Black Forest Labs, the startup behind the image generation feature in xAI’s Grok assistant, has announced a new model and beta API.

The news of the BFL API was shared on October 2 along with the release of FLUX1.1 [pro] which the company describes in a blog post as being their most “advanced and efficient model yet.”

The Germany-based Black Forest Labs is a startup focusing on building generative AI models and it has a big-name customer in Elon Musk’s X platform which uses its Flux.1 text-to-image model to power the image generation component within the Grok chatbot.

Within Grok, the image generation capabilities work in the same way as a user would ask for information in a search tool as they simply have to input a prompt about the image they wish to create. The tool will then spew back the AI-generated image it has come up with.

We are excited to release FLUX1.1 [pro], our most advanced and efficient model yet, alongside the general availability of the beta BFL API. pic.twitter.com/EKRb0APJJF

— Black Forest Labs (@bfl_ml) October 3, 2024

The release of the more advanced model and beta API is said to mark a “significant step forward” in the company’s “mission to empower creators, developers, and enterprises with scalable, state-of-the-art generative technology.”

This comes at a time when there’s growing competition, with numerous image generator companies aiming to outdo one another.

What is Black Forest Labs’ new FLUX1.1 [pro] model?

The recently announced model provides “six times faster generation” than its predecessor the FLUX.1 [pro] while also “improving image quality, prompt adherence, and diversity.”

Its output is two times faster than what was previously created by the company.

“Faster generation times and reduced latency, enabling more efficient workflows. FLUX1.1 [pro] provides an ideal tradeoff between image quality and inference speed. FLUX1.1 [pro] is three times faster than the currently available FLUX.1 [pro].”

Fast high resolution is reported as possible as the model will be able to generate up to 2k images.

The BFL API is said to bring FLUX’s capabilities “directly to developers and businesses looking to integrate state-of-the-art image generation into their own applications.”

It has advanced customization as it can be tailored to specific needs with options on model choice, image resolution, and content moderation.

Featured Image: Via Black Forest Labs news page 

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