I finally got got my Microsoft Chatgpt/Bing/Edge browser all working together. The planets must be aligned. In my case it was a little more involved since I am using Ubuntu/Linux on the desktop. I didn't like the idea of having to replace the google chrome browser, but they are quite compatible and it hasn't been a problem for me. But I wanted to have a way to experiment with the Latest version of the chatbot without having to pay a monthly fee to OpenAI. The best way that I could find to do this was to use the one that Microsoft was offering, at least for now. Personally, I think that Google will eventually be incorporating a chatbot into their search as well, and there will be lots of others. I have to say that it is more convenient to have the AI answers along with the search, and I really like being able to ask the chatbot about the current site or document and have it understand the context.

Chatgpt for fact checking

If you follow any of my blogs you know that I have been researching/experimenting/learning AI for the last few months. I have been trying out different use cases for this kind of tech, such as generative images using LLM's, and things like assistive writing for content creation like blogging, social media etc. Anyways, the use case that I would like to talk about here is something that has been on my mind for a while. I have been wondering if chatbots like chatgpt would be good tools for fact checking. I feel that this is a very relevant topic since there is so much mis-information out there, which is being spread and amplified by social media like twitter and facebook for example. Misinformation is really a much more complex subject than I had originally thought, but I will confine my current blog post to relatively simple posts on social media. Here is a good article on how to spot Fake vs. Real news articles.

Lets say that someone you follow (or not) posts his opinion on a political subject of interest, or forwards a post that has been spreading around. Now, I really don't want to make this a political discussion, but I will mention that I am generally centrist, and can often agree or disagree with issues on both side of the spectrum. If the article is from a known source (such as a journal or newspaper), most people will assume there was some verification done by the author and won't bother doing further checking. They will agree or disagree and add their own comments based on their point of view. This seems to be the way that narratives get spread around Twitter for example. If something doesn't make sense to me, or I want to understand better, I can just ask the chatbot to check the facts, or give me further explanation. It can even summarize the articles or give you answers in context. To me, this is a huge step forward.

I will give you a recent example. The point is not to take sides, but point out that the beliefs that people have are based on what they have heard in the past, and may not be based on fact, or may even have changed, or may be partially true. There are lots of different possibilities. Here is the example: Someone was saying how the republican party is perceived as being the one that stands for less government or less spending and should be better for the budget.

So this is what I entered:

"Searching for: which US political party has a better record of lower deficits?

Generating answers for you…"

According to a study from the National Bureau of Economic Research, Democratic presidents since World War II have performed much better than Republicans. On average, Democratic presidents grew the economy by 4.4% each year versus 2.5% for Republicans. The study also found that the economy has performed substantially better under Democratic presidents. On average, real (inflation-adjusted) GDP has grown about 1.6 times faster under Democrats than under Republicans1. However, according to Forbes, on the economy and jobs, republicans have the better track record2. Since 1981, federal budget deficits have increased under Republican presidents Reagan, both Bushes and Trump, while deficits have declined under Democratic presidents Clinton and Obama3.

Everything is hyperlinked with citations and references. You can dig down as far as you want, and get reasons or further explanations. But the point I am trying to make, (I emphasise without getting political) is that the facts often go against generally accepted beliefs. And now we have a more convenient way for fact checking and learning.

Conclusion

Apparently, Elon Musks new AI company iemphsises going to be working on a language model called TruthGPT for this purpose. I am quite sure that gfiven the proper resources that this kind of tool can be built and incorporated into the moderation process. Personally, I think that it can be more objective and do a better job than humans, but it has to be open and transparent or it could be mis-used.

We are hearing a lot of negative news about the potential risks of artificial intelligence, without a lot of factual evidence that I can find. Most of it is based on fear of the unknown and opaque technology demos. I am not denying that there may be real threats, but I feel that we are still pretty far away from AGI (artificial general intelligence) which is a big leap forward. What I see now is machines that are getting really good at emulating humans, and employing robotic machine skills (like machine learning, pattern recognition, natural language learning, predictive text, text to image etc.) in very narrowly defined fields.

I really don't see how passing laws to pause the research will have any meaningful effect at stopping the progress. How can they be enforced globally and by who? You can't really stop people from doing research secretly. If AI is really so powerful and strategically important then there will be a lot of incentives to develop and hide the product. For example, military use. You don't need any rare or scarce elements like uranium or plutonium. Just information and computation. I believe that this technology should not be controlled by a small group of people, and the benefits of AI should be available to everyone. If it is so powerful, we should be using it ourselves to solve our biggest problems. Here is an article which talks about how open-source generative models are the ethical way forward.

Healthcare

In recent years, AI has begun to revolutionize diagnostics by enabling more accurate and faster detection of diseases. One example is the use of deep learning algorithms to interpret medical images, such as X-rays and MRIs, which can help identify abnormalities with greater precision than human experts.

Another area where AI has made a considerable impact is drug discovery. By utilizing advanced algorithms and machine learning techniques, researchers can analyze vast amounts of data to identify potential drug candidates or therapy combinations that would be difficult or time-consuming for humans to discover.

AI is also playing a role in personalized medicine, tailoring treatments to individual patients based on their unique genetic makeup and clinical data. This approach has shown promise in oncology, where it can help determine the most effective treatment strategies for cancer patients.

In addition to these existing applications, AI has the potential to revolutionize many other aspects of healthcare. For instance, AI could enhance telemedicine by providing sophisticated health monitoring and diagnosis capabilities via remote patient consultations. Moreover, AI-powered robots could assist surgeons during complex procedures, improving both efficiency and patient outcomes.

Furthermore, AI has the potential to transform mental health care through the development of virtual therapists. These AI-driven chatbots could provide counseling and support to individuals suffering from mental health issues, increasing accessibility and reducing the stigma associated with seeking help.

Though AI holds immense promise for the future of healthcare, I agree that it is crucial to address the ethical and privacy concerns that may arise. Ensuring transparency, responsible use of data, and minimizing potential biases will be essential in harnessing AI's full potential.

Conclusion

I believe that there are a number of possible solutions to the various dangers. For example, if we are concerned about the machines becoming smarter than us maybe they can be used to augment our own intelligence, and still have control with safeguards which could be planned? Maybe they can be used to edit our own genes using CRISPR tech for example to make humans smarter. We are still early, but here is an article on the subject: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/can-crispr-cas9-boost-intelligence/

Maybe we are looking at a new branch of human evolution (Homo Machinus). Who knows. There are so many different possibilities we can't even imagine them yet. But we aren't there yet. Not even close. In the mean time, we need to learn as much as can about the technology, share the research, make it transparent, and use it ourselves. If you try to restrict and hide it, it will only go underground and offshore. I think that we should start by concentrating on how to make the best use of AI tech to improve our lives now. Of course we should also be thinking about how to discourage or penalize misuse, I don't think the court system is the best approach for this kind of thing. More on that in another post.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been making significant strides in various industries, and healthcare is a good use case. I have a special interest in this usage for AI since I have a chronic blood cancer condition that I have struggled with for more than a decade. I have gone thru 4 different treatments, and none of them have been long lasting. I am currently undergoing a phase II clinical trial of a new drug that was developed recently. I am hoping that this technology can help in researching causes, compiling and analyzing information, and developing new ones which may be more effective. Maybe even a cure some day if I am lucky.

In conclusion, AI is already making significant contributions to healthcare, and its future possibilities are vast. By continuing to develop and implement AI-driven solutions, we can look forward to a more efficient, effective, and personalized healthcare system.

Introduction

As technology advances, the world makes continuous progress in various fields, including the medical industry. With the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in drug research, things have taken a groundbreaking leap in the direction of better healthcare. In this article, we will explore how AI is revolutionizing drug research and the areas in which it is widely used.

This has a special meaning for me because I have just started a phase II clinical trial for a new drug to treat my blood cancer (a type of B cell lymphoma).

I have struggled with this condition for almost 15 years, and gone through 4 different courses of treatment from IV based chemo therapy to oral pills which worked for a while and then stopped. Each iteration has improved the situation somewhat, but there is still no cure unfortunately. This article talks about how AI is being used to study the disease, come up with better treatments that have less side effects, and maybe even a cure some day. But it is already improving quality of life.

I speak from personal experience. Here is another good example from Harvard business review, with a story similar to mine. It is well worth reading.

