June 7, 2026
At Build 2026, Microsoft unveiled seven proprietary AI models, including its first in-house reasoning model, signaling a broader push toward self-reliance in foundation model development. The announcements also covered a new tuning approach and an autonomous agent capable of operating in the background. On image generation, Microsoft's internal models reportedly outperform Google's current offerings.
Martin Scorsese has taken on an adviser role at Black Forest Labs, the AI image generation startup behind the Flux family of models. The move has drawn surprise and some criticism from filmmakers and artists who had expected the director to maintain a more cautious stance toward generative AI tools.
Amazon has added AI-generated product imagery to its search bar, showing visual suggestions as shoppers type descriptions of clothing and home goods. The idea is to help users find items when they lack the precise terminology for a style or texture they have in mind.
Blackmagic Design has shipped the final release of DaVinci Resolve 21, marking one of the most substantial updates the software has seen. The version adds a dedicated Photo page for still-image editing alongside a set of AI-powered tools spread across the editing, color, audio, and visual effects areas of the application.
Ideogram has released version 4.0 of its text-to-image model as an open-weight release, featuring native 2K resolution output, bounding box layout control, and refined text rendering. On the DesignArena leaderboard, it leads all open models, sitting just below closed systems from OpenAI and Google. Commercial use of the weights requires a paid license.
A British MP has filed a lawsuit against xAI to establish whether the company bears legal responsibility for images generated by its Grok AI system. The case is part of a broader wave of scrutiny that includes investigations in the EU, the UK, and California. At issue is how far platform liability extends when an AI image generator produces harmful or problematic content.
xAI has updated its Grok Imagine system to version 1.5, adding an image-to-video model that converts still images into short video clips at up to 720p resolution. The new model accepts text prompts to guide motion and style, and multiple generated clips can be joined into longer sequences.
Google is closing Pixel Studio, its AI image generation app for Pixel devices, less than two years after it launched. The shutdown continues a pattern of Google retiring products that failed to gain lasting traction. Users will need to look elsewhere for on-device AI image tools.
