Take care on your journey! This funky AI-generated cat was created with Google’s new Pixel Studio

Unveiled at “Made by Google 2024,” Pixel Studio is one of a host of new AI features coming to newly announced Google smartphones, including the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and Pixel 9 Pro Fold.

The search engine giant boasts that Pixel Studio is a new “creative assistant” for its users. With features like text-to-image conversion, it’s fun to create funky AI-generated images with Pixel Studio. At a recent press event, we got to see Pixel Studio in action, competing with the likes of OpenAI’s DALLE-3 and Midjourney.

This funky cat was created with Pixel Studio

The prompt “Cat wearing flat black pixelated sunglasses in New York City” saw the following AI-generated cat appear on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold:

Check out this AI-generated kitten on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold.
Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

What surprised me most was its low latency: the AI-generated cat appeared within two seconds.

So what powers Pixel Studio’s text-to-image conversion feature? An AI model called Imagen 3, a competitor to DALLE-3 and Midjourney.

Born out of the search engine giant’s DeepMind AI lab, Imagen 3 has the ability to understand natural language prompts and can deliver high-quality images in a variety of styles, from photo-realistic cityscapes to intricately textured oil paintings.

Imagen 3 is Google’s latest and most powerful model, and it runs on the cloud. Once it “arrives” on your phone, it can leverage on-device AI (in the case of the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, the Google Tensor G4 chip) to edit and adjust your images. In other words, Pixel Studio combines both cloud and local processing.

I watched as Google representatives revised the original prompt, turning the cool cat into a kitten holding a sign, with the message saying “Oh yeah!” (This part is still processing in the cloud).

Now I’m putting up a sign.
Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

You can also restyle your image using one of the suggested visual looks, such as Sketch, Vintage, Anime, 3D Creation, Cinematic, Video Game, Cyberpunk, etc. Here’s what the Anime style looks like:

An “anime” version of the original cat.
Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

Then launch the in-app editing suite to modify it to your liking, where on-device processing begins – you can isolate and remove unwanted objects, for example, or even turn your AI-generated creation into a sticker to share with friends.

Add text and your meme is complete
Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

You can access Pixel Studio from the home screen.

Arrow pointing to the new Pixel Studio app
Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

Pixel Studio will be available across the entire Pixel 9 family of phones, starting with the entry-level Pixel 9 at $799, and is available to pre-order starting today.