Apple slices its AI image synthesis times in half with new Stable Diffusion fix
Enlarge / Two examples of Stable Diffusion-generated artwork provided by Apple. (credit: Apple)
On Wednesday, Apple released optimizations that allow the Stable Diffusion AI image generator to run on Apple Silicon using Core ML, Apple's proprietary framework for machine-learning models. The optimizations will allow app developers to use Apple Neural Engine hardware to run Stable Diffusion about twice as fast as previous Mac-based methods.
Stable Diffusion (SD), which launched in August, is an open source AI image synthesis model that generates novel images using text input. For example, typing "astronaut on a dragon" into SD will typically create an image of exactly that.
By releasing the new SD optimizations-available as conversion scripts on GitHub-Apple wants to unlock the full potential of image synthesis on its devices. And it notes this on the Apple Research announcement page: "With the growing number of applications of Stable Diffusion, ensuring that developers can leverage this technology effectively is important for creating apps that creatives everywhere will be able to use."