Meta’s Novel AI Advances Creative 3D Applications
Plus: ElevenLabs's new AI products, TikTok's Depth Anything for Depth Estimation.
Hello Engineering Leaders and AI Enthusiasts!
Welcome to the 194th edition of The AI Edge newsletter. This edition brings you Meta’s new 3D shape representation for generative models that advance creative 3D applications.
And a huge shoutout to our incredible readers. We appreciate you😊
In today’s edition:
🤖 Meta’s novel AI advances creative 3D applications
👏💰ElevenLabs announces new AI products + Raised $80M
📐 TikTok's Depth Anything sets new standards for Depth Estimation
🧠 Knowledge Nugget: Featuring ‘Will AI Replace Product Managers?’ By
Let’s go!
Meta’s novel AI advances creative 3D applications
The paper introduces a new shape representation called Mosaic-SDF (M-SDF) for 3D generative models. M-SDF approximates a shape's Signed Distance Function (SDF) using local grids near the shape's boundary.
This representation is:
Fast to compute
Parameter efficient
Compatible with Transformer-based architectures
The efficacy of M-SDF is demonstrated by training a 3D generative flow model with the 3D Warehouse dataset and text-to-3D generation using caption-shape pairs.
Meta shared this update on Twitter.
More details here.
Why does this matter?
M-SDF provides an efficient 3D shape representation for unlocking AI's generative potential in the area, which could significantly advance creative 3D applications. Overall, M-SDF opens up new possibilities for deep 3D learning by bringing the representational power of transformers to 3D shape modeling and generation.
ElevenLabs announces new AI products + Raised $80M
ElevenLabs has raised $80 million in a Series B funding round co-led by Andreessen Horowitz, Nat Friedman, and Daniel Gross. The funding will strengthen the company's position as a voice AI research and product development leader.
ElevenLabs has also announced the release of new AI products, including a Dubbing Studio, a Voice Library marketplace, and a Mobile Reader App.
Why does this matter?
The company's technology has been adopted across various sectors, including publishing, conversational AI, entertainment, education, and accessibility. ElevenLabs aims to transform how we interact with content and break language barriers.
TikTok's Depth Anything sets new standards for Depth Estimation
This work introduces Depth Anything, a practical solution for robust monocular depth estimation. The approach focuses on scaling up the dataset by collecting and annotating large-scale unlabeled data. Two strategies are employed to improve the model's performance: creating a more challenging optimization target through data augmentation and using auxiliary supervision to incorporate semantic priors.
The model is evaluated on multiple datasets and demonstrates impressive generalization ability. Fine-tuning with metric depth information from NYUv2 and KITTI also leads to state-of-the-art results. The improved depth model also enhances the performance of the depth-conditioned ControlNet.
Why does this matter?
By collecting and automatically annotating over 60 million unlabeled images, the model learns more robust representations to reduce generalization errors. Without dataset-specific fine-tuning, the model achieves state-of-the-art zero-shot generalization on multiple datasets. This could enable broader applications without requiring per-dataset tuning, marking an important step towards practical monocular depth estimation.
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Knowledge Nugget: Will AI Replace Product Managers?
This article discusses the potential impact of AI on product managers and suggests that AI will empower PMs to deliver value faster. It highlights the role of AI in advanced prototyping, competition analysis, and data insights. The article encourages PMs to embrace AI and provides recommended readings and tools for further learning. In conclusion, the author believes that AI will enhance the role of PMs rather than replace them.
This interesting work by
👏👏👏Why does this matter?
It provides a positive perspective on how AI can empower and augment product managers rather than replace them. By embracing AI tools for ideation and analysis, PMs can accelerate innovation cycles and make more informed product decisions.
Rather than viewing AI as a threat, this article encourages product managers to leverage AI to enhance their capabilities proactively.
What Else Is Happening❗
🗣 Google is reportedly working on a new AI feature, ‘voice compose’
A new feature for Gmail on Android called "voice compose” uses AI to help users draft emails. The feature, known as "Help me write," was introduced in mid-2023 and allows users to input text segments for the AI to build on and improve. The new update will support voice input, allowing users to speak their email and have the AI generate a draft based on their voice input. (Link)
🎯 Google has shared its companywide goals (OKRs) for 2024 with employees
Also, Sundar Pichai's memo about layoffs encourages employees to start internally testing Bard Advanced, a new paid tier powered by Gemini. This suggests that a public release is coming soon. (Link)
🚀 Elon Musk saying Grok 1.5 will be out next month
Elon Musk said the next version of the Grok language (Grok 1.5) model, developed by his AI company xAI, will be released next month with substantial improvements. Declared by him while commenting on a Twitter influencer’s post. (Link)
🤖 MIT study found that AI is still more expensive than humans in most jobs
The study aimed to address concerns about AI replacing human workers in various industries. Researchers found that only 23% of workers could be replaced by AI cost-effectively. This study counters the widespread belief that AI will wipe out jobs, suggesting that humans are still more cost-efficient in many roles. (Link)
🎥 Berkley AI researchers revealed a video featuring their versatile humanoid robot walking in the streets of San Francisco. (Link)
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