For over two decades, TIME editors have curated the most impactful new products and ideas in TIME’s Best Inventions issue annually. The outcome is a comprehensive list featuring 200 groundbreaking inventions around the world, based on criteria such as originality, efficacy, ambition, and impact. At Mynewsdesk, we’ve decided to compile our very own list for the PR and communications industry by taking a closer look at the selected AI innovations this year! Here is our list of the AI tools we think you should try out. If you haven’t already, it’s time to jump on the AI bandwagon!
1. Create songs or sounds with Stable Audio
Should you find yourself in need of background music for an ad, infomercial or other type of material, you can now turn to Stable Audio! Created by Stability AI, this generative AI solution can craft diverse sounds or songs based on text prompts. TIME tried typing in “ambient techno, drum machine, peaceful, instrumental,” which resulted in a relaxed, new-age track. Stable Audio was ‘trained’ on a dataset from a stock audio website (meaning it’s all legal!), comprising over 800,000 audio files totalling 20,000 collective hours. Get those sound bites!
2. Expand and fill in images with Adobe Photoshop
As a communicator, you’ve probably dabbled with Adobe programs before. Now, the world’s most popular image editor – Adobe Photoshop – has built-in AI capabilities, meaning millions of people have access to it! Fueled by Firefly, Adobe’s AI image generator, Photoshop now features Generative Expand and Generative Fill. The former seamlessly extends imagined content beyond the borders of a photograph, while the latter enables users to add or remove elements in an image by entering simple text. Ashley Still, Senior Vice President of Digital Media at Adobe, says this enables “customers to bring their visions to life at the speed of their imaginations.” Have you tried it out already?
3. Create text prompt images with OpenAI Dall-E 3
AI doesn’t stop at anything at the moment and certainly not at just altering images. OpenAI has released an enhanced version of its AI image generator called DALL-E 3. What makes DALL-E 3 unique compared to previous image generators, is that it doesn’t require learning any new technical language to get great results. Instead, users (yeah, you!) can simply type conversational commands and receive images aligned with their descriptions. Your imagination is truly the limit this time! Be careful what you prompt for?
4. Make videos in seconds with Runway Gen-2
Now you know how to create images, but what about videos? This is where Runway Gen-2 enters the scene! Runway is a Google-backed startup, and in June this year, they introduced their Gen-2 model. If you recognize the name, it may be because Runway’s visual effects tool was used in the Oscar-winning film Everything Everywhere All At Once. And now, you can use it, too! This latest iteration enables users to generate entire videos using just text prompts, images, or existing videos. Cristóbal Valenzuela, co-founder, and CEO of Runway, draws parallels between this groundbreaking technology and the invention of the camera 200 years ago. “AI is a new kind of camera,” he says, “that will reshape storytelling forever and lead to full feature films that are entirely generated.” Imagine how this can bring your visual communication to the next level! Those director dreams might become a reality.
5. Translate speech or text with Meta Seamless M4T
Did you ever read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy? Meta draws a parallel between its SeamlessM4T AI model and Babel Fish, the universal language translator from the book. Capable of understanding nearly 100 languages from both speech and text, the software seamlessly translates in real-time across various formats—speech-to-speech, text-to-text, speech-to-text, or text-to-speech. While you’ve probably used translation tools in your work before, Seamless M4T differs from them as Meta asserts the system’s heightened efficiency, lower error rates, and proficiency in deciphering sentences with multiple languages. If your brand spans several markets, this is definitely valuable in your work!
… and of course – Mynewsdesk’s CoPilot!
While TIME covered many innovations, they forgot to mention the most groundbreaking AI solution of the year. Naturally, we’re talking about Mynewsdesk’s very own CoPilot! As a PR and communication professional, CoPilot will be an incredibly valuable tool for you. With CoPilot working alongside you, your entire communications work gets a lift (pun not intended). From media insights and tailored content ideas to on-brand press release drafts in seconds. Your CoPilot will suggest journalists and influencers based on your content, give you SEO advice, keep your contact lists GDPR-compliant, analyze your results and more. As you can tell, CoPilot was made for communicators! CoPilot was made for you. Now, how do we get it on the TIME list?
