Midjourney v7 launches with voice prompting and faster draft mode — why is it getting mixed reviews?

Midjourney, the boot-strapped startup viewed by many AI power users as the “gold standard” of AI image generation since its launch in 2022, has now introduced the much-anticipated, most advanced version of its generator model, Midjourney v7.

The headline feature is a new way to prompt the model to create images.

Previously, users were limited to typing in text prompts and attaching other images to help guide generations (the model could incorporate a variety of user-uploaded and attached images, including other Midjourney generations, to influence the style and subjects of new generations).

Now, the user can simply speak aloud to Midjourney’s alpha website (alpha.midjourney.com) — provided they have a microphone in/on/attached to their computer (or using a networked device with audio input, such as headphones or a smartphone) — and the model will listen and conjure up its own text prompts based on the user’s spoken ...