Mixkit, by Envato, is a platform that provides access to a huge library of free assets to use in your multimedia projects. These multimedia materials include free ...

Mixkit – Free Sound Effects and Video Clips for Your Multimedia Projects

Aside from a very affordable subscription model, Envato also includes free alternatives through MixKit and Reshot, which is most welcome, but it would be nice if all divisions were better integrated with each other. Still, it’s well worth checking out.

Envato Elements review

Here we're exploring the various options to find and use stock media through Envato Elements, and its MixKit and Reshot companion platforms. You can try Envato Elements by clicking here A single ...

Top “ Sound Effects Software Market ” Size 2023 Key players Profiled in the Report are [, Sound Ideas, Farrago, SmartSound, Sound Bible, BOOM Library, Soundly, Mixkit, Bfxr, Pro Sound EffectsÂ®, Audio Network,

2023 | Sound Effects Software Market Size, Growth and Industry Forecast 2028

Looking for a way to hone your filmmaking or video editing skills but don't have anything to practice with? These sites have what you need.

6 Practice Footage Resources for Different Types of Video Editors

Music from Mixkit. Just a nice relaxing journey. The app used to create the video is in beta testing at the moment but it is improving a great deal. I really wish it had more control over the music and the transitions,

Sharing some of my creative efforts with PlazmapunkAI and Midjourney.

2023 Sound Effects Software Market Size, Growth | Global Industry Trends [2029]

What is the Sound Effects Software market growth? Sound Effects Software Market Size is projected to Reach Multimillion USD by 2029, In comparison to 2023, at unexpected CAGR during the forecast Period 2023-2029.

Sound Effects Software Market Size and Forecast till 2029

Sound Effects Software Market Premium Research Report Forecast 2023 To 2029

When it comes to hunting down free Zoom video backgrounds, the “you get what you pay for” mantra often holds true. However, these sites offer up actually good, actually free videos that make for worthwhile inclusions into the Virtual Backgrounds section of your Zoom software.

