Meta Launches a Standalone AI Image Generator

Meta has launched a standalone AI image generator to compete with the likes of DALL-E and Midjourney.

Users of Facebook Messenger may have already noticed that you can generate images with artificial intelligence (AI) by typing in “/imagine” and then typing in a prompt for the picture they want to see.

Now Meta is taking that technology out of the messaging app and into a standalone AI image generator with its own URL.

In a blog post published today (Wednesday), the company writes that they have “enjoyed hearing from people about how they’re using Imagine, Meta AI’s text-to-image generation feature, to make fun and creative content in chats.”

“Today, we’re expanding access to imagine outside of chats, making it available in the U.S. to start at imagine.meta.com.

“This standalone experience for creative hobbyists lets you create images with technology from Emu, our image foundation model.

“While our messaging experience is designed for more playful, back-and-forth interactions, you can now create free images on the web, too.”

Emu is the artificial intelligence software at the heart of Meta’s AI image offerings which was announced last month in the form of Emu Edit and Emu Video.

Emu Edit allows users to alter images based on text inputs — similar to Adobe Photoshop’s Generative Fill — but what differentiates Emu Edit is that users don’t have to actually select the element they want to change, they just describe it and the AI will understand the request.

While Emu Video leverages the same base Emu model to generate video from text prompts and also from still images.

‘Riff’ With Friends

Also announced today is a feature contained in the Messenger app called “Reimagine.” This allows the users to remix and re-edit an AI image that someone else in the chat has created.

“One of Meta AI’s most commonly used features across our messaging apps is Imagine, our text-to-image generation capability that lets you create and share images on the fly,” says Meta.

“We’re always looking for ways to make our AIs even more fun and social, so today we’re excited to add a new feature to Meta AI on Messenger and Instagram called Reimagine.

“Here’s how it works in group chat: Meta AI generates and shares the initial image you requested, then your friend can press and hold on the picture to riff on it with a simple text prompt and Meta AI will generate an entirely new image.

“Now you can kick images back and forth, having a laugh as you try to one-up each other with increasingly wild ideas.”