How to Create Vintage Photos Using AI - Imagine with Rashid
This isn't something I think will come up often for training purposes, but I was curious about how to improve prompts for photorealistic images, including referencing which types of cameras were available in different decades.
How Corporate Learning Will Change in 2026: Predictions from 18 L&D Experts - Foxtery
Perspectives from me and 17 others in L&D on what will be trending in 2026. Recurring themes include AI, change and adaptation, shifting from content to performance, skills, and trust.
Beyond Infographics: How to Use Nano Banana to *Actually* Support Learning
While this article incorrectly states limitations of earlier image generation tools (you can upload reference images and color schemes to several tools; you can get diverse images with better prompting; you can get consistency in visual style and characters), I love the ideas here for generating instructional images. Nano Banana really is much better for creating these instructional images with text. The main focus of the article is sharing use cases to support learning: visualization, analogy, worked examples, contrasting cases, and elaboration. The examples are great and show you how to go past the typical busy infographic we see with Nano Banana.
Marketing is Broken! ...and AI is to Blame. - Issuu
I built my network on LinkedIn before the algorithm changed and before AI changed a lot of the marketing. It's part of my pipeline for how clients find me. However, for people who don't already have a following, it's a lot harder to break through the noise on LinkedIn. This article explains how marketing yourself and building a personal brand on LinkedIn has changed.
Do AI avatars teach as well as humans? The results might surprise you! - Media and Learning Association
This research was done in partnership with Synthesia, so some skepticism is warranted. But this study found that people recalled information similarly whether it was a human or AI avatar explaining it. This research didn't compare to other forms of video or learning though, and talking head videos in general are often less effective than other instructional methods.
1. Memory Performances were similar: It did not really matter whether learners got their information from AI or a human, through video or text – they remembered nearly the same amount at recognition and recall levels.
2. Recall performance depended on visual design: This meant tracing back to the video period corresponding to the questions, some particular visual designs were easier to memorise.
ZeroLu/awesome-nanobanana-pro: 🚀 An awesome list of curated Nano Banana pro prompts and examples.
This is a collection of image prompts for Nano Banana pro (Gemini). Great place to get some inspiration and sample prompts, especially since Nano Banana doesn't always respond to prompts the same as other tools.
Artificial intelligence and the environment: Putting the numbers into perspective - Artificial intelligence
Using AI does use energy, water, and other resources. But when you consider it as part of your decision-making, it's important to put it in perspective. Being on a Zoom call or watching Netflix for an hour uses more electricity and water than prompting ChatGPT numerous times.
Nano Banana can be prompt engineered for extremely nuanced AI image generation | Max Woolf's Blog
While I've had reasonably good results from using a similar image prompt structure with Gemini (Nano Banana) that I use with Midjourney and other tools, this article describes more complex prompting strategies like structuring prompts with JSON. There are also some easier tips like adding MUST in all caps to signal importance.
The reason is that information asymmetry between what generative image AI can and can’t do has only grown in recent months: many still think that ChatGPT is the only way to generate images and that all AI-generated images are wavy AI slop with a piss yellow filter.
Whisk is more about enhancing your image prompts than about the image generation itself. If you give it even a basic, vague prompt, it will suggest enhancements so you get better results faster. This is an experimental tool from Google Labs, so expect that the performance may be uneven and that the tool may disappear in the future without warning.
AI Storyboard Tool for Visual Consistency | Higgsfield Popcorn
While Higgsfield Popcorn is designed for storyboarding scenes for videos, it might work for stills for training scenarios too. You upload reference image(s) and then describe what happens in each scene. I'm putting this on my list of tools to test out.
I don't know if this is "the world's best AI PPT maker" like they claim, but the idea is interesting. Enter your text or upload a file and set some variables for the audience, tone, etc. It generates slides for you. I'm sure it needs editing and iteration like all AI tools, but this looks like it might help speed up the process of creating slides or give you some inspiration. There's a limited free plan to test it, but unfortunately I'm getting errors and can't sign up right now.
Ethan Mollick's recommendations on which AI models to use depending on your usage. Free LLM models are OK for some uses, but he notes where the limitations mean that you'll get better results with paid models.
