The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the past months has brought forth many great tools and resources that would surely help bring excitement to our everyday lives.

In this blog, I have listed the top 7 AI technologies in 2023 that are worth exploring to stay ahead in the AI trend.

Let's check them out one by one.

# 1. ChatGPT (Free/Premium)

One of the greatest breakthroughs in AI technology in 2023 is the development of ChatGPT.

It gave us an idea about the immense potential of AI and offers us a glimpse of the future that awaits us through its continuous development.

The free version of ChatGPT is 3.5, while the paid or premium version is GPT-4. However, you can still explore the potential of ChatGPT by using the ChatGPT-3.5 version.

## What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is basically a chatbot. You can ask anything to it and it will answer you within its capabilities.

To truly get to know someone, you typically ask that person directly, right? So, I'll ask ChatGPT the question.

![What are you chatGPT](https://pub-9c57eec207bf46e8acf2f916d8ea29e7.r2.dev/solodevhub/8-ai-tech/chatgpt-what-are-you.webp)

*Pretty technical but with a human-like answer, right?*

You can access and see its power by visiting this link: [ChatGPT](https://chat.openai.com/auth/login).

Please note that you need to create an account first in order to converse with ChatGPT.


# 2. Midjourney (Paid)

Midjourney is an AI art generator. 

You type in a prompt and it will generate an image based on the prompt you entered.

For instance, I want to generate an anime version of the popular scientist, Albert Einstein.

I would type the prompt like this:

```
Albert Einstein as an anime character, Hayao Miyazaki --ar 16:9 --niji 5
```

And Midjourney would generate me an image like this: 

![image](https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1154204626413957130/1161153545475723324/inamoka._Albert_Einstein_as_an_anime_character_Hayao_Miyazaki_7cccaa91-3cfa-4950-a292-c7785fc95609.png?ex=65374382&is=6524ce82&hm=c1c6927c7942547546847f0c24ef389a52c4f3de7c370f6385afa81d8a5fa356&=&width=835&height=468)

*Pretty cool, right?*

Before, Midjourney AI has a free trial for new users, however it was removed due to improper use.

Now, you need to pay for subscription in order to generate images.

Anyway, to access Midjourney AI, you need to have Discord app installed on your PC or mobile phone. Midjourney is only available as a Discord server.

To acces and join Midjourney, simply visit their [homepage](https://www.midjourney.com/home/?callbackUrl=%2Fapp%2F), and click `Join the Beta` button in their site.


# 3. Elevenlabs (Free/Premium)

It is a text-to-speech platform, which means if you type a text in any language like English, Japanese, Russian etc., Elevenlabs will generate a human-like speech based on your entered text. 

For instance, I want to convert the following text to a human-like voice.

```
I think, therefore I am.
```

Elevenlabs will generate an audio file like so:

<audio src="https://pub-9c57eec207bf46e8acf2f916d8ea29e7.r2.dev/solodevhub/8-ai-tech/I_think_therefore_I_am.mp3" controls></audio>

It has also a voice cloning feature, although it can only be accessed by premium users.

Elevenlabs has a generous free tier if you want to test their AI services.

You can try their service in here: https://elevenlabs.io/

# 4. Studio D-ID (Free/Premium)

This one here is used by content creators to generate creative videos and memes!

Studio D-ID is an AI platform that generates a talking avatar based on the input text or audio.

You can opt for built-in avatars in their platform or upload your own image to create the avatar.

You must sign up first in order to use their service. They give 20 credits to try their service. Each credit is usually equal to one generated video but if the video you are trying to generate is longer than 15 seconds, it will cost 2 credits.

If your credit reaches 0, you will not be able to generate a new video. You now have to avail their subscription.

To demonstrate the power of Studio D-ID, check out the video I generated below.

[![Studio D-ID Demo Video](https://img.youtube.com/vi/rUewBTDc5B4/mqdefault.jpg)](https://youtu.be/rUewBTDc5B4)

Try Studio D-ID here: https://studio.d-id.com/

# 5. SeaArt (Free)

Now this is a platform I personally use to generate realistic version of anime characters.

SeaArt is an online service that lets you generate images just like Midjourney. The difference is, it's free to use

It uses stable diffusion technology to create high-quality images from any text input.

Your registered account will be given 200 stamina which refresh and resets daily. This stamina is used to generate an image.

The good thing about SeaArt is that you can use a plethora of `Model` and `LoRa` to generate awesome images. Further, you can control the image size of the output you want, which is very helpful especially if you want to share your images in different devices where aspect ratio varies.

To demonstrate the power of SeaArt, let's say I want to make a realistic version of Erza Scarlet from the anime Fairy Tail.

The text prompt that I will enter will be:

```
((scarlet hair)), ((bright red hair)), long hair, wears silver armor, beautiful, girl, 19 year old, beauty, half body portrait, 1, slender
```

The Model that I will choose is `henmix_real v4.0`, and I will leave the `LoRa` option empty. Then, I'll set the `Image Mode` to `High Quality`. As for the `Image Size`, let's say I want to publish the output image to YouTube; I will set the aspect ratio to `16:9`.

