Google just brought generative AI directly into Google Ads, letting marketers create search campaigns simply by chatting with an assistant. Advertisers only need to provide a landing page, and the AI automatically summarizes the content to generate headlines, keywords, and custom images. Why it matters: Google is cutting campaign setup down to minutes while laying the groundwork for ads inside its new generative search engine.
Adobe just brought its Firefly generative AI directly into Photoshop through a new feature called Generative Fill. Users can now expand images, add objects, or remove unwanted elements simply using text prompts across separate layers. Because Firefly is trained on Adobe Stock and open-license content, generated assets are designed to be commercially safe. A full rollout is slated for the second half of the year.
Researchers just introduced DragGAN, an interactive tool that allows users to manipulate images by simply clicking and dragging points across the frame. Instead of smearing existing pixels like Photoshop's warp tool, the AI re-generates the object in seconds, smoothly rotating 3D angles and hallucinating occluded features like teeth. Why it matters: It swaps out tedious prompt guessing for precise, flexible control.
Google is preparing to deploy its new PaLM 2 model across its advertising engine and YouTube, according to internal documents reported by CNBC. Advertisers will be able to automatically generate media assets, while YouTube creators can get AI-suggested video concepts and titles. Faced with cooling revenue growth, Google is racing to turn generative AI into a direct moneymaker.
Stability AI just open-sourced the frontend behind DreamStudio, launching it as a community-driven project called StableStudio. The move hands the keys of its primary image generation interface over to external devs, with roadmaps for WebGPU local inference, plugins, and an upcoming chat tool. Stability will keep DreamStudio alive as a hosted implementation of the codebase.
Google just introduced new features to help users identify AI-generated images, led by a tool called "About this image." It lets you see when an image was first indexed, where it first appeared, and where else it has shown up. Google is also embedding metadata labels into AI-generated files, with Midjourney and Shutterstock on board.
Google just revealed that Android will get generative AI wallpapers this fall, letting users generate custom backgrounds via suggested prompts. The feature uses diffusion models to create original art and adapts your phone's color theme accordingly, with 3D cinematic wallpapers coming to Pixel next month.
Meta just open-sourced ImageBind, a research model linking text, audio, visual, thermal, depth, and IMU motion data into a single embedding space. It aims to let AI cross-reference physical movement and sounds just like current models do with text prompts. While still an early research demo with no immediate consumer app, it keeps Meta firmly planted in open source.
OpenAI just open-sourced Shap-E, a generative model that turns text prompts into textured 3D meshes and NeRFs in a matter of seconds. Available on GitHub with weights and inference code, it converges faster and outpaces Point-E, though complex multi-attribute prompts still present a challenge.
Microsoft just moved the AI-powered Bing and Edge into Open Preview, completely dropping the waitlist so anyone with a Microsoft account can jump in. The update brings chat history, export options, 100+ language image generation, and third-party plugins like OpenTable and Wolfram|Alpha. It marks Bing's shift from a search engine into an action-oriented platform.
Digital artist Rhett Dashwood just turned a $69 budget and zero coding experience into a $50M meme coin called $TURBO using GPT-4. The AI guided the tokenomics, drafted the white paper, and wrote the Solidity smart contracts, while Midjourney generated the mascot. It serves as a wild proof of concept for non-technical creators building projects with AI.
Midjourney just launched version 5.1, significantly boosting image sharpness, color dynamics, and overall aesthetic polish. The update delivers punchier editorial-style compositions while reducing unwanted borders and text artifacts, alongside a new raw mode for creators who want less opinionated styling. Why it matters: it makes striking generations far easier without complex prompt engineering.
Shutterstock is hosting its first-ever virtual Gen AI Showcase on May 17, featuring product demos of its Shutterstock Generate workflow. The agency is bringing in experts from AWS and Nvidia to discuss how AI models impact creative industries and artists' livelihoods.
Blizzard Entertainment just faced pushback after a new patent surfaced detailing an AI system that mimics specific art styles to flesh out virtual worlds. President Mike Ybarra quickly stepped in to clarify, insisting machine learning will only be used as an additive tool to free up creative teams for higher-quality work. Why it matters: As major studios look to slash the brutal costs of world-building, the tension between AI efficiency and artist backlash is reaching game development giants.
Stability AI and DeepFloyd just unveiled DeepFloyd IF, a cascaded pixel-level diffusion model released under a non-commercial research license. By packing the massive T5-XXL language model as its text encoder, it generates coherent, readable text directly on rendered images—a notorious blind spot for older models. A fully open-source release is planned down the road.
Microsoft just opened up the preview of Microsoft Designer to everyone, ditching the waitlist and rolling it directly into the Edge browser sidebar. The AI-powered design tool now lets users generate captions and hashtags, create animated visuals, and automatically resize graphics across 20 social media layouts. It makes spinning up custom social posts as seamless as tapping a sidebar icon without switching tabs.
TikTok is experimenting with a new tool that generates stylized AI profile pictures directly inside the app. Similar to Lensa, users can upload 3 to 10 photos and pick a few art styles to get custom avatars for their profile or stories. TikTok confirmed the tool is currently in testing across select regions.
A leaked investor deck reveals that Stability AI may have exaggerated its role in creating Stable Diffusion and other top AI projects during its $101m Series A fundraise in October 2022. The presentation claimed "co-founding" status with several organizations, sparking scrutiny over who actually owns the IP. Why it matters: It casts doubt on the foundation of one of generative AI's earliest superstars.
Google is reportedly gearing up to embed its generative AI into its Performance Max ad platform, according to the Financial Times. Advertisers simply provide raw images, video, and text, and the system creates sophisticated campaigns tailored to target audiences. Google promised firm guardrails after concerns arose about AI hallucinating false claims to drive clicks.
Synthesis AI just unveiled a new text-to-3D capability in synthesis labs, allowing users to generate high-resolution digital humans directly from simple text prompts describing age, style, and clothing. The model splits mesh generation from texture layers and includes sliders for tweaking expressions and lighting. It could drastically cut asset creation costs for gaming, VFX, and synthetic training data.
