Generative Services: What's out there and What to watch out for!
Please note as usual: This is a basic guide, opinionated and because we're neurodivergent/autistic we may have some wording that may not fit within people's usual understandings. We've attempted to be as CLEAN and clear cut without pointing fingers, we're not using this article as a springboard to JUMP at anyone - it's more of a let's look at what's out there and what sort of content may be available.
Any services which have questionable reputations will still be listed, and their questionable reputations left at the door - as these may be hearsay, and/or personal opinions of others or inclusive of our opinions.
English: We're not going to sit and list everything a service does or doesn't do, if it's a site we've come across that we don't like - we'll list it anyways and see what you think.
Types of Generation Services
Basically you have a wide variety of services, and many of them are either new or have existed for months or longer. A few great contenders in the race to share freedom access to AI was Nightcafe, StarryAI, Dreamlike, Magespace and a few others. Of course, not everyone likes every service - each have downfalls and upsides.
But in the race to make things more diverse you have a lot more services coming through.
So besides your basics you have a lot of services using Stable diffusion as a back end through Gradio or other HTML based applications. (Don't mind me, I still don't know how to classify Gradio... I'm old, i'm lazy i'm boring I remember coding an HTML 1 document in 8th grade shut up lol - oh wait sorry 7th grade!)
You ALSO have a lot of DISCORD options, which we don't want to list in here because i'm not spending time trying to list an exhaustive list of EVERY GENERATION service inclusive of discord!
And lastly you have people who use Huggingface like Lykon, DucHaiten and Myself, and many other SD creators whom there are WAY too many to list. We make our models into diffusers options, and of course make freely accessible model spaces. Not everyone has the ability (with good reason) to afford OR get a T4 enabled space like DucHaiten, but DucHaiten managed to get a grant early on - and i'm not complaining, their content is worth it!
(Again, personally i'm not knocking anyone, am i jealous? Yes, but then again we have like 200 items in our uploads so pfft).
Many demo spaces are gradio based apps, and run on the free CPU options OR free demo API. Trying to use these can make you want to throw a MICROWAVE OUT THE WINDOW and are only to be treated as DEMO spaces rather than full docked Webui's like DucHaiten has access to.
You'll already note that a LOT of these services are vast, varied and some VERY new: So urge with caution here: be aware how your data's accessed, your personal information and everything else when signing up for a new site. I'm not here to complain about model theft, babes model creator and a few others have a good point: We upload to civit - we're going to see our stuff uplifted without warning. While we're VERY vocal (as duskfallcrew) about generative sites using our content, largely it's because we've run into some issues which won't be mentioned in this article. (As this is going to be largely a drama free article!)
Things to Watch out For
Data Handling & Personal Information
Where are they located, whats their privacy policy, whats their copyright and DMCA policy and most of all: Do they have a Terms and Conditions for their website.
Do they have one or more of the above and are they well written, or copy-pasta from every legal freebie site basically a "LOREM IPSUM" of legalese. That's where you need to be a bit careful, a ToS that's copy and pasted from a legal freebie site may not fit the terms and conditions for a full commercial generation site.
You need to know roughly the following:
Are you OK with logging in via social networks to a random site, and if so - are you under the impression that you know that if their ToS or privacy policy isn't up to date or written in such away that covers generative media - would you be at risk if a DMCA or Legal issue came up?
Is your personal. data such as IP address, email address and other information used for third party on-selling, (we're not talking Cambridge Analytica) - Usually 99% of sites don't really have a say in this, it's usually a middle man like Google, Apple or otherwise yoinking your data.
Reminder: This is a personal choice to check all of this, many people just do NOT care and that's - well that's a personal choice! :) - If you don't check a ToS of a website, if you don't check a ToS of an App NOR it's privacy policy and you find yourself with 20 million "HOTEE BABES DOT XYZ" emails and your twitter hacked it isn't the website's fault ;)
Social Media Presence
This one's where I half lied about "DRAMA FREE" - i'm not pointing fingers. It's sort of a bit of a deal to check HOW THE PRESENT themselves on social media. We're not talking discord here, we're talking staff or users that represent the site.
If they argue with model creators COUGH then you might wanna consider your options.
Literally, most generation sites small and large will have an INSTA,FB, Twitter and maybe a couple other sections. If it's mostly just sharing, updates and otherwise and maybe a bit of an Opera GX level meme or two - you're pretty good.
