The impenetrable hive mind of the internet is a better artist than me. It’s not a point of contention, it’s a fact. Sure, I can write, but you shouldn’t have to pay witness to the slapdash nature of my attempts at oil painting—all those atrocities lingering on a basement shelf. Even the worst AI image generators and their strange obsessions with certain wardrobes have a strange—almost disturbing—fluid quality to them that makes each attempted depiction so distinct.
Leaving the question of whether AI-generated pictures are legitimate “art,” by the wayside, the best system-produced images are more than just ways to create strange nightmare depictions of celebrities portrayed in various art styles. At the same time, it’s not enough for the digital artiste to vaguely offer an impressionistic, oddly shaped “interpretation” of users’ original pictures or prompts.
There’s a middle ground amid all this crush between technology and art that even the most untrained in the arts of brush on canvas can comprehend. What can inspire us? What can intrigue us? That is what AI image generators have the capacity to do.
So we turn to the free AI art generators, or at least the ones that offer free trial options. To best rank each program, I gave them all the same, rather esoteric, text prompts based on some books I’ve recently read. Those books include:
Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeanette Ng
Prompt: “A man and woman stand under a pendulum sun in the heart of Arcadia.”
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin
Prompt: “A lone mathematician stands on a dusty planet owning nothing.”
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
Prompt: “A foreign woman struggles alone against the machinations of a cosmic empire.”
There are several image generators which require photos instead of text prompts. As much as I would like to keep it consistent, I want to be inclusive of different systems rather than exclude them. For the image generating platforms that don’t allow for text prompts, I used the same image for each one:
I’m no art critic by any imagination, but at least I can tell whether AI generated art actually attempted to depict a prompt in a way that’s not derivative or that relies upon copying and replicating art found on the internet.
To be honest, I’m pleasantly surprised by some of the results from a few of the more popular free art generators. Let’s take a look, shall we?
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13. Fotor
13. Fotor
Oh boy, turn your image into NFT “art,” how grand a design. Well, beyond attempts to monetize the poor greyhound, let’s see what Fotor can do to make Skip a little more painterly.
Using the program’s GoArt creator, there’s honestly nothing here that I haven’t already seen from a Photoshop filter. Though the program is relatively easy to use, I don’t see any real fun to be had making an image a little more sketch-like. The program does have a neat little photo editor, but if you want an image without a watermark you’ll have to pay, but really you shouldn’t expect anything less. There are better, free programs available online if that’s all you’re looking for.
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12. Hotpot AI
12. Hotpot AI
Hotpot is a pretty rudimentary program, but it does allow users to make relatively simple AI art on the cheap. Though in the end, it doesn’t really comprehend what its being asked to make. It’s hard to see any of the original prompts in anything the AI system can produce. Like many image generators, it also struggles with faces.
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4 / 15
11. Deep AI
11. Deep AI
DeepAI’s rather simple and rudimentary AI generator doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles, and despite all that it… doesn’t have much else going for it anyway. The text to image API system simply doesn’t have the bells and whistles more updated systems have. The images are more collages of images found on the internet than any real attempt at creating something “new.”
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10. Dream Studio
10. Dream Studio
The Dream Studio beta AI art generator is free, and it has a lot of bells and whistles other AI art generators don’t have, like the ability to scale the width and height of the image while telling it how close you want the image to be to your prompt. It’s developed by Stability AI, which recently released a much more popular AI art generator (click through to find out more of Stable Diffusion).
The system is also surprisingly fast, just by the examples above you can see the AI isn’t afraid to mix and match art styles on a whim.
Unfortunately, using my prompts resulted in some interesting renditions, but a few weird and strangely derivative images as well. Several times when I used the A Memory Called Empire prompt I received images with broken text in no human language, almost like an alien book cover. It’s a sign that the system really wants me to give it more information, to tell it to rip off one particular artist or another. It does so much better when you give it the name of an artist to copy off of, but it’s similar to our next AI art generator in that regard.
