OpenAI is ready to sell DALL-E to its first million customers
Signing up for the DALL-E beta won’t break the bank: $15 buys you 115 credits, and one credit lets you send text reminders to the AI, which returns four images at once. In other words, it’s $15 for 460 images. On top of that, users get 50 free credits for the first month and 15 free credits a month after that. However, with users often creating dozens of images at once and keeping only the best, proficient users could soon surpass that quota.
Prior to this launch, OpenAI worked with early adopters to troubleshoot the tool. The first wave of users has produced a steady stream of surreal and impressive images: cute animal combinations, images simulate the style of real photographers with uncanny precision, mood board for restaurant and sports shoe designs. That has allowed OpenAI to explore the strengths and weaknesses of its engine. “They’ve given us a lot of really great feedback,” said Joanne Jang, product manager at OpenAI.
OpenAI has taken steps to control the type of images users can create. For example, people cannot create images that show famous individuals. In preparation for this commercial launch, OpenAI has addressed another critical issue flagged by early adopters. The version of DALL-E released in April often produced images that clearly reflected gender and race bias, such as the images of CEOs and firefighters who were both white men, teachers, and teachers. The staff and the nurse were both white women.
On July 18, OpenAI announced a fix. When a user asks DALL-E 2 to create an image that includes a group of people, the AI will now be based on a sample dataset that OpenAI claims to be more representative of global diversity. According to its own testing, OpenAI says users are 12 times more likely to report that the output of DALL-E 2 includes people from different backgrounds.