Black Forest Labs Unveils Flux.1 Kontext: A New Era in AI Image Generation and Editing

Black Forest Labs' Kontext AI models can edit pics as well as generate them | TechCrunch

Black Forest Labs, the AI startup whose models once powered the image generation features of X's Grok chatbot, on Thursday released a new suite of image-generating models -- some of which can both create and edit pics. The most capable of the models in the new family, called Flux.1 Kontext, can be prompted with text and, optionally, a reference image to create new images, writes Black Forest Labs in a blog post. "The Flux.1 Kontext models deliver state-of-the-art image generation results with strong prompt following, photorealistic rendering, and competitive typography -- all at inference speeds up to 8x faster than current leading models," the company writes in its post. Flux.1 Kontext comes as the race to build competitive image generators heats up. Google debuted its latest image-generating model, Imagen 4, earlier this month at the company's I/O developer conference. Earlier this year, OpenAI brought a vastly improved image-generating model to ChatGPT -- a model that quickly went viral for its ability to create art in the style of Studio Ghibli movies. There's two models in the Flux.1 Kontext family: Flux.1 Kontex [pro] and Flux.1 Kontex [max]. The former allows users to generate an image and refine it through multiple "turns," all while preserving the characters and styles in the images. Flux.1 Kontex [max] focuses on speed, consistency, and adherence to prompts. Unlike some of Black Forest Labs' previous models, Flux.1 Kontex [pro] and Flux.1 Kontex [max] can't be downloaded for offline use. However, Black Forest Labs is making an "open" Kontext model, Flux.1 Kontext [dev], available in private beta for research and safety testing. Black Forest Labs is also launching a model playground that allows users to try its models without having to sign up for a third-party service. New users get 200 credits, enough to generate around 12 images with Flux.1 Kontex [pro]. Black Forest Labs, based in Germany, was said to be in talks to raise $100 million at a $1 billion valuation toward the end of last year. Many of the founders hail from Stability AI, the creator of the notorious Stable Diffusion image-generating model. Backers include Andreessen Horowitz, Oculus co-founder Brendan Iribe, and Y Combinator's Garry Tan. In the months since it emerged from stealth, Black Forest Labs has released a number of new image-generating models and enterprise-focused services including an API.

FLUX.1 Kontext enables in-context image generation for enterprise AI pipelines

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Black Forest Labs (BFL), the startup founded by the creators of the popular Stable Diffusion model, has launched a new image generation model called FLUX.1 Kontext. This model not only generates and edits photos, but also allows users to modify them with both text and other images. The company also announced its new BFL Playground, where people can try out BFL's models. BFL released two versions of the model: FLUX.1 Kontext [pro] and FLUX.1 Kontext [max]. A third version, FLUX.1 Kontext [dev] will be available on private beta. Both the Pro and Max versions are now available on platforms such as KreaAI, Freepik, Lightricks, OpenArt and LeonardoAI. FLUX.1 Kontext can perform in-context generation. This means the model can be generated from a reference or situation presented to it; it doesn't generate from scratch. The company said in a post on X that four things make Kontext "special": Developers can test use cases and play with the models on the BFL Playground before accessing the full BFL API. The pro and max models Enterprises can use the pro version for fast and iterative editing. Users can input both text and reference images and make local edits. The company said Kontext [pro] operates "up to an order of magnitude faster than previous state-of-the-art models" and is one of the first models that allows editing on multiple turns. On the other hand, FLUX.1 Kontext [max] is the faster version with maximum performance. The company said it adheres more to prompts, makes typography readable and is consistent in edits without compromising speed. Of course, many other image generation models can also generate photos from uploaded files. MidJourney's AI image editor can use a reference picture and then edit specific regions of it. So does Adobe's Firefly, which many people who use Adobe's popular image and video platforms have access to. FLUX.1 Kontext [dev], the third version of the Kontext family of models, is an open-weight model at 12 billion parameters. Generative flow BFL said FLUX.1 Kontext is a flow model, which gives it more flexibility to accomplish the tasks mentioned above. Flow models learn from a continuous flow of data and define a path between noisy data and useful information. This differs from diffusion, the model architecture that underpins many image and video generation models from Stability AI, MidJourney and even OpenAI's Sora, which "denoises" data. BFL said in a blog post that the Kontext models represent an advancement to flow models. "FLUX.1 Kontext models go beyond text-to-image," the company said. "Unlike previous flow models that only allow for pure text-based generation, FLUX.1 Kontext models also understand and can create from existing images. With FLUX.1 Kontext you can modify an input image via simple text instructions, enabling flexible and instant image editing - no need for finetuning or complex editing workflows." In the text-to-image benchmark test, BFL claimed the FLUX.1 Kontext models can compete against other models in terms of aesthetics, following prompts, realism and typography. Generating interest BFL released the text-to-image model Flux 1.1 Pro in October last year. It also included an API for third-party developers to integrate it into their apps. Thanks to the BFL Playground, some users have already begun playing around with the Kontext models and report being impressed. Of course, it still has to compete with other image models available, especially those that have been around for a few years and have continued to improve.

