[AI Image Generation 3] Still More AI Image Generators! Are They Available for Commercial Use?

Introduction

Hello, this is Easygoing.

The top image was generated using AuraFlow 0.3, one of the AI tools introduced here.

AuraFlow produces unique, transparent-looking illustrations.

Part 3 in the History of AI Image Generators

This is the third installment in our series on the history of AI image generation.

Part 1: The Birth of AI Image Generation

Part 2: Stable Diffusion and Its Offshoots

This time, we’ll introduce some of the newer AI tools that have emerged!

More AI Image Generators: The Newest Additions

In this post, we’ll look at four more AI generators.

gantt
title New image generation AI
dateFormat YYYY-MM-DD
tickInterval 12month
section Google<br>Imagen
Imagen   :i1, 2022-05-23,2023-05-09
Imagen 2 :i2, 2023-05-10,2024-08-15
Imagen 3 :i3, 2024-08-16,2024-10-31
Imagen 2 Release : milestone, m1, 2023-12-24,
section Ideogram
Ideogram   :done, j1, 2023-08-29, 2024-08-20
Ideogram 2 :done, j2, 2024-08-21, 2024-10-31
section Meta
Imagine :k1, 2023-12-06, 2024-10-31 
section Fal.ai           
AuraFlow 0.1 :crit, l1, 2024-07-12, 2024-07-26
AuraFlow 0.2 :crit, l1, 2024-07-27, 2024-08-14
AuraFlow 0.3 :crit, l1, 2024-08-15, 2024-10-31

Let’s explore each of these AIs in detail!

Imagen: AI Developed by the Global Giant, Google

• Developed by Google early on
• Vast training data from Google Photos
• Capable of depicting Japanese culture

Imagen, an AI developed by Google, was first announced in May 2022, even before Stable Diffusion, but was only made available to the general public in December 2023.

ImageFX, the platform hosting the latest version, Imagen 3, is available for free with a Google account.

Given the vast learning data from Google Photos, Imagen can accurately depict elements of Japanese culture, which many other AIs struggle with.

Ideogram: High Quality, with the Ability to Draw Text

• Comparable quality to Imagen and Flux.1
• Accepts prompts in Japanese
• Can render text accurately

Ideogram, released by Ideogram LLM, was founded by former Google engineers.

Ideogram’s quality rivals that of Imagen and Flux.1, and it can even render text accurately.

Though it still struggles with Japanese text, it accepts prompts in Japanese, translating them into English to generate images.

The free version of Ideogram allows image generation in JPEG, while the paid version also supports PNG output, making it suitable for logo creation where clarity is key.

Imagine with Meta AI: The Latest from Meta

• Developed by social media giant Meta
• Trained on images from Facebook and Instagram
• Currently available only in the United States

Imagine, an AI image generator released by Meta, leverages extensive image data from Facebook and Instagram.

As of November 2024, Imagine is only available in the United States.

AuraFlow: A New Model for Image Generation

• Uses a Flow model instead of a diffusion model
• Exceptionally clear image quality
• Open-source and available for commercial use

AuraFlow, developed by the AI platform company Fal.ai, is an image generator employing a unique Flow model.

Unlike diffusion models that use probabilistic processes, the Flow model is deterministic and reversible.

While AuraFlow struggles with highly detailed elements like hands, its clarity rivals that of Flux.1.

The popular SDXL model series, Pony, has even begun development of a successor based on AuraFlow, signaling a promising future for the tool.

Comparing the AIs We’ve Covered

Here’s a summary of all the AI tools introduced in this series.

