Today’s Highlights

• AI: Sora is Here: OpenAI’s Most Awaited Video Generator

• Design: Pentagram Pilots the AI-Design Revolution: Integrating GenAI in Web Design

• Science & Tech: Blue Origin’s New Glenn Rocket

• Founding: Growing a Vertical SaaS Company: How Big Should The Customer Base Be?

• Product: GenAI Helps Generate New Innovations: A Path from Big Iron to Modern Tech 

• Today’s AI image: Brain Mimicry in Video Processing

• Quote for the day: From Virginia Woolf

AI

Sora is Here: OpenAI’s Most Awaited Video Generator

OpenAI has officially debuted Sora, its much-anticipated AI video creation model, now accessible to ChatGPT Plus and Pro users via a dedicated platform packed with fresh editing and design tools. Let’s dive into what’s new:

All You Need To Know

• Sora in Action: Generate videos up to 20 seconds long across different aspect ratios. The cutting-edge ‘Turbo’ version slashes rendering times dramatically compared to earlier iterations.

• Hub of Inspiration: The Sora platform not only stores and organises your creations but also showcases prompts and featured videos from others to spark your imagination.

• Feature Powerhouse: Tools like Remix for tweaking scenes, Storyboard for combining clips, Blend, Loop, and preset Styles offer a robust creative toolkit.

• Pricing: ChatGPT subscribers can start using Sora now, but those after perks like unlimited generations, sharper resolutions, and no watermarks will need the $200/month Pro plan.

Limitations and Rollout

Real people, minors, and copyrighted materials are largely off-limits, with only select users allowed to upload real-person inputs in the early stages.

Regulatory hurdles mean users in the EU, UK, and a few other regions will have to wait for access.

Why is this a big deal?

The long wait for Sora is over, and while debates about its quality compared to competitors will rumble on, OpenAI’s sheer reach and user base are its trump cards.

For many first-timers dabbling in AI-driven video creation, this tool will open the floodgates to accessible, high-level creative possibilities. Millions of everyday users are about to dive headfirst into this brave new world of visual storytelling.

Read More

Also in AI

• Google's Willow Quantum Chip: Breakthrough in reducing quantum errors and achieving tasks impossible for classical supercomputers

• AI Mimics Brain for Video Processing: MovieNet model processes videos like a human brain, excelling in medical and dynamic scene analysis

• xAI unveils the Aurora image generator

• Reddit's 'Reddit Answers' feature brings conversational search

• Ex-OpenAI Exec’s New $40M Voice AI Startup

• Pickle: AI meeting clone lets you "sit out" and return at will

• Tencent’s Hunyuan Video Model: Demonstrations show unprecedented realism, breaking the “uncanny valley”

Design

Pentagram Pilots the AI-Design Revolution: Integrating GenAI in Web Design

Renowned design agency Pentagram, celebrated for its artistry and traditional design expertise, has embraced AI.

Their use of the generative AI tool Midjourney to craft a government website signals a cultural shift, not just a technological one.

Paula Scher, a Pentagram partner, argues that design is about strategic planning, not manual repetition, making AI an ideal collaborator for certain tasks like creating recurring visuals.

AI as a Creative Ally, Not a Rival

Contrary to fears that AI might overshadow human creativity, Pentagram's approach integrates AI to complement their designers’ expertise.

They curate and refine AI outputs, ensuring the work aligns with their legacy of excellence.

Just as digital photography once enabled more experimentation and iteration, tools like Midjourney open up fresh creative possibilities without replacing the human touch.

A Parallel to Digital Photography

The resistance to AI in design mirrors the pushback digital photography faced when it emerged.

Luminaries like Annie Leibovitz adopted these tools to expand creative possibilities, normalising their use in high art. Similarly, Pentagram shows how skilled professionals can use AI responsibly and creatively.

A Call for Curiosity and Innovation

As AI becomes a permanent fixture, designers are urged to stay curious and explore its potential.

Pentagram demonstrates that technology and craftsmanship can coexist, proving that creativity lies in how tools are wielded, not in the tools themselves.

Designers have a choice: resist new technologies or embrace them as opportunities to innovate. Most of us know what’s wiser.

