Meta Licenses Midjourney AI for Enhanced Feed Content
In an exciting development for the tech world, Alexandr Wang, the newly appointed Chief AI Officer at Meta, revealed on Friday that the company will license the "aesthetic technology" of Midjourney for future product innovations. Midjourney, widely recognized as a pioneering AI image generator, has also made strides in creating short videos, expanding the horizons of digital creativity.
Wang took to X (formerly Twitter) to share this significant partnership announcement. He expressed, "Today we’re proud to announce a partnership with @midjourney, to license their aesthetic technology for our future models and products, bringing beauty to billions. This technical collaboration between our research teams is part of our effort to team up with the best companies in the industry whose work and expertise complements our own. We are incredibly impressed by Midjourney. They have accomplished true feats of technical and aesthetic excellence, and we are thrilled to be working more closely with them."
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Wang's ascension to the role of Chief AI Officer follows his remarkable trajectory as the founder of Scale AI, a company that recently became part of Meta through a staggering $14.3 billion acquisition. This move was part of a larger billion-dollar talent spree driven by Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has been aggressively recruiting top talent from competitors, including the likes of OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT.
However, as Meta navigates its ambitious AI journey, recent announcements indicate a shift in strategy, including a hiring freeze aimed at restructuring their internal AI initiatives. Zuckerberg has committed to a vision of delivering "superintelligence," a promise that raises both expectations and eyebrows across the tech landscape.
The collaboration with Midjourney marks one of Wang’s initial high-profile actions as Meta's first Chief AI Officer. While Meta has made strides in AI, its tools for generating images and videos have often lagged behind competitors. For instance, a quick exploration of the Meta AI app reveals outputs that resemble the earlier iterations of models like DALL-E, rather than the cutting-edge visuals produced by platforms like Midjourney.
In contrast, Midjourney's advanced models demonstrate a level of sophistication that is likely the "aesthetic technology" Wang referenced. The difference is palpable; scrolling through Midjourney's offerings showcases a clean, carefully curated array of AI-generated content, a stark contrast to the more generic outputs often found in Meta’s own AI app.
Conversely, the Meta AI app has faced scrutiny for its generic outputs and apparent intellectual property challenges. Recently, Midjourney found itself embroiled in a legal battle with entertainment giants Disney and Universal, who accused the platform of being a "bottomless pit of plagiarism" in a lawsuit regarding intellectual property infringement.
Earlier this year, Midjourney unveiled an innovative AI video tool that simplifies the process of converting images into short video clips. This advancement places Midjourney in a prime position to elevate Meta's capabilities and elevate its competitive edge against rivals like Gemini and ChatGPT.
Ultimately, this partnership serves as a crucial reminder that while Meta is ambitiously aiming for superintelligence, it still has considerable ground to cover to reach that lofty goal. The collaboration with Midjourney not only showcases a strategic pivot but also signals Wang’s intent to harness external expertise to bolster Meta’s AI offerings.
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that it infringed on Ziff Davis copyrights while training and operating its AI systems.
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