There are many large models and applications of AI painting, but the most famous ones are Stable Diffusion and Midjourney. Among them, Midjourney (hereinafter referred to as MJ) has only 11 members, and half of the 8 R&D personnel have not yet graduated Undergraduate student, never raised money, established for 3 years, tens of millions of users, annual profit of 100 million US dollars just relying on the membership model...
From the representative work "Space Opera House" winning the gold medal in the competition, to a series of fake AI pictures of Musk and Trump, MJ single-handedly let the world know about AI paintings.
"Space Opera House"
With the above labels and legendary resume, MJ is already a model of global AIGC entrepreneurship. Even, its success has been summarized as opening a new era of venture capital that belongs to the AI era: a new type of start-up company that is growing wildly, with smaller scale, lighter assets, faster development, and more terrifying profitability ...
MJ, how the hell did it catch on? What kind of new business paradigm does it represent? Can we copy its model and make a Chinese version of MJ?
01
Driven by technology, build the aesthetic pinnacle of AI painting
In the field of AI painting, MJ's development speed is definitely the strongest. The first version will be launched in March 2022, and will evolve to V5 in April 2023.
Previously, AI paintings have been criticized for being unreal, especially the details of the hands of the characters. AI paintings frequently have strange effects such as 6 fingers and deformities, which can be called "disabled AI". However, with the launch of V5, it has perfectly solved this technical problem, and can even display hand fingerprints and skin textures, realizing a breakthrough in AI painting.
In addition, the V5 version completely subverts the "definition" of AI painting. Its image can rival photos. Many photographers, especially advertising photographers, wailed: Photography is over.
A large number of media began to shout: MJ opened Pandora's box, what you see may not be true, and false information mainly based on pictures will sweep the world.
Among the many AIGC practitioners and designers we interviewed, they generally use MJ for creation. The reason is simple: it works great. Aben, the business director of Unbounded AI, said that MJ is defining the aesthetic height of AI painting.
In fact, MJ will greatly increase the confidence of everyone who has never used AI painting. Just input a few prompt words, and MJ can almost give amazing renderings.
Why MJ can become popular, the technology is top-notch, and no one can match it, this is the "basic disk" for its popularity.
02
Open the community and create a "fountain of creativity", igniting the exponential explosion of users from 0 to 1
Users who use MJ for the first time will find it very strange that it does not have an official website, let alone an APP.
MJ's entrance is in the social software Discord, and Tencent's QQ channel imitated Discord. It is this kind of weird behavior that gives MJ a strong creativity.
Any user can directly enter MJ's Discord channel, and then see painters from all over the world enter prompt words in the group to get finished AI paintings. This means that novice users can directly copy Da Niu's prompt words and make slight adjustments to obtain the same rendering. It is in this environment that MJ users learn from each other (copy) and grow rapidly. Discord provided MJ with a kind of soil for co-creation. It is no exaggeration to say that MJ may have cultivated the first batch of AI painting players and artists in the world.
"It has its own creative spirit, the key words learn from each other, and the creation is infinite, so that it emerges." Aben said.
Discord is not only MJ's creation platform, but also a learning and communication platform for MJ users. After entering MJ's Discord, many people will find that this is simply a rabbit hole, and there are endless treasures hidden in it, which are inexhaustible and inexhaustible.
"MJ's content is more about idea innovation than skill creation." In Aben's view, MJ has brought AI painting to a peak in technology. What amazing works can you draw with it? Depends on what you think.
MJ founder David Holz
MJ founder David Holz mentioned in an interview why MJ would be installed in Discord. In his view, it would be bad if the AI is treated as a chatbot and the user communicates with it one-on-one.
"I think the Midjourney experience wouldn't work at all if it was just talking to a chatbot in a room. But if it's in a room with a lot of people, it becomes really fun. It's something I've never done before. Another area where I've seen chatbots is a chatbot in an environment with multiple people, not trying to be one person."
In addition, he also mentioned a very interesting point of view, if MJ is a one-to-one product, users can explore its potential by themselves, and then keep the valuable experience for themselves. But is it a good product? What kind of product is a good product?
He has a very "brilliant" analogy.
User A wants to draw a dog, so he gets a dog, and then he can try to draw a big dog, and then he can draw a big hairy dog. However, if it is an open drawing environment, strangers will draw a "space dog" based on the idea of a dog, "a space dog with a laser", "a space dog with a laser and angel wings"... so , creativity is endlessly extended.
