It's been just a few weeks since OpenAI began allowing customers to commercially use images created by DALL-E 2, its remarkably powerful AI text-to-image system. But in spite of the current technical limitations and lack of volume licensing, not to mention API, some pioneers say they're already testing the system for various business use cases -- awaiting the day when DALL-E 2 becomes stable enough to deploy into production.

Stitch Fix, the online service that uses recommendation algorithms to personalize apparel, says it has experimented with DALL-E 2 to visualize its products based on specific characteristics like color, fabric and style. For example, if a Stitch Fix customer asked for a "high-rise, red, stretchy, skinny jean" during the pilot, DALL-E 2 was tapped to generate images of that item, which a stylist could use to match with a similar product in Stitch Fix's inventory.

"DALL-E 2 helps us surface the most informative characteristics of a product in a visual way, ultimately helping stylists find the perfect item that matches what a client has requested in their written feedback," a spokesperson told TechCrunch via email.

A DALL-E 2 generation from Stitch Fix's pilot. The prompt was: "soft, olive green, great color, pockets, patterned, cute texture, long, cardigan." Image Credits: OpenAI

Of course, DALL-E 2 has quirks -- some of which are giving early corporate users pause. Eric Silberstein, the VP of data science at e-commerce startup Klaviyo, outlines in a blog post his mixed impressions of the system as a potential marketing tool.

He notes that facial expressions on human models generated by DALL-E 2 tend to be inappropriate and muscles and joints disproportionate, and that the system doesn't always perfectly understand instructions. When Silberstein asked DALL-E 2 to create an image of a candle on a wooden table against a gray background, DALL-E 2 sometimes erased the candle's lid and blended it into the desk or added an incongruous rim around the candle.