Summary

  • Apple’s machine learning research team has devised a method for generating high-resolution images using artificial intelligence (AI), which could challenge the dominance of diffusion models.
  • The technology powers popular image generators such as OpenAI’s DALL-E and Midjourney.
  • The method, called STARFlow, combines normalising flows with autoregressive transformers to achieve what the Apple team called “competitive performance” with the state-of-the-art diffusion models.
  • The breakthrough comes at a crucial time for Apple, which has been criticised for its struggles with AI and only unveiled modest updates to its Apple Intelligence platform at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference.
  • Apple hopes the new technique will produce consumer-facing AI capabilities that can challenge those of its rivals.

By Michael Nuñez

Original Article