😺 Stable Audio

PLUS: our #1 AI recommendation for designers.

Welcome, humans.

Tech leaders are in Washington this week to discuss AI regulation, and everyone is saying something different.

It's reminiscent of that time in middle school when the usual troublemakers were summoned to the principal's office.

We’ve got goodie-two-shoes Sam Altman pleading, “hold us accountable”, the schoolyard heavyweight Sundar Pichai saying, “just leave us alone, will ya?”, and the existentialist Elon Musk musing, “today’s feud is but a brief, inconsequential blip in the grand scheme of things…”

Here’s what you need to know about AI today:

Stability launched the first commercial text-to-audio model.
Adobe Firefly has officially hit the market.
EY is training its 400,000 employees on AI.
Many SaaS companies aren’t charging more for their AI features.

Stable Audio Is A Text-To-Music AI That The Public Can Use.

This year, we’ve seen several text-to-music AIs, like OpenAI’s Jukebox, Meta’s MusicGen, and Google’s MusicLM.

Stability AI, the creator of Stable Diffusion, launched the first one for public use called Stable Audio. It used a method called “latent diffusion” plus 800,000+ consented songs to give users more control over their audio content and duration.

So is it good?

IDK — we can’t use it since their site is overwhelmed with traffic. Early reports say that it’s top-tier for audio quality but lacks creativity.

Here are some of the prompts Stability gave as examples:

“death metal power chord guitar riffs fast metal drums.”
“piano solo chord progression major key uplifting 90 BPM.”
“people talking in a busy restaurant.”

Why it matters: The last example signals a future where producers / directors can create sound effects in seconds without a dedicated composer. Potential business applications include:

Film Production: background sounds tailored to specific scenes / moods.
Advertising: catchy jingles / tunes that resonate with a brand or message.
Gaming: soundtracks for in-game scenarios.

Excited to see what folks do with this, but keep in mind Stability retains the rights to any creation you produce with their tool.

FROM OUR PARTNERS

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The Neuron readers are busy. We know you’re constantly juggling a million different tasks. Same.

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Height is the first and only AI-powered project manager that helps you cross off your tasks faster than a caffeine-fueled feline.

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Adobe Firefly Is Now Publicly Available.

Adobe’s AI design suite Firefly is now available in Creative Cloud, Adobe Express, Adobe Experience Cloud, and as a standalone app.

Firefly is the most comprehensive AI tool we’d recommend to design teams. Here are some ways you can use it beyond text-to-image:

Generative Fill: add, remove, or expand pieces of an image.
Generative Recolor: change a color palette / theme with a text prompt.
Generative Expand: expand & resize images while keeping the vibe constant.

You can either get your hands on these in various Creative Cloud apps, or you can purchase 100 Firefly credits (= prompts) for $4.99/month.

Adobe Firefly is safe for businesses. Firefly was only trained on content that’s publicly available or within its Adobe Stock service.

Even more, Adobe has a clause that straight up shields users from third-party IP claims. Even even more, Adobe announced yesterday that it’s dishing out bonuses to the champs who contributed images for its AI training.

Adobe is to designers what Dobby is to Harry Potter: a magical sidekick!

Around the Horn.

Lessons from YC’s 139 AI startups (spoiler: AI Ops is very important).
Consulting giant EY invested $1.4 billion into AI, built its own LLM, and will train its entire staff on AI.
What to know as tech CEOs and civil rights leaders make their way to Senator Chuck Schumer’s AI gathering.
Tech companies like Adobe, Salesforce, and Zoom aren’t charging extra for their AI features.

Treat To Try.

One of our favorite AI treats is called Learn.xyz.

Jot down what you're itching to learn, and voilà: Learn dishes out engaging lessons and pop quizzes on just about anything.

Plus, they love octopuses (or is it octopi?).

Go support their launch on Product Hunt!

We curated the top 27 tools you need for work in our “Top Tools For Business”!

Thursday Trivia.

These images? Major Wizard Of Oz vibes coming through. I mean, haven't felt this emotional since Tin Man said, "Now I know I've got a heart because it is breaking."

One glance, everyone knows the rules: one is AI and one is real.

Which is which?