Use of AI in Drug Research

AI is playing a crucial role in the drug research process since it can process vast amounts of data and identify potential drug targets. It can assist researchers in predicting the efficacy of potential drug compounds, design more efficient clinical trials, and develop personalized medicines. AI has also proven useful in identifying leads for new combinations of drugs to treat diseases.

Advancements Made By AI

AI has shown a lot of promise towards developing new drugs, utilizing pre-existing data, and removing guesswork from the process. It assists in identifying the therapeutic targets by analyzing large amounts of data and assists in the design of clinical trials for the new medicine. AI can also predict how effective a new drug will be by analyzing various drug-compound interactions accurately.

AI can be utilized to take a look at the safety and interaction of drug candidates in humans, not just animals. This helps researchers identify safety concerns early on in the drug development process. This can help reduce negative side-effects while streamlining the development process. By analyzing images from medical tests like X-Rays and MRIs, AI systems can help medical professionals diagnose diseases with more accuracy and efficiency.

Future Prospects For AI In Drug Research

The drug development process is a long and expensive one, which demands significant resources from pharmaceutical companies. The introduction of AI has the potential to significantly reduce drug development costs and timeframes. AI can help researchers identify the most promising compounds to focus on for clinical trials, as well as identify areas in which new research is needed. It provides invaluable insights into what works and what doesn’t, thus optimizing decision-making processes with the help of intelligent algorithms.

Use of AI can also result in custom-tailored medicines that can be designed to fit specific individuals with applications in personalized healthcare. Treatment can be modified based on the individual's genetic and environmental circumstances, leading to more effective drug responses.

Conclusion: A Positive Future.

The application of AI in drug research has brought revolutionary changes in the healthcare industry. It has the potential to shift drug development from a trial and error method to a fact- and data-driven one. AI-assisted drug development has already led to the discovery of new, effective compounds and therapies, and it is just the beginning. The medical industry looks forward to more advancements in AI technology to aid research further, with the aim of making medicines more effective, accessible and affordable. For obvious reasons, I encourage support for AI-led drug research developments to bring forth a better future. This is the positive side of AI tech which is not being talked about enough. As with any powerful technology, there is the potential for misuse. But, I am focusing on the postive aspects of AI and I remain optimistic that we will work things out for the better.

Meta description for search engine

Discover how the use of Artificial Intelligence(AI) is revolutionizing drug research. Learn about its applications in identifying potential drug targets, medical diagnoses, and personalized medicine. Explore how AI is bringing change to the healthcare industry, making medications more effective and affordable.

I originally wrote this post on January 12 / 2023, but I decided to update it with new information that has come to light. I also eliminated the section on Web2 blogging alternatives since those havn't changed and I want to focus on Web3 tech. I have had a chance to use the newer ones a little more, and added a new alternative to the list which I discovered recently. I honestly believe that the future is multichain/crosschain, and that we will have better integration in the future. So your choices won't be carved in stone. We will be able to focus more on the dapps and chose the best ones for our needs, as long as they run on a solid and reliable platform. Here is a good article from Spatium Stories. I completely agree with his strategy, and couldn't have said it better myself. It applies to NFT's but also content and even tokens. I like what Deso is doing with megaswap.xyz. You can convert coins from different chains without having to go thru a custodial exchange. You can swap directly from your wallet. The same should be true for content as well.

Paragraph.xyz (Eth/Polygon)

Paragraph.xyz is similar to Mirror, but the UI is better, and it is easier to use. It integrates with the Farcaster web3 social network for social interaction and that is a good feature. It also compares favorably to Substack and Medium. Paragraph supports monetization with subscriptions and gated/premium content. There is also an integration with highlight.xyz for minting and selling NFT's, which can be used in the gating process, or embedded in a post (like below).

It also has good discovery for reading posts, but it could benefit from a text search which is supposed to be coming in a future release. There are also some rumours that some AI features will also be added which could be very useful in writing posts. It will be interesting to see what they come up with.

Sigle (Bitcoin/Stacks)

I was really surprised with this one. It is running on a Bitcoin Sidechain or "Layer" called Stacks.co which supports smart contracts, so that you can finally have Defi, NFT's, social etc. with bitcoin as the settlement layer (instead of Eth in the case of most defi, social etc.) I discovered this when I started testing and researching Nostr, which has a similar approach in the sense that it supports Bitcoin lightning network for payments (but it doesn't run on Stacks in their case). However, the concept is similar.

I was surprised at how fast and easy it was to onboard and use app.sigle.io for blogging. I don't know what the future holds, so I am hedging my bets and keeping an open mind. In my opinion, any reasonable decentralized solution on Web3 is better than the centralized Web2 counterpart, and blogging is no exception. You do need a bitcoin wallet that handles stx tokens. I used something called Xverse, which is a chrome extension, and works similar to Metamask, except that its supports the stacks.co platform instead of EVM. It will be interesting to see how the market reacts to this alternative. I never thought I would say this but, it seems to function quite well. However you will have to upgrade for premium features like newsletters and monetization.

I have also been testing some Bitcoin/NFT platforms and they are in the early stages as well as the social platforms. But they seem to have developers working on them. Try it and see if you agree.

Bulb (Solana protocol)

This is a really nice blogging platform which I just discovered recently, and it is quite new. I have started testing it out, but so far I am suitable impressed. It is well worth evaluating, especially if you are familiar with Solana. It has a unique incentive structure which encourages participation, and quality posts. I was able to enter and save my first blog post, but was not able to publish it until I earn more points. This results in higher quality content, and more commitment from the authors and readers. There is also a way to monetize premium content. I like the reading list feature, which adds bookmarked posts to my list of articles to read later. I believe that that this platform has a lot of potential. But you will need a Solana account to write posts. An account isn't required for reading, so its easy for anyone to browse the articles.

Mirror (Eth/Optimism L2)

Mirror.xyz is a blogging platform that allows users to create and publish their own content. It is designed to be user-friendly and easy to use, with a variety of customization options and templates to choose from. Mirror.xyz also offers features such as social media integration, SEO optimization, and the ability to monetize content through advertising and sponsorships. With a focus on community and collaboration, Mirror.xyz also offers the ability for users to connect with and follow other bloggers, as well as comment and share content. Posts can be “collected” as NFT’s by readers, and they can also subscribe to blogger’s posts. But you will need an ethereum wallet such as Metamask to do monetary transactions. It has a dashboard with document management features.They use an L2 sidechain called Optimism to save on gas fees when publishing posts since eth is usually so expensive. So, you will have to create an account there as well, and transfer a small amount of funds.

Zirkels (Deso)

This is a dedicated blogging platform on the Deso blockchain which has features similar to other blogging platforms, and is integrated to the other Deso apps. So, all your posts will show up automatically in other app feeds which is good for discovery, and social interaction with the Deso community. You will need a Deso account to onboard. But that will give you access to all the other Deso apps as well. You can also monetize content by receiving rewards, and micropayment tips called "Diamonds", or selling Creator coins, which you will get when you setup an account. Zirkels also has good document management features on the main dashboard. Deso is open to anyone, and doesn’t require an invitation. See my previous article on Web3 social media platforms. The Deso core developers are planning several important new enhancements to the platform like proof of stake, and a number of others.

Blogchain (Near protocol)

Nice web3 blogging tool which has been around for a while, but not not a lot of people know about it. I think that it has a lot of potential, and its simple to use. It also supports paid subscriptions like substack. So you can distribute articles to a list of paid subscribers if you have one. Here is a blog post from their own blog which is a very good summary. If you are already on the Near platform its a good choice.

The Share (Lens/Polygon)

This is a fairly new dedicated blogging platform on Lens social media, which is on the Polygon blockchain. So, you will need an EVM compatable wWb3 wallet such as Metamask to login, and do monetary transactions. It is composable (integrates) with all the other Lens apps, so your posts will automatically show up in other Lens feeds. Any blog post can be collected as an NFT, and you can request a fee for people to view and read your posts. It is still in the early stages, so there isn’t a lot of content yet. I think that lens is still “invite only” so you will have to request access for now to use it. You will have to onboard to Lens, and then you will be able to use Share.

