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TechCrunch
07-05-2025
- Business
- TechCrunch
VSCO is launching an AI-powered collaborative moodboard
Photo and video editing platform VSCO on Wednesday launched an AI-powered collaborative moodboard to expand how its products are used by photographers and artists. Called Canvas, the moodboard lets you import and edit your photos using the standard VSCO editing tools — so you can tune settings like shadows, brightness, exposure, temperature, tint, grain, blur, vibrance and hue. The AI chops come into play when you want to generate images using text prompts. The moodboard also lets you select parts of an image and use a 'region prompt' menu to have AI recreate those parts with text prompts. The weights of the region prompt can be adjusted with a slider to generate different versions. There's also a variation button that, as it says on the tin, makes the AI create variations of a generated image. This also comes with a slider to control how close to the original image the generated image is. Image Credits: Screenshot by TechCrunch Users can share the moodboard with other people in a project and create different iterations of an idea. 'Photographers, who often work alone, use Google Slides or Pinterest to create a vision for a project that they want to show the clients. We thought there could be a better tool that was designed for ideation with creators in the front and center of it,' VSCO's CEO Eric Wittman told TechCrunch. The moodboard feature uses tech from an image editing startup called Facet that VSCO acquired last year. Facet had raised over $13 million in funding before it was acquired. Techcrunch event Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you've built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you've built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | BOOK NOW Image Credits: VSCO This is VSCO's first time implementing AI features into its products, and the company says it has seen positive traction. VSCO said more than 84% of content was generated using AI during Canvas' test phase. The company plans to enable users to search VSCO and import photos uploaded onto the platform into the moodboard. The launch comes days after Adobe unveiled its own moodboard that has AI-powered image generation and editing features. Startups like Visual Electric, Cove and Kosmik have also tried to build whiteboards and moodboards to help people collaborate on ideas. Canvas is available to all users, but paying subscribers will get extra credits for prompting and generating images using the AI model.
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Are We Facing a New Era of Market Volatility?
It might be tempting to write off the market pullbacks of the past two Mondays as unrelated and even somewhat isolated incidents that spiked briefly with extreme volatility. But the market might be sending investors and financial advisors a bigger message beyond day-to-day dips and recoveries. Focusing on the broad market S&P 500 Index, valuations are lofty by almost any measure. Not at record levels, by historical standards, but high enough to give nervous investors cause for concern when news reports spark a reaction. This appears to be where we are right now: Not necessarily at the point where selling and heading for cover is the best strategy, but wholly reflective of a jittery, trigger-happy investor universe. 'We've had two consecutive years of 25% gains in the S&P 500 and valuations are historically high, especially for mega-cap tech,' said Research Lead Kent Thune. 'Investors are expecting a catalyst to bring it all down, and kneejerk reactions become more common in this environment,' he added. 'After the events occur, cooler heads prevail, and the market resumes its upward march.' Thune, who also works with individual investors as a financial advisor, added that what could be described as recent market head fakes will eventually lead to a 'real catalyst' for a market correction, 'but it's anyone's guess about when or how large it will be.' Tom Graff, chief investment officer at Facet in Phoenix, Maryland, describes the market's current inflection point as 'two big narratives crashing together.' 'The market is very expensive, especially in AI-related stocks, and this is putting a lot of pressure on this earnings season,' he said. The threat posed by Chinese artificial intelligence upstart DeepSeek emerged last week as a reminder that many of the companies leading the broad markets these past few years are vulnerable. The tariff scare created by the Trump administration this past Monday, which like the DeepSeek scare a week earlier, simmered over the weekend, and rose to a boiling point by the time the markets officially opened for business. 'Given how aggressively Trump is pursuing a variety of his priorities, it is making Wall Street all the more nervous about tariffs,' said Graff. 'Sure, the first couple of salvos at Mexico and Canada were pulled back at the last minute, but everyone knows that this won't be the last round of tariffs.' Not to downplay the significance of the two market-jarring catalysts, it does underscore the reality of an increasingly anxious market. 'Market reactions over the last two Mondays tell you that there is a lot of air under the market,' said Paul Schatz, president of Heritage Capital in Woodbridge, Connecticut. 'A number of positive outcomes are clearly priced in, and you have some of the most bullish behavior from options traders and that kind of giddy and greedy sentiment is rarely rewarded, especially after a run to or near new highs,' he added. 'It also tells us that an awful lot is not priced into the markets, because I was a little surprised that the markets did not believe tariffs were coming.'Permalink | © Copyright 2025 All rights reserved
