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Like every company in the world, Pantone thinks you really need AI help to do your job. Unlike most companies, however, the people who created the esperanto of color matching might have actually developed something useful. Today, Pantone is announcing a generative AI model that can automatically create a color palette. It was trained in-house on six decades of proprietary color research papers and articles, which is now available in Pantone Connect’s extension for Adobe apps. I don’t know if designers will be into the idea of chatting with an AI to find their new product’s color palette, but according to Pantone, many are eagerly waiting for such a helper. “We observed that palettes are critical to designers and that creating palettes is a pain point for many designers in that it is, you know, time-consuming,” says Ora Solomon, Pantone’s VP of Product and Engineering. “There isn’t like a one-stop shop for inspiration. [Image: Pantone] The system works like any other chat-based AI: Write a prompt with whatever you have in mind and you will get a color palette ready to go, along with a rationale that explains the palette and links to support the AI suggestion. Once you have this document, which looks like an executive summary with a line of color swatches on the top, you can refine it with further prompts just like you do with most chat-based AIs. The genesis of the new Pantone Palette Generator was a practical alignment of corporate strategy and customer needs, Solomon tells me. “Pantone is owned by a parent company called Veralto. Veralto has a technology strategic partnership with Microsoft,” Solomon explains, setting the stage for the collaboration. [Image: Pantone] A first step Solomon says that they developed the tool around a chat experience because it seemed like the easiest, most popular way to interact with AI. “Chat-based assistants are becoming increasingly Be it in regular workflows, be it in just overall everyday life,” she says. The most significant aspect of the tool is not the interface, which looks exactly like any other LLM chat system, but the information that powers that LLM. “One thing I want to call out about these palettes is that these are essentially Pantone curated palettes,” Solomon says. “They are based on extensive, many years worth of research, of trend forecasting, of articles on data that our Pantone Color Institute has developed really since our inception. While Pantone trained the model using Microsoft’s tech stack, they only used their own data. “We have not gone to third-party sources for this,” Solomon says. “It was really important to us that the palettes that we generate are truly informed and based on our own data. [Image: Pantone] Solomon says that the Pantone model will be updated regularly as new research and articles come out. The next update, in fact, will happen when the famous Pantones Color of the Year comes out next month. This closed-data approach has already prompted a specific reaction from designers who experienced the tool at last weeks Adobe MAX, she says. “What particularly resonated was the fact that it is based on Pantone data and Pantone research,” she says. “And one particular user called it, ‘oh, so it’s ethical AI,’ which I thought was a very interesting reaction. As a beta, Solomon says this is just the beginning for the Palette Generator. “We will continue iterating on it based on how we see usage and what feedback we get from our users, she says. So go try it and see. The generator is now available to all Pantone Connect users, including those on the free tier.
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E-Commerce
Pinterest, a platform Futurism described as being strangled by AI slop, is not having a great day. The image-based social media company yesterday released its third-quarter earnings and, despite a 17% increase in revenue year-over-year (YOY), its shares took a tremendous tumble. Pinterest stock (NYSE: PINS) dropped about 20% through after-hours trading and into premarket on Wednesday, sitting at 18.6% down at the time of publishing. Well get into the AI slop factor, but first its worth noting that Pinterests revenue might have improved YOY, but it only just met Wall Streets expectations of $1.05 billion, according to consensus estimates cited by CNBC. Pinterest also missed earnings per share estimates of 42 cents, reaching an adjusted 38 cents instead. Meanwhile, the company predicted its fourth-quarter revenue to reach between $1.31 billion and $1.34 billion, not exactly comforting to investors when Wall Street had projected the highest end of that range. Pinterest also missed estimated figures for third-quarter sales in the U.S. and Canada ($786 million versus $799 million) and global average revenue per user ($1.78 versus $1.79), according to separate consensus estimates cited by CNBC. How does AI factor into Pinterests report? Pinterest released its third-quarter earnings only a couple weeks after rolling out new generative AI controls. Following a sea of user complaints, the new tools allow users to dial down orif they really wantup the level of AI-generated content on their feeds. Users had openly criticized the AI slop, with one person stating on X, I hate how Pinterest is just AI and ads now. Its just unusable.” The post received 21,000 likes. Despite the pushback, Pinterest CEO Bill Ready doubled down on AI in an earnings call, referring to it as the heart of the Pinterest experience. He even went so far as to call Pinterest an AI-powered shopping assistant, further centering AI at the company. The good news for Pinterest Pinterest saw a 12% increase YOY in global monthly active users, reaching 600 million. In July, the company shared that men were joining the platform at record rates, making up over one-third of users. As for the advertisements they see, Ready states that Pinterest has built a performance ads platform that is harnessing our users commercial intent and AI-driven automation to improve performance and simplify campaign creation for advertisers. He goes on to claim that advertiser outbound clicks have improved by 40% YOY. In response to a question from an analyst about Pinterest’s new AI controls, Ready further addressed the complex issue of identifying AI-generated content, claiming that no platform could catch 100% of uses. That’s why we say see less, not see none of, because the ability to precisely spot that is not perfect for any platform, he said on the call. He then made the case that AI will eventually follow in the footsteps of Photoshop and play at least a small part in editing most, if not all, content.
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E-Commerce
President Donald Trump is heading to Miami on Wednesday the anniversary of his reelection to a second term to speak to a forum of business leaders and global athletes about what he sees as his economic achievements.The Republican president’s speech to the America Business Forum will be a broad look at his economic agenda and how investments he has secured abroad help U.S. communities, according to a senior White House official. It’s a significant effort from Trump to put a positive spin on the economy at a time when Americans remain uneasy about the state of their finances and the cost of living and when major campaigns in Tuesday’s election were centered on affordability and the economy.The AP Voter Poll survey, which included more than 17,000 voters in New Jersey, Virginia, California and New York City, suggested the public was troubled by higher prices and fewer job opportunities despite Trump’s promises to tame inflation and unleash growth.In his speech, Trump will touch on deregulation, energy independence and oil prices, and affordability, said the White House official, who insisted on anonymity to preview the president’s address.Trump spent five days in Asia last week with stops in Malaysia, Japan and South Korea. He worked to ease trade tensions with Beijing in a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. In Tokyo, he promoted several major energy and tech projects for the U.S. that will be funded by Japan.Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said he thinks Trump’s recent travels “have been transformational in his presidency” and said his speech will be a highlight of the forum, which organizers have described as a more accessible version of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, or the Milken Institute Global Conference, which gathers the world’s elite for discussions on the economy.“This conference not only is creating this incredible collection of people, but it’s also creating them in a particular moment in time,” said Suarez, a Republican.Trump’s visit also highlights how the Miami area is playing a key role during his second term.Trump is set to host leaders of the world’s leading rich and developing economies at next year’s Group of 20 summit at his golf club at the nearby city of Doral, despite what critics say is the appearance of impropriety.Trump’s sons have taken over running the Trump Organization while their father is in the White House, and the president has insisted that his family’s business will not make any money by holding the summit at the golf club.The city is where Trump wants to locate his future presidential library, which is now facing a legal challenge over whether the plot of land in downtown Miami is being properly transferred. Miami is also one of the U.S. host cities for next year’s World Cup, which Trump has eagerly promoted as the kickoff to several major global sporting events for which the U.S. is playing host. Ensuring the success of the World Cup has been a top priority for the Trump administration.FIFA President Gianni Infantino, with whom Trump has developed a close friendship, is scheduled to speak at the Miami forum later Wednesday. This story has been corrected to show the name of the event is the America Business Forum, not the American Business Forum. Seung Min Kim, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
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