[imagesource: Raw Pixel]

The AI revolution has arrived.

Artificial intelligence is having a moment, and we humans can’t get enough of its wild and wondrous ways.

As we speak, there are AI apps writing sonnets, making computer code, and creating pictures out of thin air among other cool and eerily human things.

If you’re scared just recall how the steam engine, newspapers, TV, and the internet all alarmed those who weren’t yet adapted to the critical, history-making inventions.

Change is the only constant and this one is coming in fast and furious thanks to all the myriad AI advances, particularly the technical breakthrough of generative AI.

This smart tech basically studies zillions of pictures and text samples scraped from the web, based on a prompt of your choice, to then create new images or texts that look like they might have been made by a human.

However, AI still needs a lot of work, notes a Washinton Post writer who caught Microsoft’s new Bing chat giving wrong information and even “hallucinating about something that doesn’t exist”.

That same writer also diligently compiled a mini guide to some of the AI programmes and apps worth checking out and we’re jumping on that bandwagon.

For writing, ChatGPT is all the rage right now.

The writing tool responds to queries and requests to make a new text and is made by a company called OpenAI, which has been at the forefront of making generative AI available to everyone.

ChatGPT is helping people draft screenplays, write computer code, cheat in tests and assignments, and even assist in scientific research writing.

How to use it (except for cheating, please):

It’s free to use on this website, but has been so popular that sometimes it’s unavailable during peak hours. OpenAI plans to charge people $20 a month for a commercial version that’s faster and always available.

For searching, Google is taking a back seat while Microsoft’s new Bing sits in front:

What it does: Adds a chat interface powered by OpenAI (and similar to ChatGPT) into Microsoft’s search engine and Edge web browser. You can pose complex questions that involve synthesizing information from multiple sources and go back and forth in conversation to refine your question. You can also ask it to get creative and draft emails, poems and more.

How you get it: For now, this version of Bing is only available to people who sign up to join an early-access program here, and also use Microsoft’s Edge web browser on a Windows PC or Mac.

Just carry a pinch of salt and be cautious about misinformation when using Bing.

Meanwhile, Google is actually firing back at this rival with its new AI dude called Bard – which immediately went and made a mistake when introducing itself.

DALL-E 2 from OpenAI and Lensa from Prisma Labs are the best in AI art as they are brilliant at creating remarkably authentic-looking drawings, paintings and photographs.

They are not without controversy, though.

DALL-E 2 (available to try here) turns text prompts into images, capable of making “bros playing beer pong on a sunflower” or whatever you want.

Lensa (available in Apple’s App Store for free) uses images of your face to train its AI into generating new selfies of you as sexy fairies, warriors, cyborgs, elves, and other mystical creatures from the future.

Have fun. The world is your oyster, or rather, your oyster with diamond eyes on a golden rock at sunset or something.

[source:washingtonpost]