Microsoft Designer: An Overview of the AI-Powered Web Software, a killer to Canva
Microsoft has recently launched a new web software called Designer, similar to Canva, which allows users to create designs for presentations, posters, digital postcards, invites, graphics, and more. The software uses OpenAI’s technology to generate design ideas, including user-generated material and DALL-E 2, in addition to drop-down menus and text boxes.
Signing up for the Microsoft Designer App
Microsoft has stated that the Designer app will remain free throughout the brief preview period. Users can sign up to join the waitlist on the Microsoft Designer app website by entering their email address in the designated spot and clicking the “Join the waitlist” button.
Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscriptions will include Designer once it becomes broadly available, and some functionality will be made available for free to non-subscribers.
Using the Microsoft Designer App
Users can start creating customized designs with specific dimensions for platforms such as Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook ads, and Instagram Stories by selecting from a variety of templates inside Designer. The software provides pre-built templates, shapes, images, icons, and headers that can be used in projects.
Designer is not the only AI tool that Microsoft is releasing. Microsoft Edge will include Designer, allowing users to update the aesthetics for their social network postings without opening another program.
Microsoft’s Image Creator
Image Creator is another AI-powered software that Microsoft is developing, supported by DALL-E 2, and will be available soon on Bing and Edge. Image Creator makes art from a text prompt by sending queries to DALL-E 2.
Users can access Image Creator via the Bing Images tab, bing.com/create, or through the Image Creator icon in the sidebar of Edge. When a user types in a description of anything, any extra context, such as location or activity, and an art style, Image Creator will generate an image.
Unlike the Designer app, Image Creator in Bing and Edge will be entirely free to use. Recently Microsoft’s Bing search engine crossed 100 million daily active users.
Legal and Ethical Issues of Content Creation with AI
AI-powered image-generating tools have been exploited to produce offensive material, including sexual celebrity deepfakes and graphic violence. There are concerns about the biases and prejudices ingrained in the millions of photos from the web used to train image-generating AI.
Even OpenAI has acknowledged that an open-source version of DALL-E might be trained to form stereotyped associations.
Microsoft’s Approach to Mitigating Risks
In response to inquiries about mitigation measures in Designer and Image Creator, Microsoft mentioned that OpenAI eliminated explicit sexual and violent content from the dataset used to train DALL-E 2.
The company also claimed to have installed filters to prevent the creation of photos that violate content policies, increased query filtering on delicate subjects and used technology to provide “more diverse” images in search results.
Users who wish to use Designer and Image Creator with their Microsoft account must first accept the terms of service and the content policy.
Users will receive a warning if they request a picture that Microsoft’s automatic censors deem improper. If they frequently breach the content guidelines, they will be banned, although they have the right to appeal.
Microsoft has stated that users would have “full” use rights to commercialize the pictures they generate using Designer and Image Creator, which addresses some legal concerns surrounding AI-powered image-generating systems.
The company will not assert ownership of prompts, captions, creations, or any other content that users contribute, share, input, or submit to the applications, adopting a commercial usage policy similar to OpenAI’s.
Final Thoughts
Microsoft’s Designer and Image Creator apps are part of a growing trend of AI-powered content creation tools. These apps offer a range of features and templates to help users create professional-looking designs quickly and easily.
While they have the potential to revolutionize the design industry and make it more accessible, there are also legal and ethical concerns to consider.
Microsoft has taken steps to address these concerns by implementing content policies and filters to prevent the creation of harmful or offensive content. The company also believes users have full commercial rights to the pictures they generate using Designer and Image Creator.
As AI technology continues to advance, it will be important to consider these issues carefully and to develop appropriate safeguards and regulations to ensure that AI-powered content creation tools are used responsibly and ethically.
