IEEE Spectrum: Five AI tools for creating images right now

AI images have become a fixture of everyday life, and the market for tools that can make them is growing fast. The magazine IEEE Spectrum has looked at five popular services that regular users can try right now without having to be technical experts.

Five different profiles

Midjourney is highlighted as the favorite among professionals who work creatively. The tool creates images with strong, vivid colors and a dramatic look, but requires a paid subscription.

Flux is free and open source, and according to the article it is especially good at photorealistic images. It can even run locally on a powerful computer instead of in the cloud.

Leonardo.ai is aimed at people who need the same character to look consistent across multiple images, for example for illustrations or fantasy worlds. This tool also requires a subscription.

DALL-E, which is owned by OpenAI and built into ChatGPT, is described as quick to use and easy for less experienced users. It costs money through a ChatGPT subscription.

Google ImageFX is the only one of the five that is completely free. You can create four images at once, and the quality is described as good. That makes it an obvious choice if you just want to experiment without paying.

What it means for you

The point of the article is that it is no longer just about which AI model is "best," but about which tool fits the specific task and price. If you just want to try it out without spending money, Google ImageFX is an obvious place to start. If you need consistent characters or professional quality, it may pay to look at Leonardo.ai or Midjourney instead.

For the average user, the development means that the ability to create professional-looking images with just a few words as input is now easier and cheaper than ever, which both opens up new possibilities and raises questions about copyright and the authenticity of images online.