TikTok Brings Basic AI-Generated Art to the Masses

AI Image Generator

TikTok has launched a basic artificially intelligent (AI) image generator that users can make custom greenscreens with.

The text-to-image generator is a far cry from the likes of DALL-E 2 and Midjourney as it only appears to produce swirly, abstract images.

Training an AI image creator requires a high amount of computer power, so the basic appearance of TikTok’s foray is a clear marker of the difficulty of creating a bespoke AI image service.

The rudimentary characteristics also ensures that the content it creates adheres to the app’s community guidelines, including those around nudity and violent imagery.

Greenscreen image

If TikTok’s model was as photorealistic as programs like Stable Diffusion, then users would be able to create distirubrng content. Which would be a disaster for an app that has a strong contingent of children using it.

As spotted by The Verge, the feature highlights the explosion in popularity that AI image generators have had.

TikTok appears to be the first major social media platform to incorporate something like this into its app. While Instagram is busy trying to copy the Chinese behemoth, TikTok is plowing its own furrow.

Given that DALL-E 2 and Imagen aren’t widely available yet, TikTok’s new effect offers an alternative for users who may never have tried an AI image generator before.

Most programs, including DALL-E, are still limiting who can use its software, made by OpenAI. While TikTok has over one billion monthly users and it is doubtful that many of them have tried to produce AI-generated art.

AI Reigns Supreme

Machine-learning algorithms and artificially intelligent apps are all the rage and the trend shows no sign of abating as we drive further into 2022.

Earlier today, PetaPixel reported on remarkably realistic landscape photos that were created by new AI image generator Stable Diffusion.

And earlier this month, PetaPixel reported on what engineers called MegaPortraits. Moving high-res avatars created from just a single image.

Many photographers are left to wonder where all of this goes. In a world of portraits of people that don’t exist being created with AI software. The role of the photographer could well look different in the future.

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