Microsoft continues to ride the whole generative AI trend, with the company recently announcing a new ‘Bing Image Creator’ tool, which will bring OpenAI’s DALL-E visual creation capacity to Microsoft Bing’s search engine, as well as its Edge browser, allowing users to easily access AI image generation at any time.
Microsoft AI
Based on available examples, Microsoft is essentially integrating DALL-E into your regular workflow, making it easier than ever to create unique, oftentimes stunning visuals for whatever your process might need.
As Microsoft puts it:
“Powered by an advanced version of the DALL∙E model from our partners at OpenAI, Bing Image Creator allows you to create an image simply by using your own words to describe the picture you want to see. Now you can generate both written and visual content in one place, from within chat.”
The option is also being integrated into Microsoft’s Edge browser, providing immediate visual creation, at any time. The visuals created by the process are owned by the user, and basically are not restricted by any sort of fair-use policy, within the usage guidelines outlined by OpenAI at least. That could make it much easier to access advanced generative visuals for varying purposes. While some of the images that DALL-E produces are a little rough around the edges, you’re likely to get at least a few usable ones from your prompts, which should cover a range of usage needs.
That’s mostly bad news for stock image sites and visual artists, especially those that make money from such. That’s the focus of the broader legal debate around generative AI tools, which rely on examples taken from across the web to power their functionalities. That’s likely to remain in contention for some time yet, but right now, users can generate ‘new’ visuals from the sample of others, which are then considered unique works in their own right.
That will facilitate a range of use cases, and having these tools immediately handy within your web browser could be a handy benefit, which could get more people using Microsoft Bing and Edge in their process. As noted, Microsoft’s going all-in on generative AI. Earlier this year, the company invested $10 billion in OpenAI, solidifying their partnership. Microsoft has since incorporated ChatGPT-type elements into virtually all of its workplace applications and tools.
The Wrap
With the hype around generative AI reaching new levels seemingly every other week, that may well prove to be a stroke of genius for Bill Gates’s brainchild, which is now becoming increasingly relevant in Search and web browsing once again. At the same time, this new shift has forced Google to reveal its hand on generative AI, by releasing its own set of AI tools.
Thus far, Microsoft continues to benefit from first-mover advantage, which could be a key turning point soon. Of course, there are still concerns with AI generators and their propensity to deliver incorrect information. Either way, Microsoft is riding the wave, and it’s doing pretty good, so far. Microsoft says that it’s rolling out Bing Image Creator with a set of preview users before expanding more broadly.
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