Then for the `Advanced Config`, make sure that the negative prompt is populated. If it's empty, copy the negative prompt that I use:

```
verybadimagenegative_v1.3, ng_deepnegative_v1_75t, (ugly face:0.8),cross-eyed,sketches, (worst quality:2), (low quality:2), (normal quality:2), lowres, normal quality, ((monochrome)), ((grayscale)), skin spots, acnes, skin blemishes, bad anatomy, DeepNegative, facing away, tilted head, {Multiple people}, lowres, bad anatomy, bad hands, text, error, missing fingers, extra digit, fewer digits, cropped, worstquality, low quality, normal quality, jpegartifacts, signature, watermark, username, blurry, bad feet, cropped, poorly drawn hands, poorly drawn face, mutation, deformed, worst quality, low quality, normal quality, jpeg artifacts, signature, watermark, extra fingers, fewer digits, extra limbs, extra arms,extra legs, malformed limbs, fused fingers, too many fingers, long neck, cross-eyed,mutated hands, polar lowres, bad body, bad proportions, gross proportions, text, error, missing fingers, missing arms, missing legs, extra digit, extra arms, extra leg, extra foot, ((repeating hair))
```

Finally, generate the image by pressing enter or clicking the arrow-like button near the text prompt.

In a matter of seconds, the output image will be something like this:

![realistic version of Erza Scarlet](https://pub-9c57eec207bf46e8acf2f916d8ea29e7.r2.dev/solodevhub/8-ai-tech/Erza_Scarlet.webp)

*Awesome!*

Anyway, I strongly suggest you try it yourself to see how great this platform is. You can visit the site here: https://www.seaart.ai/.

# 6. Easy Diffusion (Free)

Easy Diffusion is a very intuitive AI service that lets you generate images for absolutely free of charge.

Another good thing about Easy Diffusion is that it generates an image in a matter of seconds. It's extremely fast.

Also, you can modify the image based on some presets available. For instance, you can add some visual style like 2D, anime, digital art and many more.

For example, I want to make a portrait of Spiderman. 

In the `Enter Prompt` area, I will enter the following:

```
Spiderman, masterpiece, symmetrical eyes, cinematic lighting, highly detailed, smooth, sharp focus, vibrant colors, insanely detailed, photorealistic, 8k, exquisite, slick, Cinematography, Highly Detailed, Highly Realistic, hyperrealism, sharp focus, sharp, elegant, the most beautiful image ever seen, post processing, picture of the day, ambient lighting
```

Then for the `Negative Prompt`, like so:

```
ugly, tiling, poorly drawn hands, poorly drawn feet, poorly drawn face, out of frame, extra limbs, disfigured, deformed, body out of frame, blurry, bad anatomy, blurred, watermark, grainy, signature, cut off, draft, amateur, multiple, gross, weird, uneven, furnishing, decorating, decoration, furniture, text, poor, low, basic, worst, juvenile, unprofessional, failure, crayon, oil, label, thousand hands
```

Click the `+Image Modifiers` button, this will open a small window where we can add different image settings that we want.

In the `+Visual Style`, I want to choose `Digital Art`, for the `+Artist`, let's choose `Artstation` and finally in `+CGI Rendering`, pick `Detailed Render`.

That's pretty much it. Click the `Make Image` button. The output image will be something like this:

![portrait of spiderman](https://pub-9c57eec207bf46e8acf2f916d8ea29e7.r2.dev/solodevhub/8-ai-tech/spiderman.webp)

*Cool!*

Check out the website here: https://stablediffusion.gigantic.work/.

The downside of it is I can't seem to change the output image size. The generated aspect ratio is always 1:1 or a square in 1024x1024 pixels.

If you want, you can also install it in your local computer through this Github repository: https://github.com/easydiffusion/easydiffusion.

Note that your computer should have good specs especially the graphics card in order to use stable diffusion effectively. 

# 7. Gen-2 by Runway (Free/Premium)

Gen-2 by Runway is an AI platform that generates a video based on the user's entered text, image or even video clip.

Let's say I want to generate a video from the text prompt below:

```
a mushroom getting bigger and glowing with different colors at night
```

Gen-2 will generate a 4-second video based on my text input like so:

<video width="320" height="240" controls>
  <source src="https://pub-9c57eec207bf46e8acf2f916d8ea29e7.r2.dev/solodevhub/8-ai-tech/Gen-2-mushroom-glowing-video.mp4" type="video/mp4">
</video>

*Pretty awesome!*

Now, let's try using image as an input. Let's use the image of Erza Scarlet that we generated before.

Let's upload the image to Gen-2 and generate the video. Note that you can also add a text prompt along with the image input. Let's add a simple text prompt like so:

```
hair moving
```

The generated output by Gen-2 will be like this:

<video width="320" height="240" controls>
  <source src="https://pub-9c57eec207bf46e8acf2f916d8ea29e7.r2.dev/solodevhub/8-ai-tech/Gen2-Erza-Moving-hair.mp4" type="video/mp4">
</video>

Try Gen-2 by Runway by visiting this link: https://research.runwayml.com/gen2

# Conclusion

The top 7 AI technologies that you must certainly check out in 2023 are ChatGPT, Midjourney, Elevenlabs, Studio D-ID, SeaArt, Easy Diffusion, and Gen-2 by Runway.

Hopefully, these AI technologies will bring in fun and help you stay ahead of the curve.

Have you tried any of these technology? Drop a comment below about what you think and feel about these tools.