Meet the Godfather of AI Art

Welcome, rebels, visionaries, and trailblazers, to the intersection of AI and creative entrepreneurship. Here, we shart the future, share the tools of innovation, and spotlight the pioneers of a new frontier.

This isn't just a newsletter, it's a manifesto for the new world.
Welcome to the revolution.

Here’s what’s cooking today:

• Did you know AI art began over half a century ago?

• Can AI create the ultimate recipe for steak?

• How to set up an AI email assistant in under 10 minutes or less.

Let’s get to it!

Meet the Godfather of AI Art

The rise of AI-generated art, videos, and text in recent months has captivated the world. Yet, the roots of AI art extend back over half a century ago, with a man named Harold Cohen.

Harold was born to Polish-Russian parents on May 1, 1928, in London. He was born an artist, showing a deep-seated passion for painting. He studied at the renowned Slade School of Art, where he refined his skills and developed his artistic voice. He was a recognized and acclaimed artist whose work was displayed across Europe.

Then, in the late 1960s, a new wave of technology swept the globe.

Computers, once the size of entire rooms, were becoming more compact and accessible. This technological revolution sparked a light in Harold's creative mind. He saw potential in these machines, not as tools for computation but as a new medium for artistic expression.

Swapping his paintbrush for a keyboard and mouse, Cohen embarked on a journey into the realm of computer art. This was a concept nearly unheard of at the time, and his peers watched with a blend of skepticism and intrigue as Harold charted this unexplored territory.

In the early 1970s, Harold began developing AARON, a computer program designed to autonomously create art. His work started to evolve, blending artificial intelligence and creativity in a unique way. His art pieces became dynamic creations that could change and evolve over time.

Harold's vision fundamentally changed the way we understand and interact with art. His AI paintings challenged the traditional boundaries of artistic expression, prompting us to ask: what is the true essence of art? Is it solely the product of human creativity, or can it also be the output of a machine's computations? — A question that has been reignited in recent times with the new wave of AI artists.

Harold's work with AARON pushed this debate into the public sphere, forever altering the contours of the art world.

He dedicated the rest of his life to his AI paintings, continually pushing the boundaries of what was possible. His work demonstrated his belief that art and technology could coexist and even amplify each other. Despite the skepticism and challenges he encountered, Harold remained unwavering in his pursuit of innovation.

Harold passed away in 2016, but his legacy continues. His groundbreaking work in AI art has inspired countless artists and innovators worldwide. His journey from traditional painter to AI artist has inspired artists and technologists alike to dream a little bigger and push a little harder. 

This crossroad of technology and art is a narrative that continues to unfold to this day. As we look to the future with excitement, we can’t help but look to Harold’s pioneering spirit, reminding us that creativity and technology are not mutually exclusive but two sides of the same coin.

🥩 AI Chef Alex has an entire TikTok channel dedicated to testing AI-generated recipes. This one? The ultimate steak.

🫠 Have you taken a walk through The Strangest Flea Market?

🎶 @fofrAI used image-to-video to bring to life famous album covers 

🐦 AI artist @machine.delusions created a video of a origami-style hummingbird

🗣️ And finally, do you remember when you first used GPT-4? Now imagine being one of the people at Microsoft who first encountered this "intelligence".

Shopify gave us a teaser of the future of ecommerce - The ecommerce software giant announced Sidekick, a chat-like AI assistant that will help business owners run their online store and run tasks such as generate sales reports, edit your website design, rewrite campaing copy, and more. No launch date was given.

Anthropic unveiled Claude 2 - The company claimed their language model surpasses GPT-4 in processing information, handling over 10x more in a single prompt. Its chat interface, now open to the public, provides enhanced coding and writing capabilities, though GPT-4 still slightly outperforms it in certain areas.

How will AI reshape the job landscape, and how fast will this happen? - In this super interesting read by Benedict Evans, he reminds us that this isn't the first wave of automation we've experienced. From typewriters to mainframes to PCs, each wave of automation has led to job displacement, but also job creation. So how different will this waves of automation be?

Picture this: you open your inbox and see ready-to-go drafts for a large chunk of your emails. Now all you have to do is read through them, make small tweaks, and hit send.

Heck, some emails are perfect as-is. Your AI assistant took care of it for you so you can focus on more pressing matters. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Here’s a step-by-step to make it happen:

Step 1: Gear Up

First up, you need to create a Zapier and an OpenAI account. Once those are set, head over to this link to get your OpenAI API key.

Step 2: Set the Course

Next, head to Zapier and hit that "+ Create Zap" button. You're going to set up your trigger here. Choose your email provider, select the "New Email" event, and pick your inbox.

Fun fact: Zapier has its own “Chat Assistant” to help you set up zaps but…it doesn’t always get the workflow right, so use with caution and test, test, test.

Step 3: Filter Through

Now, it's time to set up the Zapier filter. This filter will help your assistant decide which emails it will 'read'. For instance, you could set it to only continue if the email subject line contains a specific person's name or email.

Step 4: Fuel Up

Time to connect your engines. Search for ChatGPT in the tool search bar and link up your ChatGPT account. You'll be asked to add in your OpenAI API key.

Step 5: Craft Your Assistant

Here's where you get to play director. Name your AI assistant, give it some instructions, and tweak the settings until you find a 'voice' that resonates with you.

Step 6: Ready for Launch

Publish your Zap and run some tests to make sure everything's working like a well-oiled machine. If it all checks out, you're good to go!

Step 7: Sit Back and Relax

That’s it. Kick back, relax, and watch as your AI assistant takes care of your emails.

P.S. Getting ChatGPT running on Zapier can be a bit technical, but help is always at hand. Reply to this email if you hit a roadblock, or if you’re interested in a “done-for-you’ solution, we can get your AI assistant up and running for you. Making technology work for you, that's our goal.

We loved building sandcastles this week over on Twitter!

Prompt (& playtime) courtesy of @patricialeveq

Prompt: close up of overhead aerial of award winning sandcastle on a beach with people wearing beautiful complimentary colors taking pictures of it, intricate detail, in the style of Yann Arthus-Bertrand

This is a newsletter and community in the making. If there’s anything you’d like us to explore, reply to this email and let us know what you'd like to see more of.

Until next time!

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