🖼️ Alexa The Artist

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Alexa Is Bringing AI Art To Its TVs

AI-generated images, like those created by the tool Dall-E, have gained popularity over the past few months for being able to take a handful of key phrases and churn out high-quality, realistic-looking images in seconds. Not to sound corny, but this technology works so well that it just feels a little bit like magic.

While Dall-E and similar tools are impressive, Amazon wants to take AI-generated art one step further. It plans to do this by letting you create background art for your TV using nothing more than an Alexa and your voice. This new feature will be available on the Omni QLED TV and will launch at some point in the next year.

Before it releases the tool, Amazon first needs to fine-tune the AI algorithms to make sure that they’re generating images that are 100% family-friendly. If you have middle-school-age boys at home then you can imagine how quickly AI-generated art on your flatscreen TV could turn from “how cool is that” to “OK who thought that was funny?”

God forbid someone asked Alexa to draw a high-quality closeup of… well, let’s just say that Amazon’s engineers can take all the time they need to put the necessary guardrails in place.

How Does It Work?

As far as how the tech works, Amazon is holding its cards close to its chest and hasn’t released any info on how the back end of the technology is powered. But, as far as using it, the AI background art will work just like most Alexa prompts.

You can initiate the request by saying “Alexa, create a background” and then go on to describe what you’re looking for. You can request just about anything you want, from an oil painting of George Washington in a dress to a pastel image of an Amazon tree frog. The TV then does the work for you and creates three images, so that you can pick your favorite rendering.

If you’re still not satisfied with Alexa’s design then you can even go one step further. After the initial image is constructed, you can continue to fine-tune it. For example, let’s say that you asked for an image of Tom Brady. After the initial image is completed, you could then ask Alexa to put a crown on his head or swap his jersey for a dress, depending on your feelings on TB12.

Democratizing Art

The main goal of Amazon’s AI art generation tool is to bring the power of creating art to just about everyone. Up until now, creating high-quality pieces of art is a highly fulfilling talent that only a small percentage of people have. But, when Alexa’s art tool becomes available, anyone from four years old to ninety-four will be able to let their imaginations run wild and create amazing pieces of art.

Again, Amazon has not announced when this tool will be available but it should be sometime this year. We’ll be sure to keep you posted when it officially launches!

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Finance and tech are very meta industries, like layers over the rest of the economy. They're rich with insights into how a lot of the world and economy works.

The Diff is a newsletter that explores those meta industries—posts range from in-depth company profiles, to applied financial theory, strategy breakdowns, and macroeconomics.

That’s why the newsletter is read by founders, VCs, hedge fund managers, and more.

Join 49k+ other readers by subscribing here for free!