include text like “Thank you for your purchase! We appreciate your support and hope you enjoy your new items. – [Your Company Name]”
5. Print or Send Digitally: Print the thank you cards to include them in your packages, or send them digitally to customers after a purchase.

Result: A beautifully designed, personalized thank you card that adds a personal touch to your customer interactions, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Here are some images generated by Midjourney with this prompt: stylish card featuring a bouquet of flowers and elegant typography. The card should have a space to include a personalized message and a company logo. Use a color palette of soft pastels teals, pinks, and purples –ar 16:9

And here are our results after editing them in Canva:

Tools We Used This Week ??

Yoodli – Speaking advice given to you live while you are on Zoom calls to improve your speaking, engagement, and tone!?

Vidyo.AI – Repurpose your long form content into short form video content ready to go for social media.

Claude – An LLM by Anthropic, if you are looking for more humanistic and creative writing, this might by the LLM for you.

Join the Conversation? ??

This isn’t just about sending newsletters into the void—we’re building a lively hub here. If you’ve got insights itching for daylight, questions that stump the wise, or ideas that buzz louder than a caffeinated bee, send them flying to [email protected]. Your contributions are the fuel for our content engine, driving us to enlighten and inspire.

See you in the Lab!

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