Conclusion

Other “nextgen” social media platforms that support long form content can also be used for blogging. Examples are Diamondapp on Deso, and most of the other advanced social platforms that allow long posts. They combine social features together with the blogging, as opposed to dedicated blogging sites which I discussed above which tend to have more features like the dashboard to manage documents. So, in most cases, its better to use a dedicated platform for blogging like the ones above.

If you want to join the ongoing discussion, you can join us on the Web3 social group on Deso/Miti. If you prefer another platform, we can do it there as well, as long as they have the ability to create groups for discussion. And lets try to avoid Web2 platforms for the reasons we have discussed in previous posts. I have a channel on Discord, but I am avoiding it. I am really trying to encourage Web3 adoption for social interactions.

If you want to contact me, here is my sublayer.

Collect NFT

Types of content = Web sites, images, video, News, Social Media, manual entry

The tools that I was looking for had to be able to save links (like bookmarks), as a minimum, and have a good way or organizing this info for retrieval. Most of them have a way of assigning multiple tags so that they can be retrieved in various ways. Some of the tools go further and use AI for finding and retrieving the information, highlighting important parts, and even have a social component, so that you can share with other like minded people who may have been researching something similar. Some of these tools (like Glasp) have also started combining search and discovery with the information capture process. Here is a tweet that talks about how curation is related to search:

Apps to save and categorize knowledge

Bookmark manager

You can use the one built-in to google chrome or other browsers to manage bookmarks, but it doesn’t have good ways of categorizing and searching thru the various links. For example, you can only put them in 1 folder, and it starts to get cumbersome. But this may be sufficient for some people with basic needs.

Pocket app

This one is a little more flexible and you can use multiple tags to categorize and retrieve content. If you need the search feature, you will have to go for the paid premium plan.

Happen Saver

This app is pretty good, and pretty easy to use. You can create a bookmark to automatically capture the link of the current page which you can then tag, and access later when you need it. You have various ways to filter the data, and of course you can retrieve it by tag.

Glasp.co

This one is the most sophisticated tool of the lot, and really deserves an article on its own. But it does require more learning time to discover all the things that it can do. The more I use it and learn about what it can do, the more I like it. You can highlight any important text from any web site, tag it, and write comments. You can view an AI summary of any web site, if you don’t want to spend a lot of time going thru it. It also supports Youtube transcripts, if the author provided one, which you can highlight and capture. You can even ask it to summarize the video transcript, if you don’t want to watch the whole video. .

It also integrates with Kindle if you want to save your highlights from ebooks There is a social component as well. You can follow other people, and share information. You can search thru all of the glasp content of other users. You can talk with the community including the developers on Slack, give feedback etc. They are very open to suggestions. If that wasn’t enough, they are planning a lot of new features, but I am still exploring the ones that are here, and discovering new things. I also like the “digital me” feature, where it functions as a search thru my highlighted articles.

Here is my knowledge graph:

Here is my profile. You can see that there is a lot of ways to go thru the information, review info from followers, and explore topics you are interested in.

Here is another good article which talks about how they use glasp to Highlight and Take notes on the internet. Here is a summary of the article produced by glasp: “Glasp has revolutionized my workflow when it comes to taking notes and highlighting important information on the internet. Rather than saving articles for later, I can quickly select the text I want to highlight and take notes on it within the browser. This makes it easier to quickly review important information and keep track of my research. Glasp also allows me to organize my notes and highlights into categories, making it easier to find what I need when I need it. Overall, Glasp has been a great tool for me to quickly and easily take notes and highlight important information on the internet”

Discovering content, research

Google is the most common search tool that most people are familiar with. Keep in mind that it was developed decades ago when the web was quite different, and hasn’t really improved much. Their ultimate goal is to present you with tailored ads based on your search history, so that the advertisers can sell you as much product as possible. Most people think that is a good trade-off (if they are even aware) because they are getting free information. The algorithms are private and proprietary, and all the search habits are their property. I won’t go into the consequences here since that really isn’t the main subject of this article. But it isn’t necessarily in their interest to give you the optimal search results. For example, a high paying customer might be ranked higher in the search results.

In a previous post, I talked about how some new and progressive search tools like you.com have started to incorporate AI tools in various ways into the research process with interesting result.

You.com

I talked about this one in a previous post, and I am still finding it useful. I like the way that it organizes the search queries into chat, images, videos, news, and social media. I can indicate which sources are most important to me, and I will get the results in that order. The best way to learn about it is to use it. It is not very difficult, and there is a blog, and links to their social media on the main site, as well as a newsletter.

Chatgpt playground

This is definitely worth a separate article so that I can go into more detail, as I discover more uses. It is helpful for research, as well other other things. ChatGPT3 is also incorporated into some of the other more sophisticate tools above like You.com and glasp.co. I find that the “playground” version is the best way to use it, and I have provided a link to the example page above. I definitely believe that this should be part of any good search/discovery tool. This is an interesting article which talks about how we are going back to prompts as the new primary user interface.

This is another interesting article which compares chatgpt to Google for search. Here is the conclusion: “Despite not being optimized for a search experience at all, ChatGPT already matches or slightly beats Google’s performance. Surge AI search engine raters preferred ChatGPT on 42% of queries and Google on 40%”. We are just getting started. What happens when we see GPT4 later this year? I believe that Google is going to have to include their own AI models into their search if they are going to continue to dominate. They have had a monopoly for too long, in my opinion. They are going to have to respond in some way to make their search better. In the mean time, I use a combination of different tools for best results.

Conclusion

I havn’t gone into the various use cases for curating knowledge. In my case it was blogging, but there are many others. I can see people collecting and managing information of projects to invest in for example, or a student collecting information on a topic that they are studying. It helps me to get a better understanding on lots of different topics that I am researching like AI, or Web3 social media.

There are many tools available for curating and managing knowledge on the web. The ones discussed here offer some interesting approaches that can make the process more efficient and productive. They vary in the amount of features and sophistication, so it is important to evaluate the different options and pick the one(s) that work best for your specific needs.

Collect NFT

In today’s digital world, AI-driven text-to-image technologies have become increasingly important for businesses. Text-to-image technology enables people to create complex visuals from unstructured text, enabling them to communicate their message more effectively, showcase their products, or even develop AI-driven visual stories

In this tutorial, we’ll walk through the basics of text-to-image technology, from understanding the basic concepts to implementing it in practical scenarios. First, let’s look at the definition of text- to-image technology:

Text-to-image (T2I) is a type of artificial intelligence technology that uses natural language processing (NLP) to convert textual data into images. This technology allows users to communicate visually with the help of AI. Images generated by AI can be used for various purposes, such as for product showcase, marketing campaigns, storytelling, and more. The process is similar to Chatgpt3, but in this case the result of the text prompt is an image and not a conversation.

The process of creating a text-to-image solution includes gathering relevant data and inputting it into an AI-powered tool. This tool then processes the text and creates a custom image based on the data. There are various AI-driven tools available for text-to-image conversion, which we will describe below.

You can use a text-to-image prompting tool to structure the text prompt that you want to convert to a picture. Depending on the tool, you may need to provide additional information such as subject, language, or specific visuals. After providing the inputs, another tool can be used to process the text and generate the image.

Step 0 — Learning and tutorials

There are lots of guides, documentation, and tutorials available:

Stable Diffusion: Tutorials, Resources, and Tools

For the purpose of this tutorial, I will use Stable diffusion as an example, but all the concepts apply to the other AI models as well. I chose Stable diffusion because it is free and opensource. But I encourage you to experiment with the others if you want to compare. It is also possible to install Stable diffusion locally on your own machine, or a cloud server. But unless you have a very powerful graphics card which is nvidea compatible, and a lot of time and expertise, you are much better off starting with the process and services that I describe below. We won’t get into development tools like huggingface.com, which is for a much more technical audience. You don’t need them to experience the basics.

Here are the most popular models with easy to use front -ends:

Stable Diffusion (many free easy to use front ends — see below)

Midjourney — a little more complicated to get up and running, and requires a monthly fee for the paid version after the free trial. But this one is probably the best overall in quality.

Blue Willow — Similar to mid journey, and uses the same prompts, but it is free for now

Dall-E — Good quality, but requires you to purchase credits to use

Many other variants which have their own feature sets, and have different pricing models. I won’t cover them in this tutorial because there are way too many.

