DALL-E (stylized as DALL·E) and its successor DALL·E 2 are generative models developed by OpenAI, designed to create digital images from natural language prompts.
What is DALL-E?
Launched by OpenAI in January 2021, DALL·E is a version of the powerful GPT family of models, modified to generate images. DALL·E uses natural language prompts to create digital images with remarkable detail and diversity. Its successor, DALL·E 2, was designed to generate even more realistic images at higher resolutions, combining various concepts, attributes, and styles in unique and compelling ways.
How to Access DALL-E
In July 2022, DALL·E 2 was introduced in a beta phase and in September 2022, the waitlist requirement was removed, and the AI image generator was made accessible to all. You can access the tool below:
In November 2022, OpenAI also released DALL-E 2 as an API, which allows developers to integrate the model into their applications.
DALL-E vs. Stable Diffusion vs. Midjourney
All three models - DALL-E, Stable Diffusion, and Midjourney - are powerful tools for image generation, with each offering unique advantages.
- DALL-E-2 can generate quite realistic and diverse images based on text prompts, but the source code has not been released, limiting access to a proprietary API.
- Stable Diffusion is an open-source tool released by Stability AI, which can be run on consumer-grade hardware and applied to a variety of image transformation tasks.
- Midjourney, particularly Midjourney V5, is currently hailed as the leader in the AI image generation space, although there's no question that upcoming DALL-E upgrades will try and challenge this.
DALL·E Pricing
OpenAI allows users to generate a certain number of images for free each month, after which they may purchase additional image generation capabilities. The API operates on a cost-per-image basis, with prices varying depending on the image resolution:
| Resolution | Price |
| 1024×1024 | $0.020 / image |
| 512×512 | $0.018 / image |
| 256×256 | $0.016 / image |
Summary: DALL·E
DALL·E and DALL·E 2 undoubtely represent advancements in the field of AI image generation. Despite some limitations, DALL-E has proven to be a powerful tool in AI image generation.
While the lack of open source access to DALL·E's code and weights is a potential barrier for some users, its performance and capabilities make it a notable player in the space. However, ethical concerns around issues like algorithmic bias, potential misuse for deepfakes, and copyright infringements have also been raised.
Despite these concerns and limitations, DALL·E continues to impress with its generative abilities, and it represents a significant step forward in AI technology.