But if a generative site's hawking people, constantly DM'ing and tweeting about their service from multiple accounts, and attempting to gain attention in some really strange ways - then it's really up to you how you feel.
This is sort of a "walk through the wading pool" level thing, if you're willing to give a tiny site a try despite all the negative things you may or may not have seen - and you feel like they're going to. be a good option - go for gold!
People make mistakes, so social media isn't always a good indicative measure either.
Remember: ALL Of this is up to you how you perceive a service!
Reviews and Comments about Services
If a site has either a ton of negative feedback, or a ton of positive feedback it can be VERY hard to discern how to feel about it.
Just as much as a site with 0 interaction is.
Checking out with friends or other AI users how a site is, if it's known or otherwise and how it's gotten it's content - y'know is probably a first step. Again, models being uploaded to sites is an up to the creator AND up to the website in question - so that aside - "model theft" isn't something we're looking for with reviews.
Example: PixAI - they had 3 of my Lycoris files, but each of them were properly credited, and the website has an option to CLAIM back your content, just like CivitAI does. When you have this sort of thing, it does make me personally very interested in your service.
Types of Content
Again, all of this is personal preference. Each and every person out there using an AI service has their own morals and boundaries. If a website hosts NSFW content, and you don't mind and it's entirely fair within the local laws and regulations - then go for gold!
Just be aware within your own mental health and needs that if a website has questionable content in your opinion - many free for all and newer websites don't have NSFW filters on and nearly refuse to do so. A lot of the newer ones WILL eventually, but many don't think to do so on the offset.
As for anything REALLY DODGY?
Yea, not -- really here to cause drama NOR really bring up drama, but if you see DODGY or illegal content it is scarily up to you to report it to your local or international law authorities or bring it up with the generative website in question.
Remember this example: Many users attempt to buck the system even at CivitAI, thus giving impressions to people that Civit DOES and ALLOWS the hosting of dodgy content - When in reality like a lot of websites, the filters don't always catch it, the mods don't always have time to catch everything, and it's up to YOU the user to report content where needed. So when you see something dodgy on another website, hit up the website team - because if someone doesn't do something that's just going to keep on happening.
Website Listings
NOW! here's the thing you're gonna admit to me in the comments you skipped all of the ranting and raving (fair enough) lol - and came straight down to this list. This list isn't perfect, and please do not MAKE COMPLAINTS about services listed - this is not service bashing article. If YOU personally know of a good one PLEASE let me know down in the comments.
Note: We ARE including websites that people have had complaints up the wazoo about, because some people have varied opinions, and we're here to share links and give 0 dramatic personal opinions.
Also noted: There is no rhyme NOR REASON TO THE LISTING BELOW and I ain't gonna categorize it! :)
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https://huggingface.co/ (note you'll have to surf through to find people's demos)
https://www.piratediffusion.com/
https://stablediffusionapi.com/
https://nightcafe.studio/ (Only has base models as far as i'm aware)
https://dreamlike.art/ OG website for Dreamlike Diffusion
https://rundiffusion.com/ *These monstrous wonderful peeps make models too!
https://hotpot.ai/art-generator
https://www.cutout.pro/ai-art-generation
https://neural.love/ai-art-generator
https://picsart.com/ai-image-generator
https://runwayml.com/ (yea I know they're SD based, but it was on an article shh)
https://www.creativefabrica.com/spark/
https://replicate.com/pixray/text2image (Replicate has other models)
https://letsenhance.io/ not sure what this one is?
https://live3d.io/ai_anime_art_generator (LMAO a Vtuber app has this, and the Vtuber community for indie peeps is rife with Anti's against AI, and this ? LMAO - Go For gold i'm sure its ok :3 )
https://www.visme.co/ai-image-generator/
https://freeimagegenerator.com/
https://www.zmo.ai/ai-anime-generator/
https://animemaker.graydient.ai/
https://problembo.com/services/anime-generator
https://stablediffusionweb.com/
https://stablediffusionai.org/
https://histre.com/integrations/generative/
https://you.com/search?q=stable+diffusion&fromSearchBar=true
https://aqualxx.github.io/stable-ui/
Ok that's as far as I'm going for now! If we've MISSED ANY WEBSITE GOOD OR BAD PLEASE LIST IN THE COMMENTS BELOW.
Reminder: If you or anyone else has issues with a website we've listed, take it to your dealer, not me :3