"MJ created an imaginative environment and made people more imaginative," David Holz said.
Today, MJ has tens of millions of users, and it has gone from niche to mass. MJ is a tool first, and second, it is actually a community of creators. Once users come, it can be difficult to leave it.
03
Atypical events detonate global hotspots
It took MJ a year to become popular and to break the circle on a large scale, which is inseparable from several iconic events.
First of all, in August 2022, non-artist Jason Allen won the Colorado State Fair Art Competition Award with a work of "Space Opera House". Focusing on whether AI painting is art, and how AI painting drew this "stunning work", all these pushed MJ into the field of public opinion for the first time.
Data shows that MJ had around 300,000 users at the end of August, and reached 1.5 million+ users by the end of September.
Secondly, the V5 version is online. As mentioned above, it directly brings AI painting to a new level technically. As a result, several explosive points of public opinion occurred.
Among them, the most popular is a series of false photos, such as Trump being arrested, Musk in China, Chinese couples, and the Chinese national football team winning the World Cup...
"Scene Picture of Men's Football Winning World Cup Championship" produced by AI
The topicality and amazing effects of these pictures have completely stirred up the public's attention. Just like the spread of a virus, a series of false photos were born on social media at home and abroad, and discussions about AI paintings swept the streets.
These landmark events may be accidental, but they are also inevitable. There are so many AI painting software that ignited the frenzy of public opinion, mainly born in MJ.
04
MJ's model cannot be copied, but AI painting has a unique business model in the AI era
Can MJ's pattern be replicated? There is no answer to this question at all, at least, in China, we have not seen a project that copied the MJ model, not one. This shows that MJ may not be easily imitated...
But we found a very interesting point of view. According to Liu Qiushan, chief researcher of Unbounded AI, AIGC and AI painting are still in the early stages, and there is no strong business model.
"If you use the past understanding of entrepreneurship, MJ is undoubtedly successful. It took a year to achieve a huge profit, which is very good. However, AIGC is a proposition of the entire era, and its value is unmatched by traditional Internet. At least , AIGC's business form in the future is not only MJ's current membership payment model. If MJ can find its own business model (a new model), the value is unimaginable." Liu Qiushan said.
What kind of innovative business model can AI painting have?
MJ and Stable Diffusion, as mentioned at the beginning of the article, are the "twin stars" of AI painting.
Aben told Babbitt that the characteristic of Stable Diffusion is open source, and after it chose the open source strategy, it was a turning point for the AI painting industry. After that, AI painting tools, large and small, were created, and a batch of AI painting tools were born. Open source projects and communities. This is like the Android system. Different developers have created a prosperous Android ecosystem based on Android. And MJ is like Apple, although it is not open source, it creates the ultimate painting effect of AI painting.
"The intersection of the two of them has continuously broken through the boundaries of AIGC. Based on Stable Diffusion, entrepreneurs have created more and more vertical application scenarios for AI painting. MJ has defined the high standards of this industry in terms of aesthetics and high requirements." Aben said.
We found that in China, there are many AI painting projects based on Stable Diffusion, and the ecology is very prosperous. Moreover, we have discovered some business models in AI paintings that are different from those of MJ.
For example, creating a closed business loop for AI painters. Judging from the product system of AI painting tool Wujie AI, it has an AI square, which can display users' creative works, and it has certain social and sharing attributes. In addition, users can follow their favorite creators, and creators can build their personal brands and communities. Even, creators can not only sell prompt words, but also directly sell copyright works. From this perspective, Unbounded AI inherits MJ's community concept, but at the same time provides a path for creators to grow and make profits.
Unbounded AI Plaza, where you can learn and refer to prompt words from excellent creators of different styles
In addition, not only unbounded AI, we also see from more AI painting platforms that commercial tentacles are moving from the C-side to the B-side, including the birth of AI painting models for vertical fields such as animation, home decoration, and automobiles. The business model of "paying for the model" for the B-side is also something that MJ does not have, and it may have stronger commercial possibilities.
MJ is obviously a giant in the field of AI painting, and it is worth learning, but we can definitely expect the birth of more different business models, some unique models that only belong to the AI era.
Babbitt Park is open for cooperation!
Chinese Twitter: https://twitter.com/8BTC_OFFICIAL
English Twitter: https://twitter.com/btcinchina
Discord community: https://discord.gg/defidao
Telegram channel: https://t.me/Mute_8btc
Telegram community: https://t.me/news_8btc