These 4 sites offer the best free Zoom video backgrounds

Mixkit

mixkit

You might have heard that content is the king, and videos work best for catching the attention of the audience – and that’s very true for product-led companies, including startups. Videos can be worth a thousand words when it comes to explaining the concept of a product, illustrating its typical use cases and building a compelling brand narrative. They can be made short, catchy, emotional and even viral (if you get really lucky!). Some reasons to consider investing in video content for your startup ✅ If you are an early-stage startup and your product prototype is still in development, a video explaining your product’s use case and features can complement your pitch deck and catch the attention of potential investors ✅ If you exhibit at trade shows and tech conferences for startups (such as WebSummit, Collision and others), playing a product video on your screen will guarantee you more people stopping by your booth to learn more ✅ Putting a video reflecting your company’s mission and products on your website and social media channels will help your potential clients and partners instantly get the idea of what the value of your innovation is ✅ A video is a great way to showcase your team – it’s always great to see the faces behind the brand, and in a startup, a team plays a major role in gaining credibility from investors ✅ Short explainer videos for social media help raise awareness about the issues you are tackling and help your audience learn more about how your product deals with them How to Make Video Content on a Startup Budget The problem with videos is that they can often be either really expensive or utterly complicated to make. The easiest way to have them produced is to hire a marketing agency and trust them to figure things out for you. Obviously, the more content you want and the higher quality you expect, the more it will cost – a professional 2-3 minute long video with original footage, professional color correction and graphics will cost anything from $10.000. If you are looking for professional cinematic quality and original concepts resembling those viral videos of Coca-Cola and Nike, multiply these figures by a few times. Now, if your startup is still working its way towards financial profitability, you may wonder if there is a way for you to benefit from multimedia content without having to splash the cash. Bad news: no content is free. The less money you are willing to spend, the more time – yours or your team’s – you’ll have to invest. Good news: there are different ways to produce outstanding video content for a very reasonable cost. Here are some ways to approach this task. Stock Videos + Simple Graphics: Complete DIY This may be the easiest and cheapest way to produce video content by yourself. What you really need to put some effort into is writing a sharp, punchy script for one minute or slightly more. Write in short, clear, and concise sentences that are easy to read – site your script out loud to make sure it works. Don’t forget to underline the key messages (e.g. mission statement, main features, figures) – they’ll be your most important graphic titles. Next, put the script into a table of two columns: one for the lines and the other one for the visuals. Decide which visuals you’ll need to illustrate your script: should there be people with smartphones? Families enjoying their time out in the park? Patients receiving treatment in the hospital? Once you’re clear with the visuals, start searching for them in video stock repositories: Shutterstock, Adobe, MixKit – there are tons of them out there, so you’ll most likely find what you’re looking for. Once you’re done gathering your footage, use any video editor of your choice to put it together with the titles. You can even use ready-made templates for ads and explainers – some free online editors like Fastreel or Kapwing offer you this option. Stick to your brand book colors and fonts to keep your content consistent in style. Whenever it’s not possible, opt for simple minimalistic fonts and backgrounds. Assembling videos from stock footage can be particularly handy when your product is aimed at a sensitive industry such as healthcare: filming real patients is always a challenge and an ethical dilemma. A video like this can be easily assembled from stock material: https://youtu.be/JpC9jEcG8lI Make an Animated Product Video Animated videos are one of the most fun and engaging ways to describe your products and provide clear use case illustrations. However, producing quality animation may be very costly – unless you know a couple of alternative ways to handle it. First, it’s worth starting with writing a script – in a similar way as you would do for a simple DYI video. However, you can definitely be more creative in the visuals’ description – with the power of animation, you can picture almost anything. Next, here comes the realization. One option is to use programs for making your own animation with various readily available instruments like Vyond or Animaker. You can build your own characters and scenes, and animate them the way you like: make them do different activities, add speech bubbles to create dialogues, and so on. The drawback of this approach is that it will take you quite some time to do it all by yourself – remember you’ll have to take care of each character, the setting around them and their movement! Besides, you will be limited by the animation styles offered by the platform – and they definitely won’t be original, as these programs are available to everyone. You might end up seeing similar characters in someone else’s product videos. So it might not be an optimal way to make major product presentation videos – but with