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9. Stable Diffusion
9. Stable Diffusion
A lot’s been said about Stability AI’s free art generator while it was in closed beta, but on Aug. 22 the free image generator finally got a full release and since then it’s been one of the more talked about image creators. Stable Diffusion is open source, free, and unfiltered compared to the likes of Dall-E or Google’s (still publicly unavailable) Imagen. It’s basic page on Hugging Face is pretty rudimentary, but you can make it much easier to use with some simple freeware tools, though you’ll have to install Python to get it working. Stable Diffusion relies on a model based on the LAION-5B data set that filters out watermarked images and logos, according to its own page. Based on a report from tech blogger Andy Baio, many of the images are mostly sourced from Pinterest and other photo and art blogs. My attempts at asking it to create its own art without telling it to ape copy one particular artist were largely unsuccessful. It kept offering me black and white images without any kind of style or substance. Without asking it to copy a specific artist, it only offers pretty disappointing works compared to what other users have managed to get.
It seems the system is much better at coming up with art when you specifically ask it to do it in the style of a particular artist. This, of course, introduces a host of ethical problems especially for the living artists people may be emulating, as shown by fantasy artist Greg Rutkowski who was interviewed by MIT Technology Review and said he was worried the number of fake AI art bearing his name would eclipse his own visibility.
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8. VQGAN+CLIP
8. VQGAN+CLIP
You got to love freeware, and this Python-based Google Colab notebook is relatively easy to use, so really, you have to give major props for a system that’s both relatively simple and open and available to all users. All you have to do is go to the link, scroll down and input your prompt in the text box, then either hit Ctrl+F9 or Runtime - Run All.
But of course we’re ranking system’s artistic ability. The system progressively iterates on the design, so you can see where the AI is trying to go with each image. My prompts offered some really interesting results but a few head scratchers as well.
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7. Dall-E Mini (Craiyon)
7. Dall-E Mini (Craiyon)
The system once known as Dall-E Mini, now Craiyon, creates a host of different images it hopes fits the bill, so I chose the closest out of all of them to the spirit of the prompt. The images themselves are pretty low resolution, which does detract from the fact it’s giving you so many options to choose from based on a single sentence.
Even when choosing among nine different tiles, the art left a lot to be desired. Compared to other AI art, craiyon really does feel like it’s grabbing images from all over the internet and turning them into a hodgepodge of an approximation of what it thinks is the prompt.
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6. Deep Dream Generator
6. Deep Dream Generator
Google’s Deep Dream Generator claims it can transform images into stylized works of art. The main feed of images on the site does make it seem very evocative, but of course it’s not exactly easy to make an image of young Skip appear as more than just a dog with a Photoshop filter on.
I put young Skip in the style of Pieter Bruegel, the famed Dutch artist behind works like The Blind Leading the Blind. It came out… okay. I tried it with a mandala pattern and it was… interesting, I guess. I then added a Salvador Dali painting to the style, and—well—it came out kind of boring.
It’s definitely a fun tool, but it feels like I’m playing with a sophisticated color-in-the-lines book rather than generating any real art.
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10 / 15
5: Nightcafe
5: Nightcafe
The Nightcafe system will only let you do a few images before asking you to pay up, but like some other AI image generators it gives users a whole selection of different styles to choose from. It wants users to buy “credits” in order to make more arts or bump up the quality and resolution of each image, and you will run out fairly quickly.
The art itself is all over the place. I appreciate what it tried to do with The Dispossessed but it wouldn’t even create a human-looking being in either of the other two prompts. The image resolution is also not great, and the art is very strange even in the default oil painting setting. Sure, it’s nice to be able to try out the system to see if you like it first, but even for just $10 a month, I can’t say you won’t find better options out there.
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4: StarryAI
4: StarryAI
I appreciate StarryAI’s clean interface and simple systems, though of course this is another one that gives users a few free credits to start before eventually asking you to cough up for more. Again, there’s nothing wrong with getting users to pay for creating a whole lot of art, but it does have to be worth it. This art generator also lets users upload an initial image to give the AI a leg up, but there’s no hand holding allowed here for these rankings.
