Innovation Profs - 6/6/2025

Welcome to Gen AI Summer School

We’re spending the summer teaching you the essentials you need to succeed in an AI-forward world.

Here’s the plan:

• May 30: Intro to large language models

• Today: Multimedia tools

• June 13: Guide to prompting

• June 20: Building a prompt library

• June 27: Building Custom GPTs

• July 11: Intro to reasoning models

• July 18: Intro to deep research

• July 26: AI ethics

• Aug. 1: Implementing Gen AI in your job

• Aug. 8: Implementing Gen AI at your company

• Aug. 15: The road to Artificial General Intelligence

• Aug. 22: Where Gen AI is headed

Multimedia Tools

In November 2022, we were surprised and amazed by the ability of the generative AI chat tool ChatGPT to write human-sounding text. And LLMs have only gotten better. But text was just the beginning of what these generative AI tools can do. As of mid-2025, generative AI multimedia tools have reached a new level of maturity and creative potential.

Now, we have generative AI tools that can write songs, create images, make videos and more. Let’s explore some examples of what these tools can do.

AI-generative images

Leaders in this space include ChatGPT, Midjourney (above), Ideogram and Google Imagen. These tools produce highly realistic and stylistically diverse images with detailed prompt understanding and editing capabilities.

AI-generative images can be used for creating marketing images, rapid prototyping, storyboards and more. But problems persist, including inconsistent styles, misspelled text and concerns about who holds IP rights to outputs.

The real advancement in this field came with Open AI released its 4o image model on March 25 of this year. This new model can create high quality images with great attention to details, including large amounts of accurate text. Here’s an example:

Midjourney, Ideogram and Imagen all followed with updates soon after, and this space continues to improve.

AI-generative audio

AI audio tools can be used to create music, clone voices and create synthetic voices. On the music side, tools like Suno and Udio can create entire songs with the lyrics and style you want using just a text prompt.

Elevenlabs has been a leader in this audio space. Elevenlabs offers a comprehensive suite of tools for text-to-speech (TTS), voice cloning, dubbing and audio editing. Text-to-speech is now almost indistinguishable from real human voices, with customizable tone, pacing, and emotion.

Another favorite tool, Descript, makes editing audio (and video) as easy as editing a text document.

AI-generative video

AI-generated video has advanced remarkably, transitioning from experimental outputs to tools capable of producing high-quality, realistic videos. Users can create AI-generative videos with just a text prompt or turn an image into a video with tools such as Veo, Sora, Pika and Runway.

The recent release of Google’s Veo 3 image model has made AI-generative images so lifelike that it’s difficult to trust that any video you see is real. Launched in May 2025, Veo 3 can generate high-definition videos with synchronized audio, including dialogue and ambient sounds, from simple text prompts. It's integrated into Google's Gemini app and is part of the AI Ultra subscription plan.

Tools like HeyGen, Hedra and Synthesia can make AI avatar videos - using pre-made avatars or images your upload. These tools are great for making quick TikTok-style talking head videos or company training videos. The recent baby podcast trend shows off what these tools can do.

Conclusion

Generative AI multimedia tools are no longer novelties. They are becoming everyday creative companions. While technical and ethical challenges remain, these tools are democratizing high-quality content creation and reshaping industries from advertising and entertainment to education and journalism.