OpenAI unveils DALL-E 3, allows artists to opt out of training

Image credits: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch

OpenAI today unveiled an upgraded version of its text-to-image tool, DALL-E, that uses ChatGPT — OpenAI’s viral chatbot — to take some of the pain out of prompting.

Most of today’s sophisticated AI-powered image creation tools take prompts — image descriptions — and turn them into artwork in a range of styles, from photorealistic to fantasy. But crafting the right vector can be a challenge, so much so that “agile engineering” has become a real profession.

OpenAI’s new tool, DALL-E 3, uses ChatGPT to help fill out claims. Via ChatGPT, subscribers to OpenAI’s premium ChatGPT plans, ChatGPT Plus and ChatGPT Enterprise, can write a request for an image and refine it through conversations with the chatbot – receiving the results directly within the chat app.

ChatGPT will take a short prompt of no more than a few words and make it more descriptive, providing more direction to the DALL-E 3 model.

ChatGPT integration isn’t the only thing new in DALL-E 3. DALL-E 3 also creates higher-quality images that reflect prompts more accurately, OpenAI says — especially when dealing with longer prompts. It handles content that has historically hampered image generation models better, such as text and human hands.

Image created by DALL-E 3.

Furthermore, DALL-E 3 has new mechanisms to reduce algorithmic bias and improve safety, or so says OpenAI. For example, DALL-E 3 will reject requests requesting a portrait in the style of living artists or depictions of public figures. Artists can now choose not to use some — or all — of their artwork to train future generations of OpenAI models to convert text to image. (OpenAI, along with some of its competitors, is facing a lawsuit for allegedly using artists’ copyrighted works to train its generative AI image models.)

The launch of DALL-E 3 comes as the race for generative AI heats up, especially in the field of image synthesis. Competitors like Midjourney and Stability AI continue to improve their image-generating models, putting pressure on OpenAI to stay afloat.

OpenAI plans to roll out DALL-E 3 to premium ChatGPT users in October, followed by research labs and its API customers. The company hasn’t said when — or if — it plans to release a free web tool, as it did with DALL-E 2 and the original DALL-E model.