Google announced that starting Thursday, Google's "Search Generative Experience" (SGE) will allow users to create images directly based on text prompts. Microsoft has been offering the ability to create images through Bing chat using OpenAI's DALL-E model since March, so it's no surprise that Google would follow suit.
If you're enrolled in SGE through Google's Search Labs program, you can now type your query into the Google search bar. After entering, SGE will create some pictures for you to choose from based on your prompts. Google spokesman Craig Ewer said the tool is powered by the Imagen family of artificial intelligence models.
In the GIF below, Google shows how to use the tool to create an image based on the prompt "Draw an image of a capybara wearing a chef's hat and making breakfast." As shown in the GIF, you can also refine the query that Google ultimately uses to create each photo.
You can also create Google AI-generated images through Google Images. When browsing Google Image results, you may see a box prompting you to generate images based on the query results - these generated images will appear in the sidebar.
Google's Hema Budaraju emphasized in a blog post that the company is working to ensure that the image generation tool is launched in a responsible manner and that the tool should not generate images that violate the company's policy prohibiting the use of generative artificial intelligence. (Hopefully this will prevent Google's tools from being used to create images of popular cartoon and video game characters flying planes into the Twin Towers, as Bing's image generation tool did.)
Each image produced with SGE will "have a metadata tag and an embedded watermark to indicate that it was produced by artificial intelligence," Budaraju said. In the "initial phase," Google won't let you create images that "depict realistic human faces or contain any hints of famous people," Ewer said. Google limits the image generation feature to users 18 or older, meaning teens with access to SGE won't be able to use it.
Google has also added the ability to use SGE to generate written drafts directly from the search bar. Using your query, Google can generate a draft, and users can choose to have the tool generate articles that are long, short, or casual in tone. If you like the results, you can export your draft to Google Docs or Gmail.
SGE is currently supported by multiple LLMs. The models used in SGE are trained on publicly sourced data and human supervision.
Since launching SGE in May of this year, Google has steadily improved it by adding videos and improving links, and these new image and draft creation tools look really useful.