Microsoft debuts MAI-Image-1, its first in-house AI image generator

Microsoft just announced its first homegrown image generator. The new model, called MAI-Image-1, is the company’s first fully in-house text-to-image AI, and it’s debuting in the top 10 on the LMArena leaderboard, a major public benchmark for generative image tools.

MAI-Image-1 is expected to show up soon in Copilot and Bing Image Creator, giving Microsoft more control over how AI image generation is integrated across its products. That’s a big deal, especially as Microsoft shifts away from relying…