Instagram users may have seen a post circling the social media platform where AI was asked to turn each country into a villain. The image AI generator produced fascinating results — a joker, kangaroo, dragon, bull, and many other variations of half-animalistic and half-human-looking characters.
AI image generators have been around for a while but they have evolved to be more sophisticated in today’s time. You can simply download a text-to-image AI app on your phone, feed it a picture, and provide a prompt. It will produce results based on your prompt instantly. Using an AI image generator, you can convert yourself into an anime character, a cat, or a superhero within seconds.
What is an AI Image Generator
With an AI image generator, language or written text can be converted into a wide variety of images. For example, you can feed it the following text:
”create a peacock with rainbow-colored feathers.”
AI will generate an image of a peacock that has rainbow feathers. You can further modify the prompt to include other scenarios. For example:
”create a peacock with rainbow-colored feathers dancing in Time Square New York”
Your peacock with rainbow feathers will now appear dancing in Times Square.
This is one example of AI but the possibilities with an AI generator are endless.
Use of AI Images
AI text-to-image creation is not just limited to specific areas of generative art but is also widely applicable in almost any field in the world.
AI image creation can be used in the following areas:
- Graphics and animation – animators and graphic designers can use AI to create content for movies, video games, posters, and other digital media.
- Marketing campaigns – businesses and marketers can use AI in their campaigns to create marketing-driven videos and images to promote their products and services.
- Medical imaging – AI images are expanding their usage in the medical field to help with patients’ diagnoses and treatments of a wide array of clinical conditions. Medical imaging, such as the creation of CT and MRI scans are some of the ways AI images are used in the medical field.
- Fashion and design – fashion designers can utilize AI images to generate designs, templates, and patterns for clothing and other products.
- Augmented Reality – AI images are seeing an increase in popularity in the augmented reality (AR) domain. Stanford researchers are using their expertise in optics and artificial intelligence to create realistic looking holographic displays for virtual reality space.
Deep AI Text to Image
AI image creation is accomplished through the use of deep learning techniques. The AI is fed with a large number of images along with its captions so it can learn various associations. Based on those associations, it creates customized images for the user. For example, when fed with a prompt, an AI image generator produces an image based on that prompt.
Is AI Generated Content Ethical?
Bad actors are everywhere. With any new technology, there will always be people who use it for positive reasons, and others who exploit it.
The ethical implications of AI-generated content depend on the way you use these images. It is important to consider the copyright infringement laws involving AI images and give due credit where necessary.
What Does the Future of AI Images Look Like?
AI images are expected to see their application in various industries and facets of life.
Increased investments in AI
With the increasing popularity of AI image generators, a lot of venture capital is flowing into AI technologies. In fact, Google recently announced that it plans to demonstrate an AI version of its search engine.
Microsoft is reportedly planning to launch a version of Bing that incorporates the AI technology behind ChatGPT.
It is expected that AI generators will likely go mainstream very soon. The Bulwark, a US political news and analysis site has started using AI generated images for its articles. The Economist’s July cover was designed by an AI.
More demand for AI artists
A large number of companies may start using deep ai text to image software and seek AI artists for their in-house art-related needs. As the roles of illustrators, designers, and painters are beginning to amalgamate with AI, artists may fear they will be replaced with AI artists.
However, AI cannot fully replace creative artists as it lacks the creativity and depth of human emotion. While feeding specific inputs and algorithms to an AI generator may produce an amazing image, it cannot always create nuanced images that a human artist has the ability to create.
Disruption of existing technologies
Image libraries such as Getty Images and Shutterstock are multi-billion-dollar opportunities in the digital space. AI image generators can certainly disrupt these businesses. However, these companies are already adapting to the fast changing AI climate.
Shutterstock is planning to sell AI-generated stock imagery, as the company seeks to integrate AI lab’s text-to-image model DALL-E 2 into its platform.
On the other hand, Getty Images has banned the sale of AI art on its platform over fears of licensing. Certainly, there are a lot of loopholes and uncertainty around this newly emerging technology and companies are questioning the concept of ownership of the images generated through AI platforms.
Having said that, as with any rapidly advancing field, it’s hard to predict exactly what will happen in the future of AI generated images. What we have shared are merely predictions, what may actually happen is hard to stipulate at this point in time.
