A huge day in AI

Welcome back to the Daily Update — Happy Friday! We have some interesting developments on deck today so let’s get right to it.

🗞️ The Latest in AI: Elon Musk launches new AI company to rival ChatGPT

🤖 AI Tool of the Day: Design with AI in Adobe Express

📸 Business Spotlight: Shopify introduces AI ‘Sidekick’

Read time: 3 minutes

🗞️ The Latest in AI: Elon Musk launches new AI company to rival ChatGPT

Elon Musk just announced the creation of xAI to “understand the true nature of the universe.” The team is led by Musk and includes experts that have worked at some of the biggest names in AI, such as OpenAI, DeepMind, Google Research and Microsoft Research.

The company is separate from Musk’s overarching X Corp, but will work closely with X (Twitter), Tesla and other companies according to xAI’s website. The team is currently advised by Dan Hendrycks, a researcher who leads the Center for AI Safety.

The xAI team is hosting a Twitter Spaces chat on July 14, where listeners can meet the team and ask questions.

Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 before walking away to avoid a conflict of interest with Tesla. He’s since openly criticized OpenAI for being biased and “woke.” Musk’s new company aims to answer fundamental questions such as whether AI can become conscious or not.

This move contradicts Musk's recent statements about pausing AI development to avoid “civilization destruction.” Regardless, the richest man in the world’s star-studded team is poised to make noise in the artificial intelligence space.

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🤖 AI Tool of the Day: Design with AI in Adobe Express

Adobe Express is a new all-in-one platform that utilizes Adobe Firefly AI to design everything from flyers and resumes to TikTok videos and Instagram posts. You can join the free beta here.

The platform also features a text to image generative AI tool that is on par with similar tools on the market. Create impressive digital art from text or by choosing from a list of styles and inspiration.

I could spend hours writing about Adobe Express, but it’s probably more helpful to just share examples of its capabilities. Here’s some social media content I created with Express:

📸 Business Spotlight: Shopify introduces AI ‘Sidekick’

Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke just revealed the platform’s new commerce-specific AI assistant, Sidekick.

Sidekick can explain sales trends, edit users’ websites and answer frequently asked questions. It optimizes the Shopify workflow by automating operational tasks, leaving entrepreneurs with more time to focus on business growth.

Lütke believes that people building businesses have the most to gain from AI. Sidekick is the first step toward a new age of AI-powered eCommerce.

No official release date for Sidekick has been shared.

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Jack

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