OpenAI opens the gates to DALL-E 2.
In the last few months, OpenAI has been doing a lot of beta testing for DALL-E 2 and gradually expanding it with more and more users. Until now, you had to join a waiting list to get access to DALL-E 2. This waiting list is now gone: OpenAI gives anyone interested direct access to DALL-E 2. To gain access, all you need to do is create an account with OpenAI.
In the first month, you get 50 free credits for image generation, which is enough for 200 images. In each subsequent month, you get another 15 free credits, which is equivalent to 60 images. An image pack with 115 credits costs $15 and equals about 460 images.
OpenAI grants full usage rights for images generated with DALL-E, including commercial use and the right to reprint, sell, and use them for merchandise.
More than 1.5 million users generate over two million images daily
According to OpenAI, DALL-E 2 currently has more than 1.5 million active users who generate more than two million images daily. Among the users are artists, creative directors, authors or architects, according to OpenAI. More than 100,000 users are also active in the Discord community.
Artists in particular have contributed to the further development of DALL-E 2's features, OpenAI writes. Their feedback was the inspiration for the recently added outpainting feature, which allows users to visually extend existing images. In addition, OpenAI has been able to improve security and filtering features based on beta testing over the past few months.
There could be another reason why OpenAI is lifting the access restrictions for DALL-E 2 right now: Stable Diffusion, a free open-source alternative, has been shaking up the image generation market for a few weeks now. When installed locally, Stable Diffusion also has no content restrictions.
DALL-E API to be released soon
OpenAI also announces the development of an API for DALL-E 2: A direct interface to the image AI is currently being tested with several customers, the company writes. The API should be available to developers and companies "soon" so that they can create their own applications based on the DALL-E model. Currently, DALL-E 2 is only available via web interface.
OpenAI also provides a web interface and an API for the GPT-3 language model. Through the API, a GPT-3 app ecosystem has formed in a very short time. The same could happen for DALL-E 2.
OpenAI has recently significantly reduced the prices for GPT-3, which could be a sign that GPT-4 is around the corner.
