like generative AI Chat GPT When From E2 With the attention of investors, startup entrepreneurs are looking to profit from new business models built around them. One of his interesting recent ventures in this space is Poly. This allows the designer to create video games and other virtual assets containing textures for his 3D models using only his text prompts.
Poly is essentially a stock asset library along the lines of Adobe Stock and Shutterstock, but only populated by the AI generation. While platforms like Getty Images have banned AI-generated content for fear of potential legal blow, Poly is full speed ahead.
“Most people know the common pain of searching online for the perfect icon, illustration, font, or sound effect and then giving up and settling for something imperfect. We are looking to improve this significantly with our generative tools,” CEO Abhay Agarwal told TechCrunch in an email interview.
Prior to co-founding Poly with Sam Young, Agarwal was a research fellow at Microsoft and published papers in the area of AI for social impact. Agarwal then founded He Polytopal, a “human-centric he is AI” consulting firm that works with brands like Spotify, Meta and Nestlé to develop a variety of intelligent systems. Among other projects, Polytopal has co-created dance choreography algorithms for the game BeatSaber and launched Toll House’s Virtual Baking His Assistant to help design his cookie recipes to suit the dietary needs of its users. rice field.
“Young and I started Poly in early 2022 with a shared passion to ‘enhance the world’s creativity,’ and joined Y Combinator’s S22 batch,” said Agarwal.
Image credit: poly
The first tool in Poly’s planned web-based suite will generate 3D textures using physically-based render maps. In modeling, “physically-based rendering” refers to techniques aimed at rendering images in a way that mimics the flow of light in the real world.
Poly allows the designer to describe a texture (such as “mossy bark”) and optionally provide a reference image to get the generated texture to create a 3D model. Models come in customizable resolutions and come with normal and inversion maps (maps often used in game development to add volume, depth, and detail to the surface of 3D objects).
“Poly trains generative AI models in several unique ways, including extracting texture information from regular images to enhance the model’s learning capabilities,” said Agarwal.
When asked about how Poly would handle more sensitive content that developers might request, such as violent and sexually explicit generated images, Agarwal offered few details. But Poly said it audited its products “carefully and responsibly.” “There have been no reports of damage yet,” he added.
Poly believes it is competing with both the traditional asset market and the developer’s manual design process. In addition to portals such as GameDev Market and OpenGameArt, major game engine vendors such as Unity host and sell assets through their own platforms.
And Poly isn’t the first to apply AI to the generation of game assets. Direct competitors include Hotpot and Pixela.ai, which use similar algorithms to create custom backgrounds, sprites, and other art content.
Agarwal claims Poly’s generative AI is the best in terms of the quality of the assets it produces. The jury is out on it. But Poly aims to differentiate itself further by expanding its generative AI services across asset types such as illustrations, sprites, and sound effects. We plan to generate revenue by charging subscription fees for enterprise partnerships, premium integration of design tools, and royalty-free access to assets, including commercial and resale rights.
Agarwal claims that “thousands” of developers are currently using Poly’s free service. The service generates an unlimited number of assets for non-commercial purposes, but “hundreds” of developers pay for his Poly Pro plans. To date, the platform has generated over 2 million of his textures.
Riding on this momentum, investors including Felicis, Bloomberg Beta, NextView Ventures, Y Combinator, Figma Ventures, and AI Grant have come together to donate $3.9 million in combined venture capital to Poly at Y Combinator’s Demo Day in September. did.
“Poly’s customers range from Fortune 500 professionals to individual freelancers in game design, AR/VR, interior design, architecture, and 3D rendering for e-commerce and marketing,” said Agarwal. increase. “Poly has a multi-year runway that allows us to focus on building the best possible technology because to stand out and win in this emerging and very active field, we need a higher quality product. because it requires.”
Image credit: poly
Assuming Poly’s widespread adoption, Poly and its generative AI rivals risk upsetting the artist community. regurgitate The data they were trained on, such as existing art assets. Art community portal ArtStation began allowing AI-generated art on its platform earlier this year for the first time. member I began to widely protest by posting the “No AI Art” image in my portfolio.
Alluded legal issues with the technology also remain unresolved. 1 class action lawsuit claim Copilot, GitHub’s code generation system, regurgitates sections of licensed code without giving credit. This can affect AI systems that generate art as well as systems that use the art created by them. In a separate case, the U.S. Copyright Office recently granted copyright protection to comic books created with generative AI, saying only human-created works would be protected, citing authoritarianism. Rights protection ended.
But Agarwal doesn’t mind.
“Generative AI faces a lot of criticism from creators and is seen as ‘anti-creator’ as many companies in the space want to replace creators with automated systems. The goal has always been to make design assets easily accessible to creators,” says Agarwal. “Poly plans to build on its current momentum with a relentless focus on its own generative AI innovation, model training and product development, supporting more types of design assets and incorporating them into designers’ daily workflows.”
Poly currently has three employees and plans to double its team in the next 6-12 months.
