Recently, the renowned AI image generation service Midjourney officially announced its entry into the hardware device market. The company posted on the social media platform X: "We are officially venturing into hardware. If you are interested in joining our new team in San Francisco, please send an email to hardware@midjourney.com."
Information about Midjourney's hardware plans is currently sparse, shrouded in mystery. However, the updates from key figure David Holz have sparked great anticipation for the future products.
Holz, co-founder of Leap Motion and former CTO of the gesture tracking startup, revealed on social media that Midjourney has hired Ahmad Abbas, former hardware engineering manager for Apple's Vision Pro spatial computing headset, to lead the hardware division. Abbas will officially join Midjourney in December 2023.
It is noteworthy that Midjourney stated that the new device will not be a "pendant," a design popular among early AI devices but generally unsuitable for displaying detailed images. Instead, they hinted that the new device might require "entry" for use, rather than being wearable. This has piqued curiosity about their future hardware products.
Midjourney's entry into the hardware market coincides with the increasingly competitive AI image generation field, where Elon Musk's xAI has released the new Grok2 model, and competitors like Ideogram2 that can generate various fonts and styles of text have emerged. To address these challenges, Midjourney updated its web interface last week, making it accessible to all users and offering 25 free image generation services.
Although exploration in the AI hardware sector is still in its early stages, other startups like Rabbit and Humane have faced significant challenges. Nonetheless, Midjourney's hardware plans are undoubtedly exciting. The market response to AI-driven hardware devices has not always met expectations, but as the industry evolves, the situation will change.
Additionally, with OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman partnering with Apple designer Jony Ive on AI hardware, the future hardware market could become even more captivating.
Key Points:
🔍 Midjourney announces its formal entry into the hardware sector and seeks new team members.
🚀 Former Apple engineering manager Ahmad Abbas will lead the hardware department, with product form yet to be disclosed.
🆚 Amidst intensified competition, Midjourney has updated its user interface and offers free image generation services to all users.