Midjourney is a perfect example of an AI tool. The program can render images from a simple user-provided prompt. As it delves into new thoughts, it expands humans' imagination limits. As we’ve seen, AI can transform human perception, taking everything to another level. This time, we'll discuss the revolution that Midjourney's journey (pun intended) is causing. Let’s go!
What is Midjourney?
Midjourney (MJ) is an AI-powered design software. Through this tool, users can create beautiful visuals with little-to-none effort. Its intuitive interface and automated capacities make it easy to create professional-quality designs. Plus, MJ is cloud-based, allowing accessibility from any device. If you're looking for a new tool for your stack, Midjourney is a good choice!
What is Midjourney's goal?
Midjourney is, like many others, an AI-based platform that creates images from text. Yet, this Artificial Intelligence product it has a different perspective than the usual ones: it focuses on prioritizing visual aesthetics. Based on it, its CEO's idea was to create something different. As a result, Midjourney makes AI generated pictures that are often indistinguishable from actual photos. Further, another MJ's milestone is unlocking the creativity of everyday people. Midjourney's primary goal is to conceive attractive images. David Holz, MJ’s CEO, wanted a more human approach. Interviewed by The Verge, he said the commercial index is less important than the sense of humanity. So, this AI project aims to make humans develop their creative capacity to the fullest extent. Its concept goes beyond "simple" text-to-image.
How does Midjourney work?
Midjourney is no ordinary design tool. To use it, you need access through a Discord server. Once in, you can see its advantages quite fast. Since it relies on interactions with a bot, there's no need for coding within the server. Before using it, it's worth noting it has different versions which differ from each other as they provide different approaches realistic and detailed outputs.
Another pro of MJ being on Discord is that you'll find many people in public spaces. Thus, Midjurney provides significant interaction, as seen from other users' results. Getting along with trends and learning to structure Midjourney Prompts becomes easier. Usually, people say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Yet, Midjourney thinks otherwise. With this platform, you can create a masterpiece within a phrase.
Unbelievably, generating an MJ image takes as long as rendering it. Further, its pictures are sometimes blurry, which causes a pleasant hypnotic effect. Otherwise, you can get images with a high level of detail. You can download initial thumbnails as they're only 256 px.
Also, MJ offers a credit system required to both create AI art and upscale it, whether the latter be via aspect ratio or generated images. Yet, this quality upscaling may take a minute longer than the initial operation. Likewise, the platform shows a gradual system of visual improvement. To sum up, Midjourney provides variations of its images; this way, you get up to four result variations.
Midjourney and Generative AI
Generative AIs have been trending recently; especially within art, with controversies like Jason Allen’s triumph. Often, it takes a lot of work to get a consensus about AI's utility in general and Generative AI or Machine Learning in particular. Nonetheless. Artificial Intelligence is still raging despite the division, and doesn't seem to stop soon. Midjourney has three base pillars: design, human infrastructure, and, of course, the AI.
Benefits of Midjourney
As we said, MJ's CEO declared that he often focuses more on humanity than business. As a result, its users are usually professionals aiming to enhance their work. Nonetheless, Midjourney takes creative processes to another level. Its AI provides tangible concepts in seconds, which is crucial when only an idea arises. Also, MJ allows for finding the best ideas by converging pre-existing ones.
In consequence, the AI Art Generator can be quite a mind-relief. Also, it lets users choose composition, color, and texture, which tended to be harsh. Midjourney is becoming famous, and millions of people use it through Discord. Many people may wonder why to use MJ if you're an outstanding artist. The answer to it hides behind creative processes. You may be great at designing characters. But you can get the inspiration if you have a creative block down.
Midjourney and Copyright
Nowadays, there are no regulations for AI platforms. Thus, the idea of regulatory rules is in everybody's mind. Yet, this narrative also obliterates the concept of AI being dangerous itself. As for art, Midjourney has had a lot of controversy since its start. In short, its founder acknowledged that he used millions of images to train it, sort of a way of how GNAs work. What's more, Holz also admitted that he used images without authorization. His defense was that getting permission for millions of images was impossible.
It's not a secret that this AI tool has thousands of data from the internet. Thus, it results in a fusion of many things that already exist. Artists like Dave Lung have shown their disagreement with these platforms. He criticized his despotic way of admitting the truth, considering it a lack of respect for art. Even so, the integrity of the metadata embedded in the images is unknown. But, Midjourney's operation remains untouchable. As we discussed, this sort of riot awakes the regulations' debate. And we'll likely see more to this story.
Conclusion
In conclusion, AI follows us everywhere. MJ's case is one of many on the board, and it won't be the last AI tool to impact our world. We live in an era with a lot of access to information. We can do as the grandest artists did before: learn from each other! In brief, these platforms can shape the future and the wonders that come with it. Yet, many people think we must do more to maintain art's integrity. So, what's your take on this debate? Will AI-based art be the future? Is there going to be any AI regulation soon? And where does all that leave human art?
