just kidding. the whale above is completely ai-generated. i’m actually quite surprised by the detail and water effects the ai used.

what i did was, on my bike ride by the beach, i snapped a pic of the intercoastal and used adobe firefly ai to add the whale. it was super easy.

here’s a video of the area and how it really looked:

kind of boring, right? nothing worth sharing. however, when i posted the whale version on my instagram story, people believed it! it wasn’t until i posted the video that they realized it was fake.

it makes me wonder: how will the future look? will we constantly alter our images to make our lives appear more interesting or “perfect”? influencers already do this, but the barrier for needing advanced photoshop expertise has dropped dramatically.

if you can use microsoft paint, you can use adobe firefly ai—it’s that accessible. try it yourself: https://firefly.adobe.com/upload/inpaint.

for one final ai edit, i decided to take the whale photo and upload it to runway.ml to generate an actual video. here’s what i got:

i've been using thoughtly as the first point of contact for all my inbound business calls and it's been going really well.

thoughtly is a full stack ai receptionist with human-like reasoning and improvised conversation abilities. it has a lot of features and offers granular control for logic-based call routing. upon receiving a call, you can set a greeting that will lead into a flow. based on the customer's response, it will direct them down a specific path. this path is dynamically created and depends on the customer's input and how the ai interprets it. you don't have to define every single parameter, as you would with a chatbot. once set, you can essentially forget about it

for example, if a customer asks for a refund or to place an order, or even if they have a product-related question, thoughtly will automatically assume that the customer is looking to place an order. you don't need to create additional logic branches for each specific scenario. the system will automatically direct the call based on the categories you've already set up.

thoughtly allows you to set up automations, including sending you a summary or even forwarding the call to you if the customer needs to speak with a human representative. one feature i particularly like is that, unlike other apps, thoughtly can simulate the sound of a person typing, which creates a more natural feel during the conversation.

this is especially useful because some ai voice agents can take a few extra seconds to respond. thoughtly's typing noise effectively fills in the pause, making the interaction feel more engaging and natural.

i've tried other apps that lack this feature. as a result, there's often dead air during the call, leading customers to think they've been disconnected. they end up asking, "hello, anyone there?" this small but important detail in thoughtly helps maintain engagement throughout the entire call.

p.s. it can also perform mass outbound calling. i don’t use this feature myself, but it could come in handy for sales teams.