The art itself is a mixed bag. I like what It came up with for The Dispossessed but can’t really tell what it had in mind for A Memory Called Empire.
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3: DALL-E 2
3: DALL-E 2
DALL-E 2 may have been the most hotly anticipated AI image generator since it was initially put into its beta release back in April. However, as shown by these examples there’s been multiple releases to cash in on the AI-art craze.
OpenAI, the makers of DALL-E, finally released their system to the wider public Sept. 28. Like many other systems, it offers users a slate of 50 free prompts, plus a few more each month. Users can also pay for more image generation credits.
My experiences with DALL-E have been interesting, to say the least. I find the system does not compute specific artists too well, and even when you give it pretty detailed instructions it defaults to an impressionistic art style. Of course, that’s not what this ranking is looking to do. For this, I’m more interested in what each AI system is capable on its own without giving it an image to specifically replicate. DALL-E’s systems obviously draw from a whole host of real photos and art, but it still largely fails to replicate faces. However, the generator did seem fond of the prompt for A Memory Called Empire and it offered several inspiring images that capture the essence of the book.
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2: Wombo Dream
2: Wombo Dream
The Wombo Dream system allows you to create art in multiple different styles such as old retro art, Salvador Dahli, or—simply—”Ghibli.” I chose a different style for each based on the style of each book. It also allows you to include a reference image that Dream can use, but I’ve restricted the system to its own imagination. You can also turn the images into NFTs, but thanks, no.
I have to hand it to Wombo, some of this art is truly evocative. I’m especially taken by the Throwback filter, as it definitely gave it the 1970s art style look you might see on an old album cover. Though as you can tell, it’s very loose with its interpretations. The weirdly erotic sense I get from its interpretation of A Memory Called Empire is strange since that wasn’t the prompt. I was very surprised by its interpretation of Under the Pendulum Sun, so it gets rather high marks.
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1: Midjourney AI
1: Midjourney AI
The crown of the AI art generation scene falls on none other than Midjourney. It’s gotten quite a lot of hype since its open beta first burst up from the weeds of Discord’s servers, but it’s honestly one of the best AI art generators available. Though I’ve seen some rather strange depictions of ships and other objects, the crispness of the generated images could convince somebody they were done with human hands.
I will say that Midjourney does have a little sense of repetition, as I’ve seen similar poses among the stoic, female design among other user-prompted images. However, that doesn’t take away from how evocative the art is, especially based on such strange, convoluted prompts. I mean just look at it! Several of the images based on The Dispossessed prompt could be the actual cover to the book. Several of those in the last panel are easily how I might imagine Mahit Dzmare from A Memory Called Empire would look like.
The program remains beholden to Discord, and the bot offers the first few generated images as a trial, but then they ask users to pay $10 for a monthly basic membership with 200 images.
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FAQs
Are there free AI art Generator? ›
starryai is an AI art generator app. You simply enter a text prompt and our AI transforms your words into works of art. AI Art generation is usually a laborious process that requires technical expertise, we make that process simple and intuitive. starryai is available for free on iOS and Android.
Is MidJourney the best AI art Generator? ›Midjourney is one of the best AI art generator widely available for common users in 2022.
Can anyone use DALL-E 2? ›The makers of the AI art generator have just opened access to allow anyone to use DALL. E 2 to generate images. The platform remains in beta, but finally there's no more waiting list. DALL-E 2 sign up is now open to all.
Is DALL-E free? ›DALL-E Is Now Freely Available to All Humans. OpenAI also announced that it is testing an API that would allow develops to build on top of the A.I. system. The DALLE 2 logo seen displayed on a smartphone.
How do I access Dall-E 2? ›The catch was that DALLE-2 access was only available by invitation through a waiting list, although OpenAI says that 1.5 million people are now using it. That's now over though. The platform is still in beta, but it's now open for anyone to use by signing up on the OpenAI website (opens in new tab).
