<h1>Stable Diffusion is a tool you need to use</h1>
Stable Diffusion has taken the world by storm. In 2022, OpenAI released its second iteration of DALL-E, the
text-to-image generator. While it was very impressive, it was closed source and behind a paywall. That meant that the
use-cases and media coverage of it was still limited. In August 2022 though, everything changed when Stability AI
released its own diffusion based image generator: Stable Diffusion.
<img src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/format:webp/1*xRlGfUPWW-4xZGDnexOQSQ.png" alt="Stabolity AI Logo">
Unlike its predecessors, Stable Diffusion was Open Source, Free and public under a pretty permissive license,
allowing anyone with the necessary computing power to generate a vast number of images for free. It also meant that
users could modify it to their liking and teach it new concepts (another article on this is incoming).
And thus, the AI images revolution began. A plethora of tools from face swapping to image generation on demand flooded
the market. We are still in the wild west phase, and a lot of these tools are unrefined, but there is already a clear
learning we can take from this: you need to get confortable with these tools if you want to continue being productive.
Whatever your job, it can be done faster and more easily with tools like Stable Diffusion or GPT-3. It will soon be a
necessary skill to be comfortable with AI tools and know how to incorporate into your workflows.
<h2>Stable Diffusion for artists</h2>
Artists first widely protested against the tool, criticizing how art was used to train models without their consent. I
am not going to enter this debate here, but just know that there are legal battles underway. Now, even if artists would
win the case against Stability AI, the fact that it's open source mean anyone can still use their work to create a new
model and there is little to nothing they can do about it. Even a law forbidding it would be virtually unenforceable, as
it's impossible to know how a model was trained if their creator does not want to disclose it.
To me, that means that those tool will continue to exist, grow and thus are now part of the life of artists. Some
accepted that very quickly and instead used the tool as a way to improve their craft. They used it to iterate over
drafts and ideate: for example, you can feed Stable Diffusion an image
and <a href="https://huggingface.co/spaces/lambdalabs/stable-diffusion-image-variations">generate plenty of alternatives</a>. By
doing so you can quickly check and evaluate how some changes would affect your creation and then pick your favorite to
work upon.
<img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/justinpinkney/stable-diffusion/main/assets/im-vars-thin.jpg" alt="Example of variations you can generate">
You don't really have an idea for a composition and just a vague idea of a concept ? No
problem: <a href="https://huggingface.co/spaces/stabilityai/stable-diffusion">generate several images</a>
with Stable Diffusion and get inspiration to create your own piece. You can also use it to generate reference images of
buildings, animal, scenery, and others.
Best of all, SD is open source and can be modified to your liking. It can learn your unique art style and generate some
crude references for you to build upon. Instead of creating a few small drafts, you can instantly generate a few
hundreds and use them to create your final piece, cutting down on the ideation phase.
Now imagine two artists. One is just using his previous workflow, while the other leverage AI to accelerate its
ideation phase and test different versions of his work. The first will take a long time to go back to a client, while
the second one can send numerous drafts to get feedback on what the client prefers. Imagine exchanging with a tattoo
artist and instead of going back and forth for days modifying, the artist can immediately send you several rough drafts
to pick from before working on any of them.
The gain in productivity, customer satisfaction, and reduction of scrapped iterations makes it a very valuable tool.
All this while its cost is nearly none: most digital artists have a computer with a beefy GPU (3070 or higher) and could
generate images directly on their own machine. I believe that those able to leverage these tools will quickly see
increases in productivity, revenue and ease-of-life, while those who do not will fall behind.
<h2>Stable Diffusion for bloggers or developers</h2>
Artists are not the only one that will have their work impacted and that can leverage Stable Diffusion: developers,
bloggers, social media manager are also faced with an opportunity.
Finding images to illustrate your mockups or articles can be a challenge. You have free database of quality images like
Unsplash, but they lack originality or might not totally fit your content. How about, like in this article, being able
to generate several versions of the illustration you are looking for, free of any complex license or copyright ?
For developers, you could even imagine a library that do that for you. Imagine building a website for a client and
needing placeholders for resources. Will you spend the time necessary to find, collect, optimize and then resize many
images ? How about instead just writing <code>&#x3C;AiImage desc="a photo of an astronaut in ordbit around earth" size="..." /></code>
and getting an image generated directly with the appropriate accessibility decorations, optimized for the size of your
website, and free to use. You don't like what was generated ? No issue, just click the small icon on the image and get a
new one.
The ability to save time on repetitive, low-value tasks is what will set you apart from other developers. How do you
feel clients will react when you are twice faster than other engineers ? They will be delighted, unaware that you are not
a coding genius that spit out code twice faster than other devs, you just leveraged open source tools to cut down on the
amount of time spent on tasks that did not leverage your core skills.
<h2>Whoever you are, it's coming for you</h2>
The two examples above are just the ones I am the most comfortable talking about as they are close to my daily job, but
they are not the only ones.
So many jobs will require illustrations or inspiration. A stylist could generate variations of outfits and iterate on
their creations. An architect could generate some concept illustration for its proposal. A 3D artists could generate on
demand unique texture for its creations... The possibilities are endless.
<img src="https://preview.redd.it/rue9fiwiuf5a1.png?width=1871&#x26;format=png&#x26;auto=webp&#x26;v=enabled&#x26;s=fdf7440d9001a5ca66ccd31cf6f641791b82d571" alt="How about generating complete new products">
Being an early adopted and learning to leverage these tools will thus clearly give you an advantage. I believe that in
most white collar jobs, Stable Diffusion or an equivalent will become part of the daily job and essential to stay
competitive. So why not start to get used to it now ?

