Controversy continues in the world of AI-generated images, and even AI-generated images used in elections. became a cause for concern This week at the World Economic Forum, startups continue to plow new trails in AI tools for creators.
The latest one is Recraft, an AI graphic design generator for professionals, has raised $12 million in a Series A round led by Silicon Valley’s Khosla Ventures and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman. RTP Global, Abstract VC, Basis Set Ventures, Elad Gil, and various other angel investors also participated.
Indeed, there are now countless generative AI design tools, including Jasper, Adobe Teacher, and Let’s Enhance. However, Recraft is the first to be a “foundation” tool in the sense that it is building its own underlying model (a pre-trained deep learning algorithm) to generate consistent design elements such as icons and images. He claims to be one. This can be adjusted and used within a brand’s specific style controls. It also claims to have accumulated over 300,000 hits since its launch eight months ago.
However, this isn’t designed as a tool for spewing out funny images like cowboy dogs on horses. Not only can you generate these “raster images,” but you can also generate vector images that are infinitely scalable and used in the professional graphic design realm, unlike platforms where image quality is often limited.
This is perhaps to be expected since founder Anna Veronica Drogush is not a technologist.she created cat boost, for example, is a high-performance open-source library for gradient boosting of decision trees. Formerly head of machine learning systems at Moscow search engine Yandex, Drogush and his 13-strong team are now based in London.
She told me over the phone that the money raised would power her efforts to build her own foundational model. This includes things like brand colors and level of detail, as well as the ability to iterate over the resulting images. ”
“But if the model cannot initially generate a billiards player or a ballet dancer, it means that currently using fine-tuning is not enough to provide high-quality generation. Therefore, we has had to build its own model and is currently working on it,” she added.
Recraft is very targeted toward professionals, she says. “What’s unique about what we do is that we don’t just provide image generation. We also offer style control. Create your own styles and generate images with your own style. This is important if you want to create and grow your brand, create marketing materials, and create consistent advertising.”
I asked her what the chances are that she will be sued by an artist whose style was used on the Recraft platform.
“we, clause If an artist uploads something to the system as a sterile reference (such as an image that can generate new images), we don’t use them to train the model,” says Dorogush.
“We don’t use them to train models.”
She added that Recraft effectively adds a general style to images uploaded by artists. “Provide style to the model. Now we have a style reference. Next, we will use this style reference to generate an image. So it is the user’s action that provides the style.”
Drogush also said that rather than replacing graphic designers, tools like Recraft are likely to make graphic design more accessible in areas where unattractive stock images may currently be used. It also states: “A year ago, if you were writing a children’s book, you would have used stock images. Now, the same people can use more beautiful illustrations and images in the same book.”
Of course, Recraft isn’t the only startup working in this space. Last year, I learned that Berlin-based Kittl had raised €10.8 million ($11.6 million) in Series A for his platform of design that allows users to turn ideas into graphic products. I picked it up. Create professional-looking designs quickly.
Products like Recraft are part of an increasingly sophisticated toolset that provides alternatives to designers, CEO Nicholas Heyman said on the phone this week. “If Recraft can successfully generate design assets, image generation models can be a good replacement for stock photo libraries today – then it could definitely take some time. [some market] Get a share of these icon libraries. ”
Dorogush said Kittl has a different use case than Recraft, as there is now space for multiple players. “We have proprietary technology to build images that are consistent in style and that is our main focus. Kittl is product focused and I have a lot of respect for them. They’re a great company.”
Either way, investors seem excited about the potential to help these business-focused AI tools avoid the controversy that some AI and design imagery platforms have caused.
Nikita Shamgunov, partner at Khosla Ventures, commented in a statement: But so far, many generative AI design solutions are targeted at consumers rather than professionals who need a high degree of control. Recraft offers a professional workflow, including vector imagery, style control, and end-to-end content creation, all powered by a foundational model built in-house. ”