Yandex introduces the YandexART – diffusion network to generate images and animations for business and creativity

Yandex is proud to present the Yandex AI Rendering Technology (YandexART) neural network, which uses text prompts to generate images and animations. It's currently integrated in the Shedevrum app, helps visualize ads in Yandex Business, and will soon be available in Yandex Keyboard and other Yandex services.

YandexART generates images and animations using cascade diffusion. First, the neural network generates images and frames based on the user's text prompts, then gradually improves the image resolution and adds details. Compared to the previous generation of Shedevrum's diffusion model, YandexART graphics are more realistic and detailed. According to the results of internal evaluation by assessors, the model gives better results in 60% of cases.

To improve quality, Yandex increased the training dataset by a factor of 1.5 to reach 330 million images with text descriptions. YandexART has three filtering modes to show the most aesthetically pleasing images, and a new text recognition algorithm helps the neural network better understand what users want.

The updated neural network does a better job of rendering faces, eyes, and hands, allowing it to make hyperrealistic portraits. It also has a better understanding of specific cultures. YandexART knows famous places and cities, important historical figures, and cartoon and fairy tale characters beloved worldwide.

Yandex uses reinforcement learning with human feedback to further improve generation results. For example, the team might look at several hundred or thousand capybaras generated by YandexART and label which images are a good or a bad fit. This helps the neural network better understand how to depict animals, characters, objects, and features more accurately. 

Where YandexART is used:

● In Shedevrum, YandexART helps users generate images and videos. It's already been used more than 100 million times since the app was released.

● When creating ads in Yandex Business, you can choose a fitting image already generated by YandexART. The Yandex Business AI-generated stock contains about 3000 images spanning 650 different business fields. They're currently available for 82% of ad campaigns and are already used in approximately every fifth placement.

● In Yandex Keyboard, you'll be able to use YandexART to generate an image based on a text description and set it as your background. This option will be available by the end of 2023. 

Background:

Shedevrum

Shedevrum is a Yandex mobile app where users can create AI-generated videos, images, and text. YandexART generates images and animations, and YandexGPT helps create meaningful posts. As soon as it was launched in April 2023, Shedevrum rose right to the top of the App Store and Google Play in Russia. Since then, it's been installed by more than 6.5 million users.

Yandex Business

Yandex Business is a service for automatically launching online ads in Yandex Search, Yandex Maps, and on the websites and apps of more than 55,000 partners. Yandex Business is aimed at advertisers from small and medium-sized business segments. With Yandex Business, you don't need to have any specialized advertising knowledge or skills because the service configures and launches ad campaigns automatically. It analyzes the audience, creates ads, and places them exactly where potential customers can be found. 

Yandex Keyboard

Yandex Keyboard is a virtual keyboard for mobile devices. It makes typing even easier by helping the user enter text accurately and error-free. AI-powered suggestions and AI swipes significantly speed up text input. Yandex Keyboard also has a translator with support for more than 100 languages, and voice input. Yandex Keyboard is available on Android, iOS, and in the Yandex with Alice app.