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- Hollywood's new AI narrators
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Welcome, AI enthusiasts.
Hollywood’s golden age just got a digital resurrection with AI, and your favorite books are about to get a heavy dose of star power.
With late celebrities like James Dean and Judy Garland getting into the narration game — are human voice actors getting a final curtain call in the process? Let’s dive deeper…
In today’s AI rundown:
ElevenLabs launches ‘Iconic Voices’
Leaks reveal Google Pixel AI upgrades
Create talking photos with just a selfie
Meta’s new text-to-3D AI
5 new AI tools & 4 new AI jobs
More AI & tech news
Read time: 4 minutes
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
ELEVENLABS
Image source: ElevenLabs
The Rundown: AI audio company ElevenLabs just announced a new ‘Iconic Voices’ feature for its recently released Reader App, allowing users to have text read by AI-generated voices of famous Hollywood stars.
The details:
The initial lineup includes AI-recreated voices of Judy Garland, James Dean, Burt Reynolds, and Sir Laurence Olivier, with more being added in the coming months.
ElevenLabs reached licensing agreements for the voices with CMG Worldwide, which manages the estates of late-featured celebrities.
Users can have the AI voices read books, articles, PDFs, and other text content available within the Reader App.
The voices are only useable within the Reader App itself, and cannot be selected to create shareable content on the platform.
Why it matters: If you’re a voice actor, the competition just got a whole lot fiercer. ElevenLabs is not only showing off the powerful future of AI-generated voice clones, but also setting a strong licensing precedent for the industry by working directly with the estates of the late Hollywood stars.
TOGETHER WITH RETOOL
The Rundown: Retool just launched its new State of AI report, packed with data from 700+ devs and tech leaders to help you cut through the hype and learn how to leverage AI for real impact.
The comprehensive report includes:
The good, the bad, and the ugly of the AI stack
How much ROI builders are actually seeing from their AI use
The real AI use cases builders and businesses love most
Image source: Android Authority
The Rundown: Newly leaked details have emerged regarding a suite of new AI features for the upcoming Google Pixel 9 — including a privacy-focused take on Microsoft’s controversial Recall tool.
The details:
‘Pixel Screenshots’ will allow users to search and summarize manually captured screenshots, without being ‘always-on’ like the Copilot Plus’ Recall feature.
‘Add Me’ is a new AI feature designed for group photos, while ‘Studio’ will reportedly bring new creative capabilities to editing and sticker creation.
The AI features will all be grouped under the ‘Google AI’ branding, with the new Pixel line set to be unveiled at a launch event on Aug. 13.
The Pixel 8 line has already introduced several existing AI features, including Circle to Search, summarize and transcription tools, Audio Magic Eraser, and more.
Why it matters: Between Apple Intelligence, Google AI, and Microsoft’s Copilot line, the next device reveals feel like the first true step into the AI era. Billions of users are about to get very familiar with how to use basic AI tools as they get added to every device.
AI TRAINING
The Rundown: Hedra Labs now transforms static photos into dynamic talking images, bringing your selfies to life with synchronized speech and facial animations.
Step-by-step:
Visit Hedra Labs' website and create a free account.
Upload a high-quality, clear photo of yourself facing the camera directly.
Generate audio by typing text (up to 300 characters) or import your own audio file.
Click "Generate video" to create your talking photo.
Preview, download, or share your animated selfie!
Pro tip: For best results, use photos where you're not smiling, and there's high contrast between you and the background.
PRESENTED BY COVALENT
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The details:
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AI RESEARCH
Image source: Meta
The Rundown: Meta just announced Meta 3D Gen, a new AI system that can generate detailed, high-quality 3D assets from text descriptions in less than a minute.
The details:
Meta 3D Gen combines two components — Meta 3D AssetGen for the initial object generation and Meta 3D TextureGen for texture refinement.
The system generates 3D assets with high-resolution textures and physically-based rendering (PBR) materials 3-10x faster than existing options.
3D Gen can also understand and apply complex ideas, like artistic styles or specific materials, to the objects it creates.
In tests, 3D Gen outperformed state-of-the-art rivals in both visual quality and prompt adherence.
Why it matters: 3D object creation had previously been a painstaking process — but AI is opening new possibilities for anyone to quickly and easily generate assets for sectors like video games, VR, product design, and more.
NEW TOOLS & JOBS
📱 Motiff - AI-powered UI design for professionals
🔒 GPT4All 3.0 - Run powerful LLMs locally on your computer
📈 Quill - AI-powered SEC filing, access reliable information from public investment material
👩🎤 Rapport - Animate and deploy virtual avatars of ChatGPT and other AIs
🎨 RunDiffusion - A cloud platform for generative art that allows you to run open-source models
QUICK HITS
Figma temporarily disabled its newly launched ‘Make Design’ AI feature following a viral post showing the tool directly reproducing Apple’s Weather app design.
Runway is reportedly in talks for a new $450M funding round, which would bring the company’s value to nearly $4B.
Google reported a 13% increase in emissions for 2023, falling short of its ‘net zero’ climate goal set for 2030 — citing growing AI power demands as a key factor for the setback.
Anthropic launched an initiative to fund third-party organizations in developing new advanced AI model evaluations, focused on AI safety assessments, capability metrics, and evaluation infrastructure.
Microsoft’s AI partnership with UAE firm G42 is facing scrutiny from U.S. officials over national security concerns, potentially jeopardizing plans for AI projects in emerging markets like Kenya.
A new Meta job listing hints at the company’s plan to infuse AI into its metaverse gaming efforts, detailing AI-powered consumer experiences like games that “change every time you play”.
THAT’S A WRAP
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