Pioneering New Frontiers in Art with Microsoft's Copilot Imagery Engine

Pioneering New Frontiers in Art with Microsoft’s Copilot Imagery Engine

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Key Takeaways

Microsoft Copilot Image Creator is a competitor to OpenAI’s DALL-E 3, but it also uses DALL-E 3 tech.
Copilot Image Creator offers free AI image generation and also allows some basic editing, too.
Access Copilot Image Creator in Edge or any browser for unique images.

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Microsoft Copilot is ChatGPT’s closest competitor. It stands to reason, as Copilot uses the same tech as ChatGPT, all the way down to its free image generator.

That’s right; you can use Microsoft Copilot to generate free AI images using DALL-E 3, and it’s incredibly simple to do.

What Is Microsoft Copilot Image Creator?

The Official Microsoft Blog first announced that AI image creation would be coming to Copilot on 21 March 2023. At the time, Copilot was still called Bing AI Chat prior to its November 2023 name change.

At the time, there wasn’t a great deal of difference between Bing AI Chat, the Image Creator tool, and Copilot. It was a branding exercise to unify Microsoft’s AI chatbot tools under a single name. There are now several different Microsoft Copilot AI tools , ranging from Copilot in Windows 11 and Copilot in Microsoft 365 to newer tools like Copilot for Sales and Copilot for Security.

Back to the Copilot Image Creator. It uses OpenAI’s GPT-4 and DALL-E 3 text-to-image generator to turn your words into pictures.

There are two “versions” of Copilot Image Creator, though they both work similarly. You can access the Copilot Image Creator directly from Microsoft Copilot within the Edge browser, which is an exclusive Edge feature. However, not wanting to cut potential users out, you can also access it in any browser by heading to the Copilot Image Creator . I’ll cover the differences between each option below, but both AI image creation tools follow the same premise: you input your words, and the AI tool turns them into unique images.

How to Use Microsoft Copilot Image Generator

Microsoft’s Copilot Image Creator uses DALL-E 3 to create AI images. DALL-E 3 is the same AI text-to-image you’ll find on ChatGPT Plus, OpenAI’s premium $20 subscription tier. So here’s the rub: you can use the same DALL-E 3 image creation tool with Copilot without paying a penny.

Copilot Image Creator is completely free, which gives it a substantial advantage over ChatGPT Plus. It’s also not the only reason to use Microsoft Copilot instead of ChatGPT .

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Microsoft Copilot Image Creator in Edge

If you use Microsoft’s Edge browser, the easiest way to start using the Image Creator is in a regular Copilot chat. Ask Copilot to create an image, and it’ll do its best to deliver a unique take on your input, providing four 1:1 images (it will not give you a 2:1 image or otherwise, no matter what input you try—but there is a reason for that!).

Once your images appear, you can download, share, or open them for editing in Microsoft Designer , its web-based image editing tool.

However, unlike ChatGPT, you can make changes and edits to your Copilot-created image without leaving the page. Microsoft’s Copilot editing tools allow you to switch between image styles, alter the image to landscape, and make some slight color adjustments. These aren’t editing tools like you’ll find in proper photo editing software , but it’s enough to make some small tweaks on the go.

For example, I asked Copilot Image Creator to “create a 2:1 image of a person standing on a beach,” which, of course, it didn’t do and gave me four 1:1 images instead.

However, from there, I selected the image I wanted to use, pressed the “expand” icon in the bottom right corner, and selected Landscape. Copilot auto-magically adjusted the original image into a 2:1 1792x1024, finally fulfilling my original request.

Next, I applied a few different styles to the image, opting for pixel art and origami for a unique touch. Other options include watercolor, block print, and steampunk. Each style applies seamlessly, and you can return to the original image at any time.

Microsoft Copilot Image Creator in Any Browser

If you don’t use Edge, you can use Copilot Image Creator in any browser with its dedicated site. The Copilot Image Creator site is mostly the same but with a couple of differences.

First up, the website version doesn’t feature on-page AI editing like the Edge Copilot Image Creator. You can open any image you create in Microsoft Designer, but at the time of writing, this photo editor doesn’t feature AI editing tools to change ratios, apply unique styles, and so on.

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Second, the Image Creator available to all browsers uses a “boost” token system to provide speedy images. You start with 100 boosts, and each time you input a prompt, it uses a boost. Once your boosts run out, Image Creator won’t prioritize your creations, and they can take a few minutes to appear. It doesn’t appear to make a difference to quality, mind, just time.

What I found interesting was that Image Creator images generated in Copilot on Edge will appear in your Image Creator recent images. Edits you make to the Copilot on Edge images will update across the two tools as you make them, but it’s a one-way process.

Should You Use Microsoft Copilot Image Creator or ChatGPT Plus With DALL-E 3?

It’s frustrating that Copilot Image Creator won’t create a 2:1 image out of the box, but Microsoft’s editing tool takes care of this with some extra clicks, so it’s not too much of an issue.

ChatGPT doesn’t ship with any image editing tools, every time you make a change to an image, it creates a completely fresh version. In the images below, I asked ChatGPT to “create a 2:1 image of a person standing on a beach” and then asked it to “turn this image into pixel art.” It completed both requests, but the second image is completely new, which isn’t what I wanted.

However, that same issue also applies to some Microsoft Copilot Image Creator images, which is another frustration. So, actually, if you wanted to create a specific 2:1 image, you’re better off using ChatGPT from the get-go, as you stand a better chance of getting the right image the first time out.

Overall, if you want a free AI text-to-image generator, it’s hard to look beyond Microsoft Copilot Image Creator. It’s simple to use, powerful, and outputs a wide range of image types, styles, and more.

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