With just a few words, AI models can be prompted to create a story, an image, or even a short film. But according to Weber Wong, these models are all \u201cmade by non-creatives for other non-creatives to feel creative.\u201d<\/p>\n
In other words, they\u2019re not built for actual creative professionals. That\u2019s something Wong is hoping to change with Flora<\/a>, a new startup where he\u2019s founder and CEO.<\/p>\n Flora launched this week, complete with a manifesto<\/a> declaring that \u201cAI creative tools should be more than toys for generating AI slop\u201d and describing Wong and his team as \u201cobsessed with building a power tool that will profoundly shape the future of creative work.\u201d<\/p>\n The manifesto positions Flora as something different from existing AI tools, which \u201cmake it easy to create, but lack creative control,\u201d and from existing creative software, which gives users \u201ccontrol, but are unintuitive & time-consuming.\u201d<\/p>\n Flora isn\u2019t trying to build better generative AI models. Wong argued that one of the startup\u2019s key insights is that \u201cmodels are not creative tools.\u201d So instead, Flora offers an \u201cinfinite canvas\u201d that integrates with existing models \u2014 it\u2019s a visual interface where users can generate blocks of text, images, and video.<\/p>\n \u201cThe model does not matter, the technology does not matter,\u201d Wong told me \u201cIt\u2019s about the interface.\u201d<\/p>\n For example, a user could start by prompting Flora to create an image of a flower, then ask for details about the image, with those details leading to more prompts and varied images, with each step and variation mapped out on the aforementioned canvas, which can also be shared for collaborative work with clients.<\/p>\n Wong told me he wants Flora to be useful to any and all artists and creatives, but the company is initially focused on working with visual design agencies. In fact, it\u2019s iterating on the product with feedback from designers at famed agency Pentagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n The goal, Wong said, is to allow a designer at Pentagram to \u201cjust do 100X more creative work,\u201d say by creating a logo design and then quickly generating 100 variations. He compared it to the evolution of musical composition \u2014 where Mozart \u201cneeded an entire orchestra to play his music,\u201d a musician today can get it all done \u201cfrom his garage in New Jersey with Ableton, making it himself and posting it on SoundCloud.\u201d<\/p>\n Wong has a background in both art and technology himself, having worked as an investor at Menlo Ventures but leaving when he realized, \u201cI was not the person I\u2019d back.\u201d Determined to become the kind of founder worth investing in, he eventually joined New York University\u2019s Interactive Telecommunications Program, a graduate program focused on using technology to create art.<\/p>\n When Flora launched an alpha version in August, Wong decided to \u201claunch with an art project<\/a> that showcased our real-time AI technology,\u201d with the Flora homepage showing a live feed from a GoPro camera on Wong\u2019s head, and website visitors getting the opportunity to use AI to stylize the footage after signing up for the Flora waitlist.<\/p>\n Given his background, Wong knows there are artists and professionals who are skeptical or even vehemently opposed to the use of AI in art \u2014 in fact, Pentagram generated some controversy<\/a> last year when it used Midjourney to create the illustration style for a project with the US government.<\/p>\n Wong said that where existing models have been embraced by \u201cAI natives,\u201d he\u2019s hoping Flora can win over the \u201cAI curious,\u201d and eventually even become useful enough that even \u201cAI haters\u201d feel they have to give it a try.<\/p>\n When I raised concerns that AI models can be trained without regard<\/a> for copyright and intellectual property, Wong noted that Flora isn\u2019t training any AI models itself (because it\u2019s using other companies\u2019 models), adding, \u201cWe will follow societal standards.\u201d<\/p>\n And while he\u2019s passionate about not wanting Flora to be used to unleash a flood of AI slop (\u201cWe\u2019re going to get hats that say \u2018anti-AI slop\u2019\u201d), he suggested that instead, the startup will allow artists to unlock \u201cnew aesthetic and creative possibilities,\u201d in the same way Kodak\u2019s Brownie camera<\/a> transformed photography by making it more casual and accessible.<\/p>\n Flora isn\u2019t disclosing funding details, but its backers include A16Z Games. The product is available for free with a limited number of projects and generated content, and then professional pricing starts at $16 per month.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"a](\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/glassflowerflow.gif?w=512\")