Midjourney is a popular AI image generation startup with over 21 million Discord users. Recently, the company announced that it will launch a new world-building tool called "Patchwork", marking their expansion from image creation to the more complex field of creative collaboration.

"Patchwork" was demonstrated live on Midjourney's Discord channel. Users need to connect their Midjourney Discord accounts to their Google accounts in order to access the research preview of Patchwork.

The tool provides a white, infinite canvas, with a toolbox on the left side. Users can use various buttons to add elements such as characters, events, factions, locations, and props. Users can download JSON files through the "Save" function, which contain links to all the Midjourney images generated on the canvas.

To generate a new world, users enter text prompts in the editor bar at the top of the "create" screen and then select one or more from a set of 10 different image styles.

Then, this will generate a new whiteboard that contains a bunch of new still image assets and text boxes or entities (called "scraps"), including input boxes that allow users to prompt for new images or settings that conform to the initial world description, or even brand-new AI-generated character descriptions.

New character boxes can be added, and then users can prompt to create names and characteristics. Meanwhile, users can establish connections between characters and write action sequences and scene descriptions.

The sharing feature allows multiple users to collaborate in real time. A world can support up to 100 users operating on the same canvas. However, the more users there are, the more chaotic the collaboration on the canvas may be.

In future updates, Midjourney plans to allow non-users to view these creation boards so that more creative groups can use this tool. Version V7 of Midjourney will also be launched, supporting the consistency of characters in different images. In addition, Kreminski mentioned that there are three large language models operating behind Patchwork, including an open-source model customized for Midjourney.

Kreminski said that in the future, "Patchwork" is expected to develop into more detailed and interactive 3D virtual scenes, but this goal may still take several years. Meanwhile, David Holz, the founder of Midjourney, revealed during the live broadcast that multiple personalized model modes will be launched in the near future, allowing users to adjust the generated content according to their own preferences.

Holz also mentioned that Midjourney will launch a video model and an updated AI image generator V7 after Christmas to improve the ability to understand prompts. In addition, the company is also researching and developing three to four new hardware projects and plans to gradually announce more relevant information in the coming months.