In just a few words, the AI model is asked to create a story, image, or short film. However, according to Weber Wong, all of these models are “not made to make other non-creators feel creative.”
In other words, they are not built for real creative professionals. That’s what Wong hopes to change along with Flora, a new startup he is founder and CEO.
Flora launched this week, declaring that “AI creative tools should be more than just toys for generating AI slops,” describing Wong and his team as “obsessed with building electric tools that deepen the future of creative works.”
The manifest positions flora as something different from existing AI tools, saying “it’s easier to create, but lacks creative control,” and users “it has control, but intuitive and time-consuming” from existing creative software.
Flora is not trying to build a better generation AI model. Wong argued that one of the key insights for startups is that “models are not creative tools.” Therefore, Flora offers an “infinite canvas” that integrates with existing models. This is a visual interface that allows users to generate blocks of text, images and video.
“Models aren’t important. Technology isn’t important,” Wong told me, “it’s about the interface.”
For example, users can start by encouraging Flora to create an image of flowers, then ask for details about the image. These details lead to more prompts and different images, and map to the canvas mentioned above.
Wong said he hopes Flora can help any artist or creative, but the company initially focuses on working with visual design institutions. In fact, we repeat our products with feedback from designers at the well-known agency Pentagram.
According to Wong, the goal is to allow Pentagram designers to “do 100 times more creative work,” create logo designs and generate 100 variations quickly. He compared it to the evolution of composition. Mozart “needed an entire orchestra to play his music,” and today’s musicians can do everything “to make themselves and post to SoundCloud, along with Abreton from their garage in New Jersey.”
Wong has both his own backgrounds and worked as an investor at Menlo Venture, but left when he realized “I wasn’t the one who came back.” Determined to become a kind of founder worth investing in, he eventually joined New York University’s interactive communications program.
When Flora launched the Alpha version in August, Wong decided to “released with an art project introducing real-time AI technology,” with Flora’s homepage showing live feeds from Wong’s head GoPro camera, and website visitors were given the opportunity to use AI to organize the footage after signing Flora Waitlist.
Given his background, Wong knows that there are artists and experts who are skeptical or vehemently opposed to the use of AI. In fact, Pulgram generated some controversy last year when it used Midi Joanie to create an illustration style for a project with the US government.
Wong said that if existing models are accepted by “AI Native”, Flora hopes to be able to beat “AI Curious”, and that in the end, even “AI HATERS” can even be useful enough to feel like they need to give it a try.
When raising concerns that AI models could be trained regardless of copyright or intellectual property, Wong pointed out that Flora is not training the AI models themselves (as they use models from other companies), adding that he “follows social standards.”
And while he’s passionate about not wanting to use Flora to unleash a flood of AI slops (“I’m going to wear a hat that says ‘anti-slop'”), he suggested instead that the startup could unleash “new aesthetic and creative possibilities.”
Flora has not disclosed funding details, but its backers include the A16Z game. This product is available for free on a limited number of projects and generated content, and professional pricing starts at $16 per month.
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