Microsoft AI announces first image generator created in-house

Microsoft AI just announced its first text-to-image generator, MAI-Image-1, designed and developed in-house. The tech giant, which recently announced its first in-house Microsoft AI models, called the new image generator “the next step on our journey.”

Microsoft says it sought feedback from creative professionals in order to avoid “repetitive or generically-stylized outputs.” MAI-Image-1 “excels” at photorealistic imagery like lightning, landscapes, and more, the company claims. And it can process requests and produce images faster than “larger, slower models.” The model has already secured a spot in the top 10 of LMArena, the AI benchmark site where humans compare outputs from different systems and vote on the best one. 

MAI-Image-1 joins Microsoft’s other AI products, voice generator MAI-Voice-1 AI and chatbot MAI-1-preview. The company was an early funder of OpenAI, but the two companies’ relationship has grown increasingly complicated. Microsoft has also started to use Anthropic’s AI models for some features in Microsoft 365 recently, and is making “significant investments” in training its own AI models like MAI-Image-1.

We haven’t had a chance to test Microsoft’s new image generator, but once we have we’ll report back on its safety guardrails. The company says it’s committed to “ensuring safe and responsible outcomes.”