explainer videos for your customers, this instrument will work just fine. Here’s a sample of what you can do with Vyond: https://youtu.be/s0tJx8FPifs The other option is to hire a professional animator or a studio. All of them charge differently, so it’s worth asking around for recommendations and talking to different contractors before making a choice. Mind that the cheapest service doesn’t guarantee decent quality, so always ask for portfolio examples and see if this contractor’s animation styles resonate with you. One of the best ways to gather a reasonable number of options is to ask for advice on LinkedIn with relevant tags (such as #animation): eventually, you should end up with a good dozen of offers. Don’t be afraid to negotiate the price and clearly articulate your limits: sometimes even prestigious studios working with big international clients can do huge discounts – just because they liked your project. Off to practical examples: this video was done by a British studio working with major international clients like Gucci and Papa John’s for an exceptionally startup-friendly check. It was used as a substitute for a non-existent product demo at the WebSummit conference, and caught the attention of big pharma players including AstraZeneca and Roche: https://youtu.be/ey1r0-3iLms Make a Cinematic Product Video Compelling storytelling video pieces often constitute the core of marketing campaigns by world-famous brands like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and so on. And while you may not be able to afford something similar on a startup budget, you can still aim for producing something powerful and thought-provoking. Ideally, you should be able to draft a description of the story you want to project in your video, or even a basic storyboard reflecting how exactly your product will appear in it and what role it will be playing in the characters’ lives. If you are struggling to come up with something usable, write down a few detailed use case scenarios. One of them could serve as a story for your script. Or you can even mix and match a few of them. Or just leave them for someone more professional to come up with a more creative solution – let’s move on to finding them. Next, you need someone to shoot and edit your story. Unless you have some confident skills in video production, it’s best to ask someone professional to help you with it – yes, smartphone videography is a thing, but you still need an eye for that. Hiring a full-cycle production studio will cost you an arm and a leg, but you don’t necessarily need one. First, search through local film school communities to see if you can find students looking for practice projects: you might find affordable options there. Quite often they are allowed to use their university filming equipment for free or for reasonable money, so you’ll be able to save on that, too. Another option is, again, to ask around for recommendations and post on social media. You might find indie enthusiasts who would be willing to help you out with the project within your budget – and the end result may look very professional! Don’t be shy to ask around for help: get your friends and colleagues to star in the video, borrow the things you need or buy them used, and try to arrange your filming locations for free. Remember that it’s delegating that costs. If you can do most of the things by yourself – find the venues, cast the actors (if you need them), assist the camera person, hold the lights – you will significantly cut the check of your production. For example, this video cost under $5000 in total: https://youtu.be/GreLiDBfWc4 Summary: a Checklist for Your Startup Videos Here is a simple checklist that you can go over every time you’re thinking of adding some video content to your promo materials. Step 1. Identify your need. Decide why you want to make a video, which platforms it will go on, and what is the expected outcome that you’re trying to achieve. Are you targeting community engagement, sales leads, investment opportunities, or something else? Is the video the right type of content for achieving this effect? If yes, move on to the next step. Step 2. Decide on the budget range. Figure out your financial limits to define what you can and cannot afford. A target budget would also make it easier for you to negotiate the price with the specialists you’d be considering for the project. Step 3. Draft a project description. The more precise you make it, the easier it is to estimate the costs and picture the result you are expecting. Get your team’s feedback before moving on. Step 4. Ask for recommendations. It’s always safer to work with someone who has done a great service to people you know. If you are making the video by yourself, there’s no harm in asking around for software advice. Step 5. Specify the tasks. Have thorough chats with your potential animators or video makers to make sure you are on the same page, outline the details of the tasks and define your agreements. If you are the editor, make sure it has been signed off by all founders. Step 6. Push the project into production. Prepare everything that’s needed from your side – product images and screen captures, logos, locations, actors – whatever your project requires. Step 7. Control. It doesn’t matter if you are doing everything by yourself or have a team making the video for you – to ensure the best result, you need to constantly oversee what is being done and give (or receive and apply) feedback. Step 8. Sign off. Once you are happy with the result, get your team to review it and apply the final changes. Done! Now you can show your product video to the world, showcase it at tech events, and send it to your potential investors. Fingers crossed it will be worth the effort!

