Flux is a family of AI models that generate and edit images from text descriptions. It is developed by Black Forest Labs, based in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. The first generation appeared in August 2024 and FLUX.2 in November 2025, alongside variants for editing images by text instruction. Some versions are available with open weights, partly for non-commercial use only, while others are offered exclusively via an API (as of October 2026).
Stable Diffusion is a family of image generation models that create pictures from a text description. The first version was released in 2022, developed under the lead of Stability AI together with research partners. Technically it is a latent diffusion model that gradually turns image noise into a picture. Because the model weights are published, it can be run and customised locally; commercial use of newer versions is governed by Stability AI's own licence (as of October 2026).
DALL-E is a series of image generation models from OpenAI that create images from text descriptions. The first version appeared in 2021; DALL-E 3 was integrated into ChatGPT in 2023 and made text-to-image generation accessible to a broad audience. OpenAI has since replaced DALL-E with newer image models from the GPT Image series; API access to DALL-E 2 and 3 ended in May 2026 (as of October 2026).
Ideogram is an AI service that generates images from text descriptions, developed by the company of the same name founded in 2022. It is best known for rendering legible text within images, which makes it useful for posters, invitations or social media graphics. It is available as a web app and via an API; model versions and licence terms change regularly (as of October 2026). Usage rights should be checked before commercial use.
Generative AI refers to AI systems that create new content – text, images, audio, video or program code – rather than merely sorting or assessing existing data. They are based on models that learn patterns from large amounts of data and use them to produce plausible new outputs. In business it is used, for example, to draft emails, summaries, product descriptions or image ideas. Results can contain errors and should be checked before use.
