Claude's super-intelligent AI model, TikTok launches a new app, Meta updates
On Claude 3.5, Apple/Meta rumors, TikTok's sell-off resistance, 𝕏 news for Premium users, and more.
gm or good evening (depending on where you are in the world),
AI has graduated!
Well sort of.
It's left the lab and invaded marketing departments everywhere and now we’re seeing all the case studies coming out to prove the question: how is AI actually being used by marketing teams?
Mailchimp is turning brainstorms into visual think tanks. Klarna is saving millions in marketing spend with AI-generated images and copy. JPMorgan Chase is writing ads that make you click. And Mars, the parent company behind your favorite candy bars, is predicting which ads will make you buy.
Curious how they're pulling it off? I recapped the latest AI in marketing case studies in my latest piece for MarTech. Check it out here :)
Keep scrolling for more news and trends you shouldn’t miss, including a new LLM release from Anthropic and updates from Meta, TikTok, 𝕏 and more.
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AI & industry news
Claude 3.5 — Anthropic’s “most intelligent model yet”
Anthropic last week released Claude 3.5 Sonnet, the latest in its LLM family, showing charts of it outperforming their previous top model, Claude 3 Opus, along with competitor LLMs like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. According to the internet, it’s faster and more cost-effective, making it ideal for complex tasks.
The new model itself is really good with reasoning, knowledge, coding, and vision, but people won’t stop talking about is the new “Artifacts” feature. It appears next to your chat to create what Anthropic calls a “collaborative workspace” in realtime, letting you generate docs, code, mermaid diagrams, vector graphics — all iterating on the base. Here’s what Artifacts looks like in use:
Someone on Reddit posted this visual to show the serpentine crossover of the big LLM leaders in terms of model releases and benchmarks. Anthropic releasing Claude 3.5 right now is a smart move because their mid-tier model is now top dog, which means OpenAI’s next model will need to exceed Claude’s benchmarks, at which point Claude will likely release the new Opus. It’s giving Succession.
The new model is free to try on Claude (with limitations) and is also available via Anthropic’s API. Later this year, they'll release Claude 3.5 Haiku and Opus, plus new features like Memory for personalized interactions.
Your move, OpenAI.
🍎 An Apple x Meta AI affair. Rumor has it Apple has changed course in its AI partnership plans after reportedly pursuing OpenAI for AI collaboration. The tech giants behind iPhones and Facebook are currently romancing the idea of an AI partnership, despite Apple previously spurning the idea due to privacy concerns (valid). A potential alliance could mix Apple's hardware chops with Meta's social data and AI investment — but don't hold your breath. It’s still early days and anything can happen in an AI bubble.
platform updates
Meta
👯 IG now lets you live stream for Close Friends only. This is a great new feature for creators who want to share more personal content with a smaller audience without broadcasting to the world — and a plus-up for those who charge for access to their Close Friends list as a VIP perk.
🖖 Auto A/B testing Reels ads. Meta is testing a tool that automatically creates different versions of your Reels ads for A/B testing to pinpoint and distribute the best-performing creative. It’s like Meta’s dynamic creative optimization feature, but automatic and AI-enabled.
📲 Instagram is testing new widgets that pop up in-chat (screenshot below) for what I can only imagine is a more context-rich DM experience. I see this as an especially valuable feature if you’re consistently having 1:1 discussions with clients or prospects in the DMs. You can pin content, create a countdown, include a different timezone, etc.
💬 AI features for business DMs. Meta is working on giving businesses the ability to create their own customized AI chatbots to engage with customers on Messenger and WhatsApp. These chatbots will be able to answer questions, make recommendations, and save on customer support costs, with human agents available if needed. An early adopter of the tech said it already reduced their customer support costs by 20%.
🎧 Add music to carousel posts. Lifting yet another page from TikTok, Instagram now lets you add music to swipe-able carousel posts that contain videos. Before, you could only do this with photo carousels.
𝕏 (formerly Twitter)
🎥 Live streaming goes premium. X is making live streaming a paid feature, available only to Premium subscribers. This would be a big change, especially since other platforms like Facebook and YouTube offer live streaming for free.
📊 New post optimization metrics. You’ll soon be able to see when your audience is most active on the app — a standard feature of other platforms like Meta and YouTube. This could be super helpful for timing your posts for maximum engagement.
💅🏼 Keeping up with Khloé on 𝕏. The platform is stepping into more original programming with a new podcast show featuring Khloé Kardashian, part of X's push to become more of a video platform.
The show will be part of the platform’s “Originals on X” programming, where creators/talent retain ownership of their content but have a 24-hour exclusive window before posting it elsewhere. I have a lot of thoughts but I’ll save them for pop culture twitter.
💳 𝕏 as a financial platform? In the latest episode of “Elon Musk creates an everything app,” 𝕏 is looking to implement a payment services system called X Payments, according to new documents submitted to state regulators. Given the red tape he would have to cut through, Elon is still a long ways from making 𝕏 Payments happen. For now, the plan is for X to secure US transmitter licenses by the end of 2024. After that, the company can apply for money transmitter licenses, pushing the rollout to at least 2025 at the earliest.
📉 𝕏 is losing ground as a news source. Despite being the top platform for news per a recent Pew Research study, a new report from Reuters (via Social Media Today) suggests X is on the decline for news consumption. Trends show it becoming a less popular as a source for news, which is changing how news orgs and journalists actually use the platform.
TikTok
👀 TikTok launches image app spinoff, Whee. Yes, it’s here and it’s called Whee, but it’s not available in the US yet. Designed for sharing real-life photos exclusively with close friends, the Whee app (a direct response to Instagram) emphasizes “authenticity” and “intimate connections.” It features a photo viewfinder, messaging capabilities, and a feed — all focused on strengthening connections within a user's inner circle.
→ Is Whee worth exploring? Probably not, considering it’s not in the US yet. We’re keeping an eye on the early reviews (“painfully mediocre”) and will report back when we know if it’s a viable platform to dig into.
👎 TikTok is officially against a sell-off. TikTok has filed a legal motion to oppose the US government's push to force the sale of the app to a US-based entity, arguing that the legislation is unconstitutional and essentially amounts to a ban on the platform.
🔞 RIP to the doomscroll? This could be the reality in New York, which is considering a ban on algorithmic feeds for teenagers. This could considerably alter how content is delivered to younger audiences on platforms like TikTok, likely reducing engagement. Not sure how this would actually be enforced — after all, teens are smarter than all of us when it comes to social media I fear.
🎵 Adobe Express taps into TikTok’s music. TikTok now has a commercial music library integration with Adobe Express, which means creators can access a range of licensed music for content, making it easier to produce pro-quality videos without legal worries.
sauce snippets
trends, memes, and knowledge worth sharing
How AI showed up at Cannes Lions 2024
Major record labels are suing the AI audio platforms behind songs like ‘BBL Drizzy’
Spotify is now letting non-hosted podcasters upload videos to the platform
For anyone who’s wondering what the TikTok to Instagram culture timeline is…
Me after going to the library once
The ‘send me to me Rachel’ meme explained
A really cool animation someone created using AI audio and visuals
If you saw a typo no you didn’t ♥️
Amazing as always 🙌🏼