π€ Navigating the future of your digital life and creativity
Dear curious minds,
Today we're diving deep into the intersection of AI and our digital lives, exploring how these technologies are reshaping our approach to information management and creativity.
In this issue:
π‘ Shared Insight
Why Backups Matter Even More in the AI Age
π° AI Update
Google's Gemma 2 2B: Pocket-Sized AI Powerhouse
FLUX.1: The New Open-Source AI Image Generator Challenges Midjourney
Supermemory.ai: Your AI Second Brain for Bookmarks
π Media Recommendation
David Senra's Method for Extracting Wisdom from History's Greatest Minds
π‘ Shared Insight
Why Backups Matter Even More in the AI Age
In our increasingly digital world, we often take for granted the vast amount of information we store on our devices. From cherished photos and important documents to our entire work portfolios, our digital data represents a significant part of our lives. Yet, many of us overlook a crucial aspect: regular backups.
Think about it: What would happen if your computer crashed right now? Or if your smartphone was lost or stolen? The thought alone is enough to make most of us break into a cold sweat. This is where the importance of data backups comes into play.
Data backups are not just a safety net, they're a fundamental practice in our digital age. They protect us from hardware failures, accidental deletions, ransomware attacks, and even natural disasters. A robust backup strategy ensures that even in the worst-case scenario, your digital life remains intact and recoverable.
However, it's not enough to simply have a backup β it needs to be recent and easily accessible. The 3-2-1 backup rule is a good starting point:
Keep at least three copies of your data
Store two backup copies on different storage media
Keep one copy offsite (like the home of a family member)
With the rise of AI and the increasing value of our digital footprint, backups take on a new level of importance. Your data isn't just files and documents anymore β it's the training ground for your future AI assistants. The notes you take today, the documents you create, and the information you curate could be the foundation of a personalized AI that understands your thought processes and work habits.
Remember, in the digital age, data loss isn't just inconvenient β it can be catastrophic. So, take a moment today to check your backup strategy. Your future self (and your future AI assistant) will thank you.
π° AI Update
Google's Gemma 2 2B: Pocket-Sized AI Powerhouse
Google has just unveiled Gemma 2 2B, a smaller addition to their so far released 9B and 27B models in their Gemma 2 family of AI models. This 2 billion parameter model performs surprisingly well.
It outperforms all GPT-3.5 models and many way larger open models on the Chatbot Arena leaderboard.
Open-source release for research and business use.
Thanks to its small size, it will run at a decent speed on mobile devices like smartphones
The model weights released on Hugging Face for easy accessibility.
It is already integrated in Ollama, which allows chatting with the model via the command line.
My take: Gemma 2 2B represents a significant leap forward in making powerful AI more accessible. Its ability to run efficiently on smartphones opens up new possibilities for on-device AI applications. Its combination of performance, accessibility, and mobile-friendliness could accelerate innovation in AI, particularly in areas where privacy and offline capabilities are crucial.
FLUX.1: The New Open-Source AI Image Generator Challenges Midjourney
Black Forest Labs, the team behind the original Stable Diffusion, has launched FLUX.1 - a new open-source AI image generator that's aiming to beat Midjourney and other top models. With 12 billion parameters, FLUX.1 delivers impressive results that rival or even surpass popular closed-source options.
FLUX.1 comes in three flavors:
FLUX.1 Schnell: good, open-source, Apache 2 license
FLUX.1 Dev: better, open-source, non-commercial license
FLUX.1 Pro: best, closed-source version via API
The FLUX.1 models can generate very high-quality images which show a high realism and prompt adherence. It handles tricky elements like human anatomy and text better than most, if not all, competitors.
Those willing to use the paid API get with FLUX.1 Pro access to their best model. But even the open versions outperform base models like Stable Diffusion 3 Medium.
The two smaller models can be run locally by following the instruction given in the official inference repository. But be aware that you need a GPU with a lot of memory, and there is a discussion if 24 GB of a high-end consumer GPU is enough for the initially shared version.
Furthermore, you can test the FLUX.1 Schnell model directly on HuggingFace and Replicate. The better FLUX.1 Dev is directly accessible on Replicate.