Is Midjourney free? ›You can also cancel your subscription at any time, and the cancellation will take effect at the end of the current billing cycle. You'll still be able to use your subscription until then. So there you have Midjourney AI is available to sample for free.
Is NightCafe free? ›Yes, NightCafe Creator is free to use. When you sign up with NightCafe, you are given five free credits to create art on the platform, where you can create amazing art with as little as one credit.
What AI generator are people using? ›Dall-E 2. Dall-E 2 is a product of the OpenAI research lab and is the most well-known AI image generator that people think of. It's a closed-off tool with limited access, but for those that can access it, some of the results that it can come up with are incredible.
Is Midjourney better than DALL-E 2? ›Also, DALL. E 2 produces much better images when it has more than 2 characters, as compared to Midjourney or Stable Diffusion. Midjourney, on other hand, is a tool best known for its artistic style. The image it generates almost never looks like a photo, but painting.
Is deep dream generator free? ›You can sign up for free account and create plenty of amazing pieces of art.
Can I sell Stable Diffusion AI art? ›
The artists who create the art should be the ones to own it, as they are the ones who put in the creative work. So, if you are an artist who uses AI to create your art, you have every right to sell it!
Can you sell AI art? ›Do these companies actually allow me to sell the images created through their AI systems? Well, the answer is YES, you can. There are some restrictions of course, but generally speaking the most popular AI generators do allow commercial rights.
Who made Midjourney? ›MIDJOURNEY (16 articles)
founded by david holz and created by a team in an independent research lab, midjourney explores new mediums of thought and seeks to expand the imaginative powers of the human species.
It's easy to start using DALL·E 2, simply sign up here (opens in new tab) with your email address, Google or Microsoft account. You get given 50 free credits for the first month and 15 free credits per month thereafter – but you can purchase more, with 115 credits costing US$15.
How much will DALL-E 2 cost? ›And the cost? DALL-E 2 has adopted a credit system, giving users an initial 50 credits and then 15 per month. More credit can be bought at $15 for a block of 115.
Is DALL-E 2 available to the public? ›The DALL-E 2 AI text-to-image generator is now available to the general public, parent company OpenAI announced Wednesday.
Can I sell art made by DALL-E 2? ›You now have full rights to commercialize the images you create with DALL·E, so long as you follow our content policy and terms of use. These rights include rights to reprint, sell, and merchandise the images. You get these rights regardless of whether you used a free or paid credit to generate images.
What website do people use for AI generated images? ›Since then, DALL-E has gained a reputation as the leading AI text-to-image generator available. It is known for producing the best results and being one of the easiest systems to use. DALL-E is by no means the only machine learning software that can generate images.
How can I test Dall E? ›If you want to try out the service yourself, all you have to do is head over to the Dall-E mini website. Here you'll be asked to enter a prompt and run it. This can take a while to process, so expect a wait of up to 2 minutes for your image to appear.
What can GPT-3 do? ›GPT-3 is the third generation of OpenAI's machine learning system that uses an algorithm based on 45TB (45 terabytes) of text data. It applies machine learning to generate various types of contents, including stories, code, legal documents, and even translations based on just a few input words.
How do I get Dalle AI? ›
Users can create with DALL. E using free credits that refill every month, and buy additional credits in 115-generation increments for $15. DALL. E, the AI system that creates realistic images and art from a description in natural language, is now available in beta.
How do I get free trial on Midjourney? ›Guide to MidJourney AI Art - How to get started FREE! - YouTube
Can anyone Midjourney? ›It also uses AI and machine learning to generate images based on text prompts. The results are usually quite good, but not as mind-blowing as DALL-E 2. The important thing is anyone can try the beta version of Midjourney right now (as of August 2022,) unlike DALL-E 2.
How many times can you use Midjourney? ›You can repeat this process as many times as you wish, and it's a good way to narrow down what you want when you're already close. Of course, you can always try one of the best free AI text-to-art generators to create an image from what you type as well.
