Bing AI images

Puma in style of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night“ (Image generated b Advait Sathe with Bing AI)

By Advait Sathe, staff writer

The most commonly used AI image generators have long been paid services, costing up to $15 per month just for one account. But finally, Microsoft, the exclusive provider of cloud computing services to OpenAI, has released their new image generation AI called Bing Image Creator.

Bing Image Creator can be accessed for free as long as you have a Microsoft account, which is also free. After logging in, you are presented with a template to generate images, a search bar where you can input your prompt, and other images created using the software.

Instead of paying for images, Microsoft’s system makes use of what they call “Boosts.” Boosts speed up your image generation, generating four images based on your prompt in less than 30 seconds. Once you run out of Boosts, you are placed in a slower queue, which means your images could take between a minute and five minutes to generate.

Boosts regenerate every week, maxing out at 100 Boosts. You can also purchase more Boosts with Microsoft Rewards points, which accumulate over time when you use Bing. Every 500 points gives you five boosts. Extra points can be earned by taking quizzes and buying Microsoft products. Subscribing to Xbox Game Pass ultimate also gives you 14,000 points, which can be traded in for 140 Boosts.

Even when you use a Boost, image generation can take up to 30 seconds, which is much longer than DALL-E 2, the AI Bing Image Creator is based on. The average speed for DALL-E 2 is around 10 seconds, but Microsoft says that it uses a more advanced version of the program, which may be to blame.

Bing Image Creator is one of the most advanced free AI image creators available for use right now, matched only by Midjourney, which requires payment. Image generators are great for generating images for reference or for ideas, but many people say that they can be used for deepfakes and other things that can ruin people’s reputations.

Igor Shirokov, a senior at Carrillo, says that with the “rapid popularization we saw several months ago, with text-based modes, there are significant ethical concerns due to the training data these models utilize, which is often gathered from public sources without the consent of the artists who post their works there.”

This is a valid concern, as many pieces of art made by AI look similar to art made by real artists. Bing Image Creator has, however, implemented a watermark on the bottom right corner, which will show whether the image is AI generated or not, allowing viewers to still identify human-drawn art.

Arav Patil, a freshman at Carrillo, says that AI image generators are a harmless tool. He believes that deepfakes are “outside of the scope of a simple image generator,” so even though they can cause harm, they won’t be a huge issue. He thinks that you can get “cool art” out of it, among many other things.

There are many concerns with AI image generation, but with the introduction of Bing Image Generator, it will bring image generation to the masses. While providing art generation to non-artists, it may also seriously impact the current art environment irrevocably. But, as to the true impacts, people will just have to see.

Image generation AI has long been a paid service, costing up to $15 per month just for one account. But finally, Microsoft, the exclusive provider of cloud computing services to OpenAI, has released their new image generation AI: Bing Image Creator.

Bing Image Creator can be accessed for free with a free Microsoft account. After logging in, you are presented with a template on how to generate images, a search bar where you can input your prompt, and other images created using the software.

Puma reading a newspaper wearing a fedora (Image generated b Advait Sathe with Bing AI)

Instead of paying for images, Microsoft uses a system that uses “Boosts”. Boosts speed up your image generation, generating four images based on your prompt in less than 30 seconds. Once you run out of Boosts, you are placed in a slower queue, which means your images could take between a minute and 5 minutes to generate.

Boosts regenerate every week, stacking up until 100 Boosts. You can also purchase more Boosts with Microsoft Rewards Points, which accumulate over time when you use Bing. You can also earn points by taking quizzes and buying Microsoft products. Spending 500 of these points gives you five boosts.Subscribing to Xbox Game Pass ultimate gives you 14,000 points, which can be traded in for 140 Boosts.

Even when you use a Boost, image generation takes up to 30 seconds, which is much longer than DALL-E 2, which Bing Image Creator is based off of. The average speed for DALL-E 2 is around 10 seconds, but Microsoft says that it uses a more advanced version of DALL-E 2 which may be to blame.

Bing Image Creator is one of the most advanced free AI image creators available for use right now, matched only by Midjouurney, which requires payment. Image generators are great for generating images for reference or for ideas, but many people say that they can be used for deep fakes and other things that can ruin people's reputations.

Igor Shirokov, a Senior at Carrillo, says that with the “rapid popularization of which we saw…several months ago [with text-based modes], there are significant ethical concerns due to the training data these models utilize, which is often gathered from public sources without the consent of the artists who post their works there.”

This is a valid concern, as many pieces of art made by AI look similar to art made by real artists. But, Bing Image Creator has implemented a watermark on the bottom right corner, which will show whether the image is AI generated or not.

Arav Patil, a Freshman at Carrillo, says that AI image generators are a harmless tool. He also believes that, though deepfakes can cause harm they are, “outside…the scope of a simple image generator.”. He thinks that you can get “cool art” out of it, among many other things.

There are many concerns with AI image generation, but with the introduction of Bing Image Generator, it will bring image generation to the masses. This may be good or bad, as, though it introduces a lot more free use images for people to use, along with providing non-artists a chance to create professional level images, it also raises questions about the ethics of using an AI which takes such heavy inspiration from artists who may or may not support it.