Software How To

All images in this article were generated with help from DALL·E 2.

DALL·E 2 from OpenAI (the folks who gave us ChatGPT) uses AI to convert plain language text strings into realistic images and art. We typed in “Digital camera that looks like a red pepper” and DALL·E 2 generated the image you see here (we added the Shutterbug nameplate. For lovers of imaging, DALL·E 2 is addictive.

Looking for a new Facebook profile pic? Ready to dress up your Instagram posts? Or maybe you just want to play with the most powerful word-to-image AI converter available FREE to consumers today? Then DALL-E 2 is for you.

Getting Started
Sign up for an OpenAI account. It’s free. Go to the DALL·E 2 section of the OpenAI website and sign in. New users receive 50 free credits to generate images. After you run out (and you will fast—this stuff is addictive) DALL·E 2 adds 15 more credits to your account 30 days later. But who can wait? You can buy more at the very low cost of $15 for 115 credits. Check out their explanation of how credits work for more details.

Enter detailed descriptions of the image you want. Let your vivid imagination be your guide. For example, if you type in “Monkey riding piggyback on a duck,” you get something like the image above. Add “digital art” to the description and you get digital art. You can also specify “3D rendering.”

DALL·E 2 generates four iterations from the text string you enter. Additionally, you can select any of the four images and ask DALL·E 2 to generate four variations of it.

Ownership & Usage Rights
You own the images you create with DALL·E 2 and as long as you’re not using them to harm anyone, you can do with them as you wish—even sell them. OpenAI insists that you are fully transparent and honestly disclose that AI helped with the creation. There are other common sense restrictions. Read OpenAI’s Content Policy carefully. 

OpenAI is very clear that DALL·E 2 must not be used for unethical, immoral or illegal purposes. They prohibit nudity and warn against infringing on the copyrights of others. DALL·E 2 renderings that appear on social media, news media and other vehicles of public consumption must include a clear disclosure that AI was used in the creation. Interestingly, unlike some companies that insist on being given full credit and having their brand name displayed, OpenAI makes no such demands. You can state that “DALL·E 2 was used,” but it’s equally okay to just indicate that “AI was used.”

Fails
Sometimes the rendering of human faces contain eyeballs that just aren’t normal. Some fails can be fixed, others cannot. Also, occasionally a subject will be rendered partially outside the image border. Currently, DALL·E 2 renders in square format only.

Uploads
You can upload images to DALL·E 2 for editing and magic making. We haven’t tried that yet so we’ll wait until we do before commenting. It can also extend images beyond their original borders and magically conjure up the missing content.

How Does it Work?
According to the OpenAI website, “DALL·E 2 has learned the relationship between images and the text used to describe them. It uses a process called ‘diffusion,’ which starts with a pattern of random dots and gradually alters that pattern towards an image when it recognizes specific aspects of that image.”

Where is it Headed?
If you read the semi satirical story we posted recently about ChatGPT, one of OpenAI’s other AI engines, you doubtlessly noticed a thin shiver of fearful apprehension regarding AI being used to write essays, book reviews and — Gulp! Can I say it? — magazine articles. Using AI to produce images, on the other hand, seems fairly harmless and benign, as long as it’s disclosed that AI played a role. Or maybe we’re just ignorant and shortsighted.

If you’ve ever wanted to be able to draw pictures of the things you see in your head, DALL·E 2 is as close as we can get right now. The image quality, the digital art, the 3D renderings—they’re unbelievably well done. DALL·E 2 is amazing fun and you must try it soon.

Now, if we could get ChatGPT to write screenplays and feed them directly to DALL·E 2 we could blast the Hollywood film industry out of the water and have an exciting new movie every day. Or maybe ChatGPT and DALL·E 2 could collaborate and send the output to a 3D printer so we could print something tastier than a ham-and-pineapple pizza…

All images in this article were generated with help from DALL·E 2.

—Jon Sienkiewicz