Seems like Silicon Valley is Crushing Over Generative AI and Its Art
Generative AI, AI’s new creative streak sparks a Silicon Valley gold rush
Computer programs are now capable to create never-before-seen images in a fraction of a second. These programs need to be fed with some words, and they will usually provide us with a picture that actually matches the description, no matter how bizarre. But the pictures are not always perfect.
AI Image generators have issues with the text, coming up with some stupid signs, or making up their own alphabet. But these image-generating programs — which look like small things today could be the start of a big wave in technology. Technologists call them generative models or generative AI.
Saran Guo, the founder of venture capital firm Conviction, arranged a buzzy salon at a posh bar in San Francisco last week that drew an animated crowd of engineers, entrepreneurs, and financiers. The thing that dominated their minds are the blossoming creative capabilities of artificial intelligence. This was just one of several held last week in San Francisco by investors and technologists excited by the commercial potential of what has been dubbed “generative AI.” Her guests were AI engineers from large tech companies, fellow investors, and entrepreneurs building businesses powered by recent advances in algorithms that generate text or images. One of the guests of honor was Clement Delangue, CEO of Hugging Face, a company that hosts a number of open-source generative AI projects, including one that recently sparked a frenzy of AI memes. He replied to questions from engineers thinking about jumping onto the bandwagon with generative AI startups of their own. “It’s just the hottest area from a fundraising perspective right now,” Guo mentions.
Social media has lately been overrun by stunning and strange AI art generated by AI Image generators, thanks to advances by Hugging Face and others. Machine learning technology permits algorithms to generate reams of surprisingly coherent text on a given instruction. A few of what is now styled as generative AI companies have collectively raised hundreds of millions of dollars, spurring a hunt for a new creation of AI art. Stability AI, which provides tools for generating AI images with few restrictions, held a party of its own in San Francisco last week. It announced US$ 101 million in new funding, valuing the company at a dizzy $1 billion. The gathering attracted tech celebrities including Google cofounder Sergey Brin.
Generative AI enthusiasts expect AI art technology will make its way into all kinds of industries and will do much more than just spit out images or sentences. David Song, a senior at Stanford University who is tracking the boom, has collated a list of over 100 generative AI startups.