Step 1 — Creating the prompt

There are lots of guides which explain the prompts in more detail for each type of model. Here are some for Stable diffusion:

Ultimate prompting guide

Stable diffusion prompt guide

Openart prompt book

I. Promptmania is the easiest and least expensive (free) tool to use for crafting sophisticated prompts. I will describe how to use it for Stable Diffusion:

Main prompt builder sections

This is where you put in the main subject of your proposed image, whatever it happens to be. For example “a painting of a musician”. This is also where the prompt gets built above. It will happen automatically as you make your choices.

You can also add another image for reference or inspiration, but you will have to upload it to the web to a service such as imgur, and enter in the URL. I suggest you start off without adding other images.

Base image

Here, you would chose the class of image — a face, a sphere, or a landscape

Add details

Here you would chose from the various details such as medium, camera, color etc. As you chose options, you will get various sub-options to chose from, There are many alternatives. Don’t chose too many for now, and see what effect it has. You can always add more.

Styles from known artists

Here you can add an artist to base your style on. You can chose more than one, but don’t chose too many for now. This is optional. For example:

II. Another way to generate prompts is to ask Chatgpt3. For example, I asked chatgpt ”stable diffusion prompts for portraits”, and it gave me this:

“Here are some prompts for creating portraits using Stable Diffusion:

• A classical portrait of a majestic monarch

• An intense and powerful close-up portrait of a strong warrior

• A captivating portrait of a beautiful mermaid

• A striking portrait of a daring pirate

• A haunting portrait of a mysterious wizard

• An intimate portrait of a wise sage

• A vibrant portrait of a romantic artist

• A delightful portrait of a cheerful jester

• A surreal portrait of a mysterious creature

• A vivid portrait of an inspiring hero”

You can copy and paste any of these prompts into any of the services below. Or you can modify them any way you like. Here is a more detailed article on how to use chatgpt to generate prompts.

Step 2 — Entering and running the prompt

After you have built the prompt, it is time to try it out. I suggest using one of these services below for stable diffusion, in no particular order. Each one of them has tutorials on youtube which shows you how they work in more detail. But for now, we are just going to copy and paste the prompt that we created above, and watch the magic. You can experiment since they all have free versions. Eventually, you might have to pay but that will only be when you need lots of images or premium features. None of these require you having to register and learn Discord like Midjourney, which is a more complex tool. Stick with Stable diffusion, especially if you are a beginner.

Mage.space

Here is a tutorial if you need it. Its pretty easy to use and produces great results. Paste your prompt from step 1, or use one from a sample image

Playgroundai.com

Paste in your prompt from step 1, and try it out. There are a lot of options to chose, and quality is very good. For now you can use the default settings here, or experiment if you are more adventurous.

Lexica.art

Similar to the ones above, but it will let you do a text search thru the images. You can try out your prompt from step 1, or use one from an image that you like.

Instantart.io

Similar to Lexica, it allows you to search existing generated images with text. You can use prompts from these images, or the ones that you generated in the previous step.

Openart.ai

This one is similar to the others, but it also has a Photobooth (similar to Dreambooth) which allows you to upload your own photos to create a model with your personal pictures. This will be the subject of another article. I would stick to the main model and features for now. This site also has interesting preset templates which you can use for prompting image generation.

You.com search engine — This is yet another alternative. It has a search engine, which also combines AI image generation for SD and Midjourney. It is also a way to use Midjourney for free. It doesn’t have all of the features of the paid one, but it is simpler to use since you don’t have to learn discord in addition to a lot of the arcane commands. Its good enough for most beginners, and is a good way to try it out. The search engine is also really interesting. I talked about it in my previous blog post.

The nice thing about using free services like these is that you can experiment, and try modifying your prompt to see what results you get. Its also a good idea to try using negative prompts such as the one below to exclude weird and deformed images. 

Sample negative prompt: disfigured, kitsch, ugly, oversaturated, grain, low-res, Deformed, blurry, bad anatomy, disfigured, poorly drawn face, mutation, mutated, extra limb, ugly, poorly drawn hands, missing limb, blurry, floating limbs, disconnected limbs, malformed hands, blur, out of focus, long neck, long body, ugly, disgusting, poorly drawn, childish, mutilated, , mangled, old, surreal

Step 3 — Edit, Upscale, download

Most of these services allow you to edit, upscale and download the image. Just hover over the generated image and you should see these options.

Step 4 — Display images in a gallery or sell in a marketplace

If you want to display the generated images publicly, or even privately there are lots of galleries available like deviantart, unsplash, wallhaven.cc, artstation.com and others. Many allow you to sell images as well. These images don’t include prompts. 

I prefer to mint the pictures that I create as NFT’s. You have the option to list them for sale also for payment in crypto currency. I prefer to use these marketplaces to display the collection/images, even if I am not going to sell them. Here are the ones that I prefer most:

Opensea.io for (eth and polygon)

Rarible.com for (eth and polygon)

NFTz for Deso

Solsea.io for Solana

As you can see that there are markets for each blockchain, but eth and polygon are the biggest in terms of traffic. Most of them don’t require a wallet for you to view the collections and images of various creators. You will only need a wallet if you want to buy (collect) or sell.

Conclusion

This has been a brief introduction to stable diffusion (SD), how to generate prompts and images. Its impossible to cover everything, but this a good place to start, and you can get more advanced as you improve. And new services and features are coming out at a rapid pace. Its hard to keep up, so I would stick to the major trends. 

There are also lots of alternatives and approaches. You can experiment and find out what works best for you. You could even create a unique style of your own. Stable diffusion is a powerful tool that can be used in many different ways, limited only by your imagination. Above all — have fun.

Collect NFT

I. Introduction

AI is rapidly revolutionizing the search process, allowing for more personalized and tailored search results than ever before. AI-powered personalized search algorithms can analyze user behavior in order to identify factors that may influence the value of different search results and deliver more contextually relevant and meaningful results. These algorithms can also help to filter out irrelevant information and ensure that the most relevant and accurate results are delivered to the user. However in Web2, these algorithms are controlled by large corporations whose ultimate goal is to present tailored adds and sell you more products on behalf of their customers (the advertisers). In this article, we will explore how AI can be used to improve the search process, and deliver more personalized results, both in the context of web2, and also web3.

II. Overview of AI and its use in personalized search

The core principle of AI-powered personalized search is to analyze data sets (big data) in order to identify patterns and trends that influence the relevance and accuracy of search results. The algorithms can take into account user behavior based on factors such as location, search history, and preferences. By doing so, AI-powered search algorithms can deliver results that are tailored to the user’s individual preferences. In the case of Web3, we can go even further by looking at user social graphs (posts, comments, likes etc.) as well as monetary transactions. In addition, the algorithms are not biased by having to present personalized ads to sell products.

III. Understanding User Social Graphs

A. What is a user social graph?

A users’s social graph is made up of interactions that a user has on social media, such as posts, replies, likes, comments, tips etc. In the case of web2 (twitter, facebook etc.) much of this history is public and searchable, but not usually available thru API’s since the platform owners want you to go thru their interface so it is generally harder, or more expensive to get. In the case of web3, the private data can be controlled by the users. There is also lots of public data which includes the transactional history publicly available on the blockchain. This can be valuable in determining behavior such as spending patterns.

B. How AI can be used in conjunction with user social graphs

It seems to me that all this information can be useful in tailoring personalized search results. Opensource algorithms can analyze the data in order to identify user preferences and interests, based on their social graphs, allowing for more relevant search results. AI-powered algorithms can analyze current trends in topics that may be related to the user’s behavior, ensuring that the most up-to-date and useful results are provided. This can help to eliminate irrelevant and outdated information.

Here is a list of Web3 projects that are working on personal social graphs. This is taken from the article: Getting ready for the Web 3.0 Social trend (on Mirror)

“Social graphs”

“The social graph visually resembles a spider's web and stores the chain of connections between different participants. These connections are a major social media asset monetized by legacy social companies through targeting, advertising and selling data to third parties.

Existing monopolies are not interested in open and free-flowing data because they get the most profit out of a closed and controlled system. However, this makes them ineffective, rigid and leads to stagnation and inevitable collapse of user bases and revenue.”

