Microsoft is on a launching spree

PLUS: Mozilla takes AI trust seriously, Canva's AI magic and Github Copilot evolves

March 23, 2023

Hey folks, today, we have MS Loop’s public preview, Github’s Copilot X, Mozilla starting an AI startup and Canva just added a bunch of new AI features.

Let’s get to it.

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🤌 Our Picks

Highlights if you've only got 2 minutes

1/

Microsoft has been trying out a new office document format for a while. They tried Fluid in 2020, and now Loop is available for public preview.

Loop is a project collaboration tool, separate from MS office but heavily linked to it. The catch, though, is that it is too similar to the UI of Notion, like way too similar. It has text blocks, pages, and workspaces. Check all the details and official demos here.

Nonetheless, this is a move worth watching because it’s also competing with Google workspace to some extent. It will soon have a mobile app and if it’s not obvious, I’ll say it: Loop has the AI copilot built into it.

2/

Mozilla has a long-standing reputation for open source, and oh boy! they’re coming into the AI space. Mozilla AI is a new community startup aimed at building a trustworthy, independent, and open-source AI ecosystem. They are committing $30M for this effort with a talented founding team.

The way Mark Surman, the executive director of Mozilla Foundation, presents this in his blog post is quite interesting. Good news: people care about AI safety and the less good news: big corporations don’t.

3/

Copilot is one of the AI projects with substantial real-life adoption. It’s being used daily by developers, now writing 46% of the new code coming from its users. But the primary feature is very limited to code auto-completion. GitHub has launched the next version of Copilot as Copilot X with a chat interface, PR support, and documentation QA.

If you’re following the tools section of the newsletter, developers have been making extensions and plugins to use AI with PRs, explaining repos etc. And I was listening to Nat Friedman (ex-CEO Github) on a separate interview talking about how they always tried to deliver on what developers needed. I guess it still does.

 

4/

Canva has been integrating AI into its visual suite, and it’s doing that rapidly.

This time they’ve added ten more, yes TEN, NOT ONE OR THREE, new gifts (as they call them). There are a set of Magic tools: Magic design, Magic Presentation, Magic Eraser, and Magic Edit. Then there’s Draw on design, Beat Sync, and Translate Designs.

When the critics ask what’s the use of a random image generator for my business, it’s this. All of these AI capabilities becoming accessible in widely adopted tools like Canva. I can only imagine what the future holds.

🛠️ Tools & Demos

Product launches, updates and demos

  • Reflect AI - Your tool for thought capture, now with GPT 4 and custom prompts. (link)

  • ChatLLaMA - An experimental chatbot interface for interacting with variants of Facebook's LLaMA. (link)

  • FauxPilot - An open-source GitHub Copilot server. (link)

  • Simple UI for LLaMA model fine tuning. (link)

  • Glide actions - Build custom workflows that connect directly with tools that drive your business forward. (link)

  • Triple Whale Lighthouse is now open for everyone without a waitlist. (link)

  • Lindy - AI assistant putting your life on autopilot. (link)

  • Jema AI - Create amazing blog posts, marketing copy, SEO content and a lot more with ChatGPT. (link)

  • ChatGPT for Me - Give yourself perfect memory by using AI. (link)

  • Replicate Codex - Search, filter, and sort through a vast database of AI models on Replicate. (link)

🤓 Miscellaneous

News, podcasts, videos, blogs etc

  • Nat Friedman - Reading ancient scrolls, open source, & AI. (link)

  • Runway is scaling their in-house research infrastructure with AWS. (link)

  • Codium AI, powered by TestGPT, raises $11M. (link)

  • The top 10 AI mobile apps have already pulled in over $14 million this year. (link)

  • Ubisoft’s new AI tool automatically generates dialogue for non-playable game characters. (link) PS: Ubisoft is the publisher behind Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Ghost Recon, more on this here.

  • New AI tools now available in Opera and Opera GX for you to test. (link)

  • The Writers Guild of America is reportedly open to AI. (link)

  • A psychologist explains how AI and algorithms are changing our lives. (link)

  • Instruct-NeRF2NeRF - Editing 3D scenes with instructions. (link)

  • Sparks of artificial general intelligence - Early experiments with GPT-4. (link)

🎓 Learn

How-to’s and resources

  • How to run AI text-to-video on free colab with live example. (link)

  • Use a single prompt to build a Hex code to RGB converter. (link)

👋 Too many links?! I created a database for all links mentioned in these emails. Refer 1 friend using this link and I'll send over the link database.

📰 Unclassifieds

Short, sponsored links 

  • Bubble is hosting a virtual AI event to discuss how its no-code platform can enable you to build products with the power of AI. Register here.

  • Free AI video editor for creators. AI-generated vertical edits of landscape content for Reels, TikTok & Shorts with Big Room.

  • SourceGraph is hiring a product manager for their Search and AI vertical. (link)

  • Nvidia is hiring a senior deep learning performance architect. (link)

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