Even before chatbots like ChatGPT, Bard, and Bing Chat launched, AI was being used by more and more people to create art and images from just a few text prompts. This week, one of the biggest names in this field, Midjourney, announced a sudden end to its free trial, and the reasons could have implications for other similar programs.
According to The Washington Post, Midjourney CEO David Holz stated that the company"s own preventive measures have not been enough to keep the service from being hit with "extraordinary demand and trial abuse". For now, Midjourney is a paid service, with access only available if users pay $10 a month.
The abuse that Holz refers to are the very realistic-looking "deepfake" images of real people that have been generated by Midjourney users. They have raised concerns that they could be used by hostile actors to create dissent online.
It also put other AI art generators in the spotlight, including Microsoft"s recently launched Bing Image Creator. Microsoft admitted that it put strong restrictions inside the generator. In fact, it banned making images when users just typed "Bing" in the prompts. It shows that it"s an all-new world when it comes to making artwork with just a few words, and no one really knows how far it will go in the future.
Source: The Washington Post