DALL·E imagines a professional future

The Future. OpenAI is riding the popularity of its AI-art tool, DALL·E, by paywalling it at a still-accessible price point. While DALL·E could prove to be a boon for non-artists trying to brainstorm images (or just have fun, like many of us here at TheFutureParty have), it may also prove to be a valuable assistant to illustrators doing work for clients.

Machine earning
Bloomberg reports that the team behind DALL·E is imagining the AI tool’s future.

• Even though DALL·E is technically still in the testing stage, OpenAI is paywalling the tool after a rapturous response — it’ll cost $15 for 115 credits.
• Each credit is worth one text prompt, which is how you create a DALL·E image.
• Users will also receive free credits from time to time (have to keep people hooked when they run out of credits).

The hope is that DALL·E will become a bonafide commercial tool (and success) — an ambition made possible by the fact that users have a right to the images created by their prompts. All they have to do is note that DALL·E was used in its creation.

Internet illustrator
DALL·E is OpenAI’s largest project to date — and a major cornerstone in its transition from a cool AI playground started by tech bigwigs like Y Combinator president Sam Altman and Elon Musk to a commercial enterprise that could bring AI-generative tools to the masses.

Analysts already warn that DALL·E threatens to upend the careers of actual human illustrators due to it being both cheap and creative. While that may raise artists’ alarms, some note that the tech’s inability to get into the nitty-gritty of what a client wants makes DALL·E more of a starting point for idea generation than anything else.

And considering that OpenAI’s mission is to create tools that “benefit all of humanity,” it’ll have to work hard to ensure that includes human illustrators.