The Evolution of Ai Art Generators

Whether you’re looking to create branding, vision boards or invitations, AI art generators can help you find the perfect image in a fraction of the time.

They can also provide a way for people with disabilities or limitations to experience the arts in new and exciting ways. This type of accessibility is crucial, but it also raises questions about how these tools are used and what their impact could be.

1. Dall-E

Back in 2021, the AI research and development company OpenAI created a software program called Dall-E. It was able to take a worded prompt and create a unique art image based on it. The name is a combination of Salvador Dali and Wall-E, indicating the surreal illustrative style of the software.

The software uses a large language model known as GPT-3 to understand the prompt, then an image decoder stochastically generates images based on those words. It can even expand existing images through a technique called outpainting, creating new compositions from old ones.

But it has some limitations. For example, search terms for certain celebrities like Taylor Swift are prohibited for fear of offensive content or deep fakes. And users must agree to a lengthy list of terms that the software will not violate, including intellectual property and copyright. That can raise issues about how the software determines authorship and whether it infringes on human creativity.

2. Stable Diffusion

Stable Diffusion is a text-to-image generative model that can generate original digital art pieces based on natural language prompts. It can also perform other tasks like inpainting and outpainting, as well as image-to-image translations guided by a text description.

It’s the latest AI tool to blow people’s minds, and the ability to create striking visuals from text descriptions marks a big shift in how humans create art. While the release of this model may be a bit overhyped, it does offer a high-performance model that is more accessible to the masses (both in terms of image quality and speed).

A major concern with many GAN-based art generators is that they can violate copyright laws by producing content with unlicensed data. This is especially a problem when they use large datasets without obtaining full legal access to the rights. For example, some of these models have been used to generate images that are racist or otherwise offensive to certain groups of people.

3. Big Sleep

The debate around AI art and whether it can replace human artists is still ongoing, but there's no denying that it's becoming more prevalent in the industry. This year, a photo created entirely by an AI program won a photography competition; while last month, a rudimentary painting produced by an AI sold through Christie's for $452,000.

These images are usually created using text input and are designed to be realistic or stylised in some way, with some tools even offering a variety of different art styles, such as psychedelic, surreal or comical images. Some are more text-based, with a user describing the image they'd like to create, known as a prompt.

NightCafe is one of the more popular generative AI art generators, with a number of algorithms and settings to allow for greater customization. It uses GANs, a machine learning model that includes both a generator and discriminator. It's Python-based, so is geared toward creators with coding experience and offers a free tier as well as a premium version with faster servers, unlimited results, commercial usage and no watermarks.

4. Midjourney

This self-funded generative AI is a popular tool that creates images based on text prompts. It combines large language and diffusion models to produce realistic art.

It has been able to generate images that look so real, they’ve fooled experts in photography and other fields. Using the site is simple: provide a brief prompt and the system will create a set of four images. Select a favorite by clicking the U button and Midjourney will upscale it, producing larger images with extra details. You can also ask for variations by pressing the V button.

Whereas most of the other image generators on this list have been open source and offered reams of information on how they work, Midjourney is closed-source and has kept its secrets close to the vest. Still, it seems similar to Stable Diffusion and is capable of creating some stunning images that are eerily realistic. It’s perfect for science-fiction literature and fantasy-themed images.