Coca-cola's new AI flavor 🍺; FREE tool to restore old photos 📸; AI is thirsty technology 💧

This week in AI:

• Coca-Cola’s new flavor: AI co-creates new flavor called “Y3000”

• AI is thirsty tech: ChatGPT uses 500mL of water per 5-50 prompts

• restorePhotos.io: Restore your old or blurry photos with this FREE tool

• Environmental research: AI produces fewer carbon emissions than humans for writing and illustrative tasks

• AI in games: In 5-10 years, AI will account for >50% of game development.

AI Tweet of the Week

Summary: Coca-Cola has released a new limited edition soda flavor called Y3000 that was co-created by an AI system. The AI analyzed consumer flavor preferences to design a raspberry slushy-like beverage by experimenting with different artificial sweeteners. It was also used to create the futuristic can artwork.

AI Meme of the Week

AI Business News of the Week

ChatGPT Was Built in Iowa — With a Lot of Water

Summary: Microsoft's AI partnership with OpenAI to develop ChatGPT caused a spike in water usage at its Iowa data centers. Cooling the AI supercomputers requires pumping millions of gallons from local rivers, concerning officials about long-term sustainability.

💡 Why does it matter?

• Staggering growth: Microsoft's global water use jumped 34% in 2022, largely attributed to its AI investments. Iowa data centers alone used 43.5 million liters in July 2022, 6% of the district's total water supply.
  

• Ideal conditions, for now: Iowa's cool climate allows Microsoft to use outside air to vent server heat much of the year, saving water. But as AI scales up, even these optimized data centers struggle to curb resource usage.
  

• The AI thirst is real: Research estimates ChatGPT uses 500mL of water per 5-50 prompts. As AI explodes, tech giants must urgently improve efficiency and transparency around environmental impacts.

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AI Product of the Week

Restore Old or Blurry Photos With This Free Tool

Summary: Have old and blurry face photos? Let AI restore them so those memories can live on. 100% free – restore your photos today.

💡 Key Features:

• Fully free: there is no paid tier, but you are limited to 5 generations every hour.

• Learn how it’s built: this product was built by Hassan El Mghari, who not only has made this project open-source, but also made a video explaining how it was built.

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AI Research of the Week

Carbon Emissions of Writing and Illustrating Are Lower for AI than for Humans

Summary: This paper analyzes and compares the carbon emissions of AI systems like ChatGPT and DALL-E versus humans doing writing and illustration. It finds AI has a much lower environmental impact per task.

💡 Key takeaways:

• Writing: ChatGPT emits 130-1500 times less CO2e per page than human writers. Even the laptop used emits 20-75x more.
  

• Illustration: Midjourney and DALL-E emit 2900 times less CO2e than a US-based artist, and 310 times less than an India-based artist.
  

• The catch? Doesn't account for job loss, legality of training data, or complexity of the task (e.g. drawing a stick figure is likely faster for a human than an AI at present).

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AI Opinion Piece of the Week

Generative AI Will Account for Half of Game Development in 5-10 Years

Summary: A new Bain survey of 25 gaming execs globally predicts generative AI will grow from <5% of game dev now to 50%+ in 5-10 years. Most believe it will enhance quality and speed, but not reduce costs or talent needs much.

💡 Why does it matter?

• AI as tool, not replacement: 60% of execs say AI won't significantly reduce talent needs. They see it as an asset working with humans, not replacing creativity.

• Production over preproduction: Execs expect AI's impact more in production than preproduction now. By automating mundane tasks, AI could free up developer time for higher-value creative work in storytelling and interactivity.

• Integration and IP challenges: Execs cite system integration as the top obstacle to AI adoption, with IP/legal issues as notable but not the biggest barriers.

• Big for user generated content: Execs are excited about AI helping less technical players create their own game ideas. By enabling idea execution, AI could democratize user-generated content and gameplay.

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