Innovation Profs - 3/4/2025

Next AI Lunch Club is March 12

Our next AI Lunch Club event will be a look at how AI is being used in social media on March 12. You’ll learn about…

• How to create your own AI for people to chat with in Instagram

• How to get the most from Meta’s AI advertising tools

• How LinkedIn is using generative AI to better connect job seekers with job opportunities

• Two apps that are foreshadowing a future where humans and AI bots interact

• And more!

More Lunch Clubs:
March 26: AI Ethics 
April 9: AI in Law and Policy 

Latest Gen AI News

ChatGPT Plus just got a huge deep research upgrade — here's how to try it now

ChatGPT’s deep research feature, previously only available to ChatGPT Pro users (to the tune of $200 per month), can now be accessed by ChatGPT Plus users (at the more reasonable cost of $20 per month), albeit at the rate of 10 queries per month. Why the low rate? The answer is that deep research doesn’t simply respond to a user prompt like we’re accustomed to with ChatGPT. Instead, the tool can perform complex chains of reasoning, consulting sources from the internet, analyzing data, and drawing insights from images and PDFs, yielding in a detailed report on its findings.

Copilot Now Provides Free Unlimited Access to OpenAI's o1 Model

Copilot’s Think Deeper feature, which is just an implementation of OpenAI’s reasoning model o1, is now accessible to free Copilot users with no limits (except with some delays during peak hours). This comes as a bit of a surprise, given that OpenAI charges users for access to o1. Microsoft is also providing unlimited access to Copilot’s Voice Mode to free users, which is also an improvement over ChatGPT’s analogous feature.

Google Sheets gets a Gemini-powered upgrade to analyze data faster and create visuals

If you’re a user of Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets, you may have already noticed the option to use generative AI to build or modify your spreadsheets. Now Google is adding a much stronger upgrade to this feature, available only to paid Google Workplace users. With the tool, users can perform complex analyses or create advanced visualizations of their data. Under the hood, the tool generates Python code to carry out the task in question, which is similar to how Microsoft’s Python in Excel feature works.

Quick Hits

In the Classroom with the Innovation Profs

Follow along as we teach Drake University’s first ever generative AI course.

This week’s topic: Audio AI Tools
Last week: Advanced Image Prompting

Lesson: This week, we turn our attention to tools for creating and editing audio using generative AI. The main attraction this week is Elevenlabs, which specializes in advanced AI-driven speech synthesis. It converts text into natural-sounding speech, allows users to can create custom voices or clone voices and translated audio into different languages.

We will also discuss music creation tools (and the legal issues surrounding them), including Suno and MusicFX. We will get into specialty apps - including Adobe Enhance Speech that cleans up bad audio and Deepgram that analyzes sentiment in audio.

Your reading: Elevenlabs product guides, Beginner’s guide to Suno, AI Music Startups Being Sued for Copyright Infringement.

Homework: Our students will be completing the five tasks on this list. If you complete them (any of them!), shoot us an email and let us know your thoughts.

Podcasting Profs

We’ve been interviewed on a few podcasts recently to discuss generative artificial intelligence. Hear what we had to say here:

• Feb. 28 - Porter and Snider on Artificial Impact 

• Feb. 1 - Porter on Infinite Stream

• Dec. 18 - Snider on You Don’t Need This Podcast

Interested in having us join your podcast? Email us at [email protected].

Tool of the week: Playphrase

PlayPhrase.me is an online platform that uses AI to allow users to search for specific phrases and view corresponding clips from movies and TV shows where those phrases are spoken. This tool is particularly useful for content creators seeking specific audio samples or for anyone interested in exploring how certain phrases have been used in media.

AI-generated image of the week

We attempted to recreate the famous Maxwell “Blown Away” ad in Midjourney to use in our generative AI class this week. How did we do? Try this same prompt (or an edited version) in your favorite image creation tool and send us your results.

Final prompt: A black-and-white, high-contrast cinematic photograph of a man sitting in a modern leather lounge chair in a minimalist room. He is dressed in a suit with a tie and sunglasses, leaning back as if being hit by an overwhelming gust of wind or powerful sound waves. His hair and scarf are dramatically blown back, emphasizing the force. A floor lamp beside him is tilted backward, its shade also affected by the force. A small table in front of him holds a martini glass, which appears slightly tilted or affected by the motion. A large speaker sits on the floor opposite him, positioned as the source of the powerful sound. The background is a plain wall with a subtle baseboard running along the bottom, enhancing the minimalist aesthetic. The composition is cinematic and dramatic, with deep shadows and strong lighting creating a striking contrast.

What we found

Startup Sesame (created by Oculus co-founder Brendan Iribe) has a new AI voice model that has people pretty blown away with its realistic-sounding voice. In blind testing, humans couldn’t distinguish the AI from the humans. Try a demo here.