For free image generation, I agree that Gemini is probably the best all-purpose free tool.
Directing Perspective: Changing Camera Angles with AI (Nano Banana + Midjourney). PART 2
Tips for changing the camera angles in images with Nano Banana (Gemini). I have struggled to get these kinds of variations in Gemini, but these prompts might help.
Upload your slides or documents and get AI-designed slides based on it. This might be worth trying, at least for inspiration on slides if you're having trouble coming up with something more interesting than bullet points.
Craig Boehman responds to the criticisms of AI art from his perspective as an artist while sharing examples of his work and notes on the tools he used to generate and refine his art.
If you’re an artist and using AI in whole or in part to create your art, do you think someone “off the street” is going to employ AI and create something better than you, a seasoned pro? Consider for a moment the smartphone camera. “Anyone can take pictures these days, photography isn’t art”. A photographer with a smartphone could surely do better, right? The differences between an average smartphone user and what a professional photographer can do with a smartphone are potentially as vast and wide as the Grand Canyon.
“The fear has sometimes been expressed that photography would in time entirely supersede the art of painting. Some people seem to think that when the process of taking photographs in colors has been perfected and made common enough, the painter will have nothing more to do.”
— Henrietta Clopath, 1901
AI tool for creating and editing images. You can combine elements from multiple images, including adding a character to a scene. There's a free plan with limitations which should be enough to test it.
Free AI detection tool (with more info for paid plans). It was accurate for the images I uploaded to test. I would be cautious of using this to detect AI text though; all of these tools have a lot of false positives and false negatives.
Creating AI Art Responsibly: How to Navigate AI Legal Risks
These recommendations are a good starting point for thinking about how to use AI ethically and to reduce your risk.
Set Clear AI Use Guidelines
Choose Tools That Protect You
Be Careful What You Prompt
Use Approved References
Review Before Release
Seek Expert Guidance, Mitigate AI Legal Risks
WaveSpeed gives you access to multiple different image and video generation tools by paying for credits based on what you actually use. This looks like a promising option to test out tools or generate a few videos without committing to a larger subscription.
MeiGen-AI/InfiniteTalk is an open source AI video generation tool that supports image-to-video and video-to-video generation. This tool can create longer video clips, not just the 5-10 seconds of many other tools. It's open source, so this link goes to the Github for the project with instructions to install it locally. For a local model, the results look very promising. Installing and running it will take some technical proficiency though.
Our approach to energy innovation and AI’s environmental footprint
Google published a technical report on the environmental impact of AI, including calculating the cost of training models (not just individual queries). They reported energy use much lower than many earlier estimates, partly due to improvements in efficiency.
Over a 12-month period, while delivering higher-quality responses, the median energy consumption and carbon footprint per Gemini Apps text prompt decreased by factors of 33x and 44x, respectively. Based on our recent analysis, we found that our work on efficiency is proving effective and the energy consumed per median prompt is equivalent to watching television for less than nine seconds.
This is another tool I'm adding to my list to test out. Give Ideogram a single reference image and then generate multiple remixed images. In the demo, I notice that the expressions don't seem to change much, so that might be a limitation. The basic character creation is free, with additional features for more precise editing on their paid subscription plan.
Is Any AI Use Ethical? – Moving at the Speed of Creativity
Wes Fryer shares his thoughts on differing views of ethics and AI. Wes is not ethically opposed to all AI, but that doesn't mean he supports all AI use blindly either.
I am convinced AI technologies present transformative capabilities as a “cognitive force multiplier,” and have willingly drank a healthy portion of the “AI Kool-Aid” and “AI hype cycle.” I’ve said and still believe that AI represents a transformative leap forward in our shared human history of communication as well as information economy / third wave work. At this point, I am not and do not want to be an “AI conscientious objector,” refusing to voluntarily use it in all contexts. I am an advocate for its ethical and beneficial uses, and plan to remain one.
Interested in learning how forensics experts can identify AI images? Watch this 12-minute video explaining how image noise, vanishing points, and shadows can help you identify AI-generated images.