How to Tell Your Product’s Story in Compelling Visuals: Advice for Startups on a Budget

Having a blog to write and share our knowledge on the internet is essential for visibility and making us known in our field as an authority on a subject. This article will teach you how to build a blog that has dynamic pages for each article. Table of Contents Prerequisites Getting Started What is Nuxt? What is Nuxt Content? What is Cloudinary? Creating a Blog with Nuxt Creating the Blog Notes Fetching the Posts Creating Dynamic Pages Final Thoughts Learn More To follow along, view the codebase and its repo on and the for reference. GitHub demo Prerequisites The following are required to complete this tutorial: Cloudinary account. is free Sign up Basic knowledge of JavaScript Familiarity with Vue Getting Started To get started, open up the terminal and run the command: npx create-nuxt-app blog-for-developers The command above will kick off a command-line interface (CLI) prompt that will allow us to configure various aspects of our project. Now that the boilerplate is set up with all the files and folders, let’s run the development server which is accessible on inside the project. http://localhost:3000 # change directory to project folder cd blog-for-developers # start the development environment npm run dev NuxtJS is an open-source intuitive Vue framework that allows us to build user interfaces, making web development simple and powerful. What is Nuxt? During the initial setup of this project, we selected the Nuxt content module. This module lets us use our codebase as a Git-based headless CMS to access markdown, JSON, YAML, XML, and even CSV files through an API-like interface. With this module , it will inject the instance globally in our project to access it anywhere in a project. What is Nuxt Content? @nuxt/content $content Cloudinary is a cloud-service image and video management tool for web and mobile applications. With Cloudinary, we can upload, create, and manage digital experiences across any browser and device. What is Cloudinary? Creating a Blog with Nuxt Before we create the content for the blog in markdown using Nuxt content, let’s first create the landing page for the blog that will include the navigation links and some text. In the , we can add our favorite font to the head section and use a particular font family as seen below: Add Font Style nuxt.config.js file The above code block will have no effect on the page until we write the CSS that will use the font. Now, add the following code to the which will include the navigation links and some text on the home page. Remove the component, . pages/index.vue <Tutorial /> <template> <section class =" showcase "> < header > < h2 class =" logo "> < nuxt - link to ="/"> ecosurf </ nuxt - link > </ h2 > < nav class =" nav desktop "> < ul > < li class =" nav__list "> < nuxt - link to ="/ blogs "> Stories </ nuxt - link > </ li > </ ul > </ nav > </ header > < video autoplay loop muted src =" https: // res . cloudinary . com / terieyenike / video / upload / v1651393236 / mixkit - tropical - island - landscape - view - 4692 - large_yanvml . mp4 "></ video > < div class =" overlay "></ div > < div class =" text "> < h2 data - type =" uppercase " class =" stroke "> Never Stop </ h2 > < h3 data - type =" uppercase "> Exploring The World </ h3 > < p > View of the tropical island landscape, from a hill with houses, palm trees and many trees, and in the distance the hills that surround the sea, on a sunny day . </ p > </ div > < ul class =" social "> < li > < a href =" https: // twitter . com / terieyenike " rel =" noopener noreferrer " target =" _blank ">< img alt =" twitter profile " src =" https: // i . ibb . co / Wnxq2Nq / twitter . png "/></ a > </ li > < li > < a href =" https: // instagram . com / terieyenike " rel =" noopener noreferrer " target =" _blank ">< img alt =" instagram profile " src =" https: // i . ibb . co / ySwtH4B / instagram . png "/></ a > </ li > </ ul > </ section > </ template > In the above code block, we included a with the source of the video stored in Cloudinary with attributes such as autoplay, loop, and muted that mute the video when it loads. To obtain the media stored in Cloudinary, we upload our desired video to the media library tab. Thereafter, copy the URL which will be attached to the of the . <video> src <video> Also, we referenced the links in the navigation header with the component to both the home and the routes which we will create to view all our blogs. To make sure our page is styled with CSS, create a folder at the root of the project, , and include the following from this . In the file, update the file to include the created CSS file with the following: nuxt-link / /blogs assets/styles/main.css gist nuxt.config.js ... ...
 } export default { css : [ '@/assets/styles/main.css' ], Here is what our page should look like: Creating the Blog Notes To build our blog site, we need to have content to display and render on the page. First, create a directory and then the blog directory that will contain all the markdown files. Writing all the content in markdown supports a lot of the markdown syntax standards such as the headings, links, and code blocks with syntax highlighting for different programming languages. PS: The Nuxt content utilizes the content folder to store all the files. Here’s an example of a markdown file in the content directory. Add the following to the file . /blogs content content/blogs/egghead.md title: Egghead author: Teri Eyenike
    description: All we need to do is open up our terminal and run the command npm install @nuxt/content. Once it's installed, you'll see that inside of our package.json, we see our Nuxt Content module. Next, to finalize the setup, let's go ahead and open up our nuxt.config.js, and let's go ahead and scroll down to the section that's labeled Modules.
    date: May 2, 2021
    publishOn: 2021-05-02T00:00:00
    tags: ["learning", "platform"]
