Microsoft debuts MAI-Image-1, its first in-house AI image generator
▼ Summary
– Microsoft’s first in-house AI image generator, MAI-Image-1, is now available in Bing Image Creator and Copilot Audio Expressions.
– The model excels at generating photorealistic images of food, nature scenes, artsy lighting, and detailed reflections.
– MAI-Image-1 will create AI-generated art to accompany audio stories in Copilot Audio Expressions’ “story mode.”
– Microsoft previously announced its first in-house AI models, MAI-Voice-1 and MAI-1-preview, signaling a potential shift from reliance on OpenAI.
– While offering its own models, Microsoft’s Copilot chatbot is transitioning to OpenAI’s GPT-5 and also provides Anthropic’s Claude AI as options.
Microsoft has officially launched MAI-Image-1, its first proprietary AI image generator, now accessible through Bing Image Creator and Copilot Audio Expressions. Announced in October by Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman via a post on X, the text-to-image model is expected to debut in the European Union in the near future. Suleyman emphasized that the model performs exceptionally well when creating images of food, natural landscapes, artistic lighting effects, and photorealistic details.
According to Microsoft’s official blog, MAI-Image-1 stands out for its ability to produce highly realistic images, especially in rendering complex lighting scenarios such as bounce light and reflections, along with detailed landscapes. The company highlights that the model delivers both speed and high-quality output, enabling users to visualize ideas rapidly, make quick iterations, and seamlessly move their creations into other applications for further refinement.
In addition to image generation, MAI-Image-1 will support the “story mode” in Copilot Audio Expressions, where it automatically generates accompanying artwork for AI-produced audio narratives. This integration marks another step in Microsoft’s broader strategy to develop and deploy in-house AI technologies.
Earlier this year, in August, Microsoft introduced its first internally developed AI models: MAI-Voice-1 for speech and MAI-1-preview for text. At that time, the company indicated plans to incorporate MAI-1-preview into its Copilot AI assistant for specific use cases, signaling a potential shift toward reducing reliance on OpenAI’s technology. Despite this, Microsoft recently confirmed that its Copilot chatbot is adopting OpenAI’s newest model, GPT-5, while also providing users with the option to use Anthropic’s Claude AI models.
Currently, MAI-Image-1 is featured as one of three available AI models on the Bing Image Creator platform and app. The other two options, DALL-E 3 and GPT-4o, are both developed by OpenAI.
(Source: The Verge)
