Midjourney: 10 Interesting Facts You Might Not Know

Have you ever heard of Midjourney? Well, in case you did not know, it’s a standalone research laboratory responsible for developing an AI program of the same name.

This program generates pictures based on textual descriptions, similar to OpenAI’s DALL-E and Stable Diffusion. You probably don’t know a lot about this, but today my aim is to change that.

Here are 10 Interesting Facts You Didn’t Know About Midjourney

1. Midjourney (the tool) is currently in open beta (since the 12th of July 2022). According to the company’s founder (David Holz) the company was already profitable in August 2022.

2. Midjourney allows users to create art through Discord bot commands. To generate images, they simply type in a prompt using the “/imagine” command, and the bot returns the corresponding image. Additionally, the lab is developing a web interface for the program.

3. Some artists have raised concerns that Midjourney’s use of their copyrighted works in its training set may devalue their original creations. However, Midjourney’s terms of service include a DMCA takedown policy that enables artists to request removal of their works if they suspect copyright infringement.

4. The advertising sector has quickly adopted AI tools like Midjourney, DALL-E, and Stable Diffusion, among others. These tools provide advertisers with the ability to generate unique content and swiftly come up with ideas, offering new prospects such as custom ads tailored to individuals, innovative special effects, and increased efficiency in e-commerce advertising (according to Ad Age).

5. An image generated by Midjourney named “Théâtre d’Opéra Spatial” won the first prize in the digital art category at the 2022 Colorado State Fair. The prompt that led to the creation of this image was written by Jason Allen, who printed it onto a canvas and submitted it to the competition under the name “Jason M. Allen via Midjourney”. The news caused frustration among other digital artists.

Despite the controversy, Allen remained unapologetic and maintained that he had adhered to the rules of the competition. The two judges responsible for the digital art category were not aware that Midjourney utilized AI to produce images. However, they later stated that even if they had known, they still would have given Allen the top award.

6, In December 2022, Midjourney was utilized to generate the illustrations for an AI-created children’s book in a single weekend. The book, called “Alice and Sparkle”, tells the story of a young girl who constructs a robot that gains self-awareness. Ammaar Reeshi, the book’s creator, spent many hours fine-tuning Midjourney prompts and rejected hundreds of generated results before ultimately selecting 13 images for the book.

7. In January 2023, Sarah Andersen, Kelly McKernan, and Karla Ortiz initiated a lawsuit for copyright infringement against Stable AI, Midjourney, and DeviantArt. The artists claimed that these companies had violated the rights of millions of artists by using five billion images sourced from the web, without obtaining the permission of the original creators, to train AI tools.

8. Midjourney currently operates on a limited “freemium” model that enables users to submit 20-25 prompts for image generation. Beyond that, users can opt for various subscription packages, including a basic membership package that provides 200 images, a standard membership with unlimited images, or a premium corporate membership that offers unlimited images and complete privacy.

9. Midjourney’s “corporate membership” is not a SaaS product, and the company has no plans to develop one. Despite this, it has many customers who use it for commercial purposes such as making video games, concept art, and videos.

10. Midjourney, being open by default, enforces strict policies to maintain a PG-13 rating, blocking inputs that are disrespectful, aggressive, abusive or sexual. These rules apply to all content, including private interactions.

Well, there you have it, 10 Interesting Facts You Might Not Know about Midjourney. If I’ve left anything important out, feel free to comment below.

Wondering how to use Midjourney? Here’s a Step-By-Step Guide

Step 1: Create a Discord account (if you don’t have one already)

Step 2: Visit Midjourney’s website and join the beta.

Step 3: Accept the Discord invite for Midjourney.

Step 4: Open the Discord app and select the Midjourney icon.

Step 5: Choose a Newcomer room from the Midjourney channels.

Be aware of your free trial limit (25 free images). Consider what you want to create before purchasing a full membership.

Step 6: Type “/imagine” in the Discord chat, enter a descriptive image prompt, and hit enter. Follow terms of conduct to avoid issues.

Step 7: Wait for the tool to generate your images. The AI will usually generate multiple options based on your description.

Under the images, there are U and V buttons labeled 1 through 4. These buttons correspond to the four images generated by Midjourney. Selecting U will make the image bigger and more defined, while selecting V will generate a new image based on the chosen image. Use the refresh button if you need a new set of images. However, keep in mind that each choice will consume some of your free prompts.

Step 8: If you find an image you like, use the U button to upscale it and get a new set of options. You can opt to create variations on the image, upscale to the maximum, redo the light upscale, and more.

To save the image, use the Envelope emoji and add it to your chat as a direct message. This allows you to download the image whenever you want.

Step 9: If you want to use the tool frequently, you can type “/subscribe” in any of the bot channels on Midjourney’s Discord. This will generate a link for you to purchase a subscription. For more in-depth knowledge, consider reading the manual, which offers a comprehensive list of commands and advice for creating images.

If this doesn’t sense, check out the video below:

Watch this space for updates in the Facts category on Running Wolf’s Rant.