How do I use Midjourney? ›Midjourney AI - FIRST STEPS - Easy Beginners Guide - YouTube
How do I turn a picture into AI art? ›How to Generate AI Art Free? Fotor AI art generator provides some free art filters, users can use free art filters to create high-quality artworks. Simply click the button "Make Art Photo Now", upload your photo and choose an art filter to create your AI generated images. Try it out!
Can AI art replace artists? ›Some individuals predict that AI will someday replace artists totally, but this is unlikely to happen soon. Although artificial intelligence is capable of producing technically proficient works of art, it is not yet capable of producing works of truly creative or innovative design.
What is the best text to image AI? ›- Dream by WOMBO. ...
- Starry AI. ...
- Nightcafe. ...
- Dall-E. ...
- Pixray (Text 2 Image) ...
- Deep Dream Generator. ...
- Deep AI. Deep AI Image Generator is an AI image generator that uses a neural network to interpret and generate images. ...
- ArtBreeder. ArtBreeder is a great tool for anyone looking to create unique and interesting images.
According to O'Reilly, Dall-E “undermines the work of creators of all kinds, most obviously photographers, illustrators and concept artists who shared their work online, and never asked to be included in a proprietary learning model”.
What is Midjourney? ›Midjourney is an independent research lab that produces a proprietary artificial intelligence program that creates images from textual descriptions, similar to OpenAI's DALL-E and the open-source Stable Diffusion.
Is Stable Diffusion better than DALL-E? ›
Stable Diffusion vs DALL·E 2
From the results, it can be seen that DALL·E-2 manages to understand and produce images that are more suitable to the prompt, while Stable Diffusion struggles.
If you require a more detailed, higher resolution image and are willing to spend a few dollars, MidJourney is definitely the way to go.
What does DALL-E stand for? ›The software's name is a portmanteau of the names of animated robot Pixar character WALL-E and the Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dalí.
Can I sell WOMBO art? ›Can you sell Wombo Art? Yes! Wombo is a great way to make some extra money. Wombo is working on the option to create a custom ERC-20 token with your artwork.
Can I use Imagen? ›While acknowledging that there is a potential for endless creativity, there are, unfortunately, also those who would may attempt to use the software for harm. It is for this reason, among others, that Imagen is not available for public use—but that could change.
How can I try a photon? ›You can try Imagen on a limited basis, though. On its website , you can create a description using pre-selected phrases. Users can select whether the image should be a photo or an oil painting, the type of animal displayed, the clothing they wear, the action they're undertaking and the setting.
Can I sell Midjourney art as NFT? ›You develop a unique style that “only you” are able to create using Midjourney's tools, and you decide to sell them, whether as NFTs, prints or what have you.
Do I own my AI art? ›“The US Copyright Office has already refused to grant a copyright registration for AI-generated art because the current copyright law requires human authorship for copyright protection. That means that, under the current rules, AI-generated art has no owner.”
Can you copyright an AI image? ›Meanwhile, a decision issued by the US Copyright Office in February implies that AI-generated images can't be copyrighted at all as an element of “human authorship” is required. Some online art communities have also raised issues with the ethics of AI-generated images and have started banning them from their sites.
Do you own art created with wombo? ›WOMBO Dream Ai art a.k.a all pictures are trademarked, use at your own discretion - General Discussion - Elektronauts.
Is AI copyrighted? ›
Under US copyright law, these images are technically not subject to copyright protection. Only "original works of authorship" are considered. "To qualify as a work of 'authorship' a work must be created by a human being," according to a US Copyright Office's report [PDF].
Can I sell AI generated art on Etsy? ›We've noticed it is usually the first thing that comes to mind when artists and craftspeople are looking to sell their work. As AI-generated art is becoming bigger and more sellers are popping up on Etsy, the site will become the mainstay for AI artwork retailers. Read more about Etsy's History.