gantt
title History of Image Generative AIs
dateFormat YYYY-MM-DD
tickInterval 12month
section Open AI
Dall-E :aa1, 2021-01-05, 2022-09-28
Dall-E2 :aa2, after aa1, 2023-08-20
Dall-E3 :aa3, after aa2, 2024-10-31
section Midjourney Inc.
Midjourney V1 :done, ab1, 2022-02-01, 2022-04-12
Midjourney V2 :done, ab2, after ab1, 2022-07-25
Midjourney V3 :done, ab3, after ab2, 2022-11-05
Midjourney V4 :done, ab4, after ab3, 2023-03-15
Midjourney V5 :done, ab5, after ab4, 2023-05-03
Midjourney V5.1 :done, ab6, after ab5, 2023-06-23
Midjourney V5.2 :done, ab7, after ab6, 2023-12-20
Midjourney V6 :done, ab8, after ab7, 2024-07-30
Midjourney V6.1 :done, ab9, after ab8, 2024-10-31
Nijijourney :done, n1, 2022-11-07, 2024-10-31
section Stability AI<br>Stable Diffusion 1
Stable Diffusion 1.1 :a1, 2022-08-22, 2022-08-28
Stable Diffusion 1.2 :a2, after a1, 2022-09-03
Stable Diffusion 1.3 :a3, after a2, 2022-09-13
Stable Diffusion 1.4 :a4, after a3, 2022-10-11
Stable Diffusion 1.5 :a5, after a4, 2024-10-31
section Stable Diffusion 2
Stable Diffusion 2.0 :b1, 2022-11-24, 2022-12-07
Stable Diffusion 2.1 :b2, after b1, 2024-10-31
section Stable Diffusion XL        
Stable Diffusion XL 0.9 :c1, 2023-04-12, 2023-07-26 
Stable Diffusion XL 1.0 :c2, after c1, 2024-10-31
section Stable Diffusion 3                
Stable Diffusion 3 :d1, 2024-06-12, 2024-10-22
Stable Diffusion 3.5 :d2, 2024-10-22, 2024-10-31
section Anlantan LLC
Novel AI Diffusion :crit, e1, 2022-10-03, 2023-04-12
Novel AI Diffusion Anime V2 :crit, e2, after e1, 2023-11-06
Novel AI Diffusion Anime V3 :crit, e3, after e2, 2024-10-31
section Leonardo AI
Leonardo AI :done, f1, 2023-09-20, 2024-10-31
section Kuaishou Technology
Kolors :g1, 2024-07-06, 2024-10-31
section Black Forest Lab
Flux.1 :h1, 2024-08-01, 2024-10-31
Flux.1.1 :h2, 2024-10-03, 2024-10-31
section Adobe
Firefly :crit, ac1, 2023-03-14, 2023-06-05
Firefly 2 :crit, ac2, after ac1, 2024-04-23
Firefly 3 :crit, ac3, after ac2, 2024-10-31
section Google
Imagen :i1, 2022-05-23, 2023-05-09
Imagen 2 :i2, after i1, 2024-08-15
Imagen 3 :i3, after i2, 2024-10-31
section Ideogram
Ideogram :done, j1, 2023-08-29, 2024-08-20
Ideogram 2 :done, j2, after j1, 2024-10-31
section Meta
Imagine :k1, 2023-12-06, 2024-10-31 
section Fal.ai           
AuraFlow 0.1 :crit, l1, 2024-07-12, 2024-07-26
AuraFlow 0.2 :crit, l2, after l1, 2024-08-14
AuraFlow 0.3 :crit, l3, after l2, 2024-10-31

In just two years, many AI image generation tools have emerged, each with unique commercial use policies.

If you’re considering using these tools in a business setting, it’s essential to select those that explicitly allow commercial use.

Is Commercial Use Permitted?

Below, you’ll find excerpts from each company’s terms regarding commercial use.

Dall-E3 (Open AI)

Ownership of content. As between you and OpenAI, and to the extent permitted by applicable law, you (a) retain your ownership rights in Input and (b) own the Output. We hereby assign to you all our right, title, and interest, if any, in and to Output.

Dall-E3 (Microsoft)

vi. Ownership of Content. Microsoft doesn't claim ownership of any content you provide, post, input, or submit to, or receive from, the AI services (including feedback and suggestions). You'll need to make your own determination regarding the intellectual property rights you have in output content and its usability, taking into account, among other things, your usage scenario(s) and the laws of the relevant jurisdiction. You warrant and represent that you own or otherwise control all of the rights to your content as described in these Terms including, without limitation, all the rights necessary for you to provide, post, upload, input, or submit the content.

