Welcome! It’s Friday, August 2nd.

This week in AI has been incredibly exciting, packed with juicy updates and gossip for you. 👀

Hold on to your hats and LET’S DIVE IN!

Do You Know?

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman is calling out Microsoft, Anthropic, and Perplexity for scraping Reddit's data without permission. Huffman says these companies have been aggressive and are acting like all online content is "free for them to use."

Reddit has been escalating its fight against web crawlers, blocking those it doesn't have data-sharing agreements with. 🥷🏻

(Feel the heat👀🎇)

On that note, Here is today’s menu:

1. AI Spotlight: AI Companions Aren't "Coming Soon", They're Here 🤯

2. Tool Talk: Meta AI Studio 🪄

3. GPT of the Week: Say More In Less Words 🌟

4. AI Resources: Grow Every Day by 1% 📚

AI Companions Aren't "Coming Soon", They're Here 🤯

Link: How AI Companions Are Redefining Human Relationships In The Digital Age | Forbes​

Why it Matters?
​From Isaac Asimov's early sci-fi musings to Blade Runner, Ex Machina, and Joaquim Phoenix's "Her," we've long speculated about the role AI companions might play in society.

Well, the time for pondering and predicting is over, because AI companions are no longer "coming soon."

They're here.

The rise in popularity of these AI companions can be largely attributed to a platform called Character.ai, which lets users create and interact with custom AI characters.

This idea struck a chord, propelling Character.ai to over 233 million users worldwide by mid-2024—a clear signal that demand for AI companions is massive and growing.

This surge in interest didn't go unnoticed by the tech giants, and we're starting to see more significant AI releases lean into this "AI companion" angle.

This week, OpenAI announced that it's slowly rolling out access to GPT-4o's highly anticipated Advanced Voice Mode.

Shortly after that announcement, Meta followed up with the launch of the Meta AI Studio. This new, free platform is dedicated to AI character creation and integrates with Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger.

Even independent startups are getting in on the AI companion gold rush.

​A new AI wearable called Friend began making waves online this week, with its low price and ease of use promising to make AI companionship even more accessible. (Though largely, the public response to this one has been "This is too much like a Black Mirror episode...")

The era of AI companions has arrived.

If you haven't already, it's time to pay attention—because this is just the beginning.

Meta AI Studio 🪄

Link: Meta AI Studio (Free, Not Sponsored!)

Why you should care?
​Meta's new AI Studio is a free, easy-to-use platform that lets you build custom AI characters that integrate seamlessly into Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp.

This means you can talk to your custom AI chatbots, or any publicly available characters created by other users, through some of the most popular messaging services on the planet.

Here's how to use Meta AI Studio on web browser:

1. Go to Meta AI Studio using the link above.

2. Sign in with a US-based Instagram account.

3. Once signed in, click on the "AI Studio" button in the bottom right of the screen.

4. Use the "Discover" tab to browse through all publicly available AI characters and select any to begin chatting.

5. The "Create a Character" tab lets you design and customize your own AI, which you can either keep private or make public for others to find and chat with.

6. Have fun designing and testing AI characters!

Meta AI Studio does have active integration with the Instagram app, but it's a bit clunky at the moment.

Even finding Meta AI Studio on the app is a challenge. (You have to message "Meta AI", then click on the "information" button in the top right, then select "Meta AI Studio" on the next screen.)

Currently, it's best to create AI characters and begin conversations with them on the web browser, then when you open your Instagram app, you'll see your conversations have carried over into Instagram's normal messaging interface. Any messages you send to your AI characters will now be mixed in with the messages you send to your Instagram friends.

Bottom line: custom AI characters just went mainstream. Hop on and start creating some today, you may just build a character that people around the world want to talk to!

GPT of the Week: Say More In Less Words 🌟

Less words = more impact. Get straight to the point with the Briefly GPT.

By eliminating superfluous information in your (or others’) writing, Briefly improves:

• Comprehension & Retention: Removing filler helps readers quickly grasp & more easily retain key information

• Effectiveness: To-the-point communication leads to faster decisions & action (and reduces the length of meetings!)

• Professionalism: Thoughtfully distilled ideas show intelligence & respect for others’ time

• Engagement: Shrinking attention spans limit how much time people spend reading your content — leading to lost customers

• Accessibility: Simple language, scannable lists, & short paragraphs remove barriers, helping you reach a wider audience

How Briefly Can Help You

• Summarise articles, meeting notes, & client communications

• Condense reports’ key points into easy-to-read lists

• Shorten emails to improve clarity

• Create concise presentations, project updates, & training materials that enhance retention

• Boost sales by streamlining product descriptions & benefits

• Craft blog post titles, email subject lines, & social media content that fit within character count limits

• Improve SEO by crafting easy-to-grasp content that retains website visitors

• Minimise confusion by simplifying complex information

AI Resources 📚

Why AI must make us more intelligent (link)

Human capital for the age of generative AI (link)

How to use AI to market your small business (link)

Can computers ever replace the classroom? (link)

How to build a ChatGPT-4o AI assistant with vision (link)

P.S. You can still get The BEST ChatGPT Prompting Cheat Sheet For Beginners 2024 (no email opt-in).

That's all for this week folks…

Stay Curious, Hustlers!

See you next Friday.Much Love, Vasu