Here is a list of some web3 social graph projects, taken from the above article

https://cyberconnect.me
https://lens.xyz
https://mem.co
https://relationlabs.ai
https://www.dsnp.org
https://subsocial.network
https://primitives.xyz
https://www.knn3.xyz
https://ulas.network

Social identity apps can verify that the user accounts are valid. I am currently using nf.td, and my social accounts are linked here: https://nf.td/fblauer

III. Examples of AI-Powered Personalized Search

You.com - I have been testing out this new search engine, and it looks very interesting. Not only can it include social information in the search results, but it has also combined AI tools like Chatgpt, AI Image generation from text, a writing tool to assist with articles and blog posts for example, and other tools for developers. You have more control over the sources that are searched, and you can chose from 150+ integrated apps.

They also provide a way for developers to modify the UI and produce custom searches.

In the case of you.com, the social media data is based on Web2 content, but would be even more powerful if it could include web3 social graphs, social feeds thru open API’s and monetary data as well.

IV. Conclusion

Here is a good article which talks about the current web3 search tools:

https://searchcaster.xyz - Farcaster social graph search
https://bress.xyz/feed - Mirror search (listed in the Cyberconnet social graph ecosystem)
https://app.yup.io/?search - search in Lens, Farcaster, Mirror
https://rss3.io - Wallet search
https://lens.sepana.io - Lens protocol search
https://askmirror.xyz - Mirror search
https://cloutavista.com - DeSo search
https://dune.ora.so - Dune search

Web3 searching tools by using scrolling feeds:

https://context.app - excellent functionality and convenient to use on a computer
https://interface.social - nice phone app
https://easy.me - social wallet with good UX\UI, recently launched a mobile app

Overall, AI-powered personalized search is a very promising technology, and I believe it will become an invaluable tool in the future of web3. It has the potential to deliver more relevant results and improve the user search experience. However, it is also important to remember that this technology can be abused and used to manipulate search results so that is why it needs to be opensource and transparent . So far, I have found you.com to be a valuable tool, and I think that it may even has a chance to challenge google search. There is more of a learning curve, but it is more flexible, customize-able and gives you more control over your searches. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

introduction

Independent musicians and artists are increasingly relying on the internet to reach their audiences and earn money. Investing in independent music is a great way to support artists, learn about industry trends and emerging technologies, and potentially make a return on your investment. This article will discuss why it is beneficial to invest in independent music and provide tips on how to go about it, if you are an audiophile, like me.

Why invest in independent music

The biggest reason to invest in independent music is the potential to help budding artists and small businesses in the music industry build a strong foundation that will grow and develop over time. By investing in their tech and music, you are giving them the financial support they need to create and promote their work. Additionally, investing in independent music can be a great way to learn more about the industry, as the artist and their team will likely share their experiences, advice, and insights with you. Furthermore, investing in independent music can also be financially rewarding; while supporting an upcoming artist, you could potentially earn a return on your investment

How to invest in independent music

The most obvious way is to buy the artist’s CD. Here is an example from Bandcamp.

You can stream Emma’s music here, and also buy her CD if you want own it and support her career.

I imagine she will make more revenue than streaming on Spotify for example, or selling CD’s on Amazon, since so much of the revenue in those cases go to the platforms. In the case of Bandcamp, the prices are quite reasonable, and I believe a larger share goes to the artist.

The next way is to start learning, using and optionally investing in Web3 music projects. Here is a good article from Medium which explains what is happening in this space in a lot more detail. For the rest of this article I will be giving some examples of how I have been using Web3 for supporting and investing in Web3 musicians and new music.

Deso/Mousai

I am currently supporting 2 artists on this platform who I really enjoy listening to, and I am sure there will me more in the future. I can stream their music on Mousai, and discuss them with other fans, in the social section of the site which integrates with the Deso feed. I can “tip” them with diamonds (micro-payments), and also buy their creator coins, which I expect to go up in value, as more people find out about them, and discover their music thru social media, on a global stage.

• Hubert Tubbs

• Iris Camaa

You can also participate in live interviews on Vibehut, and discuss their music with them and other community members. Here is the next interview that Elizabeth Tubbs will be doing with Iris Camaa. Vibehut is a Zoomlike application which allows you to have video meetups and ad hoc meetings, with small groups. And it integrates with the rest of the Deso ecosystem.

There is a great social platform on Deso (ex Diamondapp) where we can share images, audio and talk about music. There is also a good NFT marketplace called NFTz, but the music NFT’s are in the early stages. I expect them to become much more popular. You can also invest in the Deso platform if you think that its going gain adoption, and increase in value. There is a “Youtube like” platform called Videso, and I think that it has a lot of potential for artists to make music videos of their songs.

Performing to a live global audience is expensive, unless you are a big name artist. There is another Deso app called Openfund.com which musicians can use to fund a tour, or a video, or a new album for example. (a crowdsourcing dapp on Deso) There is a market for buying and selling project investments, and It also has a social feed which connects to Deso.

There are lots of other very useful dapps in the Deso ecosystem, and they are just starting to mature. For now, almost everything is free, and gas fees are extremely low. For, example, $10 could last you months (not including investments) if you decide to indulge, which is completely optional. There are lots of other dapps on Deso for other purposes which I will get into in another blog post.

OohLaLa

This is a really nice music community dapp which integrates with the Lens social platform, which in turn resides on Polygon. The Lens connection provides social interaction for the music which includes music streaming, and aggregates the most popular music NFT markets, and Dao communities. All of the artists are new and independent. Oohlala will highlight new releases by artists, and there is a lot of music to explore. They also have a mobile app for listening on the go. Here are the platforms that they aggregate:

• Sound.xyz (including Sound protocol)

• Catalog

• MintSongs (v2)

• Nifty Gateway

• Zora

• NOIZD

• MintSongs Factory (v1)

• Lens (Lenster, Lenstube)

• DEAFBEEF

• EulerBeats

• SoundMint

• Song A Day (& SongADAO)

• Songcamp (+ Elektra, Chaos)

• hedsDAO

• Nifty Music

• Custom smart contracts (Manifold)

I think that this service is just getting started, and I see a lot of potential to grow and expand. Maybe one day they will challenge Spotify and Amazon or at least provide an alternative which is owned and run by a community. The development group behind them is called Spiderville, and they are funded by $1 million of venture capital at this point. I imagine that they will eventually start crowdfunding to pay for development, and promotion, if they are successful.

Conclusion

Investing in independent music can be an exciting and rewarding way to support independent artists while potentially earning a return on your investment. There are a variety of ways to invest, ranging from buying physical albums or digital downloads to investing in streaming platforms or creator tokens. By getting involved in the independent music industry, you can gain access to new tools and technologies, learn about industry trends, and help small businesses and budding artists reach their goals. I believe that this market has a lot of potential for disruption.

I have created a collection of famous musical artists using AI tools. (See my previous blog posts for more details)

• NFTz on Deso

• Opensea on Polygon

• Solsea on Solana

Lastly, here is a list of my social media accounts, where you can subscribe to my blog if you are interested in some of these topics, comment, or reach me:

Highlight.xyz

Embedded NFT

Collect NFT

Artificial Intelligence is revolutionizing the way we create different kinds of content. AI-powered tools are helping creators to do research, get ideas, and generate high-quality content. In this article, we will explore some of the best AI tools available for text based output like blog or social media posts, articles, and web pages. We’ll discuss how these tools can help streamline content creation, improve SEO, save time, and ultimately produce better quality.

GPTChatbot

This is a helpful tool to assist you in writing blog content. For example, you can get it to write summaries or even parts of the content, but you will have to curate and edit:

Lex.page

This is an online word processor similar to google docs, but it also has AI features from ChatGPT which are built in. So, you don’t have to exit the document to use them. (I think that Lex may still require an invite to onboard, since it hasn’t fully launched yet. I have a few left.) It is simple to use, and free for now. I don’t know how much it will cost when they release it.

Maester

This tool has several templates for generating content for things like tutorials or blogs. You fill in a form, and it generates sample content that you can then use to edit. It is free for now, and pretty simple to use:

Hyperwriteai.com

There is a free and a paid plan. I am testing out the free one for now. The premium one is $20/month. This one also combines the features of Lex.page and Maestro as well as a lot of other things. It also has chatgpt as an assistant like Lex. There is also chrome extension that can scan external documents to learn your writing style. It is ultimately more powerful, but also more complex to use than Lex.

