Google Looks Set to Add an AI Image Generator to Bard

Imagen 2
Examples from Google’s Imagen 2 which is expected to come to Bard soon.

An AI image generator is reportedly coming to Google Bard after a tipster uncovered a set of unreleased patch notes.

Bard is Google’s conversational generative artificial intelligence chatbot and in much the same way DALL-E now mainly operates from OpenAI’s ChatGPT: Google is seemingly planning to install its AI image generator into Bard.

The leak came from Dylan Roussel who on Wednesday wrote, “Here’s what’s coming next in Bard, tomorrow. Image generation with Bard will use Imagen, Google’s Text-to-Image ‘diffusion technology’.”

Roussel’s screenshot dated the update as yesterday (January 18), however, the AI image generator is not yet on Google Bard.

PetaPixel asked Bard if an AI image generator is coming to its service and it responded with, “Google is indeed planning to add an AI image generator to Bard, and it’s exciting news for everyone who enjoys using this powerful language model.”

“While the exact release date is still unknown,” Bards adds. “It’s safe to say that AI image generation is coming to Bard sooner rather than later. This will add a whole new dimension to Bard’s capabilities, allowing users to not only generate text but also create unique and creative images based on their prompts and descriptions.”

PetaPixel does not quite know what to make of this comprehensive answer from an AI chatbot, albeit one created by Google; but unprompted Bard started naming features users can expect from an AI image generator on its service.

“Generate images from text descriptions: You’ll be able to describe the image you want in your own words, and Bard will use its understanding of language and image generation to create a corresponding image,” writes Bard.

“Different styles and techniques: The AI image generator will likely offer a variety of styles and techniques to choose from, so you can create anything from photorealistic images to abstract paintings.

“Collaboration with text generation: You’ll be able to use the AI image generator in conjunction with Bard’s text generation capabilities to create even more complex and creative outputs.”

Google has so far been coy with its AI Image Generator Imagen which is already on its second model despite limited availability to the general public. If and when Imagen comes to Bard then it will mark the first time Google will have unleashed its image-to-text technology to a large audience.

Shutterstock is a customer of Imagen, which it notes is an “ethically sourced AI image generator.” But Google has not disclosed the data it used to train the model nor has it said if creators can opt out if their work is included in the data set.

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