Jason Shen

Key features of the 2.0 release

• New text-to-image diffusion models  using a brand new text encoder (OpenCLIP). Result: improved image quality, although not everyone likes the style.


• Super-resolution upscaler diffusion models  which enhance the resolution of images by a factor of 4.


• Depth-to-image diffusion model  which infers the depth of an input

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In his 1905 essay “On Reading,” Marcel Proust puts it nicely: “With books there is no forced sociability. If we pass the evening with those friends—books—it’s because we really want to. When we leave them, we do so with regret and, when we have left them, there are none of those thoughts that spoil friendship: ‘What did they think of us?’—‘Did we... See more

Picking a few hits requires a tolerance for many bad ideas, mediocre ideas, and even good ideas cursed with bad timing. Above all, it requires a business model that supports the inevitability that most new things fail; the most promising ideas often attract a chorus of skeptics; and one big hit can pay for a thousand flops.

Many people who are talented in their various fields have access to insight they can’t share with others. They simply see something we can’t. They try to describe it—picture any Paris Review interview—and often hearing them talk about their process is interesting and informative. But they’re unable to describe the core thing—what gives them the... See more