Text-to-video evolves

Spotlight: Amazon releases Titan Image Generator

Welcome back!

We’re covering a lot of ground today so let’s get right to it. 

In today’s Daily Update:

  • 🗞️ New Jersey school district uses AI to fight gun violence

  • 🤖 Pika Labs launches Pika 1.0

  • 📸 Amazon releases Titan Image Generator 

  • 🚨 AI Roundup: Three quick hits

Read time: 2 minutes

TOP STORY

🗞️ New Jersey school district uses AI to fight gun violence

Generated by Adobe Firefly

New Jersey’s largest school district has partnered with ZeroEyes in an effort to stop gun violence on campuses. 

What you should know:

  • The Greater Egg Harbor Regional School District controls three high schools with students coming from six townships in Southern New Jersey. 

  • ZeroEyes’ AI gun detection software will be paired with security cameras already installed throughout the district. 

  • If the system detects a gun or weapon, images are shared with workers at the ZeroEyes Operations Center. 

  • After human reviewal, an alert is sent to school staff and local first responders. 

Why it matters: Officials say that alerts can be sent in as little as five seconds from detection. This looks like a strong alternative to metal detectors that make schools feel like prisons. 

AI TOOL OF THE DAY

🤖 Pika Labs launches Pika 1.0

AI video startup Pika Labs just announced the launch of Pika 1.0, which features new upgrades to the company’s text-to-video generator. 

Users can prompt Pika 1.0 with text, images or existing video to create AI-generated videos. It also enables users to expand a video’s canvas and edit videos with simple text prompts. 

The model’s impressive demo video (embedded above) immediately caught my attention. I’m still on Pika’s waitlist, but I’ll be sure to circle back to this tool when I have access.

BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT

📸 Amazon releases Titan Image Generator

Source: Amazon

Amazon is releasing an advanced text-to-image AI model to developers. 

The details:

  • Titan Image Generator can create “realistic, studio-quality images” and includes built-in guardrails against toxicity and bias. 

  • Titan isn’t a standalone app or website. Developers can use it as a tool to build their own AI image generators. 

  • All images generated by Titan include invisible watermarks that label them as synthetic media. 

  • Developers will need access to Amazon Bedrock to use the model. 

The relevance: Given the recent rise of AI-driven misinformation, built-in invisible watermarks are a huge plus for Titan. I’m expecting to see a wave of new top-of-the-line AI image generators built on Titan in the coming months. 

MORE TRENDING NEWS

🚨 AI Roundup: Three quick hits

Generated by Adobe Firefly

  • Modern Medicine: GPT-4 demonstrates strong performance on a set of radiology tasks. 

  • Sounding the Alarm: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says AI will be “fairly competitive” with humans in five years. 

  • New Tech: Google DeepMind AI reveals potential for thousands of new materials that could be used to produce better-performing batteries, solar panels and computer chips. 

THAT’S ALL FOR TODAY

Want to continue the conversation? Connect with me on LinkedIn and I’m happy to discuss any of today’s news. Thanks for reading The Daily Update!

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