I've been an early tester + had in-person demos for most of Google’s AI projects announced today.
I found several practical use cases that will benefit everyday people.
12 use cases of Project Astra/Deep Research Agents/Project Mariner (beyond the hype):
Project Astra: Google's AI agent that can 'see the world' using your phone camera
Use cases that stood out to me:
> Summarizing a book page in seconds and chatting with it for follow-ups on complex topics (professor-in-your-pocket)
> Identifying a rash: just seasonal hives or something more serious?
> Real-time translation of languages, sign language, and books (worked great for Japanese writing → English summary).
> Locating landscapes in photos and estimating their distance using the Google Maps integration.
> Remembering cookbook recipes and recommending wine pairings based on the recipe and budget.
> Summarizing thousands of Amazon/Airbnb reviews in seconds using mobile screen sharing, with highlights of any negative feedback.
Deep Research Agent: Google’s new research assistant that create's full reports on any topic and links back to the relevant sources.
Use cases that stood out to me:
> Coming up with interview questions based on what people are curious about across the internet.
> Conducting market research on stocks (e.g., "Why did Google stock go up today?").
> Creating a full Christmas gift plan for my mom (based on current trends and her preferences highlighted in the prompt)
> Creating an analysis and report of my health/fitness and how I can improve based on my Whoop data.
AI NEWS: Meta just unexpectedly dropped Llama 3.3—a 70B model that's ~25x cheaper than GPT-4o.
Plus, Google released a new Gemini model, OpenAI reinforcement finetuning, xAI's Grok is available for free, Copilot Vision, ElevenLabs GenFM, and more.
Here's what you need to know:
Meta just dropped Llama 3.3 — a 70B open model that offers similar performance to Llama 3.1 405B, but significantly faster and cheaper.
It's also ~25x cheaper than GPT-4o.
Text only for now, and available to download at llama .com/llama-downloads
Google launched a new model, gemini-exp-1206 on Gemini's 1 year birthday (today!)
It tops the Chatbot Arena rankings in ALL domains.
It also looks like it's available for everyone in AI Studio for free!
And it's even more advanced than the February demo.
A group from the early beta testers just dropped access to what looks to be Sora's ‘turbo’ variant on Hugging Face, citing concerns about OpenAI's early access program and artist compensation.
The leaked version generates 1080p 10-second clips and seems to be processing WAY faster than the previously reported 10-minute render times.
In September, The Information reported that a new version of Sora was being trained to address long generation times and better physics — and potentially built-in features like inpainting and image generation:
NEW: ChatGPT’s ‘Live Camera’ video features were just found in the code of the latest beta.
Six months after their initial demo, OpenAI's visual AI could be ready for testing — and Advanced Voice Mode could soon be getting ‘eyes’
The code discovered in v1.2024.317 reveals:
—Live camera functionality
—Real-time processing
—Voice mode integration
—Visual recognition capabilities
The tech was initially showcased in an OpenAI demo in May, with Advanced Voice Mode interacting with a dog in real time:
@AndroidAuth first spotted the code in the latest beta:
Beta Tap the camera icon to let ChatGPT view and chat about your surroundings. Live camera Don't use for live navigation or decisions that may impact your health or safety.
@AndroidAuth When Advanced Voice Mode came out, some random users also had temporary access to the Live Video feature.
Meta just announced a ton of new AI announcements across Meta AI, Llama, Ray-Bans, and more.
Here’s everything important announced live from here @ Meta Connect:
1. Meta AI is getting its own voice mode!
2. Meta AI can now ‘see’ images!
Similar to ChatGPT, you can now share photos and have Meta AI reply to any photo in chat.
But where Meta is going a step further is by allowing users to actually edit photos, like removing an object, adding a hat, or changing backgrounds, etc., all within the chat.
Rolling out in the US only for now (unlike voice mode, which is rolling out to US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand over the next month)
3. Meta is rolling out experimental AI features for Reels, including automatic video dubbing and lip-syncing allowing anyone to create content across any language.