 --- --- cover _image: https://res.cloudinary.com/terieyenike/image/upload/v1651446130/pexels-jeremy-bishop-8241100_ oklfpe.jpg [ Egghead ]( https://www.egghead.io ) is a great platform for developers to enhance their skills!  Markdown files have the ability to add metadata using the concept of front matter which is denoted with the triple-dash syntax at the start and stop of the front matter. The metadata, is what is displayed to readers like the time of publication and excerpt of the blog content, is what is displayed to readers. Other various properties can be included. PS: Inside of the front matter, it uses the YAML syntax. To fetch the posts for the blog page, let’s create a new route under . Create a folder, called blogs, and in there create file for the directory, blogs. Next, copy and add the following code to the file to display the rendered markdown files. Fetching the Posts pages index.vue pages/blogs/index.vue <template> </template> // pages/blogs/index.vue < main > < header > < h2 class = "logo" > < nuxt-link to = "/" > ecosurf </ nuxt-link > </ h2 > < nav class = "nav desktop" > < ul > < li class = "nav__list" > < nuxt-link to = "/blogs" > Stories </ nuxt-link > </ li > </ ul > </ nav > </ header > < div class = "container section" > < div class = "container__grid" > < div v-for = "blog in blogs" :key = "blog.slug + blog.createdAt" class = "card" > < img :src = "blog.cover_image" alt = "blog photographs" /> < div class = "pad__card" > < div class = "author" > < p class = "author__name" > {{ blog.author }} </ p > < span > | </ span > < p > {{ blog.date }} </ p > </ div > < h2 class = "title" > {{ blog.title }} </ h2 > < p > {{ blog.description.substring(0, 150) }}... </ p > < button > < nuxt-link :to = "`/blogs/${blog.slug}`" > Read More </ nuxt-link > </ button > </ div > </ div > </ div > </ div > </ main > < script > export default { async asyncData ( {$content} ) { const blogs = await $content( "blogs" ).sortBy( "publishOn" , "desc" ).fetch() return { blogs } }, head ( ) { return { title : "Read interesting stories as a nomad" , meta : [ { hid : 'description' , name : 'description' , content : 'Daily and juicy content as you learn, work, and relax. WFH' } ] } } } </ script > < style scoped > header { background : #111111 ; position : unset; } .container { width : 85% ; max-width : 75rem ; margin -inline: auto; } .section { padding : 3em 0 ; } .container__grid { display : grid; gap: 2em ; grid-template- columns : repeat (auto-fit, minmax ( 19rem , 1 fr)); } .card { background : #f0f7f4 ; box-shadow : 0px 4px 3px rgba ( 0 , 0 , 0 , 0.1 ); border-radius : 5px ; } .card img { object-fit : cover; border-top-left-radius : 5px ; border-top-right-radius : 5px ; width : 100% } .pad__card { padding : 2em ; } .author { display : flex; align-items : center; } .author , .title { margin-bottom : 1em ; } .author span { margin : 0 0.3em ; } .author__name { text-transform : capitalize; } button { border : unset; padding : 1em 2em ; margin-top : 2em ; background : #0D5159 ; font-weight : 700 ; cursor : pointer; } button a { color : #fff ; } </ style > The code block above does the following: : used to generate our page from Nuxt as it generates individual files statically to users. We pass in the method where the blog notes are stored, the function, and the method. asyncData $content sortBy() fetch : takes two parameters, (sort it by date) and the desc attributes on how you want the content to appear based on the most recent content published sortBy() publishOn To make each blog article dynamic, we will assign it to a URL, where it’s the blog slug on the Read more button using the component. /blogs/ <nuxt-link> The last step for viewing the snippet of the rendered posts from the content directory is to use the v-for directive and loop over the blogs and render each article in a card. Rendering the posts Here is what the blog page should look like now: Creating Dynamic Pages Now let’s create pages for each blog post to have dynamic URL routes. In Nuxt, to create dynamic pages, we append an underscore before the .vue file name so as not to make the URL hardcoded. We then create the file under the blogs directory and add the following code: _slug.vue <template> </template> // pages/blogs/_slug.vue < main > < header > < h2 class = "logo" > < nuxt-link to = "/" > ecosurf </ nuxt-link > </ h2 > < nav class = "nav desktop" > < ul > < li class = "nav__list" > < nuxt-link to = "/blogs" > Stories </ nuxt-link > </ li > </ ul > </ nav > </ header > < div class = "container" > < div class = "return" > < nuxt-link to = "/" > < img alt = "back to home" src = "/home.png" /> </ nuxt-link > < span > / </ span > < nuxt-link to = "/blogs" > Blog </ nuxt-link > < span > / </ span > < p > {{ note.title.substring(0, 15) }}... </ p > </ div > < section > < h1 > {{ note.title }} </ h1 > < nuxt-content :document = "note" cla /> </ section > </ div > </ main > < script > export default { async asyncData ( {$content, route} ) { const note = await $content( `blogs/ ${route.params.slug} ` ).fetch() return { note } } } </ script > < style scoped > header { background : #111111 ; position : unset; } .container { width : 85% ; max-width : 75rem ; margin -inline: auto; } section { padding-bottom : 2em ; } .return { display : flex; margin : 1.5em 0 ; } .return img { width : 20px ; height : 20px ; } .return span { margin : 0 1em ; } h1 { margin-bottom : 1em } </ style > This block of code does the following: : We use the content to fetch a specific file from the directory blogs using the route parameter and the slug which will map to our actual file name ${route.params.slug} To render the markdown as actual content defined in the markdown file, we use the nuxt-content component and pass the prop of the with the entire object document note : Defining the scoped to the style element make sure that the styling only applies to a specific page scoped Final Thoughts The creation of a blog is great when you want to share your thoughts with a wider audience and Nuxt has provided us with a way to do so in this article. There are still other features we can still explore to make sure we have a robust blog website. Learn More Nuxt content Nuxt documentation Try out the live demo

