I have joined the ranks of the cool kids that have access to the Dall·E beta. For too long, I have suffered from serious FOMO, as I have watched my Twitter timeline fill with Dall·E generated images.

A futuristic city generated by Dall·E

What is it?

Dall·E is a tool that uses artifical intelligence to generate artwork from user supplied text. Even more impressively, it can generate art in a wide variety of user supplied art styles. Another impressive feat is the variety and quality of images it produces.

A humanoid cat oil painting generated by Dall·E

AI and Art

The current state of artificial intelligence usually really bugs me. It feels like every day someone is applying machine learning to a task it is barely capable of achieving. This can lead to very frustrating results as anyone who has used a smart assistant can attest.

With art, unexpected results lead to happy accidents. AI seems particularly well suited to being part of the creative process because even when it produces unexpected results, it is generating new ideas.

Oblique Strategies cards created by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt

Detractors will surely make the argument that if the computer is generating it, then it’s not your art. Similar arguments are made each time a new technological advancement is made to the artistic process. Dall·E generates images based on user input and its output can be used as a component of a larger piece of work. AI has been used to enhance other computer art tools for some time now, so this is just the next logical step. The images produced with it can be used for any legal purpose, including for commercial use.

Want

Dall·2 is currently available in beta, but you’ll need to get on the waiting list to get access. When you are approved, you will receive 50 free credits for the first month and 15 every subsequent month that can be used to generate images. If you run out of credits, you can spend $15 to get another 115 credits.