Imagen 4 is now generally available
55 comments
·August 15, 2025tmvphil
topato
Right? Came to the comments specifically for this, but am confused by people's responses. With prompt adherence this bad, is it worth the 2 cents you spent on it? I don't see how it's even useful for deciding if you want to use the ultra version, or for anything else really.... Maybe if you want to redo it in Photoshop? But at that point, breaking out the old Wacom tablet and making a composite image would probably be just as time intensive, but with much higher image quality (and none of the tale tell signs of AIgen)
ben_w
Even if you only earn $12/hour, 2 cents is worth it to save just 6 seconds.
An image has to be much worse than that to fail to save you 6 seconds.
That said, this is their own chosen example of what it can do, so I'd have to assume it is much worse than that on average.
thanhhaimai
> Imagen 4 Ultra: When your creative vision demands the highest level of detail and strict adherence to your prompts, Imagen 4 Ultra delivers highly-aligned results.
It seems that you may need the "Ultra" version if you want strict prompt adherence.
It's an interesting strategy. Personally, I notice that most of the times I actually don't need strict prompt adherence for image generation. If it looks nice, I'll accept it. If it doesn't, I'll click generate again. For creativity task, following the prompt too strictly might not be the outcome the users want.
mikepurvis
I've found this is an interesting balance with Copilot specifically. Like, on the one hand I'm glad it aims for the bare minimum and doesn't try to refactor my whole codebase on every shot... at the same time, there's certain obvious things where I wish it was able to think a bit bigger picture, or even engage me interactively, like "hey, I can do a self-contained implementation here, but it's a bit gross; it looks like adding dependency X to the project keeps this a one liner— which way should it go?"
chatmasta
I’ve had good experience with iterative prompting when generating images with Gemini (idk which model — it’s whatever we get with our enterprise subscription at work, presumably the latest.) It’s noticeably better than ChatGPT at incorporating its previous image attempt into my instructions to generate the next iteration.
weego
Hopefully it's better than midjourney at least. Ignoring key parts of the prompt seems to be a feature.
ajd555
Same for the poster. Asks for the ship to be going towards the right, and it's clearly doing the opposite
smokel
As seen from the AI's perspective.
math_dandy
To the left of the "detailed spaceship" I think I see a distortion pattern reminiscent of a cloaked Klingon bird of prey moving to the right. Or I'm just hallucinating patterns in nebular noise.
Jare
The ship is reminiscent of Galactica's oldschool vipers. Different, but very similar overall structure.
null
userbinator
In the little experimentation I did with AI image generation, it seems more a game of trying multiple times until you get something that actually looks right, so I wonder how many attempts they did.
cubefox
Though that was only Imagen 4 Fast, not Imagen 4 or Imagen 4 Ultra.
HocusLocus
I have found Imagein to be a good general purpose editor and we use it to clean up bitmaps, and adjust black points and white points and curves on greyscale, so it is good for preparing B&W greyscale photographs for print to compensate for dot gain in halftone screens on laser printers. Its 'color separation' capability is rudimentary/first draft though and is ridiculously close to inverse RGB rather than CMYK. For good color seps we use Photoshop so I can control undercolor removal.
lacoolj
> the generally availability
One of the biggest corporations in the world and they can't re-read before posting a typo in the title.
Heads be shakin
jimmy76615
I'm glad they can't. The reason large cooperations tend to suck is because some bored management guy cares about typos and invents a process for getting your headlines approved by some other dude who is just as bored and useless.
It's a typo, it doesn't matter.
ctippett
Clicking on "Read the documentation" leads to a page that documents nothing about the latest Imagen models and only provides examples using Gemini 2.0 Flash.
typpilol
Classic Google
math_dandy
I was going to nitpick the missing apostrophe in movie posters caption ("STARFALLS REVENGE") but its missing from the prompt, too.
typpilol
I asked basically copilot the same and got a much better result lol
cobbzilla
Makes one wonder if there’s a hidden pre/system prompt for Imagen that’s interfering with optimal results.
mattxxx
I guess it's kinda nicely genuine that the "four panel comic strip" has some errors in it (misunderstanding caption + cat high-fiving itself in the bonus fifth panel)
jug
I was just thinking that. It has many, many errors.
1. Not seen browsing ”ai.dev”.
2. The text ”Imagen 4 is now generally available!” is spoken, not a comic caption.
3. Invalid second panel.
4. Hallucinates ”Meet Imagen 4 fast!”
5. Hallucinates ”It offers low..” etc. (this is the second part of a single sentence said by the cat)
6. Hallucinates ”You can export images in 2K!” (this sentence is not asked for)
7. Doesn’t have the cat and the dog in the fourth panel.
—
Here’s the gpt-image-1 counterpart with the issues I could find:
https://chatgpt.com/share/689f7e4b-01e4-8011-8997-0f37edf8c2...
1. The text ”Imagen 4 is now generally available!” is still spoken, not a caption.
2. ”low latency” -> ”low-laten”
(3. Has that ugly gpt-image-1 trademark yellow filter requiring work in post to avoid.)
I didn’t bring up the ”retro comic look” thing. I certainly think it’s an issue with Imagen 4’s version. It doesn’t look very old school at all. But I can’t judge the OpenAI one either on that, I’m no comic book expert, so I just skipped that one.
pogue
What do you have to do to remove the watermark? Is Google's SynthID watermark on top of the image as well or is it embedded in EXIF data?
edaemon
The cat also has more fingers on one hand than the other. It's a small, inconsequential thing but it always draws my eye in generated images.
latexr
> I didn’t bring up the ”retro comic look” thing. (…) I’m no comic book expert, so I just skipped that one.
I’m no Scott McCloud, but the OpenAI version definitely does a better job with the retro style. The yellow filter you criticised actually helps to sell the illusion. The Imagen version utterly fails in the retro area, that style is very much modern.
But there are other important flaws in the OpenAI version. The fourth panel has a different cat (the head shape and stripes are wrong) and it bleeds into the previous panel. Technically that could be a stylistic choice, except that the floor/table is inconsistent, making it clear it was a mistake.
qoez
Looks so much better than the yellow tinted chatgpt output in my eyes
tripplyons
After manually white balancing to remove the tint, I find GPT-Image-1 (the model used in ChatGPT) to be better.
nkzd
I am currently building an AI product which relies on Imagen 3 to generate a lot of photorealistic, cinematic or HDR images. I tried Imagen 4 during preview, but results were too "cartoonish". Did anyone else have the same experience?
LeoPanthera
Yes, it seems very reluctant to generate anything that could be mistaken for a photo.
coldcode
>Image generation may not always trigger:
>The model may output text only. Try asking for image outputs explicitly (e.g. "generate an image", "provide images as you go along", "update the image").
>The model may stop generating partway through. Try again or try a different prompt.
Seriously?
typpilol
Does it still charge 2 cents for that? Lol
Revisional_Sin
Wasn't Imagen 4 released months ago?
nevir
Yes, but usage was very limited / restricted. Now it's widely available
cubefox
I hate that they always announce their image models months before they make them available. They should just announce them later. OpenAI does this much better, with a few days delay at most.
SweetSoftPillow
They were available, just rate limited.
ivape
Anyone know if this can be prompted with image to image?
dsrtslnd23
they explicitly do not support that yet.
The way it totally disregards the many explicit instructions given in the "four panel" comic strip.