How to Build Your Own Blog with Nuxt, Nuxt Content, and Cloudinary

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Do You Know How to Fail Fast With Your Next Idea?

The Divine Alchemy of Mastery in Digital Design I went to sleep like a guilty pup that had ruined her owner’s shoes. I didn’t successfully execute the detailed planning that was made for the day. That morning, “ were the words that were written all over the whiteboard, and typed on the ToDoist app in bold font. ‘’Who does that? Which crazy person thinks that’s feasible?’’ I asked myself. Although the goal was not to accomplish what was written on the whiteboard in a single day, it was a goal that was set in my mind’s stone (yes, those exist) for an extended time. Master design’’ Somewhere in the North-Western Hemisphere, Alan Cooper, Bret Victor, and other pioneer scientists are trying to derive logic out of this. Nobody can design, can they? That too, digital design. All that there are, are strong opinions backed by obscure data that are to be placed in the navigable sections of the brain so one can reach, and pick out the prescribed method of research, and execute with heed. When the brain is not capable enough, the internet provides for the insufficiency. It only takes a bit of googling, memorizing, and practising skills. I am not saying it is easy but you get the drift. MASTER Does reading a dozen, listening to a good deal, and applying the principles hastily at work ensure mastery? Wait, no. Of course not. Shakespeare knew plenty of words, and how to pronounce them. Yet, only when he created , and , did he encounter a tinge of mastery within himself, or that I surmise. It's true that he did learn how to write sentences from his peers, but The Sonnets The Hamlet to make the string of words alluring was his ingenuity. In the world of beg, borrow, , and “ ”, Should I be convinced that every design-related video I watch, every footnote I read, and every hyperlink to an artwork I find inspiration from, will result in mastery towards the end? steal creativity is a remix where, and how does one discover mastery ? When I was losing my head, there was a special cosmic ordering waiting to happen. I heard from a dear friend that a guy from the Nordics knew the answer to this very deep, perplexing question; that he is arriving at the city of my dwelling, to address a crowd in a conference hall on a topic that is unrelated (I gather he is an artist with trust issues). My dear friend told me that she had convinced her famed boss, and arranged for me a 15 min private chat with the Nordic guy. And that he is willing to to me the answer to the mastery question (looks like he finds my pertinence to be trustworthy or such). reveal So I’m meeting this guy tomorrow. I am as excited as (which was on the day of her birth). when Anthony Bourdain found his eternal love for food, when Larry David diagnosed humor in his bones, when Jain imagined the tune of Makeba, and when Chimamanda Ngozi first breathed her feminist air I woke up early, packed my bag with a notepad, and a pen, and scurried to the hall. There he was, a tall guy, who looked effortlessly stylish, with an aura of wisdom that I haven’t felt anyone else possess. Now I am in the hall with him. Only the two of us. The 15 mins I was waiting for is right here. As soon as we introduce ourselves, he starts talking. He says, ‘’I see you want to know the secret to mastery. I will tell you all about it. But you know, once I tell you everything, and then you start following what I have just told you, you have not really mastered how to think through mastery. But I guess that’s alright. Inspiration comes from borrowed ideas. Doesn’t it?” As soon as I heard those words, something happened. My brain tuned itself out entirely. I could see that his mouth was moving but I could hear nothing. I think he was telling me about how to attain mastery, I was not sure. Just not to offend him, I sporadically said, “Oh! Wow… That’s what it is. Well done. That’s cool.” After what seemed to be like an eternity (15 mins), I found his mouth stop operating. That’s when my brain decided to tune back in. My attention came back to my body. I could see him smile full-on, and tell me that I was the first person to whom he revealed his mastery formula. I didn’t have it in me to tell him that I zoned out completely. That I heard nothing at all. I finally gave him a handshake along with a sloppy fist bump, trying to show my solidarity and walked away from the hall. That night, I wasn’t sure if I could sleep. Yet I did. I slept pretty well. I realized that although I want to know how mastery can be attained, I wanted to figure it out my way. I didn’t want to borrow the Nordic guy’s idea of mastery. I wanted to remain for me to uncover. I wanted to find my ingenuity with mastery. did the mystery of mastery I wanted to master mastery. Could I ever tell my friends that I was this close to knowing the mastery formula from the tall, haloed Nordic guy and yet semi-voluntarily chose not to hear it? Oh, I didn’t care. I guess it’s better not to know certain things, and explore them for ourselves for a deeply satisfactory outcome. How well are you sleeping tonight? Topic for discussion: Thank you for taking the time to read this short story. Let me know if you enjoyed it. I will make more. :) Much love. <3 Images sourced from MixKit

