zlacker

>>doener+(OP)
Just want to learn - who actually needs or buys up generated images?

>>zkmon+qCk
Some ideas for your consideration:

- Illustrating blog posts, articles, etc.

- A creativity tool for kids (and adults; consider memes).

- Generating ads. (Consider artisan production and specialized venues.)

- Generating assets for games and similar, such as backdrops and textures.

Like any tool, it takes certain skill to use, and the ability to understand the results.

>>nine_k+PEk
Except for gaming, that doesn't sound like a huge market worthy of pouring millions into training these high-quality models. And there is a lot of competition too. I suspect there are some other deep-pocketed customers for these images. Probably animations? movies? TV ads?

>>zkmon+IOk
I'd say that picture ad market alone would suffice.

OTOH these are open-weight models released to the public. We don't get to use more advanced models for free; the free models are likely a byproduct of producing more advanced models anyway. These models can be the freemium tier, or gateway drugs, or a way of torpedoing the competition, if you don't want to believe in the goodwill of their producers.