ChatGPT and Google Bard might be the hottest topics right now, but great art is timeless — and, until now, a uniquely human pursuit. Today, however, the best AI image generators are busy blurring the lines between human and machine creativity
Maybe one day you could go to a gallery to see the latest DALL•E Exhibition?
Even if that doesn’t happen, AI image generators are a great way to have fun and bring your imagination to life. With AI imaging comes the new bing (and certainly one day too Google bard)it could become a big part of our lives.
Hopefully there will always be a place for human artists and photographers, but for those of us without serious talent, image generators are a great way to visualize things. After all, who hasn’t always wanted to see a T-Rex on a skateboard?
What Makes the Best AI Image Generators?
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Of course, when looking for the best AI image generator, the bottom line is important. Does the picture look good? Does it match the prompt? Can it be edited further? But there are other factors to consider as well.
The price-performance ratio also plays a role. Many image generators offer a free version, but these can often be quite limited in the number of free uses. Ease of use should also be considered, are they clear and easy to understand? Additional features like the ability to work with both text and image prompts are also a bonus.
For illustrative purposes, all images below were generated using the prompt “A Frog on the Moon”. Because why not?
Created by OpenAI, the team behind it ChatGPT, DALL•E 2 is a really impressive piece of kit. Its image generation skills are second to none and can let your wildest imagination run wild. It’s easy to see why it has 3 million users creating 4 million images a day.
The ability to augment an AI-generated image with additional prompts is a great way to unleash creativity, while adding AI elements to your real-world photos and custom images feels like something straight out of sci-fi. If you’ve always wanted to add a pirate ship to your garden, check this out how to use DALL•E 2 .
DALL•E 2 is free to use, although you only get 15 free credits per month. Additional credits can be purchased starting at $15 for 115 additional prompts, although quite annoyingly paid credits expire a year after purchase.
Integrated with Discord, Midjourney can seem a bit impenetrable at first. But dig a little deeper and it features the most engaging AI art community out there.
First, join a newbie server and create your own images by typing /imagine and then typing your command prompt. It can be overwhelming to see hundreds of images generated by the AI for other users, but at the same time I found it inspiring to see what others are creating.
In my own use, I’ve found Midjourney to offer some of the best results out there, and the fact that each prompt returns four different results means you’ll likely be happy with at least one. In this case, while the image does not show a frog on the moon, it is certainly a striking one. As with most AI tools, being precise about what you type will produce the best results, but you can also ask the AI to iterate over a given result and evolve that idea further with the click of a button.
Because it’s integrated with Discord, Midjourney has a strong community focus. There are regular showcases, daily themes and even Q&A sessions with prominent digital artists.
Midjourney’s free trial only grants a meager 50 credits, and paid plans start at $10 per month ($96 per year) all the way up to the Pro option at $60 per month ($576). It’s pricey, but if you’re serious about getting into AI art, Midjourney is a great platform.
StableDiffusion is a process used in many AI image generators and if you are looking for a totally free simple AI image generator, give it a try stablediffusionweb.com for the impressive open source version. However, if you want a more refined stable diffusion tool, DreamStudio offers excellent value for money.
For starters, simply creating a DreamStudio account gives you 100 tokens, enough to create up to 500 images, and you can buy 1,000 more tokens (up to 5,000 images) for just $10.
Compared to the open source equivalent, DreamStudio has a lot more functionality. You can use both visual and text prompts on a selection of Stable Diffusion models, you can also edit the size, number of AI steps (increase the detail of your image) and cfg scale (how accurate the results will be). to the prompt) of the generated images. While it created a great image in response to that prompting, we found it a bit more hit-and-miss than Midjourney and DALL•E 2.
DreamStudio makes the likes of Midjourney and DALL•E 2 seem stingy with their credit allocations and comes close with their results.
Available for both iOS and Android, StarryAI is an easy-to-use platform with a credits-based system. Free users get 5 credits per day and can earn 5 more by watching ads. While one credit creates four variations of a prompt, you can spend more to get additional results.
The best thing about StarryAI is its overwhelming customization options. You can ask the AI to render images in hundreds of different styles and genres, from a simple watercolor to a political cartoon to photorealistic images.
Impressively – or perhaps worryingly – the AI can also mimic the style of dozens of famous artists, including the likes of Rene Margritte, HR Giger and Andy Warhol. While the results can be amazing, don’t be surprised by the odd result – we’ve found that extra arms and legs are a common problem.
The ability to change the canvas size and aspect ratio before the image is generated isn’t something every AI image generator offers, it’s just a shame it’s exclusive to the paid model. Speaking of the payment plan, a month of StarryAI Pro will set you back $11.99 and you still only get 50 credits (plus the standard 5 per day).
If you like DALL•E 2 but don’t want to pay anything, Bing’s AI image generator uses the same model and is completely free. The Bing image generator is almost certainly coming to Bing’s chatbot AI, but until then the free web version will have to do.
It’s hard to dispute the results of the DALL•E 2 algorithm, and you’re not bound by the 15 free credits limit. Sure, Microsoft’s effort has a credit system – 10 daily boost tokens that create images faster, but there’s no way to buy these tokens with money (Microsoft Rewards points only), and you can still create images without them. In our tests, unreinforced prompts were still available after 20 to 40 seconds, which is hardly an age.
Sounds perfect doesn’t it? Unfortunately, unlike DALL•E 2, you can’t currently use image prompts or add additional AI elements to your own photos. But as a look ahead, it’s promising.
Would you like to find out more? To read How to use the Bing image generator
