Dear reader,
do you know Dall-E?
Or rather, Dall-E 2?
If not: Dall-E 2 is a so-called image generator that is based on artificial intelligence (AI) and works like this: You enter text or a few keywords that roughly describe what kind of image you want to create.
For example, this morning I gave the AI this task: "A cup of tea standing on top of a guitar amp." Here is one of the four results the system gave me seconds later:
Not that bad, is it?
In any case, you can see that even I can create photo-realistic images.
At least when I'm supported by an AI.
All this is possible because the OpenAI research association released its system for everyone at the end of September.
I was particularly amazed at the speed at which this happened.
After all, the AI image generator was only presented to the public in April.
Initially, only selected artists and creatives were granted access, later you could apply to be a beta tester, but you had to justify why you should be selected.
But soon after the release, a million and a half people were playing around with the system.
With their text inputs, they generated two million images a day.
Now, just a few months after its first public mention, Dall-E 2 is making the next leap towards greater notoriety: The system is being integrated into Microsoft's office software Microsoft 365 (formerly known as Office 365).
The company announced this on Wednesday.
The software is called Microsoft Designer and, according to Microsoft manager Liat Ben-Zur, is based on AI technology, primarily on Dall-E 2.
Microsoft can do something like this because the group got into OpenAI in 2019 with an investment of one billion dollars.
The following year, the company secured an exclusive license for GPT-3, which my colleague Patrick Beuth put it, "the most eloquent AI in the world."
Just as Dall-E 2 amazes today with the wonderful works of art it can create from text, GPT-3 is surprisingly good at writing text that, according to Patrick, "you and I would think was the work of a human."
"Let the AI do the heavy lifting"
The integration of Dall-E 2 into Microsoft's designer app should probably be similar.
With "minimal effort" one should be able to create "lightning fast posts for social media, invitations, digital postcards, graphics and more" with the new software.
As on the Dall E-2 website, you enter a text that describes what you want to produce.
Or as Ben-Zur puts it, "Start with an idea and let the AI do the heavy lifting."
And it will be hard work that the AI has to do in the background.
While users are typing ideas into the designer on their computers, high-performance computers rattle off somewhere on the planet in a cloud data center to implement their wishes.
What makes me smile: According to Microsoft, the new app emerged from PowerPoint of all things, a tool the mention of which triggers a real "PowerPoint fear" in me, because I've seen so many unspeakably boring presentations.
In order to prevent exactly that, the designer in PowerPoint should now offer exciting graphic options that match the content of the presentation.
And it should also produce invitation cards and social media posts that are supposed to have a creative effect, but which, as our columnist Christian Stöcker once put it, are ultimately “only the output of incredibly complex statistical models trained with gigantic amounts of material”.
Higher mathematics in chic, so to speak.
I can't wait to see what crazy creations from this system will flood the web in the future.
But that won't happen that quickly, because the Microsoft Designer is not yet a finished product.
If you want to try it out, you can register with Microsoft for a free preview version with limited functionality.
When the group's developers consider the system to be complete, it will be released both as a free version and in a "premium" version for subscribers.
I doubt that this version will appear as quickly as Dall-2 made it from presentation to general release.
Our current Netzwelt reading tips for SPIEGEL.de
"What's the truth behind the allegations against BSI boss Schönbohm?"
(four minutes of reading)
Does the President of the Federal Office for Information Security have to go because TV entertainer Jan Böhmermann portrayed him as a "cyber clown" with close ties to Russia?
We took a closer look at the evidence so far.
»That will change with the USB-C obligation« (five minutes of reading)
New smartphones, Bluetooth boxes and laptops in the EU will probably have to have a USB-C connection in the future.
What does this mean for Apple's iPhones and wireless charging?
The overview by Jörg Breithut.
"A watch for the next 48 hours" (five minutes of reading)
Apple's new smartwatch costs a handsome 999 euros.
I've extensively tested the endurance athlete's wristop computer and found that it's not only very different from other Apple Watches, but couch athletes will love it too.
External links: Three tips from other media
"Blackouts Against Freedom" (six minutes of reading)
A visually impressive, very informative article from the "Tagesspiegel" about the internet blockades in Iran.
"The sodium battery revolution is foreseeable" (15 minutes of reading) Largely unnoticed
by the West, work is being done in China on a new battery technology that could replace expensive lithium-ion batteries, writes "Golem" and senses a change.
»#PortfolioDay« (as many reading minutes as you can stand)
Twitter has declared this Wednesday the day for artists who want to present their works to the world.
If you like manga, fantasy and kitsch, you will get a tendonitis scrolling.
Have a good rest of the week.
Matthew Kremp
