Watch out, Midjourney! This funky AI-generated cat was created with Google’s new ‘Pixel Studio’

Pixel Studio, revealed at Made by Google 2024, is one of the many new AI features coming to the newly announced Google phones, including the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and Pixel 9 Pro Fold.

The search engine giant boasts that the Pixel Studio is users’ new “creative assistant.” Leveraging capabilities such as text-to-image, you can have a lot of fun with Pixel Studio creating funky AI-generated images. At a recent press event, I got to see the Pixel Studio in action as it competes with the likes of OpenAI’s DALLE-3 and Midjourney.

This funky cat was created on Pixel Studio

With the prompt, “A cat wearing flat black pixel sunglasses in New York City,” I watched the following AI-generated feline appear on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold:

Check out this AI-generated kitten on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold.
Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

I was most surprised by the low latency. The AI-generated kitty popped up in less than two seconds.

So what’s underpinning the Pixel Studio’s text-to-image capabilities? An AI model called Imagen 3, a DALLE-3 and Midjourney competitor.

Imagen 3, born out of the search engine giant’s DeepMind AI lab, is capable of understanding natural-language prompts. It can deliver high quality images in a wide variety of styles, from photorealistic cityscapes to intricately textured oil paintings.

Imagen 3 is Google’s newest, most capable model — and it runs on the cloud. Once it “lands” on your phone, you can edit and refine the image, which taps into the on-device AI (the Google Tensor G4 chip in the case of the Pixel 9 Pro Fold). So in other words, Pixel Studio combines both cloud and local processing.

I watched the Google rep revise his original prompt, which transformed the cool cat into a sign-holding kitty. The message said, “Oh yeah!” (This part is still happening in the cloud.)

Now, it’s holding a sign.
Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

You can also alter the style of the image with any one of the suggested visual looks, including sketch, vintage, anime, 3D creation, cinematic, video game, cyberpunk, and more. Here’s what the anime style looks like:

The “anime” version of the original kitty.
Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

Next, you can fire up the in-app editing suite and make changes to your liking. This is where the on-device processing kicks in. You can, for example, isolate an unwanted object and remove it. You can also transform your AI-generated creation into a sticker, allowing you to share it with your friends.

Add some text and you’ve got a meme
Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

You can access Pixel Studio via the home screen.

Arrow pointing to the new Pixel Studio app
Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

The Pixel Studio will be available across the Pixel 9 smartphone family, starting with the $799 entry-level Pixel 9. It’s available for pre-order today.