OK. Now I'm Scared... AI Better Than Reality!

Okay, let's talk about something super exciting and honestly, a little bit terrifying in the world of AI. If you've been following the AI image generation scene for a while, you know we've had some big players dominating the space mid journey Dall E Stable Diffusion. But guess what, a fresh contender has arrived and it goes by the name Flux. And trust me, you're going to want to know about this one. So where do we start? Let's kick things off with a little background on what's been going on in the the AI world. You see, for the last couple of years we've seen a massive boom in AI generated art. Tools like Adobe Firefly Midjourney, Dall? E and Stable Diffusion have been battling it out to be the top dog, each one pushing the boundaries with their updates. But now something new has entered the ring and it's got everyone talking. Alright, let me paint you a picture. You're scrolling through your social media feed and you come across an image that looks so real you'd swear it was a photograph. But then you do a double take. Maybe it's the way the text on a lanyard looks a little funky, or the patterns in the background seem a bit off. That's when you realize you're not looking at a photo, you're looking at an AI generated image. And this thing is as close to real as it gets without actually being real. That's Flux for you. And it's causing quite a stir. So Flux is an open source AI image generator that's being developed by a company called Black Force Forest Labs. If that name doesn't ring a bell, maybe the fact that some of the folks behind it used to work at Stability AI will. Yup, that's the same crew responsible for Stable Diffusion, which as you know, is a pretty big deal in the AI art world. The company is also working on a text to video model that it promises will offer high quality output and be available open source, state of the art text to video for all. Now, since the startup recently secured $31 million in a financing round with backing from well known tech investor Andre and Horowitz, it's clear they're on solid footing. According to their homepage under the what's Next section, their upcoming model will be called Soda and it's set to be available to everyone. Meanwhile, OpenAI's video generator, Sora has been around for six months, but is still only accessible to a select group of testers. Now let's talk about what makes Flux so special. First off, it's Open Source, which means the code is out there for anyone to tinker with, modify and integrate into their own projects. It gives a ton of flexibility to developers, hobbyists, and even small businesses who might not have the resources to invest in more expensive proprietary tools like Midjourney. But there are actually three different versions of Flux. The first one is the Pro version, which is geared towards commercial use. This is the Big Boy, the model that's meant for companies that want to incorporate high quality AI image generation into their products or services. Then there's the dev version, which, which is a midweight model. It's sort of the middle ground. Still powerful, but not quite as heavy duty as the Pro version. And lastly there's the Schnell version. Schnell means fast in German, by the way, which is fitting because this version is all about speed. It takes like two or three seconds for this model to generate an image, which is pretty crazy. It's the lightweight, fast performing model that's great for those who want quick results without needing a super beefy machine to run it. Speaking of running it, here's another thing that sets Flux apart from its competition. It can run on some pretty modest hard. Like if you've got a decently powerful laptop, you're good to go. You don't need a supercomputer or a cloud service to get this thing up and running. That's a big deal because it makes high quality AI image generation accessible to a much wider audience. When we talk about realism, Flux stands out as a clear leader. As I mentioned before, the images it creates are so lifelike, it's hard to believe they're AI generated. In fact, some people are saying that Flux might just be the new king of photorealism. And especially when you combine it with something called Lora. Lora is a fine tuning script developed by a group called XLabs. And when you pair it with Flux, the results are nothing short of mind blowing. We're talking about images that are so detailed, so accurate, that you'd be hard pressed to tell them apart from real photos, at least at first glance. But. And there's always a but. It's not perfect. If you really start to scrutinize these images, you'll notice some telltale signs that they're AI generated. Text is a big giveaway. Flux still struggles with rendering small text accurately. So if you see something like a lanyard or a sign in the background, the text might look a little off. Patterns and textures can also get a bit wonky, and sometimes elements in the image are just Slightly out of proportion. It's nothing that ruins the image outright, but if you're looking for it, you'll spot it. And then there's the issue of skin textures. As good as Flux is at rendering people, it sometimes falls short when it comes to making skin skin look natural. It actually makes the skin looking better than in reality. You might notice that it can appear a bit too smooth, which breaks the illusion of realism. It's something that Midjourney, especially in its latest version, seems to handle a bit better. But here's the thing. Despite these minor imperfections, the images that Flux produces are going viral. And it's not hard to see why. The level of realism it achieves is stunning. And it's got people buzzing about the potential uses for this technology. Think about it. Stock photography, advertising, social media, content. There's a huge market for realistic images, and Flux could be a game changer in that space. But as awesome as it is to be able to create hyper realistic images with just a few clicks, there's also a darker side to this technology. We're already seeing concerns about how AI generated images could be used to create fake news, commit scams, or spread misinformation. The more realistic these images become, the more the harder it's going to be to tell what's real and what's not. That's a pretty scary thought, and it's something that we're going to have to grapple with as AI technology continues to evolve. But let's not get too bogged down in the doom and gloom just yet. There's still a lot to be excited about with Flux, especially if you're someone who likes to experiment with new tech. If you're curious about trying it out for yourself, you've got a few options. If you've got a decent laptop, something with a good gpu, you. You can actually download and run Flux locally. There's a launcher called Pinocchio that makes it super easy to get set up. It's a big file, so it might take a while to download, but once you've got it, you can start generating images right on your own machine. No need to rely on cloud services or Internet access. But if your computer isn't up to the task, don't worry. There are plenty of online platforms that have already integrated Flux into their offerings. For example, nightcafe, which is one of the more popular AI image platforms out there, has added Flux to its lineup. This means you can generate images using Flux and compare them directly with images from other models like ideogram. And stable diffusion. 3 It's a great way to see how Flux stacks up against the competition in real time. Another platform that's jumped on the Flux bandwagon is po. If you're not familiar with po, it's an AI model platform that lets you generate images in a chatbot style format, kind of like how you would with ChatGPT and Dall? E. It's a different approach, but it's cool to see how Flux performs in that kind of environment. And if you're a developer, there are even more options. Flux is available on platforms like Baselabs, Hugging Face and FAL AI, which are more geared towards folks who want to dive into the technical side of things. Freepik, one of the biggest names in stock photography, is also working to bring Flux to its site, so keep an eye out for that so Flux is definitely a model to watch. It's got the potential to shake up the AI image generation scene in a big way, and and it's already proving to be a serious contender to establish names like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion. Alright, if you found this video helpful or interesting, don't forget to smash that like button, hit subscribe and ring the bell so you don't miss any of my future videos. And hey, drop a comment below if you've tried Flux yourself, or if you have any thoughts on the whole AI image generation scene. I'd love to hear what you guys think. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one.