Midjourney AI Creation Tool 119

mid(Midjourney) is an artificial intelligence drawing chat bot that runs on Discord. Currently, mid is operated as a company, and the software itself is still in the beta testing phase and has not been fully opened to the public. One of the core members of the mid (Midjourney) company is Somnai, the author of the open-source AI drawing program Disco Diffusion. If you're interested, you can check out his Twitter. Unlike DD, which requires a certain foundation in coding, mid (Midjourney) basically has zero learning cost and is very easy to operate.

What changes will AI drawing programs like mid (Midjourney) bring?

The era where everyone can draw is coming.

Let me say this first: mid (Midjourney) is not the ultimate form of this kind of program—it is still constantly iterating and evolving. It can be expected that in the near future, it will definitely become even more powerful, and more similar applications will appear. In fact, it can be said that any field involving visual design imagery may be invaded by it. The singularity is here; this is definitely a technology that will change the field of visual art. The following points are the possible changes I can currently see, and they only represent my personal views:

1. It will replace the work of some illustrators.

Honestly, the images produced by mid (Midjourney) are better than those of most junior illustrators. If clients can use mid (Midjourney) to create on their own, I don't think they would pay to hire an illustrator. In the past, if you wanted a portrait, you had to hire a painter; later, you went to a photo studio; now, most people can take photos anytime, anywhere, and most basic needs can be self-sufficient—only particularly detailed requirements would lead people to hire a professional.

2. It will change the way illustrators and designers work.

Currently, it takes illustrators and designers a relatively long time to learn a particular style, and they may only master a few styles in their entire career. However, if you add AI assistance to your work, both efficiency and the breadth of styles will see a tremendous improvement.

There's a great example that illustrates all of this: in the field of Go, a few years ago, AlphaGo defeated Ke Jie, who said he felt as if he had seen the Go God—that humans would never be able to defeat AI at Go, and that Go in the AI era felt particularly boring. On the other hand, Shin Jin-seo, a Korean Go player of average talent, continuously played against AI, learned many new ideas, and defeated Ke Jie to win the world championship.

In the few months since I've been exposed to AI drawing, I've practically gone through the entire history of human painting. In fact, earlier artists also learned through imitation, integration, and borrowing, but AI has shortened this process many times over, making things that were previously impossible possible.

3. It will replace most stock image libraries.

I know that most designers and some professionals need stock image libraries to make ppt or other things. Most of the time, they need a visual representation that matches the content. But honestly, finding a perfectly matching image in the vast sea of stock libraries isn't easy, and the copyright fees are also very expensive. But now I'm telling you, there's a tool that can directly generate corresponding images from text content, with perfect matching, and the monthly subscription price is just a few dozen dollars for unlimited use. Would you still use a stock image library?

4. It will rewrite copyright law.

The copyright of AI works is still in a gray area, and is arguably the most cutting-edge part of copyright law that has yet to be fully established. But it can be foreseen that as more and more people use it in the future, the laws in this area will definitely be refined. I'm also a little curious about this: copyright is actually a product based on private ownership. If one day everyone can obtain the images they want at a very low cost, will something called copyright still exist?

5. Huge commercial value.

Any tool that boosts productivity will bring huge commercial value, and AI drawing is no exception. At present, I've only seen mid packaged as a product and some other AI drawing apps, which charge per image or per month. Many people overseas use AI to create NFTs, which is also a path. It can be foreseen that these applications will definitely grow exponentially in the future and become increasingly segmented.

How to get started with midjourney AI drawing: a complete guide for beginners