Given the amount of money Google has invested in artificial intelligence (AI), it’s no surprise that the tech giant launched its own AI image generator, ImageFX, earlier this year. ImageFX is designed to compete with OpenAI’s DALL-E 3, Midjourney, Microsoft’s Image Creator by Designer, and many others.
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ImageFX is powered by Imagen 2, Google’s latest generation text-to-image technology. Every image created with ImageFX is embedded with DeepMind’s SynthID, a digital watermark invisible to the naked eye. The watermark can be used to show that the image was created by AI.
How to use ImageFX
Photo created with ImageFX with the caption “Kangaroo in colorful bakery looking at photo of display case with flowers and pastel-colored desserts.”
Radhika Rajkumar/ZDNET via Google’s ImageFX
To access ImageFX you will need to log into your Google account and if this is your first time using ImageFX you will need to click into the email settings for AI Test Kitchen. They will ask if you would like to receive marketing emails or research invitations.
You must also review AI Test Kitchen’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
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Google will give you a brief introduction to ImageFX, explain what it is and how AI-generated images can contain errors, and remind you to respect the rights of others.
When entering your image creation prompt, it is important to be as detailed as possible. Try to imagine the image you would like to see, and then write a description of the image you want.
It’s worth adding the type of image you want, such as photos, 3D renderings, drawings, etc. You can even add a style, such as impressionism, abstraction, vaporwave, etc.
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I’m using the prompt “Photo of a kangaroo in a colorful bakery, looking at desserts in a display case with flowers and pastel colors.”
ImageFX will create up to four images using your cue, and you can click on each image to copy, download, and share the cue or image. On the left side of the screen, above the cue field, you can switch between images and view them in a grid or one by one.
In our case, for some reason ImageFX only generated one image for me.
Click the Edit Image button in the lower left corner of the image to open the editor where you can apply a mask and enter a description of the changes you want to make.
FAQ
Can ImageFX change images it has created?
If you give ImageFX a hint and aren’t happy with any of the output, you can adjust the hint on the left side of the window and regenerate the image. In fact, Google creates drop-down menus for each keyword in the hint:
In the example above, Google took my prompt and created a drop-down menu based on the words in bold: “photo kangaroo Colorful bakery looking desserts In one Display Cabinet With flowers and Soft colors” For each one, Google suggested alternatives — for example, if I clicked “Color,” Google suggested “Monochrome,” “Neutral,” and “Pastel.”
Is Google’s AI Image Generator free?
Yes, ImageFX is free, as is the image generation feature of Gemini (formerly Bard). To use Google’s AI image generator, all you need to do is log in to your Google account.
