ChatGPT Goes Multimodal With New Release

This Week

OpenAI introduces GPT-4o, a multimodal AI model enhancing user interaction across platforms. Google’s market dominance declines as OpenAI and Bing make gains. Meta unveils AI features for automated ad creation, while Microsoft updates Copilot for better user prompts. Despite fewer deals, AI funding reaches a new peak, underscoring robust investment in the sector.

Read on for all the details.

OpenAI Releases New Flagship Model

OpenAI announced a new model this week: GPT-4o. Here’s what you need to know:

• GPT-4o is “natively multi-modal,” meaning it can answer and understand commands in voice, text, and images in one interface. 

• Instead of uploading text or an image, you can turn on your camera and ask for responses based on the video feed. 

• GPT-4o will be free for all users, but paid users get 5x higher message limits 

• The voice assistant can be interrupted mid-answer and can use different tones, such as singing or a dramatic monologue.

With this release, multimodal is now the baseline for LLMs. This means you can have a multidisciplinary AI that's 2x faster in your pocket (and on your desktop) that can respond and adapt as quickly to a developing situation as a coworker would. 

You’ll find all the release details at OpenAI.

Is Google Losing Its Grip on The Search Market?

For nearly two decades, Google enjoyed its view from the top, leisurely sipping piña coladas in the comfort of its virtual beach chair, holding the lion's share of the search engine market. 

That changed last week when the latest figures from Statcounter showed a shift—with Google’s dominance dropping from its usual 90% to 87%, with Bing and Yahoo picking up the slack. 

As Google's grip loosens, competitors are quick to capitalize. The Verge reports that OpenAI has been aggressively trying to poach Google employees to assemble their own search engineering team, and Bloomberg says we’ll see an OpenAI search product soon. 

OpenAI search promises to transform how we consume information online. Users will ask questions and get answers with citations and helpful visuals, such as diagrams, for practical tasks. While traditional search engines make us comb through pages of potential hits, OpenAI's tool plans to deliver the exact piece of information you need, tailored to your query. 

OpenAI isn’t the first company to enter this field. Perplexity, the answer engine beloved by marketers everywhere, has been serving up zero-click content for two years. Since January, it’s doubled its valuation to $1 billion and claims 70 million users—but that’s still a drop in the bucket compared to Google’s 4.9 billion users and a ways off ChatGPT’s 180 million users. 

But Google isn’t giving up without a fight. It just announced a slew of new AI-supported search features, including the ability to adjust AI Overviews, multistep reasoning and planning capabilities, AI-organized search results, and a new Google Lens ask-with-video feature.

For more details on the release, visit Search Engine Land.

Meta Adds AI Features to Advertising Suite

Meta introduced new genAI features in its Ads Manager's Advantage+ suite last week. The new features help automate text and image creation for Facebook and Instagram ads. 

You can use the text generator for instant headlines and body text tailored to your brand voice. The image generator allows you to create new backgrounds for product images or entirely new images.

You can watch social advertising manager Dara Denney take the new features for a test drive on YouTube.

Ready to Give Up On AI? Read This First.

If you’re ready to give up on AI, you might want to rethink the decision. 

Jeremy Utley, Co-host of Beyond the Prompt and Co-author of Ideaflow, says people who use an LLM like ChatGPT once and give up, are throwing in the towel too early. 

“Many inexperienced users harbor a secret hope that GenAI actually isn't that good and all too readily find evidence to confirm their suspicions," he says. 

If you’re looking to get more out of AI, he has three suggestions:

1. Look for real-world AI applications you can try yourself

2. Start with personal projects before trying them out at work

3. Always use the most advanced AI models available rather than the free version

There are limitless ways to use AI, so the options can feel overwhelming. Utley says if you start experimenting with AI for an interest or passion, you’re likely to get better outcomes and stick with it. 

Visit Section to read the full article here.

Microsoft Copilot Crafts Your Perfect Prompt

Microsoft is releasing an update to its AI-driven assistant, Copilot that includes a new auto-complete feature that fine-tunes AI prompts. The update is designed to make it simpler for you to craft effective commands without having to remember elaborate instructions. Here's how:

Copilot will now transform your prompting fumbles into a comprehensive command that’s more detailed and specifically tailored to the task. It will also offer suggestions to enrich your task. For instance, if you type "summarize," it may suggest summarizing unread emails or other related activities.

This feature is particularly useful if you have a clear outcome in mind but don’t know the best way to articulate your request. 

Read the full article at The Verge.

AI Funding on the Rise

AI funding hit a high in Q1, 2024, fueled by massive genAI funding rounds. Global AI funding reached $13.1B, an increase of 24% QoQ  — its highest quarterly level since Q1’23. 

This outpaced the growth in venture funding, but AI deals slipped overall for the fourth consecutive quarter, hitting their lowest quarterly count since 2018.

Read the full report at CB Insights.