I’ve used just one picture that I created with Midjourney, for a weblog submit. It was a enjoyable course of, however the picture itself is low high quality and has random components that make no sense. With Midjourney, you get 4 sq. photos as output and may ask to regenerate completely different variations of every of them. I bought pissed off pondering that I couldn’t make a small change to a picture I in any other case appreciated, or that Midjourney appeared to generate solely sq. photos, which isn’t what I wanted for weblog posts.
I discovered later that including picture dimensions to the immediate creates nonsquare photos, and when doing analysis for this text I realized that Midjourney launched Inpainting on the finish of August 2023, permitting you to pick out elements of the picture and edit them individually. That is what occurs when non-techy individuals use tech; I can’t fault AI for that.
Essentially the most controversial subscription I’m joyful to pay for is ChatGPT+, for $20 a month. ChatGPT lately crossed the 100 million energetic person mark, and has fully remodeled the AI panorama. I’m shocked what number of writers publicly deride ChatGPT, whereas nearly each author I do know makes use of it—simply not for writing.
By definition, you’ll be able to’t use ChatGPT for really artistic work, as a result of its output is “primarily based on current knowledge and programmed algorithms.” It could actually solely summarize, distill, copy, and paste. I take advantage of it to be taught the fundamentals about ideas, units, time intervals, or occasions that I write about, and use that primary clarification as a place to begin for analysis. I take advantage of ChatGPT to seek out synonyms and alternate options to complete phrases. I can slim down analysis research and articles rapidly as a result of I can search with extremely particular prompts quite than easy key phrases or phrases. Sadly, ChatGPT’s information knowledge isn’t up-to-date, so it received’t discover the latest research. I like it for brainstorming titles, and chapter and part headings. It’s additionally nice for checking title case and proper quotation formatting. In different phrases, ChatGPT is my one-stop assistant as a substitute of toggling between Google, my thesaurus, analysis database, and CMOS formatting device.
As a ghostwriter, I often document interviews with authors to gather ebook content material, so I began utilizing Otter.ai to transcribe these calls. The transcripts are usually good, however the tech is glitchy, retains signing out and in, and transcribes solely as much as 90 minutes at a time, even with a paid model. Worse, Otter joins your conferences even in the event you don’t. That is the default setting, and even while you disable it, the operate nonetheless typically glitches and results in the Otter assistant exhibiting up uninvited. The default setting additionally permits the platform to e mail everybody within the assembly the transcript and invite them to begin a free trial, which has weirded out a few of my purchasers. I’m nonetheless searching for the right automated device that data video and audio individually and supplies a transcript with out being creepy AF.
My preliminary FOMO ended up costing me fairly a little bit of money and time, however gave me some readability, too. Seems that whereas I’d like to take a seat on the cool desk, I do care extra about trying like me than trying poreless. I belief my very own voice over ChatGPT’s edits, and you must too. Not every little thing must be captured, because the CEO of Otter argues. The truth is, it’s the ephemeral nature of undocumented moments that makes me really feel most alive. However that doesn’t imply I’ll get bored with studying concerning the latest AI device promising the closest factor to magic I’ve ever seen.
So, right here’s my tremendous official rating of all of the instruments I’ve used to this point:
- Most ridiculous: Aragon.AI for headshots
- Costliest: AdCreativeAI for advertisements and social posts
- Most worth: Canva for designing something
- Most work to get good outputs: Midjourney
- Most glitchy and irritating: Otter.AI
- Most constant use: ChatGPT
After I put the holiday snapshot again up as my profile image, I known as the buddy who at all times has a watch for my finest angles whereas capturing my most recognizable facial expressions.
Seems, sure, she’s for rent as a photographer.