Ryterai.com

This one also combines the features of Lex.page, ansd Maestro, and more. It is quite extensive. It can be used for marketing and sales copy, as well as blog posts. I am testing out the free plan. The premium plan is intended for professional writers at $50/month. It can also generate images from text prompts, but the quality isn’t as good as the dedicated AI image tools that I talked about in my previous blog post.

Maker.ai

This one can also be used for creating blog posts, and landing pages for web sites. There is a free plan which has some minor restrictions and a $25/month paid one which is unlimited. It also has the ability to create art, but it is rudimentary compared to the dedicated AI art generating tools based on stable diffusion.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are several AI tools available to help make the process of creating blog articles and website content easier and more efficient. New ones are being released frequently. GPTChatbot, Lex.Page, Maestro, HyperwriteAI, RyterAI, and Maker.ai are all powerful tools that provide users with helpful AI features to generate ideas, help with research and content. Each of these tools have free and paid plans, and they offer different features, so users should also consider the cost when assessing which one is best for them to use. The tools should be used for assisting your writing, so you will still need to modify and edit content generated by the AI. They are not a replacement for good writing skills and habits.

Blogging is a popular way for people to express their thoughts, share ideas, and connect with others. As the internet has evolved, so too have blogging platforms. New technologies, such as web3 and artificial intelligence (AI), are being used to create more advanced and efficient ways to blog.

Whether you're a professional blogger or just starting out, choosing the right blogging platform is essential for success. To help you make a decision, this article covers some of the best “next-generation” blogging platforms available today. They all support multi-media content, including graphic images, links and embedded video.

Web2 based (older)

WordPress (Paid)

WordPress is one of the most popular blogging platforms, and has been around for a long time. It's easy to use and offers a wide range of features and customization options.

WordPress has an intuitive user interface and provides powerful tools for creating and managing content. You can create posts, pages, and other content types with ease, and embed multimedia into your posts. WordPress also offers numerous plugins and themes to help you customize your blog.

WordPress also provides a variety of features for SEO, including support for custom titles, meta keywords, and meta descriptions. It's also compatible with most major web hosting services. It can be used to create entire web sites as well as blogging content.

Ghost (Paid)

Ghost is a modern, open-source blogging platform. It's designed for easy content creation and offers a range of features for customization and SEO.

Ghost provides a simple user interface with options for creating and editing content. You can easily embed multimedia into your posts and customize your blog with themes and plugins. It also offers a range of SEO features, such as custom titles, meta keywords, and meta descriptions.

Ghost is also compatible with most major web hosting services and has a robust API for developers. It's easy to use and provides powerful tools for creating and managing content.

Medium (Paid)

Medium is a popular blogging platform that's designed for easy content creation. It offers a range of features for customization, including themes and plugins, as well as support for multimedia content.

Medium also provides a variety of features for SEO, including custom titles, meta keywords, and meta descriptions. It's compatible with most major web hosting services and has a robust API for developers.

I also like the reading list. If you follow people or topics or bookmark blogs, it will add them to your reading list for reading later.

Web3 based (free/post to earn content)

Bulb (Solana protocol)

This is a really nice blogging platform which I just discovered recently, and it is quite new. I have started testing it out, but so far I am suitable impressed. It is well worth evaluating, especially if you are familiar with Solana. It has a unique incentive structure which encourages participation, and quality posts. I was able to enter and save my first blog post, but was not able to publish it until I earn more points. This results in higher quality content, and more commitment from the authors and readers. There is also a way to monetize premium content. I also like the reading list feature, which adds bookmarked posts to my list of articles to read later. I believe that that this platform has a lot of potential. But you will need a Solana account to write posts. An account isn't required for reading, so its easy to browse the articles.

Blogchain (Near protocol)

Nice web3 blogging tool which I have just started experimenting with recently. It has been around for a while, but not not a lot of people know about it yet. I think that it has a lot of potential, and its simple to use. It also supports paid subscriptions like substack. So you can distribute articles to a list of paid subscribers if you have one. Here is a blog post from their own blog which is a very good summary.

Mirror (Eth/Optimism L2)

Mirror.xyz is a blogging platform that allows users to create and publish their own content. It is designed to be user-friendly and easy to use, with a variety of customization options and templates to choose from. Mirror.xyz also offers features such as social media integration, SEO optimization, and the ability to monetize content through advertising and sponsorships. With a focus on community and collaboration, Mirror.xyz also offers the ability for users to connect with and follow other bloggers, as well as comment and share content. Posts can be “collected” as NFT’s by readers, and they can also subscribe to blogger’s posts. But you will need an ethereum wallet such as Metamask to do monetary transactions. It has a dashboard with document management features.

Zirkels (Deso)

This is a dedicated blogging platform on the Deso blockchain which has features similar to other blogging platforms, and is integrated to the other Deso apps. So, all your posts will show up automatically in other app feeds which is good for discovery, and social interaction with the community. You will need a Deso account to onboard. But that will give you access to all the other Deso apps as well. (That will be the subject of another article which I will post soon). You can also monetize content by receiving rewards, and micropayment tips called diamonds, or selling creator coins. It also has good document management features on the main dashboard. Deso is open to anyone, and doesn’t require an invitation. See my previous article on web3 social media platforms.

The Share (Lens/Polygon)

This is a fairly new dedicated blogging platform on the Lens social platform, which is on the Polygon blockchain. So, you will need an EVM compatable web3 wallet such as Metamask to login, and do monetary transactions. It is composable with all the other lens apps, so your posts will automatically show up in other feeds. Any blog post can be collected as an NFT, and you can request a fee to read your posts. They have some nice features and the platform is quite easy to use, but its still in the early stages, so there isn’t a lot of content yet. I think that lens is still “invite only” so you will have to request access for now to use it.

Paragraph.xyz (Eth/Polygon)

I just discovered this one recently, so I am still in the process of testing. It is similar to Mirror, but the UI is better, and it is easier to use. It integrates with the Farcaster web3 social network for social interaction, which I am also in the process of testing. It also compares favorably to Substack and Medium It has monetization with subscriptions and gated/premium content. There is also an integration with highlight.xyz for minting and selling NFT's. The only issue that I noticed is that, unlike most of the other platforms, the images are not brought over when I copy content from other platforms. (only the text)

It also has good discovery for reading posts. I will be able to do a more detailed evaluation when I have had a chance to spend more time with it.

Conclusion

Other “nextgen” social media platforms that support long form content can also be used for blogging. Examples are diamondapp on deso, and most of the other advanced social platforms. They combine social features together with the blogging, as opposed to dedicated blogging sites which I discussed above which tend to have more features like the dashboard to manage documents.

I have discussed you a few projects that I have used in the past. Evaluate them according to your needs, and choose the ones that best suits your requirements.

Comments are welcome. More to come in future posts.

Introduction

NFT’s and AI complement web3 social media. For example NFT’s can be used for access to exclusive content, voting rights, raising money to fund projects, the ability to create and own digital art, and trade with other users for collectibles, ticketing etc. When you combine this with social media and AI, it is even more powerful. With AI tools for creating images and blogging for example, almost anyone can be more productive and creative. So far the AI is mostly being used for text content and images, but will soon we will be able to use it for videos, sound and music as well. People are experimenting with new types of creative expression, and value based social interactions which were not possible before. I will give you some examples of “nextgen” social platforms that I have been using and evaluating.

Platforms

Deso/Diamond app, NFTz etc.

Here is a high level summary of the Deso platform. Onboarding is pretty easy, and you don’t require a special invitation. You will need a tiny bit of Deso for gas, but it will go a long way. You can buy a few dollars worth with fiat currency, and that will be more than enough to get going. You can always earn more. Deso is the least expensive platform that I have seen. Compute and storage is very cheap (see summary above). There are lots of different dapps and new ones appearing all the time. They all integrate and share the same social feeds, identity and social graph (followers etc). So for example you can have a discussion about a particular NFT on NFTz, where you can mint, display and sell NFT’s. The NFT can also have a social feed with likes, microtips and comments. The social feed will show up in other Deso dapps. You don’t have to login again to other Deso dapps since they share the identity.

There are also ways of monetizing popularity or influence with creator coins. So, you can invest in creators who you think have a lot of potential, or buy your own coins to push up the price. This social platform is more mature than most of the other ones, and most of the important elements are in place like NFTz market that also does streaming music NFT’s, streaming music and video apps, online video (like a decentralized zoom), blogging platforms, group conversations etc.

