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What just happened? Midjourney is cooking up something new, and this time it might not have anything to do with merely producing uncannily realistic images. The company announced via X/Twitter that it's officially dipping its toes into the hardware realm.
In a post on Wednesday, Midjourney revealed it's hiring staff for a new hardware team that will be based in San Francisco.
"We're officially getting into hardware. If you're interested in joining the new team in San Francisco please email us," the post stated.
We aren't announcing anything specific yet, but we have multiple efforts in flight.
– Midjourney (@midjourney) August 28, 2024
Details about what Midjourney is working on are scarce, but the company teased that there are "multiple efforts in flight" when asked for more info under the same post. The company also stated that there are "definitely opportunities for more form factors." No timeline was provided.
Perhaps a better idea can be derived from Midjourney's recent hire of Ahmad Abbas. Abbas previously worked at Neuralink and had a hand in engineering Apple's Vision Pro headset. With that kind of expertise, perhaps Midjourney's first hardware rodeo involves jumping on the immersive computing bandwagon.
This idea wouldn't be out of place for Midjourney's founder David Holz. Before starting the wildly popular text-to-image generator, Holz co-founded Leap Motion, which built motion-tracking peripherals.
Midjourney has also said it's working on AI models for video and 3D generation. An accompanying hardware play could theoretically tie into those initiatives.
Another possible clue could be a post from Holz on X from months ago in which he responded "we will make the orb" to someone's light-hearted suggestion about creating a spherical device inspired by fantasy wizard orbs – although this one could be simply a joke.
we will make the orb
– David (@DavidSHolz) January 10, 2024
What is clear is that Midjourney is making this foray as it faces intensifying competition in AI image generation from the likes of xAI's Grok 2 and Ideogram 2. A tangible product could help the company stand out from these software-only firms.
However, Midjourney would have to work up something unique. So far, startups have been obsessed with the idea of wearable/pocketable generative AI products – and none of them have seen success. In fact, AI projects have an unusually high chance of never catching on. According to a recent report, a stunning 80% of all AI projects end up failing despite the billions of dollars being poured into them.