How learning to use text-to-image generator will boost your career

Stable diffusion is a tool you need to use

<h1>Making a difference in order to save your mental health</h1>
EDIT: It appears following some complications ranging from exauhstion to lack of volunteer that the NGO as ceased their
operations for now. My points about helping other still remains valid though, and I encourage you to go out their and
help others to help yourself.
Having family, friends, and bounds in both Ukraine and Russia, I closely followed the military buildup at the western
Ukrainian border throughout the end of 2021. Deep down, I knew that such a buildup could not just be for show, but I
still refused to believe it.
I was wrong.
<img src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1611264199717-4f4eee6ad33b?ixlib=rb-4.0.3&#x26;ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&#x26;auto=format&#x26;fit=crop&#x26;w=1740&#x26;q=80" alt="Photo by Damir Samatkulov on Unsplash">
On the morning of Monday the 28th, I nearly collapsed crying in front of my computer while trying to get some work done.
After struggling to sleep and coping with the weight of all this stress, I just could not continue.
My mentor told me to take some time off, that everything would be handled, and that I should disconnect for a while.
While his behavior and handling of the situation were exemplary, it did not solve my mental struggle. I was still
feeling conflicted, powerless and terrorized for Ukraine.
While looking for something to do to help during my time off, I came upon
the <a href="https://ukraineglobaltaskforce.com/">Ukraine Global Taskforce</a> (that I will mostly refer to as UGT in the rest of
this article). At the time, it was just a group of strangers coming together to help Ukrainian with their main skills:
building tech products. It was not even an NGO, and was just a group of 150 people on a Discord server. After a quick
message to the founder on LinkedIn, I was ready to help them by offering my only useful skill for this situation: my
developer experience.
<img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/720/0*eJlDREqOXSBNaA5X.webp" alt="Ukraine Global Taskforce main statement and mission">
<a href="https://ukraineglobaltaskforce.com/">Ukraine Global Taskforce</a> is now an official NGO, uniting more than a thousand
volunteers from around the world. Instead of directly contributing to the relief effort, it leverages its member skills
to build digital products in order to help established NGOs to achieve their mission faster and more efficiently. We
developed logistic tools to help distribute food and material to Ukrainian in need, tools to spread information about
sheltering options, or provide targeted help to groups in need in and outside Ukraine.
At the end of my time off, I still wanted to continue contributing to the various projects UGT has started off. I was
ready to take some unpaid leave from my work to dedicate time to these projects, but my company stepped forward. I
currently work for a French Health company named <a href="https://alan.com/">Alan</a>. Everyone there felt affected by the horrors
unfurling in Ukraine. We quickly gave free access to our mental health app, <a href="https://mind.alan.com/">Alan Mind</a>, to
Ukrainians, both in and outside Ukraine. While this was a great first step, my company also agreed to donate 6 days of
my work to UGT without any pay cut.
I cannot understate the impact this had: It allowed me to work full time on the project. And I became one of the most
active engineers at the time, without having to worry about providing for my family. Because of this, we greatly sped up
multiple projects and provided tools for NGOs and Ukrainians faster. While a small sacrifice for the company, this
allowed UGT to ramp up its digital development a lot and shaved several days off the release of potentially life-saving
tools.
Allowing employees to help NGOs by donating work time is a clear and efficient way for companies to get involved with
the relief effort. I greatly encourage every company that can afford to do so to follow this path. Not only do you
help people in need, but also help your employees feel valuable, listened to, and cherished.
Now, did my time spent at UGT help Ukrainians in need? It’s hard to say. For all I know, my impact might be minimal, as
this is hard to judge and quantify in the current situation. On the other hand, the positive impact it had on myself was
really clear: It gave me a sense of purpose and was an important drive in my recovery.
If you feel downed by the current situation, political or health-wise, try volunteering. It might sound selfish to
put it this way, but while helping others, you will also help yourself. I think it’s clearly a win-win that a lot more
people should give a try to. Any skills are welcome, even just reposting messages asking for help is already a big
contribution.
I want to finish this piece with a sincere “Thank you” to the numerous members of UGT. Seeing your drive and dedication
was a real blast and really helped me get back on my feet.
If you also want to contribute to this project, please get involved
through <a href="https://ukraineglobaltaskforce.com/">their website</a> and help save lives ❤️

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Stable diffusion is a tool you need to use

Making a difference in order to save your mental health