👉 The Beatles make Grammy history with AI-assisted track

"Now and Then," the Beatles' latest release, has become the first AI-assisted song to receive Grammy nominations, securing spots in both Record of the Year and Best Rock Performance categories. The song used AI stem separation technology to clean up a 60-year-old John Lennon demo recording, rather than generating artificial vocals. This historic nomination came after significant debate within the Recording Academy about AI eligibility, with CEO Harvey Mason Jr. previously clarifying rules about AI-generated music. The development marks a milestone in the acceptance of AI technology in mainstream music production while maintaining authenticity through the use of original recordings.

👉 Robot artist's Turing portrait fetches million-dollar price

An AI-powered humanoid robot named Ai-Da has created a portrait of computer science pioneer Alan Turing that sold for $1,084,800 at Sotheby's, far exceeding its initial estimate of $120,000-$180,000. The artwork, titled "A.I. God," represents the first time a humanoid robot's artwork has been sold at auction, marking a significant moment in the intersection of AI technology and the art market. The portrait series took up to eight hours to complete and was part of a collection of 15 paintings of Turing. Ai-Da Robot's creation aims to spark dialogue about emerging technologies and their implications for society.

👉 Netflix pivots to AI in gaming development strategy

Netflix has dramatically shifted its gaming strategy by laying off 35 developers from its Team Blue studio while repositioning toward AI-driven game development. Mike Verdu, now Vice President of GenAI for Games at Netflix, is leading this transformation, comparing it to the revolutionary gaming era of the 1990s. The company plans to implement AI technology across various aspects of game development, from creating 3D models to generating voice performances, while maintaining a "creator-first" approach. Despite concerns about job displacement in the gaming industry, Netflix sees AI as a tool to enhance rather than replace human creativity.

👉 Cartier showcases fusion of art and jewellery in Shanghai

Cartier's exhibition, "The Power of Magic," at Shanghai Museum East highlights a blend of high jewellery and ancient Chinese art, featuring over 300 pieces alongside nearly 40 historical artworks. The event, running until February 17, 2025, emphasizes traditional Chinese techniques and motifs, enhancing cultural dialogue between Cartier’s creations and Chinese heritage. Renowned artist Cai Guoqiang contributed to the exhibition's design using AI, creating an immersive experience that reflects on the themes of beauty and magic in jewellery. The exhibition has been praised for showcasing China's cultural confidence through its innovative curation.

Skincare brand Drunk Elephant has collaborated with Alibaba Cloud to create DrunkGPT, an AI-powered chatbot integrated into their WeChat mini program in China. Using Alibaba Cloud's Qwen LLM technology and RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation), the chatbot provides personalized skincare advice and product recommendations while maintaining the brand's unique voice. The implementation has shown impressive results, with users spending an average of 326 seconds (10 times longer than before) interacting with the platform, and achieving an 8.2% activation rate compared to the previous 2.5% average. The chatbot has handled over 3,000 customer inquiries, ranging from skincare concerns to product usage guidance. The partnership emphasizes Drunk Elephant's "Listen to your skin" philosophy while leveraging Alibaba Cloud's expertise in AI and data security to enhance customer engagement in the Chinese market.

_{Credits: Drunk elephant / Alibaba}

The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London showcased "Game Changers," an innovative AI art projection created by Ouchhh Studio to celebrate the National Lottery's 30 years of arts funding. The installation transformed brainwave data from seven influential arts figures into visual art, including director Gurinder Chadha and Yorkshire Sculpture Park founder Sir Peter Murray. Using cognitive headsets, the project captured different brain wave patterns (alpha, beta, delta, theta, and gamma) and heart rate data, which were then processed through AI algorithms to create dynamic visual projections.

_{Credits: V&A Museum / Ouchhh Studio}

Freepik just introduced a new feature called “Custom characters”. Let’s dig how to use it 👇

You will find pre-made characters with an “@”+name that you will be able to trigger in a prompt. For example “a photo of @sara in New York” You can click on a character to add it to your prompt.

First, name your character so you will be able to call its name directly into your prompt. In our example we will create an AI character of Gabrielle, a French virtual influencer. Then you can add images to train the character model, it is recommend to add between 12 and 24 images with various angles, lightings, background and facial expressions

When the character is added, its name will be added automatically to the prompt. You can change the strength intensity of the character ressemblance with the cursor next to the character picture. Note that the feature is currently available with Flux, and Mystic v1 is in Beta.

and here is the result

→ Try it now on Freepik

👋 See you next week for a tutorial

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