Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a buzzword in the tech industry, particularly since OpenAI launched its now-famous chatbot ChatGPT.
Since then, there has been a focus on how AI is constantly changing the way we live, work, and interact with the world around us.
Its applications are limitless due to the constant advancement of AI tools; from content creation to image generation, the sky is the limit.
With AI no longer being viewed as something of the future but rather a part of our present, it is critical to investigate the various services AI tools provide that can help us increase our productivity.
While ChatGPT has made quite the impression, it’s worth noting that there are numerous other tools available that offer their own unique and exciting features, such as automating data analysis and creating stunning visuals.
Today we’ll be discussing Midjourney.
Midjourney, a text-to-image AI generator that allows users to create high-quality images, is one of the most popular platforms on the market today.
It’s especially useful for those who don’t have artistic skills but want to bring their ideas to life.
Read more: The magic behind the machine – Artificial intelligence in the spotlight
While AI image generators, including Midjourney, have recently made headlines for their role in spreading misinformation, particularly after users created fake, politically-sensitive images, the platform is still primarily an art generator that generates eye-catching visuals.
Midjourney works similarly to image synthesizers like Stable Diffusion and DALL-E in that it generates images based on text descriptions called “prompts” using an AI model trained on millions of works of human-made art.
Hard to spot the fakes
Artificial intelligence image-generators, which create pictures based on written instructions, have skyrocketed in popularity and performance.
However, the technology has a major failure: creating lifelike human hands. Data sets that train AI often capture only pieces of hands. That often results in photos of bulbous hands with too many fingers or stretched-out wrists — a telltale sign the AI-generated image is fake.
Version 5
Version 5 of Midjourney significantly improved the quality of images depicting people. For example, misshapen hands that were previously a hallmark of AI-generated images are now less of a challenge. Lighting and fabric are also more realistic, and the system is capable of generating images of countless celebrities and public figures.
In the service’s Discord release notes, Midjourney also noted that v5 now responds with a “much wider stylistic range” than version 4, while also being more sensitive to prompting, generating less unwanted text, and offering a 2x increase in image resolution.
No longer for free
Yesterday, Midjourney stopped free trials of its software. CEO David Holz said this is because of a flood of new users.
The AI is not allowing free users to generate images, though this may change in the future. “We’re still trying to figure out how to bring free trials back, we tried to require an active email but that wasn’t enough so we’re back to the drawing board,” said Holz.
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