Meta just rolled out a major upgrade to Meta AI, adding preview access to its flagship Llama 3.1 405B model alongside a new "Imagine me" stylized selfie feature. Users can now generate custom scenes starring themselves, though the 405B model requires manual switching and has weekly limits.
Adobe just rolled out major AI updates across Illustrator and Photoshop. Illustrator gained Generative Shape Fill, Text to Pattern, and Mockup tools to quickly generate vector graphics and 3D product previews. Meanwhile, Photoshop officially launched its Generate Image tool to general availability alongside new precision selection brushes. Why it matters: Adobe is embedding generative AI deeper into everyday creative workflows, letting pros quickly iterate concepts without leaving their canvas.
EA Sports just built 11,000 virtual college football players for College Football 25 using in-house AI that turns 2D headshots into 3D avatars. The studio bypassed the logistical nightmare and massive cost of full-body scans for thousands of student athletes, establishing a scalable workflow for future sports game franchises.
Sakana AI just launched Evo-Ukiyoe and Evo-Nishikie, two image models dedicated to Japan’s historic ukiyo-e woodblock art. Fine-tuned on over 24,000 archival pieces from Ritsumeikan University, they can create traditional prints from Japanese text prompts or colorize antique monochrome illustrations. Both models are openly available on Hugging Face for research purposes.
Figma just shared why its Make Designs generative AI tool ended up recreating Apple’s iOS weather app. The company says the issue wasn't model training, but rather rushed third-party components and example screens added to the prompt context right before its Config conference without proper vetting. The feature remains disabled while Figma overhauls its QA process.
Microsoft just made its AI-powered design tool, Microsoft Designer, generally available to anyone with a personal Microsoft account. The rollout includes free standalone apps for iOS and Android, plus direct integrations across Word, PowerPoint, and Windows Photos. Users get 15 free daily boosts to generate stickers, cards, and restyled images. Why it matters: It puts a capable Canva competitor directly into Microsoft's vast consumer ecosystem.
Tencent Yuanbao just rolled out a "3D Avatar Dream Factory" feature that generates customizable 3D characters from a single front-facing selfie. The tool offers 10 different styles with PBR material mapping and full 360-degree viewing, and users can even take their virtual models to an offline 3D printer to make real figurines.
Stability AI just updated its Stable Assistant chatbot with two major creative tools: Search & Replace and music generation. Users can now seamlessly swap specific objects inside uploaded images, or generate full-length instrumental tracks up to three minutes long via Stable Audio 2.0 at 44.1 kHz stereo. It essentially turns the assistant into an all-in-one multimodal workstation, backed by a 3-day free trial.
Magnific AI just launched an official Adobe Photoshop plugin, checking off one of its most requested features for creative pros. Designers and digital artists can now tap into Magnific's AI upscaling and hallucinated detail directly inside their existing Photoshop workflow without switching apps.
Stability AI just revamped its Community License following heavy community pushback over Stable Diffusion 3. Under the revised terms, individual creators and small businesses making less than $1M in annual revenue can now use SD3 Medium and other models commercially for free, with zero output caps. The team also admitted SD3 Medium fell short on quality and promised an update soon.
Kwai's research team just open-sourced LivePortrait, an efficient portrait animation model that brings still human or animal photos to life using driving videos. Unlike diffusion models, it uses implicit keypoints to clock in at just 12.8ms per frame on an RTX 4090.
Meta just introduced 3D Gen, a new AI pipeline that turns text prompts into high-fidelity 3D assets in under a minute. The system creates the base 3D model in roughly 30 seconds and finishes PBR re-texturing in another 20. Why it matters: While still confined to research, slashing 3D generation down to seconds could massively lower production hurdles for game and VR developers.
Figma just disabled its new Make Design AI feature after users caught it repeatedly spitting out UI that looked virtually identical to Apple's Weather app. CEO Dylan Field denied training on existing apps, blaming the issue on a rushed design system with low variability. The tool will stay offline until Figma completes a full QA pass.
Meta is cooking up a new feature in WhatsApp that turns your selfies into custom AI stickers. Users upload a few reference photos to Meta AI and can then trigger scenes by typing "@Meta AI imagine me" in any chat—dropping themselves into outer space or a forest. It's currently in beta testing on Android, with full control to delete your reference images at any time.
Meta just changed its 'Made with AI' tag to 'AI info' across Instagram, Facebook, and Threads after photographers complained that real photos retouched in Photoshop were being mislabeled as AI creations. Clicking the new tag now clarifies whether an image was fully generated or simply modified, solving a major headache for creators.
Figma just introduced a massive interface redesign alongside a suite of generative AI tools that build app prototypes and UI mocks from simple text prompts. The update also adds a native presentation tool called Figma Slides. The AI features are currently in limited beta and free through year-end, though default user data training terms have sparked privacy concerns.
Opera just launched the developer beta for Opera One R2, bringing its Aria AI assistant right to the center of web browsing. The browser now packs native image and voice generation, image understanding, and a new page-context mode to summarize or query any open site. It also adds split tabs and floating media controls. A broader rollout is scheduled for later this year.
Grok's standalone web codebase was just found to contain direct references to Midjourney, backing up earlier rumors of a partnership between xAI and the leading image platform. If true, Grok 1.5 could soon leverage Midjourney via API to output visuals, alongside upcoming image upload and vision capabilities.
Leonardo AI just released Phoenix, a new flagship image model boasting sharper text rendering, tighter prompt adherence, and a natural-language "Edit with AI" tool. While some legacy features like photoreal mode are temporarily sidelined, its deep creative control turns the platform into a fierce challenger to Ideogram.
Apple Intelligence will automatically add code to image metadata to flag AI alterations—even for simple fixes like removing a background distraction. Software chief Craig Federighi confirmed the policy, noting Apple has no plans to generate photorealistic people or places. Why it matters: As slop and deepfakes multiply, tech giants are leaning hard on provenance markers.
