This AI photo app is making $250k a day

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This AI photo app is making $250k a day

The photo editing app Epik has recently gained popularity on social media due to its AI-generated 90’s Yearbook photo feature, allowing users to envision themselves as 90's high school graduates. This trend has led to a surge in the app's usage, making it the top app on the U.S. Apple App Store charts. While the app is free, accessing the '90s yearbook feature costs between $5.99 and $9.99, although a discount to $3.99 and $5.99 was reported. Based on the app's popularity, it is estimated that Epik is making $250k per day.

To participate, users need to download Epik, upload selfies, select their gender, and choose between "standard" or "express" delivery for the AI-rendered photos. Epik then generates 60 different images from eight to 12 submitted selfies, portraying users in various '90s styles and backgrounds typical of that decade's yearbook photos.

Adobe Project Stardust

Adobe is gearing up to unveil an AI-driven photo editing tool, Project Stardust, at the upcoming Adobe Max event. Project Stardust, as revealed in a promotional video, simplifies image alterations by automatically identifying and segregating objects within photos, reminiscent of Google's Magic Editor but purportedly more advanced. The tool facilitates easy object manipulation—be it moving, deletion, or other modifications—as if they were on separate layers, with auto-fill to cover the gaps left behind.

The innovative engine also exhibits generative AI capabilities similar to Adobe’s Firefly-powered tools in Photoshop. In the demo, users can replace or generate new elements like changing clothing on a model or adding AI-generated flowers, by merely selecting areas and inputting text. This advancement aligns with the broader trend of automated design tools powered by generative AI, like those offered by Canva and Google Photos.

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OpenAI is exploring making its own chips

Amid a global AI chip shortage, pivotal for training large language models like ChatGPT, OpenAI is weighing the option of chip development or even acquiring a chipmaker, although no firm decision has been made. The move aims to mitigate the substantial operational costs of ChatGPT, earlier estimated at up to $700,000 daily. The situation mirrors a larger industry trend where tech behemoths like Meta and Microsoft are also venturing into creating their own chips to counter the scarcity and dependency on providers like Nvidia.

This exploration also underscores a growing divergence between OpenAI and Microsoft. Having invested $10 billion in OpenAI at the outset of 2023, Microsoft had been a significant provider of the requisite computational power for OpenAI's model training, even constructing a vast supercomputer for OpenAI in 2020. This partnership also facilitated the integration of OpenAI's models into Microsoft's offerings, enhancing products like Bing.

UK’s $10 million AI scholarship fund

The UK's Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan has unveiled a £60 million Regional Innovation Fund (RIF) to bolster support for universities, especially in regions with lower R&D investments. Among other initiatives, an additional £8 million has been allocated for artificial intelligence (AI) scholarships, aiming to enable 800 more individuals to thrive in the AI sector.

These scholarships, building upon the 1,800 scholarships provided in the past three years from £18 million of government funding, will cover practical AI and data science skills, coding, programming, machine learning, health data science, and AI ethics. This move is geared towards preparing students for future jobs and propelling the UK's ambition to be a forefront player in AI safety.