Image via Midjourney Official Facebook page, generated by Matt Panfil

AI art is hot right now, that's for sure. I'm fascinated by what folks are creating—some of it is just so terrific. I recently joined the "Official Midjourney" Facebook page, where folks post the art they're generating, and I thought I'd share some of my favorites.

If you don't know what Midjourney is, here's a quick primer from How-to Geek:

Before we talk about Midjourney, let's start with DALL-E 2, the one you may have heard about. DALL-E 2 sits at the high end of these AI-based image generator tools. It can create completely brand new images from a simple text prompt. You enter "a robot eating a taco," and it creates an image depicting a robot eating a taco.

At the more basic level is Craiyon, formerly known as "DALL-E mini." This is a free web tool that anyone can use, but it's not nearly as sophisticated as DALL-E 2. The results are often strange and somewhat creepy, but it's still very fun to play with.

Midjourney sits somewhere in the middle of DALL-E 2 and Craiyon. It also uses AI and machine learning to generate images based on text prompts. The results are usually quite good, but not as mind-blowing as DALL-E 2. The important thing is anyone can try the beta version of Midjourney right now (as of August 2022,) unlike DALL-E 2. No waiting period required.

If you want to start generating your own AI art on Midjourney, How-to Geek also explains how to sign up. Here are the first parts of their instructions; you can head here to read the rest:

The only thing you need to use the Midjourney Beta is a Discord account. That's where you will give text prompts to the Midjourney bot. You can sign up for a free account on Discord's website. After that, you can use Discord in a web browser or download the app for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iPhone. Once you're all set up with Discord, we'll head over to the Midjourney website and select "Join the Beta."

Here are two of my favorite Midjourney galleries to inspire you: First, check out this wild set of images by Cesare Parmiggiani: "Grannies are preparing to face a cold winter." Next, have your mind blown by Matt Panfil's "A Very Lisa Frank Apocalypse." 

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