There is also a hint on the Black Forrest Labs webpage of what comes next from them: A competitor to the so far also only announced text to video generation model SORA from OpenAI:
My take: It's incredibly exciting to see a new open-source model family that outperforms the currently best open models and in its Pro variant is on the level of the state-of-the-art tool Midjourney. Flux's release will certainly be a demonstration of how open-source development can push AI technology forward. While closed models like Midjourney have set high standards, having strong open alternatives fosters innovation, accessibility, and transparency in the AI community. This competition will likely drive further advancements, benefiting users and developers.
Supermemory.ai: Your AI Second Brain for Bookmarks
In our digital age, we're constantly bombarded with information. How often do you find yourself saving articles, tweets, or websites, only to forget about them later? Enter supermemory.ai, a project that aims to solve this very problem.
Supermemory.ai is the product of Dhravya, an 18-year-old developer who, like many of us, found himself struggling to make use of the content he saved. The project, which started as a hackathon submission for the Cloudflare AI Challenge, has now evolved into a full-fledged tool that acts as an AI-powered second brain for all your saved content.
The concept is simple yet powerful: import your π bookmarks, save websites via a Chrome extension, or manually add thoughts and ideas. Then, use the power of AI (currently GPT-4o mini) to query your personal knowledge base. It's like having a personalized ChatGPT that knows everything you've found interesting enough to save.
Key features of supermemory.ai include:
Bulk import of π bookmarks
Chrome extension for easy saving of web pages
Manual text input for thoughts and ideas
Send input via Telegram message
AI-powered querying of your saved content
Free cloud service
Open-source code shared on GitHub for self-hosting
The project has gained significant traction since its creation, growing from a hackathon project to a tool with a growing user base and numerous GitHub stars. This success prompted Dhravya and his team to completely revamp the initial version, resulting in the current release, which achieved the Product of the day award on 21st of June on Product Hunt.
My take: The potential of supermemory.ai is huge. It addresses a common problem in our information-rich world and offers a novel solution using AI. However, I couldn't fully test the application due to a current bug preventing the import of Twitter bookmarks. I'm looking forward to seeing how supermemory.ai evolves and improves in the future.
π Media Recommendation
David Senra's Method for Extracting Wisdom from History's Greatest Minds
If you're looking to dive deep into the minds of history's greatest entrepreneurs, look no further than David Senra's podcast "Founders." Each week, David reads a biography of an entrepreneur and distills key ideas that you can apply to your own work and life. His approach is based on the belief that we can learn invaluable lessons from the accumulated experiences of great minds throughout history.
Recently, David appeared on the "Smart Friends" podcast with Mitchell Baldridge, where they discussed insights from David's FoundersOnly Conference. They emphasized the importance of genuine networking, helping others without expectation, and the power of concise communication. The conversation touched on balancing ambition with authenticity and making tailored life choices for personal fulfillment.
A summary created by the AI podcast player Snipd from a passage I bookmarked:
AI will Anticipate Needs and Deliver Value
The evolution of AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity is driving a fundamental shift in how users interact with search engines and information retrieval.
Users increasingly desire concise answers rather than extensive lists of links. The comparison to Steve Jobs highlights the expectation that AI should proactively deliver value without requiring extensive user input.
Entrepreneurs often search for similar foundational questions regarding marketing, distribution, and hiring strategies, indicating a repetitive need for specific information.
The next phase of AI development will enable systems to anticipate user needs, eliminating the necessity for queries by understanding individual requirements and providing tailored insights.
This anticipatory capability mirrors the early Google feature of 'I'm feeling lucky,' which today seems underutilized. The proposed solution emphasizes creating a communal knowledge library, allowing users to discover relevant content and insights based on the collective experiences of entrepreneurs, effectively streamlining the search process and enhancing productivity.
My take: For those interested in entrepreneurship, personal development, and learning from history's greatest minds, I highly recommend checking out David Senra's "Founders" podcast and his appearance on "Smart Friends." These resources offer a wealth of knowledge and inspiration for anyone looking to grow personally and professionally.
Disclaimer: This newsletter is written with the aid of AI. I use AI as an assistant to generate and optimize the text. However, the amount of AI used varies depending on the topic and the content. I always curate and edit the text myself to ensure quality and accuracy. The opinions and views expressed in this newsletter are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of the sources or the AI models.