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Also in Design

• Unreal Engine 5 Real-time Weather Visualisation

• Agile is Not the Enemy: Agile promotes adaptability, collaboration, and customer feedback but can falter with overemphasis on rigid processes

• Webflow’s New AI Assistant: Generate or modify any text content

• Figma’s “State” Problem: Discrepancies in handling component states like hover or active hinder collaboration

• Design Literacy: Adapting curiosity and resourcefulness across mediums as AI reshapes creative processes

• Prototype Creation: Encouraging more prototypes with design systems to save time and enhance collaboration

• AI & Society Guide: A curated program blending ethics, creativity, and AI exploration to build understanding and foster innovation

Science & Tech

Blue Origin’s New Glenn Rocket

Blue Origin claims its New Glenn rocket is on schedule for its maiden launch before 2024 ends, pending regulatory approvals.

A "hot fire" test of the first stage’s seven BE-4 engines is the final hurdle, simulating liftoff conditions while anchored to the launch pad.

The Visionary’s Ambitions

Founder Jeff Bezos envisions New Glenn as pivotal to cutting launch costs and relocating polluting industries to orbit. Despite sounding far-fetched, he insists this future is feasible with reduced space access costs.

Technical Marvel:

New Glenn, a towering 320-foot rocket, boasts a payload capacity of 45 metric tonnes to low Earth orbit, surpassing competitors like SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy in reusable mode.

However, SpaceX’s Starship remains the heavyweight champion with its 100-150 metric tonne capacity.

Changes in Plans:

Originally intended to ferry NASA satellites to Mars in October 2024, New Glenn’s debut has been rescheduled.

The NG-1 mission now focuses on testing the Blue Ring orbital transfer vehicle, which aims to reposition equipment swiftly across orbits.

All in all, New Glenn represents more than a rocket; it embodies Blue Origin’s ambition to redefine space access. However, it remains grounded, awaiting the bureaucratic green light before it can soar.

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Also in Science & Tech

• Researchers improved quantum resilience by creating a logical qubit with lower error rates using more physical qubits

• Brain Stimulation Breakthrough: Patients with spinal cord injuries now walking via deep brain stimulation

• Antimatter partner of hyperhelium observed at CERN, offering insight into early universe physics

• Researchers discover a chemical in tick saliva that helps them anchor to hosts

• Antarctic species that live up to 11,000 years!

Founding

Growing a Vertical SaaS Company: How Big Should The Customer Base Be?

According to Jason Lemkin of SaaStr, you should charge at least $10,000/year per customer for your SaaS product and look forward to conquering 60% share of your niche market vertical. 

Why?

When your product serves a highly specific category of customers exceptionally well, what you offer is most likely a core business tool for which customers (even smaller businesses) are ready to pay a large amount. Can be justified by its importance in their regular operations and how it becomes an indispensable ERP.

3 Paths to $100M ARR in Vertical SaaS

1. High Annual Contract Value (ACV) + Fewer Customers: When your niche vertical is narrow, you would want to negotiate for a higher annual price but with only a few customers. Those closest to your Ideal Customer Profile. Like 5,000 customers at $20k/year.

2. Low ACV + High Volume: If this high ACV isn’t feasible, you can bring down its value and focus on abundant customer acquisition. Like 100,000 customers at $1k/year.

3. Enterprise Sales: A rarely adopted model where a premium group of clientele is approached and the ACV is extensively high. Example, 100 customers at $1M/year.

Read more

Also in Founding

• Spotting brittle points of a company: Single Points of Failure

• Perplexity AI CEO's Advice to Startups

• Identify target customer segments based on use cases, not demographics

• Landing Page Optimisation: Design principles and understanding visitor psychology can increase conversions by up to 5x

Product

GenAI Helps Generate New Innovations: A Path from Big Iron to Modern Tech 

With the emergence of super smart AI tech, it’s quite easy to forget how we began this then-surreal journey with mainframes. Large computers batch processing, operated manually with punch cards. 

Fast forward a bit, PCs came into the play with the Windows-Icons-Menus-Pointer (WIMP) interface. The bridge between the both? Interactive apps. 

A little while after, PCs all around the globe were networked together also giving rise to smartphones and touch screens. The bridge here? The Internet.

What’s next?

Technologies like wearable devices with GenAI as a bridge. Here’s how-

1. Generative UI: Wearables could use AI to generate precise user interfaces tailored to specific contexts, minimising the need for manual interaction.

2. On-demand Functionality: Instead of pre-programmed apps, generative AI can create dynamic solutions live, carving relatively more smiles.

3. Incremental Adoption: Just as early iPhones depended on the Internet for functionality, wearables will rely on AI advancements developed for current devices like phones and PCs.

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Today’s AI Image

Brain Mimicry in Video Processing

Quote of the Day

From Virginia Woolf

"Arrange whatever pieces come your way."

Virginia Woolf

What we’re working on

🧞Your wish is my command