The Rise of Synthetic Homes: Can AI Replace the Romance of Physical Set Design?
Presti, a French startup, has launched an AI-powered tool that creates photorealistic product images for the furniture industry, challenging the traditional process of painstaking photo shoots and expensive rent fees for bespoke homes. But while Presti’s technology may revolutionize e-commerce, will it also suffocate the artistry of physical set design?
The company’s approach relies on generative AI and a hefty dataset of high-quality photos, training a model to generate backdrops that seamlessly integrate furniture into various homes. The results, showcased on Presti’s own Instagram feed, are undeniably stunning – but there’s an eerie sense that human hands haven’t touched a canvas since Picasso’s Cubism.
Toumi, co-founder and CEO of Presti, suggests that traditional photography studios are on their deathbed, citing outrageous expenses (hundreds of thousands, even millions of euros a year!) for mere minutes of set design on social media. While this business strategy has no doubt captured funding attention from reputable investors like Partech and Particeps, the question persists: Have we traded tactile romance for algorithmic practicality?
At the heart of Presti’s offering is their use of Stable Diffusion XL, modified to excel within the narrow confines of product imaging for the furniture industry. The team readily acknowledges early limitations – like the embarrassing appearance of inexplicable legs appended to furniture – but emphasizes a ‘learning process’ rooted in data: over 75,000 carefully curated photos to refine their AI into furniture-fluency. That might soothe the concerns of their biggest investors, Maisons du Monde and several high-profile business angels.
To further bolster their case, Presti enables customers to add whimsical ‘accessories,’ projecting soft shadows on the furniture rather than some Photoshopping magician trying to cover their cybercrime tracks. Even more significantly, their forthcoming material-swapping tool is expected to revolutionize inventory management: ‘Just another example’ (as Toumi humbly notes) in their effort to render freelance photographers yesterday’s news.
Author: Kayitsi.com
