My 2024 Year-End Recap
The big decisions, favorite AI bots, and things to look forward to
The year 2024 is coming to an end. A few more days until the holidays, and I'll bid adieu to my colleagues to seek refuge in the mountains, enjoy the snow, and spend a magical Christmas with the most incredible people on earth - the family.
Before that, I'd like to send you, my dear readers, a personal note about the highlights of the year.
Migrating from Medium to Substack
This was the best decision of the year. Inspired by Dr. Mehmet @drmehmetyildiz and my growing frustration with how tech writers were treated on Medium, I decided to start over on Substack.
I’m grateful to Illumination Publication for assisting many tech writers, including myself, in learning and transitioning to the new platform. It wasn't a smooth journey, but it was completely worthwhile.
Substack has many awesome features for writers, like templating, support for video and audio files, recommendations, notes, and analytical tools.
Having said that, I plan to continue posting on both platforms because some of my readers still prefer Medium. It takes time to move everyone (>8K followers) to Substack gradually.
About Midjourney
A few months ago, I finally attained the prestigious status of 100K Club Superuser.
Haha!
As far as I know, it's uncommon to become a Midjourney user who has created over 100,000 images on the platform. It means I've crafted an incredible number of prompts, seen many beautiful and strange images, fixed countless abnormal fingers, and mastered many arcane techniques in Midjourney.
If I had to pick one of the best features of the year, it would be Style References (Sref). It's fascinating that an aesthetic style can be condensed into a beginner-friendly and simple code (or URL).
Midjourney is constantly evolving, introducing great features one after the other. It's exciting to see what they've planned for next year.
About Perplexity
Perplexity is still my favorite AI system for text, and I use it on a daily basis for everything from scientific and academic searches to finding interesting places to visit, managing and reusing my prompts, researching Midjourney keywords, and creating customized mini-reports that I can refer to.
Prior to ChatGPT Search, Perplexity was the most popular AI model with internet search capabilities. The competition has intensified because OpenAI has a giant-size market share and user base.
Furthermore, the GPT feature is extremely useful, and Claude's customized writing style feature is appealing, so Perplexity will need to release more "killer features" to remain competitive. "Shopping Cart" isn't one of them.
About Runway
I like AI videos. I was completely blown away the first time Runway animated one of my favorite Midjourney images. It was like giving 10 seconds of life to the AI characters I created.
With Sora coming to town (pun intended), more people will have the opportunity to experience the magic of converting still images to videos, which is fantastic. OpenAI is now the new and formidable competitor in the space of AI videos.
And then there's Midjourney, who has already announced that their video will "bring all the boys (and gals) to the yard, and they're like, it's better than yours." Damn right, it's better than yours!" But MJ had been talking about the video since the end of 2023. I hope they get it right next year, make it super awesome, and bring everyone over.
This year, Runway released several cool features, including Act-One, which is so cool that it makes other lip-sync technology look a bit awkward. They also have Advanced Camera Control, Expand Video, and so on. I hope they continue to innovate, surprise us with Hollywood-level features, and win the race in AI video.
About Work and Life
The excitement and rapid development of AI have not yet changed the veterinary world. Or not yet. Pet owners may use ChatGPT for health-related questions (like Dr. Google), but veterinarians are still the ones who give professional advice. Furthermore, there is a lot of misinformation due to AI hallucination, so beware!
One interesting observation is that many colleagues regard the use of AI, particularly ChatGPT or Claude, as "cheating." It's the same as taking a shortcut or putting in minimal effort to complete a task. It's not that we aren't allowed to use Gen AI at work, but people don't want to talk about it openly for fear of being perceived as slack.
Anyway, most veterinarians I know are not concerned that robots will replace them anytime soon. My cat thinks the same way. Ask the bot to pill a cat, and you'll see why. Oh, we did have robotic pets in the past, but guess who is still around today.
For me, 2024 was a tumultuous year filled with many life changes. But it's all good. The mountain, the snow, and the wonderful people will heal me in no time, and I'll spring back to life in 2025.
Wishlist for 2025
My next year's goal is to grow the number of subscribers to the Geeky Curiosity newsletter.
My wishlist includes improving the creative workflow and finding a sweet balance with my full-time job so that I can spend more time studying and researching AI. I want to write and share what I learned with you.
I guess the most important aspect is to make the whole process enjoyable. I’m making good progress. With your support, I hope to get there soon.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year!
Geeky Animals
I'm the Midjourney Expert, having created over 100,000 images on the platform and written about Midjourney's technical aspects since version 5.0. I invented new techniques, hacks, and secret arcane methods. Join my community, and I’ll share everything I know with you.
I'm also a veterinarian in real life. In case you're wondering :-)
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