Summary
- Google introduced the powerful Imagen 3 model for AI-generated images on Pixel phones through Pixel Studio.
- Text prompts in Pixel Studio app lead to contextual AI imagery with localized editing and multiple versions. It’s now available on all other Android devices in the US.
- Imagen 3 offers a lot, but is only accessible via a web browser in ImageFX tool of Google’s AI Test Kitchen.
Earlier this week, Google pulled the wraps off its highly anticipated Pixel 9 range of phones, but gave us a look at several new AI capabilities, both exclusive to Pixel devices and those destined for other Android devices as well. One of the latter might have flown under your radar, and that’s because Google quietly gave everyone in the US access to it through AI Test Kitchen, even though it powers text-to-image capabilities on the Pixel Studio app in the new phones.
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The Pixel Studio app on the new Pixel 9 series is an all-purpose image generator that converts your text prompts into AI-generated imagery, with benefits like contextual understanding, localized editing support, and the option for trying multiple versions. It is all powered by Google’s Imagen 3 image generator model behind the scenes. When it was first announced in May at the company’s developer conference, Google I/O. However, VentureBeat reports that doesn’t mean you need the latest hardware to try out the latest AI features (via Android Authority).
Researchers at Google silently made the Imagen 3 model available to ImageFX users on the AI Test Kitchen website simultaneously, as clarified by a research paper that talks about the tech. It is a huge milestone for free-tier users because Imagen 3 was initially limited to select Vertex AI users shortly after the official debut.
Create images you imagined, and then some
Imagen 3 is more powerful than the average one-and-done image generator like you would find with Meta AI in WhatsApp, for instance. Once you type out your initial prompt, the text elements are converted into drop-downs populated with potential substitutes, so you can check out variations of the original without re-typing a query. You also get support for convenient local edits — just circle an area to get started, then enter the prompt for what you want to see in that encircled region, and you’ll have another AI-generated image obeying your command.
You can spend more time playing around with Imagen 3 in ImageFX, but unfortunately, the tool is now browser-only, even on Android, because Google decided to pull the AI Test Kitchen app from the Play Store.