The deso blockchain has a lot of features planned, and is moving to “proof of stake” consensus in the new year. According to the stats, Deso has the most adoption for Web3 social media which makes sense since they are the oldest and they don’t limit users with required invitations.

Polygon/Lens, Opensea etc.

Most people are familiar with the polygon sidechain, if you have used Defi for example. It uses the Ethereum EVM, and Matic tokens for gas. This is the platform on which Aave has chosen to build Lens. You will need an invitation, and the Metamask wallet to onboard. Your identity will be minted as an NFT. The UI is pretty nice and reminds me of tumblr. The various dapps are compose-able with one another and share social feeds, identity and social graph. There is a rudimentary NFT platform called Lensport, but you will have to use Rarible or Opensea to mint your NFT’s. You can also monetize posts by selling the content as NFT’s. There is an interesting dapp on the Gallerydao which makes it easy to create NFT’s with some Dall-E AI themes and then allows you to mint them directly. There is a good aggregator of music NFT’s called Ooh La La, which will also work with many other EVM platforms. There is also a youtube like video platform, and various other dapps for mobile and desktop. They all share common feeds. Lens has some good integration partners on polygon, and I have heard some talk of them moving to the new polygon ZKEVM platform for further scalability.

Solana/Solcial, Rarible etc

Solcial came out recently, and is already gaining a good following. The UI is very nice, and it is pretty easy to use, especially if you are familiar with Solana. The chain is fast, inexpensive and there is a lot of development going on. The social feeds are pretty straight forward. You can chose who to follow, you can vote posts up and down, it shows you popular posts etc. You also get to monetize contributions with a creator coin, and tier 2 access level . Each user can create and sell premium content, which can be blog posts or free NFT’s for example. The profile section will allow you to mint NFT’s directly to the blockchain, and they will show up on Rarible NFT market. (I am in the process of becoming a verified creator). There are many improvements planned for the new year. There aren’t a lot of integrated dapps yet, except for a very nice blogging platform called bulbapp.io. I expect them to partner up with other Solana dapps and developers, like NFT markets, gaming etc.

Near/Near.social, Paras etc.

The Near chain is pretty fast and inexpensive. It also has a sister EVM chain called Aurora. There are 2 social dapps on native Near. One is called Myriad and the other is near.social. Near users will find them both pretty easy to use. The second one is newer, and I have been spending more time with that one. You can mint NFT’s on Paras, and they will show up on the Near blockchain and near.social. The social feed is similar to the one on solcial, but not as extensive yet. There isn’t a lot of content yet, but I expect it come as more people find out about it.

Web3/Farcaster

I havn't been able to evaluate this one until recently. So, I am still testing but it looks promising. There wasn't a web client until recently, and the only way to run it on the desktop was with a Mac, which I don't have. But there are now a few web clients, so I am able to start evaluating. Its definitely interesting and there is a good community with quality posting to read, and interact with. There are several integrated dapps and also a blogging platform in the ecosystem called paragraph.xyz, which works well and has some very good articles. Its handling of multi-media is pretty rudimentary, and it doesn't seem to incorporate NFT's yet.

Web3/Nostr/Iris.io

There are various app clients like astral.ninja or Iris. I prefer the second one since the UI is nicer. This is the most difficult of the lot to get running because its in the very early stages, but I got it working and it looks interesting. You can chat directly with Jack Dorsey since he seems to be on there frequently. I will report back when I have more time to spend testing it, and there are more features to test.

Web2/Twitter/Mask

Twitter has been losing a lot of users since Musk took over, but I won’t get into the politics of censorship and the like. Suffice it to say that they still have a lot of users, and its a pretty good platform despite all the complaints. They may be able to resolve the current problems and turn it around. In the mean time Mask.io is a good twitter add-on (browser extension) It has various “nextgen” features like Web3 wallet support, NFT support, encrypted direct messages, Mask profile/ID, fundraising, token swapping, decentralized file storage, fiat on-ramp, decentralized governance etc.

Web2/Post.news

A very easy to use and well designed twitter replacement, but it does have a wait-list and requires an invitation. It does have tipping for content. But it is centralized, and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of info available about how it works on the back-end, governance, and plans for the future, like web3 support etc. So, it works well for people fleeing twitter, but I don’t know enough about the long term.

Web2/Meta/Instagram

Facebook (Meta) and Instagram have the same owners. They have started introducing NFT’s on Instagram in some regions and are slowly rolling it out. Facebook has been working on its metaverse platform, and I assume that it will incorporate blockchain and NFT’s in some way. In the mean time, they still have a lot of users, but many of them are looking at moving away from centralized control, lack of privacy etc. I won’t get into the controversial topics here. Instagram has a lot of interesting images and a large audience and many people already have a lot of followers there. It will be interesting to see how the NFT rollout goes. It is not available in my area yet.

Tools

app.yup.io - combines feeds form various sources (Farcaster, Lens, Mirror blogs)

Conclusion

NFT’s are a new way of monetizing culture. Here is an example of my Rockstarz collection on Polygon/Opensea. Here is a similar collection of mine on NFTz, and another version on Solsea/Solana. They all contain a series of images of famous musicians which I created with an AI tool called Stable Diffusion (see my first blog post in this series for more details). My intention was not to make money per se, but to see what could be done with some of the new AI tools, NFT markets and social media. The various new technologies are converging and will be more powerful than the sum of the parts when they seamlessly work together. We are already starting to see 3D virtual art galleries which add another new dimension.

But for now, the various platforms are only compo-sable (integrated) within the same blockchain, so those barriers need to be broken down. We are going to have to see co-operation between the different Web3 social platforms for truly mainstream adoption. It will also have to get less complicated to use. For example you shouldn’t have to know or worry about what an EVM (Ethereum Virtual machine) compatible chain is, or even what chain your app resides on. This should be abstracted for the user and be simple and straight forward to onboard and use. As an analogy, when you switch from one automobile brand to another, you don’t have to know what kind of engine it is. Most people just want to get into the car and drive. When it breaks down, they take it to a mechanic (technical support). Most of the Web3 tech support for now is done by the community discord forums, which is still ironically, web2 based. Dao's, decentralized governance and funding alternatives are evolving and will be the subject of a future article.

There are probably too many social media alternatives right now. Between Web2 and Web3, they can’t all survive. They will be too fragmented and isolated unless they can all connect to each other. That won’t happen in the web2 world since there are proprietary interests involved. Web3 has a different business model which is community based. For now, each platform offers its own set of features, strengths, and weaknesses. Users will have to evaluate their needs and preferences and decide which platform is best for them in the short to medium term. Its hard to know now how things will play out in the long run but you will still benefit by using them now.

In the mean time, the space is evolving very fast, and I am already getting some good value from using the Web3 dapps. I am gaining experience with AI tools and applying them to practical social situations like creating images and blogging. The content will only improve as more users join in, and the features will also improve as we attract more quality developers. When we see more dapps that can span multiple chains, and simple user interfaces that hide the complexity of the back-end blockchains, we can expect more users, and mainstream adoption. There is so much happening in the space right now it is hard to keep up. New features and products are being launched constantly, despite the bear market.

Personally I prefer organic growth rather than hype and promotion but that is what attracts the users and the funding. From my testing and kicking the tires, I have no doubt that Web3 will be a quantum leap forward from what we have now in Web2. Its already happening. Start off with post.news , and then get your feet wet with Deso. Or chose one that runs on your favorite chain. Go down the rabbit hole. You won’t look back.

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." ~ Alvin Toffler

Short Summary

NFT's are a new way to monetize culture. Platforms like Twitter and Facebook have slowly been introducing NFT's, but many users are searching for alternatives in decentralized and censorship-resistant networks. There are Web3 alternatives like Post.news but they lack NFT's and decentralization. Chosing a winner at this stage is difficult because the space is fragmented, and still being developed. To truly maximize the potential of NFT's and Web3, platforms will have to cooperate, and work together. and support information flow from one to another to succeed.