Do I own my Midjourney art? ›Subject to the above license, you own all Assets you create with the Services. This does not apply if you fall under the exceptions below. Please note: Midjourney is an open community which allows others to use and remix your images and prompts whenever they are posted in a public setting.
Do you have to pay for Midjourney AI? ›Basic Membership ($10/month) offers:
You'll be able to run ~200 jobs every month. To be more specific, your available 'fast' time is set to 200 GPU minutes every time you purchase or renew this plan. No access to relax mode. You can upgrade your plan at any time under /subscribe .
Midjourney is a research lab and also the name of its program that creates images from textual descriptions using a machine-learning system similar to OpenAI's Dall-E system.
Is Dall E 2 free? ›Is DALL-E 2 free to use? Unfortunately not, DALL-E 2 has a credit-based pricing structure. A predetermined number of credits will be given to new users for making, editing, or changing photos.
Where can I create AI art? ›NightCafe Creator is an AI Art Generator app with multiple methods of AI art generation. Using neural style transfer you can turn your photo into a masterpiece. Using text-to-image AI, you can create an artwork from nothing but a text prompt.
How do I turn a picture into AI art? ›How to Generate AI Art Free? Fotor AI art generator provides some free art filters, users can use free art filters to create high-quality artworks. Simply click the button "Make Art Photo Now", upload your photo and choose an art filter to create your AI generated images. Try it out!
Is deep dream generator free? ›You can sign up for free account and create plenty of amazing pieces of art.
Can I use OpenAI for free? ›Playground is mostly free, but has a time limit
After three months, the free credits will expire. Once you hit that time limit (or if you use them all up before then), you'll have to buy more by contacting OpenAI's sales team.
Is DALL-E 2 available to the public? ›
The DALL-E 2 AI text-to-image generator is now available to the general public, parent company OpenAI announced Wednesday.
Is Midjourney free? ›You can also cancel your subscription at any time, and the cancellation will take effect at the end of the current billing cycle. You'll still be able to use your subscription until then. So there you have Midjourney AI is available to sample for free.
Is Dream by wombo safe? ›Yes the WOMBO app is totally safe. Wombo is a Canadian image manipulation mobile app released in 2021 that uses a provided selfie to create a deepfake of a person lip-synced to one of various songs.
Can I use wombo dream art? ›WOMBO Dream Ai art a.k.a all pictures are trademarked, use at your own discretion. Yep, so the copyright risk lies more in that the prompt you use may be combining copyrighted images that you may not recognise, and not so much with Wombo making a claim.
Can I sell my wombo dream art? ›Can you sell Wombo Art? Yes! Wombo is a great way to make some extra money. Wombo is working on the option to create a custom ERC-20 token with your artwork.
Is NightCafe free? ›Yes, NightCafe Creator is free to use. When you sign up with NightCafe, you are given five free credits to create art on the platform, where you can create amazing art with as little as one credit.
Is AI art copyrighted? ›Despite popular misconception (explained in the Getty piece), the US Copyright Office has not ruled against copyright on AI artworks. Instead, it ruled out copyright registered to an AI as the author instead of a human.
How do I access Dall E 2? ›The catch was that DALLE-2 access was only available by invitation through a waiting list, although OpenAI says that 1.5 million people are now using it. That's now over though. The platform is still in beta, but it's now open for anyone to use by signing up on the OpenAI website (opens in new tab).
Can I use Imagen? ›While acknowledging that there is a potential for endless creativity, there are, unfortunately, also those who would may attempt to use the software for harm. It is for this reason, among others, that Imagen is not available for public use—but that could change.
How can I try a photon? ›You can try Imagen on a limited basis, though. On its website , you can create a description using pre-selected phrases. Users can select whether the image should be a photo or an oil painting, the type of animal displayed, the clothing they wear, the action they're undertaking and the setting.
What is DeepDream generator? ›
The Deep Dream Generator is a computer vision platform that allows users to input photos into the program and transform them through an artificial intelligence algorithm. This video by Computerphile, an educational Youtube channel about videos, explains just how Deep Dream works.