Image Generation & Visual Art

Text-to-image AI models like Midjourney, DALL-E, and Stable Diffusion can generate detailed, often striking images from text descriptions. The technology has progressed from producing blurry curiosities to creating images that can be difficult to distinguish from photographs or professional illustrations. For businesses, this means rapid prototyping of visual concepts, quick generation of marketing imagery, and reduced dependence on stock photography. For individual creators, these tools can accelerate workflows and help visualise ideas that would otherwise require significant time or skill to produce manually. The controversy is substantial. These models were trained on billions of images scraped from the internet, including the work of artists who neither consented nor were compensated. The legal and ethical questions around this are unresolved - courts in multiple jurisdictions are still working through copyright claims. Stylistically, AI image generation tends toward a recognisable aesthetic that can feel generic, and fine control over specific details remains difficult. The technology is best understood as a powerful tool for certain visual tasks, not a replacement for the intentionality and craft that defines professional visual art.