🌀 Chatbots: The Kids Aren’t Alright

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Welcome, Explorer 🤖

I’ve been spending a lot of time coding with Claude this week.

Something occurred to me along the way.

Programmers spend hours debugging code. Often, a tiny mistake in the syntax being the cause. LLMs solve this.

But now? Programmers might find themselves spending hours debugging words just to generate the perfect prompt. 🤷‍♂️


Today’s Ai5:

  • 📲 Building Apps with Claude
  • 💃 AI Sucks at Gymnastics
  • 🔊 3 Cool New Features from ElevenLabs
  • 🤖 Rise of the Robots
  • 🚫 Are We in an AI Addiction Epidemic?

Prompt of the Day 🎨

A 2D game level showing a round, red bird with prominent eyebrows in a slingshot, ready to be launched at a rickety structure sheltering green pigs.
A 2D game level showing a round, red bird with prominent eyebrows in a slingshot, ready to be launched at a rickety structure sheltering green pigs.

Good times! 🐦


Building Apps with Claude 📲

In ​the last newsletter​, I outlined 4 creative things Claude can do. One of them was building simple physics simulators.

Somewhere along the way, I had the idea to create an Angry Birds level using AI. I immediately ran into troubles.

The problem was this:

  • No matter how well I crafted the initial prompt, I still had to make many iterations to get what I wanted.
  • Each time I made an iteration to add or fix something, something else broke.

Refusing to give up, I came up with a workflow that allows us to create almost whatever we want. 👇

  1. Write out what you want to achieve in a “braindump”. It doesn’t have to be well organized. Include all the key features you want in your app or game.
  2. Using your braindump, ask Claude to generate a procedure you can give to a developer.
  3. Using the procedure, instruct Claude to work through it with you step-by step, saving the code as you go.

This workflow addresses the two issues mentioned earlier. It preserves working code and allows for unlimited iteration without breakage or running into Claude’s context window. The result? 👇

Angry Birds level built using Claude.

If you want the exact prompts I used, I share them in this ​LinkedIn post​.

If you want to try the game, here’s the ​HTML file​. (just drag and drop it into your browser)


AI Sucks at Gymnastics 💃

If you missed the news earlier this week, Gen-3 is now available for everyone.

While most users are showcasing their best examples, a bunch of videos are emerging showing how bad AI models are at gymnastics footage.

Gen-3: Olympic gymnastics.
Gen-3: Olympic gymnastics.

It’s sparked some heated debates, with anti-AI voices using it to excitedly point out how bad AI is. Perhaps they missed the progression of image tools over the past 18 months.

Others are calling gymnastics the ​​Turing test​​ for video. It seems like gymnastics is to video what hands were to images.

Example comparing Midjourney hands from v4 to v6.

My personal experience with Gen-3 has been underwhelming. The truly epic generations are few and far between (although it could just be my prompts that suck). Admittedly I do need to spend a few more hours getting a feel for it.


3 Cool New Features from ElevenLabs 🔊

​ElevenLabs​ is an AI platform that offers all sorts of voice tools including text-to-voice, voice-to-voice, dubbing, and ​voice cloning​.

ElevenLabs' UI

The general consensus is that ElevenLabs are the best in the game, and they’re working to keep this rep with some cool new features. 👇

Reader App: The reader app narrates articles, PDFs, ePubs, newsletters, or any other text content, in any voice!

Voice Isolator: Removes background noise from your audio. The example below shows the guys blowing a leaf blower directly into the mic, then removing it. Pretty impressive.

Text-to-SFX: Type in any sound effect you want to hear and ElevenLabs will generate 4 different samples to choose from. Super handy for video editors. I gave it a try and overall I can say it’s pretty great, but some of the more complex sounds it still struggles with.

Overall, super useful stuff for creators.


Rise of the Robots 🤖

The first half of this decade will undoubtedly belong to software-based AI.

The second half however, is shaping up to be dominated by hardware advancements.

There’s no shortage of robotics companies competing for the bipedal (two-legged) robot market.

Here’s an overview of the top US competitors. I highly recommend you check out the videos – they’re incredible.

Optimus

The Tesla robot, Optimus, aims to perform general-purpose tasks and assist in various settings. Musk predicts the robots to cost around ​$20,000​ or less.

Figure

​Figure​ is a startup developing humanoid robots for commercial applications. They’re probably Optimus’ biggest competitor and recently partnered with BMW.

Atlas

Atlas is a humanoid robot from decades old robot company Boston Dynamics. You probably remember the hydraulic version of Atlas as the “​Parkour robot​“. The next generation of Atlas is fully electric and already showing massive potential.

Digit

Digit is a humanoid robot from ​Agility​ designed for working in the logistics and manufacturing industries.

Well, that’s the top 4 American competitors. I won’t even get into robots from ​China​, ​Japan​, and ​South Korea​. Also, an honorable mention to Clone Robotics, who are working on biomimetic (inspired by nature) robots. 👇

Biomimetic arm from ​Clone Robotics​.
Biomimetic arm from ​Clone Robotics​.

One thing is for certain – we’ll soon be living in a world where walking beside robots on the street is the norm. 🤖


AI Addiction Epidemic? 💀

Have you heard of ​Character AI​? It’s an AI powered chatbot platform where you can talk to various characters including historical figures, fictional personas, and celebrities.

Character.ai homepage.

Seems pretty harmless right? Well, as it turns out, the conversations are so good that users are getting seriously addicted.

Google SERP results showing comments related to Character.ai addiction.

I decided to try it out and instantly found out how you could get caught up. 😅

Conversation using Character.ai

How could I not respond to that? I proceeded to enter a battle of wits for at least 10 minutes. (I won of course)

This obviously points to the topic of a loneliness epidemic which we’re hearing more and more about. But it makes me wonder, how bad will this get when we have humanoid robots and a Metaverse that doesn’t suck?

Interesting times ahead.


Snack Sized 5 🍪

1️⃣ Challenge: Try to generate a face in Midjourney without a mouth​. It’s really hard!

2️⃣ Suno, the AI song maker, just released an ​iOS mobile app​ so you can make music on the go.

3️⃣ “I’m concerned about the effects of my mind if we proceed further.” – said Claude 1 to Claude 2 in an ​unhinged conversation​.

4️⃣ Help me grow on ​PromptBase​? Buy a prompt, email me 2 more you like and get them free. 💙

5️⃣ ​This article​ from 1903 said human flight would take 10 million years to achieve, 9 weeks later the Wright brothers achieved first manned flight.


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If you have any special requests, tips, or you just want to talk about AI, email me: matt@rareconnections.io