It is another AI image generator but is Flux.1 Kontext from Black Forest Labs truly different?

Black Forest Labs, an AI startup that previously powered image generation for X's Grok chatbot, unveiled a new suite of image-generating models on Thursday; some models can both create and edit images. The most capable model, Flux.1 Kontext, uses text prompts and optional reference images. According to a blog post by Black Forest Labs, the Flux.1 Kontext models provide image generation with strong prompt following, photorealistic rendering, and competitive typography. The company also states the models provide inference speeds up to eight times faster than current leading models. The release of Flux.1 Kontext occurs as the image generator market intensifies. Earlier this month, Google presented its latest image-generating model, Imagen 4, at the company's I/O developer conference. In addition, OpenAI introduced an image-generating model to ChatGPT earlier this year, which became known for creating art in the style of Studio Ghibli movies. Black Forest Labs stated: Today we're releasing FLUX.1 Kontext - a suite of generative flow matching models that allow you to generate and edit images. The company also notes, unlike traditional text-to-image models, Kontext utilizes both text and images as input, enabling in-context generation and editing. The Flux.1 Kontext family includes two models: Flux.1 Kontex [pro] and Flux.1 Kontex [max]. Flux.1 Kontex [pro] allows users to generate an image and refine it through multiple turns, preserving characters and styles. Flux.1 Kontex [max] emphasizes speed, consistency, and adherence to prompts. The company further noted Kontext is a new image editing model, available on Replicate, which allows users to edit images with words to change clothes, restyle scenes, and rewrite text from a prompt. Flux.1 Kontex [pro] and Flux.1 Kontex [max] cannot be downloaded for offline use, a departure from some of Black Forest Labs' previous models. However, Black Forest Labs is making an open Kontext model, Flux.1 Kontext [dev], available in private beta for research and safety testing. Black Forest Labs is also launching a model playground, allowing users to test its models without a third-party service signup. New users receive 200 credits, allowing for approximately 12 images with Flux.1 Kontex [pro]. Black Forest Labs, headquartered in Germany, was reportedly in discussions to raise $100 million at a $1 billion valuation toward the end of last year. Many founders come from Stability AI, the creator of Stable Diffusion. Andreessen Horowitz, Oculus co-founder Brendan Iribe, and Y Combinator's Garry Tan are among the backers. Since emerging from stealth, Black Forest Labs has released various image-generating models and enterprise-focused services, including an API.

Black Forest's Kontext AI: Create and Edit Images Like a Pro

Flux.1 Kontext, made by Black Forest Labs, is a big jump in using AI to make and change images. Unlike other tools, it refines a user's words and pictures to let you really control what you get. It can also make or change images while keeping the same style. To make an image, Kontext starts with what you write or a picture you give it. You write down what you want to see, like a bright sunset over a city from the future, and Kontext makes a great, real-looking image in seconds. It's awesome at understanding what you want and makes detailed scenes with good lighting. For example, if you say a dog in a spacesuit on Mars, it makes a picture that looks right. Kontext is up to eight times faster than its counterparts, which is a big deal if you need to make stuff fast.