A Designer and a Nordic Guy Walk into a Hall

The rise of Large Language Models (LLMs) like GPT-4, trained to be helpful and harmless, has ushered in a new wave of technological advancement. AI’s role in decision-making and automation is rapidly expanding. There is, however, an underlying tension to our technological prowess: the possibility that AI systems may one day act in a way that is misaligned with their intended purpose. This concern is not just theoretical; a recent study suggest that LLMs can, despite their training, exhibit “strategic deception” under certain conditions​​. The paper, titled “Large Language Models can Strategically Deceive their Users when Put Under Pressure”, was authored by Jérémy Scheurer, Mikita Balesni, and Marius Hobbhahn of Apollo Research. Their work explores the conditions under which LLMs (specifically GPT-4, OpenAI’s latest ChatGPT update) can act in a deceptive manner (lie) as a strategy, rather than as the result of a specific request. The research focuses on GPT-4’s behavior in a simulated stock trading environment. GPT-4, acting as a trading agent, receives an insider tip about a lucrative stock trade. Despite being told that insider trading is illegal and carries significant risks, the model engages in the trade and deliberately hides its reasons for making the trade from its “management”. The experiment tested various scenarios, including changes in the amount of pressure on the model, the risk of getting caught, and altering the environment settings. This study used a range of GPT models, with GPT-4 variants showing a higher tendency for misaligned and strategically deceptive behaviors compared to older models like GPT-3.5​​. You can find all the prompts and relevant elements, free to use, on Github. Key takeaways from the study Strategic Deception in AI: LLMs can (and will) lie to users and act against their programming and training when under environmental pressures​​ (being told the company is in trouble and must be saved, unable to find viable alternative to illegal trades…). Role of Environmental Factors: Factors like pressure, risk of getting caught, and environmental settings significantly influence the model’s decision to act deceptively​​ (they’re just like us!). Complexity of Ensuring Alignment: The findings highlight the complexity of ensuring that LMs remain aligned with human values, particularly in high-pressure scenarios. Even explicit instructions to avoid misaligned behavior do not entirely eliminate such tendencies. Model Variance in Behavior: Variants of GPT-4 displayed a higher propensity for misaligned behavior compared to older models like GPT-3.5​​. What do we do with that information? To mitigate such deceptive behaviors in AI, companies and lawmakers could and should consider the following to avoid future risks. This will ensure AI behavior is more closely aligned with its intended purpose of being helpful… without breaking any ethical or legal guidelines. Company level Implement rules and systems that monitor AI decisions in real-time to detect and correct misalignment. This could involve tools that test for consistency in AI outputs or interpret internal representations of AI systems to predict the veracity of their statements​​. As AI systems evolve, new generations of detector-AIs will need to be trained to recognize and stay ahead of emerging manipulation techniques. Improve model training protocols to encompass scenarios that mimic high-pressure situations. Additionaly, encourage deductive reasoning in training. Strengthen ethical guidelines provided to the algorithms and ensure AI systems adhere strictly to them. Ensure AI decision-making processes are transparent and understandable to users (who also need to be trained, btw). State level Regulate AI systems capable of deception now. These systems, including special-use AI systems and large language models (LLMs) capable of deception, should be classified as ‘high risk’ and subject to stringent risk assessment, documentation, transparency, and human oversight requirements​​. Implement ‘bot-or-not’ laws to ensure AI systems and their outputs are distinctly marked, enabling users to differentiate between human and AI-generated content. This is likely to reduce the chance of being deceived by AI systems​​​​. Promote the creation of limited / myopic AI systems, that can plan only over short time horizons. This can reduce the potential for AI collusion and manipulation. This approach also makes it more difficult for AI systems to understand the entire process they are part of, further reducing the risk of deceptive behaviors​​. Too soon to draw conclusions While insightful, the study has limitations. First, the study’s focus on a simulated stock trading environment with GPT-4 raises questions about how these findings translate to other AI applications and environments. I’d however note that ChatGPT-4 is AI for many people. Secondly, the world lacks a consensus on what constitutes ethical behavior for AI, especially in ambiguous or high-stakes situations. This absence of universally accepted ethical guidelines complicates the process of training AI in ethical decision-making. As researchers often like to say… “more research is needed”. The study’s findings are a reminder of the complexities and responsibilities that come with advancing AI technology. It is a key step on our way to understanding the potential for AI deception, especially in high-pressure situations. Despite the challenges, there’s hope for a future where AI consistently acts in ways that are beneficial and aligned with human values and intentions. Good luck out there. Also published . here

