Google Will Let You Experiment With Its AI Image Generator…But Barely
2022 brought about wild advancements in generative AI applications thanks to a groundswell of text to image AI models from OpenAI’, Stable Diffusion, and others, which collectively forced everyday users to re-imagine the possibilities and limitations of computer generated content. Though Google has spent years and resources developing similar tech through its “Imagen” model, the world’s largest search engine took a cautious approach and, until now, refrained from opening its model up to the public.
Now, Google says it’s adding a limited Imagen demo to its AI Test Kitchen app in a “Season 2” update. (Season one included demos showing off LaMDA, the company’s text based chatbot a certain Google researcher believed obtained the sentience of a small child). Users experimenting with Imagen can use a variety of odd words to have the AI cook up a personalized cityscape in its “City Dreamer.” The “Wobble,” demo meanwhile, uses similar text prompts to let users create an AI generated monster. Google hopes these extremely limited use cases will let users experience some of the tech and provide feedback while taking care to prevent significant unintentional harm.
