Microsoft is testing a DALL-E-powered text-to-image creator in Microsoft Paint for Windows 11, the company announced in a blog post. Called Paint Cocreator, the tool creates art based on a description the user types out.
Alternatively, users can select an art style, and Cocreator will then generate three variations. After choosing the one they like, customers can then edit the artwork by, for example, adding layers — a feature that’s also new to Paint.
It remains to be seen how well OpenAI’s latest DALL-E image generation model converts text to image, however — previous generations of DALL-E have struggled to correctly interpret text input. Aside from that, DALL-E has been prone to gender and racial bias. In its blog post, Microsoft says it’s taken steps to prevent the creation of “harmful, offensive, or inappropriate” images but didn’t offer much detail.
Paint Cocreator should be available to all Windows 11 users in a few weeks, but for now, Microsoft is slowly rolling out the feature to Windows Insiders. Users must join a waitlist to gain access to the preview. They’ll then receive 50 credits, each of which will let them create a new set of images. This credit system might change after the preview period is over, and it seems that users may have to pay in the future.
At the moment, Paint Cocreator is available in preview to users in English in the US, the UK, France, Australia, Canada, Italy, and Germany.
Cocreator is one of many new creative updates powered by AI that Microsoft has recently added to Windows 11. A new feature in Microsoft’s Photos app for Windows 11, for example, blurs out backgrounds and highlights the subject or whichever area the customer prefers. Users can also adjust the intensity of the blur.
Other new AI-powered tools include the Windows Copilot sidebar, which is an AI assistant that lets you adjust PC settings, launch apps, ask questions, and more.