Midjourney

4. Content Rights Your Rights and Obligations You own all Assets You create with the Services to the fullest extent possible under applicable law. There are some exceptions: Your ownership is subject to any obligations imposed by this Agreement and the rights of any third-parties. If you are a company or any employee of a company with more than $1,000,000 USD a year in revenue, you must be subscribed to a “Pro” or “Mega” plan to own Your Assets. If you upscale the images of others, these images remain owned by the original creators.

Stable Diffusion

III. COMMERCIAL USE LICENSE Subject to the terms of this Agreement (including the remainder of this Section III), Stability AI grants You a non-exclusive, worldwide, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable and royalty-free limited license under Stability AI’s intellectual property or other rights owned by Stability AI embodied in the Stability AI Materials to use, reproduce, distribute, and create Derivative Works of, and make modifications to, the Stability AI Materials for any Commercial Purpose. “Commercial Purpose” means any purpose other than a Research Purpose or Non-Commercial Purpose that is primarily intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation to You or others, including but not limited to, (i) creating, modifying, or distributing Your product or service, including via a hosted service or application programming interface, and (ii) for Your business’s or organization’s internal operations.

Novel AI

No mention of product rights

Leonardo AI

8.3 If you are on one of our paid Subscriptions (Paid Subscriber), as between the Parties, subject to your compliance with these Terms, ownership of all Intellectual Property Rights in any Content you, or your Authorised Users, create while using the Platform will vest in you upon creation, and to the extent that ownership of such Intellectual Property Rights does not automatically vest in you, we hereby assign all such Intellectual Property Rights to you and agree to do all other things necessary to assure your title in such rights.

Flux.1[schnell]・AuraFlow（Apatch 2.0）

2. Grant of Copyright License. Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, each Contributor hereby grants to You a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable copyright license to reproduce, prepare Derivative Works of, publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense, and distribute the Work and such Derivative Works in Source or Object form.

Adobe Firefly

8. Commercial Use In general, you may use outputs from generative AI features commercially. However, if Adobe designates in the product or elsewhere that a beta version of a generative AI feature cannot be used commercially, then the generated outputs from that beta feature are for personal use only and cannot be used commercially.

Google ImageFX

Your content belongs to you. This means that the user retains all of the user's intellectual property rights in the content. For example, users retain intellectual property rights to user-generated creative content, such as user-written reviews. You may also retain the right to share creative content created by someone else with their permission.

Ideogram

6.1 Right to Use Services. If any software, content or other materials owned or controlled by us are distributed to you as part of your use of the Services, we hereby grant you, a personal, non-assignable, non-sublicensable, non-transferrable, revocable, and non-exclusive right and license to access and display such software, content and materials provided to you as part of the Services (and right to download a single copy of the App onto your applicable equipment or device), in each case for the sole purpose of enabling you to use the Services as permitted by these Terms. Your access and use of the Services may be interrupted from time to time for any of several reasons, including, without limitation, the malfunction of equipment, periodic updating, maintenance or repair of the Service or other actions that Company, in its sole discretion, may elect to take. For the avoidance of doubt, Your Content is not part of the “Services,” as defined in these Terms.

Rights Over Generated Content

In general, the rights over content generated by AI rest with the creator.

However, note that in Japan, copyright for AI-generated content is generally not recognized, so this should be considered carefully.

When the rights are explicitly granted to the creator, it’s often assumed that commercial use is permitted.

However, some services specify commercial use allowances more clearly than others, making these more favorable for corporate users.

Conclusion

• Google’s ambitious Imagen
• Ideogram: AI that can generate text
• AuraFlow’s impressive clarity
• Commercial use policies vary across providers

In this three-part series, we’ve reviewed the progression of AI image generation tools.

While we couldn’t cover every tool, this series offers a comprehensive look at the development so far.

Even within the past two and a half months of writing, new changes have continued to emerge.

There’s a world of AI image generators out there, and while you may not be able to try them all, finding one favorite can transform your approach to visual expression.

Thank you for reading!