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Comparing the 5 leading AI tools for image generaton from text Part four of an eight-part series of blogs |
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Having recently compared the 4 main AI tools for text prompts, I thought I'd do the same for image generation tools. In this blog series we compare Dall-E (via ChatGPT and separately via Copilot), Firefly, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion for 3 pre-defined tests to see which ones score most highly for cost, ease-of-use, speed, editing ability and above all for quality of image.
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In this blog
Here's a reminder of the first picture I want to create:
Create a photo-realistic image using 4k detail. This should be a side view of the following scene. On the left of the image should be a judge sitting in their chair in a UK courtroom. The judge should be wearing a legal wig and have a severe expression. Facing the judge in the dock on the right of the picture should be two mice with guilty-looking expressions.
Let's see how the different tools compare, in alphabetical order:
Tool | Picture |
|---|---|
ChatGPT | ![]() |
Copilot | ![]() |
Firefly | ![]() |
Midjourney | ![]() |
Stable Diffusion | ![]() |
I thought I'd give each tool one chance to redeem itself, so issued these prompts:
Tool | Thoughts | Editing prompt |
|---|---|---|
ChatGPT | I was pretty happy with this - if only the judge was facing the mice! | "Please keep everything the same, but turn the judge round so that he is facing the mice, not facing away from them." |
Copilot | This was already near-perfect, but maybe the expressions could do with tweaking. | "For the top right image, make the judge look sterner and the mouse look more disreputable and shifty-looking." |
Firefly | Firefly can't count! There is only one mouse in each photo. | "Take the first image. There should be two mice facing the judge and they should look guilty." |
Midjourney | None of these was really what I was after, but the fourth image was closest, so I want to take this and make the judge human. | "Create a photo-realistic image using 4k detail. This should be a side view of the following scene. On the left of the image should be a human judge sitting in their chair in a UK courtroom. The judge should be wearing a legal wig and have a severe expression. Facing the judge in the dock on the right of the picture should be two mice with guilty-looking expressions." |
Stable Diffusion | Where to start? This is the only image which bears no relation to what I asked for. | "Please use a UK style court. There should be a human judge facing two real mice." |
Here's what the results were after these single changes:
Tool | Results |
|---|---|
ChatGPT | ![]() |
Copilot | ![]() |
Firefly | ![]() |
Midjourney | ![]() |
Stable Diffusion | ![]() |
I'm not sure there were any improvements here!
For this test there were two clear winners (and one clear loser).
Position | AI tool | Notes |
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Winner | ChatGPT / Copilot | Copilot generated a near-perfect rendition of what I requested, but ChatGPT wasn't far behind. This means that the true winner was Dall-E, the underlying image generation tool. |
Loser | Stable Diffusion | This was the only tool which gave me no confidence that it could ever come up with the image I was looking for. Its original picture was nothing like the one I'd requested, and the edited version also ignored my instructions. |
Middle places | Firefly, Midjourney | Firefly gets bonus points for tweaking its algorithm to generate female judges too, but despite my original prompt it was very US style and I felt the edits moved me further away from what I was trying to achieve. Midjourney was reasonably close to what I was trying to achieve, but didn't improve on editing. |
In the interests of balance I think I should make one last point: I'm not convinced I've mastered editing images in Midjourney (although to be fair, part of the point of this test is that the tools should be reasonably easy to use).
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