Embeded NFT

Collect NFT

Introduction

I learned about AI tools for generating images from a text prompt, only a few days ago so I had to try it out. I didn’t realize that these tools had progressed so much in the past few months. It turns out that similar technology can also be used for other things like creating videos from text or speech. Also things like writing content for web sites or blog posts. Maybe I will try that for a future blog post. In the mean time, I have been using the tools below to create various images which I have converted to NFT collections, banners, avatars etc. In fact the image that I attached to this blog post was generated with one of the tools. You have to try it out to get an idea about it works, and how easy and fast it is. Its just going to improve further and the possibilities are endless.

Here is a recent article which talks about how to get started and some of the alternatives:

https://creatoreconomy.so/p/how-creators-can-get-started-with

Here is an article about some of the ones out there:

https://beebom.com/best-ai-text-to-image-art-generators/

Here are some of the images that I converted to NFT’s :

https://fblauer.nftz.me/

https://solcial.io/users/fblauer

https://opensea.io/collection/rockstarz

Theses are all of different chains. (I hope you can see them without connecting a wallet) That's the subject of another article.

Tools to create images from prompts

You can install stable diffusion locally since it opensource, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you are an advanced user. Also it requires a a high powered GPU which most people don't have. So you are better off using one of the web based services below:

Imagen — This is the google research project which seems to be very advanced. But its doesn’t seem to be available to the public yet. Interesting to read about nonetheless.

Diffusion/Dreamstudio — This the opensource model from Stable Diffusion is opensource, and has good API's. So, this is the one that most web based services are based on and I used them to generate most of my images. You get a certain number of credits which you can use for trying it out, and there are various payment plans. I have been using it thru the Playground service below, which gies you 1,000 free image generations per day for free.

Dall-E — This also a really good model which comes from OpenAI labs. It will give different results so I have been testing different models. Also quite sophisticated images are generated. Many times it surprises you and gives you something you didn’t expect. This one is not free.

MidJourney — This one has a beta version which you can sign up for which gives a certain number of credits before you have to start paying a monthly fee. It all works inside of discord which has certain advantages and disadvantages. If you are already using discord, it is pretty easy to get up and running. Personally, I am not a big fan of discord and I don’t think it is the best approach for this type of app, but it is very popular and gives good results. You can try it out if you want to see how it compares. There is a monthly fee after the trial version expires.

Playground — AI — I found this one was the easiest one to get started with and it will work with multiple models. (SD and also Dall-e) You can just copy the prompts from the playgroundai page, and copy them into the create screen. You can modify the prompts or settings, and re-generate the images to see what effect it has. You can use PromptMania to see all the valid key words that can be used in the prompts.

Mage - Here is another one similar to Playgroundai which produces high quality results, and is free to use for now. You can explore images that other people have created, and re-use the prompts. You can click "View options" on the first page to try different settings, as well as prompts and see what kind of results it produces. You can also follow other people. So, if you follow me you can see lots of experimenting that I have done. You can also chose to make your images private, if you plan to sell them as NFT's.

If you are using SD 2.1 its a good idea to use negative prompts so that it won't give you deformed images for example. I will give you some example of negative prompts in future blog posts, where I get into more detail.

All of the various tools have lots of documentation, and social communities which you can connect with. I found the best way to learn was to read a little, or watch a youtube video, and then spend some time experimenting. Once you get the hang of it, its addictive and I have spent a fair bit of time with it in the last few days, trying things out and looking for use cases. See some of the links above for examples of what I have produced.

Conclusion

So, Everyone is asking the question if graphic artists are going to lose their jobs. Like most technology it is good at certain things and weaker at others. For example, if you have something exact in mind, you may not be able to reproduce it exactly the way you want. But if you are flexible, and just looking for new ideas, it is a useful tool. It also depends on what you are using it for and your skill level, both technical and creative. Some use cases will work better than others. To answer the question, I really don’t think that graphic artists are in any danger of being replaced, any more than a drummer will be replaced by a drum machine, or lawyers will be replaced by smart contracts. But this could definitely be a valuable tool in the right hands and it might even end up generating more work. As far as I am concerned you still need an artist to come up with something really good. Try it out, and let me know what you think.

Introduction

This article talks about tools like Astria.AI, and OpenArt.AI, which can be used to train AI models with faces that it doesn’t know. Then you can generate images with text prompts or use preset prompts from samples. I already wrote a blog post explaining how to use several Stable Diffusion based AI tools to create images using text prompts - https://www.bulbapp.io/p/375ad7b7-533c-427c-9874-3cf98782da51/ai-tools-for-text-to-image-generation.

We also discuss a couple of AI tools used for image-to-text generation. And give an example of how to use negative prompts.

Lastly, we introduce the use of ChatGPT for generating and manipulating text, as well as Lex, a word processor with AI built in.

Image to text prompt generation

To follow up on the text to image tools that I talked about, I thought I would mention 2 more tools that do image to text prompt generation (the reverse process). It works from any kind of digital image, or even a photograph. Here are 2 sites which allow you to do this:

methexis-inc/img2prompt

clip_interrogator.ipynb - Colaboratory

Both of them do a pretty good job of analyzing the image and coming up with a good prompt. Of course, if you use the resulting prompt you won’t get the exact same image (which is to be expected). I find them useful to get ideas for new images since I don’t usually save the prompts, and seed numbers for most of my images.

The first one is pretty fast and easy. The second one takes a little longer, but is more accurate. It uses Google collab, which you might be familiar with.

Training your own images

Dreambooth

I also wanted to talk about how to use “Dreambooth” tools below for training your own AI models and generating images from this process. You could use photos of yourself, someone you know personally, or a pet for example. You can also use different kinds of objects that the general models don’t know about, such as a new product that you are developing, for example.

Astria.AI

This is a very useful tool which allows you to upload about 10-20 pictures of yourself or someone else, or even your dog. Then it will generate a bunch of sample images using its own pre-defined prompts, which can be modified, or you can use your own prompts. It is quite easy to use, the instructions are pretty good, and the results are very good if you follow the instructions closely. But you will have to use another tool (they recommend lexica) to generate more prompts. There is a small charge to get started, but I found it to be very worthwhile.

OpenArt.AI

This tool has a similar process, is quite inexpensive and has everything you need on the same site. It will generate images based on “preset templates” which you can chose. You can also use the same site to find sample images and prompts to use on your pictures to generate even more. There is a quota of 400 images for each model that you train, which is more than sufficient. I tested it with photos of me, my girlfriend, and my grand daughter so far. Maybe I will use our dog for the next model. Its a lot of fun, and you can find a lot of uses for the pictures online as avatars, or PFP’s or whatever.

Negative prompts

Here is another helpful hint for generating images from prompts using SD 2.1. It is a good idea to use negative prompts. Try it and see how the results will improve. For example:

"disfigured, kitsch, ugly, oversaturated, grain, low-res, Deformed, blurry, bad anatomy, disfigured, poorly drawn face, mutation, mutated, extra limb, ugly, poorly drawn hands, missing limb, blurry, floating limbs, disconnected limbs, malformed hands, blur, out of focus, long neck, long body, ugly, disgusting, poorly drawn, childish, mutilated, , mangled, old, surreal"

(These are all things that you don't want to see in your images)

AI tools for assistance writing text (ex. blog posts)

ChatGPT

Similar to generating and manipulating images, there are lots of AI tools for generating and manipulating text for things like blog posts or web site content. I have just started experimenting with ChatGPT, and I find it useful mostly for getting new ideas, or augmenting my current content rather than producing copy per se. You can experiment with the tool here: https://chat.openai.com/chat

Lex - A word processor with AI built in

This text was written with the help of Lex. Here is a video which explains how it works - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cao0oy1CBg

“Right now Lex uses GPT-3, so it can do pretty much anything GPT-3 can do which is quite a lot! For example:

• Come up with what you should say next

• Generate counter-arguments

• Generate outlines for essays

• Summarize text

• Adopt a specific style (only works for well-known writers)”

It doesn’t seem to be be live yet, so let me know if you would like an invite.

Conclusion

I used Lex to generate the title, and also this conclusion.

“The tools mentioned above are just a few of the ones out there. There are many more and no doubt more are being created all the time. These tools open up new possibilities and make it easier to create content, whether it is images or text. They can also be used to improve existing content and create new ideas. If you have any questions or would like to know more, please feel free to contact me.”

I plan to continue writing blog posts about AI tools that I have been evaluating, and also some of the “next generation” social media platforms based on Web3 concepts.