Midjourney is an AI art generator that came out of stealth mode in 2022, allowing anyone to create original images simply by describing what they want to see. The San Francisco startup was founded by David Holz, one of the creators behind the 3D motion controller Leap Motion.
Using text prompts, Midjourney’s technology cooks up everything from landscapes to sci-fi scenes, similar to DALL-E and Stable Diffusion. It runs on Discord and was an instant hit, with Midjourney reporting profits within its first month.
But while Midjourney aims to help artists visualize concepts, its lifelike creations also raise concerns about AI’s impact on art and creativity. This novel AI paintbrush lets you manifest whatever your imagination dreams up – but is that a good thing?
Midjourney Wiki
| Developer(s) | Midjourney, Inc. |
|---|---|
| Initial release | July 12, 2022; 15 months ago (open beta) |
| Website | midjourney.com |
Midjourney History
Midjourney burst onto the AI art scene in 2022 thanks to former Leap Motion founder David Holz and his new San Francisco lab focused on creating images with AI. They had quietly been developing the technology before launching a closed beta in early 2022. Midjourney operated through Discord, letting users summon magical artworks just by typing text prompts to a bot.
After improving the algorithm and training it on millions of images, Midjourney opened up access in July 2022. Almost overnight it went viral, with people amazed at the AI’s artistic imagination. The technology let anyone instantly create wild visuals just by describing them.
Upgrades over the following months made Midjourney’s output increasingly detailed. Within one month, Midjourney was already profitable due to its popularity. But it also started debates about AI art competing with human creators. Still, Midjourney pushed forward, releasing new features as it led the AI art revolution.
| Regular Models | Release Date |
|---|---|
| V1 | February 2022 |
| V2 | April 12, 2022 |
| V3 | July 25, 2022 |
| V4 | November 5, 2022 (alpha) |
| V5 | March 15, 2023 (alpha) |
| V5.1 | May 3, 2023 |
| V5.2 | June 22, 2023 |
How to use Midjourney?
Midjourney is an AI image generator that is currently only accessible through a bot on their Discord server. Users can interact with the bot by direct messaging it or inviting it to another Discord server.
To generate images, users send the bot a prompt using the “/imagine” command, and the bot returns four images based on the prompt. Users can then choose to upscale any of the images. Midjourney is working on developing a web interface in the future.
In addition to the main “/imagine” command, Midjourney offers many other commands that can be sent to the bot. For example, there is a “/blend” command to blend two existing images together, a “/shorten” command to get suggestions on how to shorten a long prompt, and other commands to enhance the Midjourney experience.
All of the commands allow users to tap into Midjourney’s image generation capabilities through conversational interactions with the bot on Discord.
Notable usage and controversy
Midjourney founder David Holz sees artists as customers, using it for rapid concept generation to show clients. But some artists argue Midjourney devalues original work by training on artists’ creations without consent.
Advertisers quickly adopted Midjourney and similar AIs like DALL-E and Stable Diffusion to efficiently create customized, personalized ad content and ideas.
Architects have used Midjourney to quickly generate mood boards instead of manual image searches.
Mainstream publications published Midjourney images, sparking backlash. The Economist used a Midjourney cover image in June 2022. An Italian newspaper published a Midjourney-generated comic in August 2022. Critics said such uses replace human artists.
Controversy erupted when a Midjourney image won a 2022 art competition. The human prompt-writer won, but digital artists were upset. Judges said they’d have awarded it anyway.
In December 2022, a children’s book titled “Alice and Sparkle” was illustrated entirely using Midjourney over one weekend. But artists criticized the lack of consent to train on their work.
In 2023, highly realistic Midjourney images went viral, like one depicting Pope Francis in a puffer jacket. But studies suggest Midjourney outputs exhibit societal biases.
In January 2023, three artists – Sarah Andersen, Kelly McKernan, and Karla Ortiz – filed a lawsuit against Stability AI, Midjourney, and DeviantArt.
The lawsuit alleges these companies infringed on artists’ copyrights by training AI tools on billions of scraped images without consent.
The lawsuit was filed in San Francisco by attorney Matthew Butterick and the Joseph Saveri Law Firm, the same team suing Microsoft, GitHub, and OpenAI.
In July 2023, Judge William Orrick inclined to dismiss most of the lawsuit but allowed the artists to file an amended complaint.
Pricing
- Originally Midjourney offered 3 subscription tiers, including a free trial for 25 images. At some point, the company withdrew the free trial due to high demand and misuse.
- As of September 2023, Midjourney subscriptions cost between $10-$120 per month based on the plan.
- The company previously offered a free trial but discontinued it, now requiring payment for all tiers of service ranging from $10-$120 monthly based on features.
| Basic Plan | Standard Plan | Pro Plan | Mega Plan | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Subscription Cost | $10 | $30 | $60 | $120 |
| Annual Subscription Cost | $96 ($8 / month) | $288 ($24 / month) | $576 ($48 / month) | $1152 ($96 / month) |
| Fast GPU Time | 3.3 hr/month | 15 hr/month | 30 hr/month | 60 hr/month |
| Relax GPU Time | – | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Purchase Extra GPU Time | $4/hr | $4/hr | $4/hr | $4/hr |
| Work Solo In Your Direct Messages | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Stealth Mode | – | – | ✓ | ✓ |
| Maximum Concurrent Jobs | 3 Jobs 10 Jobs waiting in queue | 3 Jobs 10 Jobs waiting in queue | 12 Fast Jobs 3 Relaxed Jobs 10 Jobs in queue | 12 Fast Jobs 3 Relaxed Jobs 10 Jobs in queue |
| Rate Images to Earn Free GPU Time | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Usage Rights | General Commercial Terms* | General Commercial Terms* | General Commercial Terms* | General Commercial Terms* |
