Amazon has upped its ante in the generative AI arena with today's announcement of its new image generator as part of Amazon Titan, the name of the full suite of multimodal foundation models (FMs) now available through Amazon Web Services.
"Amazon Titan models incorporate 25 years of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) innovation at Amazon," wrote AI and ML educator Antje Bartha in an official blog post for Amazon. "AWS pre-trained these models on large datasets, making them powerful, general-purpose models built to support a variety of use cases while also supporting the responsible use of AI."
The Amazon Titan Image Generator allows content creators to generate high-quality, realistic images using simple English language prompts—or even by using other images as references. This is particularly useful in business sectors like advertising, e-commerce, and media. It appears to be positioned well against competitor Adobe’s generative AI feature, perhaps more granular but less intuitive.
Amazon's AI push is touting customization. Businesses can now fine-tune these models with proprietary data, the company says, enabling them to generate images that align with their brand identity or specific stylistic preferences.
In addition to these new models, Amazon also announced its own Large Language Model (LLM) named “Q,” trained on customer conversations with its line of Alexa smart devices. “Amazon Q provides immediate, relevant information and advice to employees to streamline tasks, accelerate decision-making and problem-solving, and help spark creativity and innovation at work,” Amazon said in an announcement reported by Decrypt.
Amazon's “Q” is not related to the “Q*” or “Q-learning” concepts recently surfaced by AI development rumors at OpenAI.
Safety is a top concern in the AI domain, and Amazon is aware of that. The AWS team has implemented robust AI safety features, similar to those implemented by Adobe, to mitigate risks associated with AI-generated content. These include pretraining on safer datasets and invisible watermarks in AI-generated images to combat misinformation. Amazon's support for SDXL further demonstrates its comprehensive approach to AI technology, and gives its clients more flexibility if Titan doesn’t fit their needs.
Amazon's recent introduction of advanced AI models positions it as a formidable contender against other major tech industry players who are also embracing AI, collectively generating an intensity reminiscent of a 21st-century gold rush.
Hands-on testing reveals that the Amazon Titan Image Generator stands out for its realism, outshining SDXL in that area. This new model provides a plethora of features under an interface that's pretty similar to using A1111 for Stable Diffusion, yet it offers a solid blend of control and versatility, which is particularly appealing for serious business applications.
For instance, the Amazon Titan Image Generator can craft featured images that are tailored to specific business needs, providing more control than Adobe's model which tends to be overly simplistic—or even cartoonish.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.