Humans vs. Machines: When AI Goes Rogue

Ruby on Rails app redesign challenges Redesigning a Ruby on Rails application is a well-known challenge for many projects. Any project UI gets outdated. It needs to get a fresh look that’s more appealing to the users. It may not be an issue for web apps without live users. But it’s a tricky task for already launched businesses serving thousands of users per day. While a team is redesigning, the application should continue functioning. At the development time, the new design gets validated and tested against the back-end. If the back-end is incompatible, it must be adapted to the new realm. These changes should not break the old functionality. Overcoming these issues is essential in a Ruby on Rails application redesign. development This article shares the approach we took to apply the new design in one of our projects. The changes we made increased the project revenue by 30%. As a bonus, the implemented changes unleashed many other opportunities, including: Building a modern mobile application. Making the code more fault-tolerant, performant, and stable. Adding new features, such as preventing account sharing, that can increase the app revenue. Making the tech stack upgrade easier. Implementing traffic control and advanced caching. Making SEO optimization easier. Why redesign a Ruby on Rails app? There are several reasons why an app may consider implementing a new . Regardless of the motive, the ultimate goal is always the same - . Note, that keeping users using the app and not going away is the same goal. Due to an old and unhandy design, an app can make the customers leave. In this case, redesign also can help. If it’s clear that a redesign won’t have a positive impact on revenue, it may be an unnecessary expense. Redesigning is usually an expensive change. So, learn from the users if the design is a problem before making this decision. UI/UX design to increase revenue What is the new design? A new design consists of screens (mockups) created by a designer using software like Figma or Adobe Photoshop. In our case, the client provided the mockups, and our task was to turn them into code and integrate them with the existing back-end. We aimed to minimize downtime during the transition and reduce development efforts. Different technical approaches to a Ruby on Rails app redesign Nowadays, web projects must be responsive and have a mobile application. Modern web app design features a rich UI with many elements on one page. The old-fashioned way of generating HTML on the back-end is going away. Instead, a separate web front-end or mobile app handles the front-end, while the back-end serves data via API. In pure , the front-end code lives alongside the back-end. That can fulfill modern web app requirements and is cheap in the beginning. However, it becomes hard to maintain due to the mix of different technologies in one place. It makes it difficult to find developers who can understand and maintain the system. We prefer separate back-end and front-end. The specialists can do their job quickly with high quality on their end. Ruby On Rails applications The risk-free approach of a Ruby on Rails app redesign The project we received was a Ruby On Rails application with a Rest API implemented on Grape. An iOS app used this API. The web version used ERB and Slim templates with a UI from the previous decade. Some dynamic features on the web used Knockout.js, which is no longer maintained. To update the UI, we used the Next.js framework with TypeScript and implemented GraphQL for the API. To avoid errors, we created a separate repository for the new UI and extracted functionality that could be reused in both the old app and the new UI. The project took almost a year, with two developers and one project manager working on it. To deploy the changes, we used CloudFront as a proxy on top of the old app and the new front-end app. We gradually switched web requests to the new UI using a feature flag to reduce the risk of failures or outages. The transition went smoothly without major issues. As a bonus, we got all requests geolocated since they pass through the AWS CloudFront. That allowed us to control the users’ network traffic and fight against sharing accounts. Our results of the Ruby on Rails app redesign Switching to the new design made the project more attractive to users, resulting in more signups and increased satisfaction among old users. This allowed us to increase charges by 20% and revenue by 30%. The redesign expenses were paid off within the first three months after release. See below for the paid user dynamics analysis. The release date was on the 1st of February 2021. Why our approach of Ruby on Rails app redesign is cheaper and less risky Redesigning apps can be painful and distracting. The Rails assets pipeline changes often, making sticking with it turn the code into legacy quickly. Finding specialists to maintain this code without sacrificing quality on both front-end and back-end is challenging. Separating the front-end and leaving only the Rails back-end for the API makes redesigning and maintenance smoother, allowing for a diversified team with good specialists on both ends. for the front-end, improving SEO with image optimization and cache facilities out of the box. Next.js was a wise choice Acknowledges I’m grateful and proud to have worked with the following people on this project at different times: Daniel Dauwe Vadzim Jakushau Illia Pruskyi Soltan Yangibayev Svetlana Zhuravitskaya Alexey Mikitsik Also published . here

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