AI & Generative Media

Text-to-Image

Also known as: Image Generation, T2I, AI Art

AI systems that generate images from written descriptions, transforming text prompts into visual content.

Text-to-image AI generates visual content from text descriptions, democratizing image creation while raising questions about art and authorship.

Major Systems

  • Midjourney: Known for artistic, stylized outputs
  • DALL-E (OpenAI): Integrated with ChatGPT
  • Stable Diffusion: Open-source, locally runnable
  • Imagen (Google): Research-focused
  • Firefly (Adobe): Commercial, trained on licensed content

Capabilities

  • Generate original images from descriptions
  • Edit existing images with text instructions
  • Style transfer and variations
  • Outpainting (extending images)
  • Inpainting (modifying regions)

Impact

  • Creative workflows: Rapid concept art, prototyping
  • Accessibility: Visual creation without artistic training
  • Stock photography: Disrupting traditional market
  • Copyright questions: Training data, output ownership

Limitations

  • Struggles with text in images
  • Inconsistent hands and anatomy
  • Prompt engineering required for quality
  • Bias from training data

External Resources