What is DALL-E? An AI Tool for Images

Artificial Intelligence is revolutionizing many aspects of our daily lives. To safeguard our children, we must stay informed and actively guide them through these changes.

What is DALL-E?

Unveiled in January 2021, Dall-E is an image generation model developed by OpenAI. It can generate images from a text prompt in natural language. Images generated by DALL-E are original and can combine different styles such as photorealistic or impressionist.

Users input a text prompt — a description of the desired image — and DALL-E gets to work, converting the text to images. This process, known as prompt engineering, involves fine-tuning the text input to reveal the desired visual output.

Powered by the Clip Contrastive Language Image Pre-training (CLIP) framework, training data for DALL-E uses text-image pairs — a combination of text descriptions and images. This allows it to interpret text descriptions with significantly more nuance and detail, resulting in more accurate and diverse image generation.

DALL-E also has the ability to perform modifications to pre-existing images using descriptive text. This includes the capacity to add or delete elements to the picture. It can also extend an image beyond its original boundaries by creating a new composition. Some people will use DALL-E in place of popular photo editing apps like Adobe Photoshop.

To get access to DALL-E, users must have a ChatGPT Plus or Team account. The Plus subscription is $20 a month. However, DALL-E is now being integrated into various apps as developers can build apps with the DALL-E API.

Microsoft Bing, CALA, and Mixtiles are among some of the companies that utilize the DALL-E API. Bing in particular allows users the same access to ChatGPT as a Plus membership, but it’s free — that means DALL-E generated images through Bing are free. 

Safety Concerns: Is DALL-E Safe?

While DALL-E represents a groundbreaking advancement in generative models, it does not have parental controls or adjustable settings to restrict certain content generation. This opens the door for the potential of misuse or the generation of inappropriate content that can be misleading, offensive, or harmful. 

There’s also the societal impact to consider, as AI-generated content blurs the line between the virtual and real world. DALL-E is trained using existing images which raises further questions about copyright infringement and intellectual property rights. 

Parents Can Provide Support

Understanding DALL-E and its capabilities is crucial for parents to protect their children’s online experiences and make informed decisions regarding its use. By staying informed, we can effectively navigate the potential risks and benefits of DALL-E, ensuring a safe and responsible digital experience for our kids.

Have you used DALL-E? What do you think of it? Would you let your child use it? Share your thoughts below.

Author Jackie Baucom

Jackie is a Gabb staff writer. She is the mother of four children and is passionate about keeping kids safe, happy, loved, and thriving. She has a degree in Mass Communication from the University of Utah.

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