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As generative AI like ChatGPT and DALL-E 2 attract the attention of investors, startup entrepreneurs are looking to cash in on new business models built around them. One of the most exciting things emerging from the space recently is Poly, which allows designers to create video game and other virtual assets, including textures for 3D models, using only text queries.
Poly is basically a stock asset library along the lines of Adobe Stock and Shutterstock, but only populated with AI generations. While platforms like Getty Images have held back for fear of AI-generated legal damage, Poly is going full steam ahead.
“Looking for the perfect icon, graphic, font or sound effect online, almost everyone knows it all, to let go of the imperfection and solve it. Poly is trying to improve this with a suite of generative tools that focus on creators, CEO Abhi Agarwal told TechCrunch in an email interview.
Prior to working with Pauline Sam Young, Agarwal was a research fellow at Microsoft, where he published articles for social impact in the field of AI. Agarwal then started Polytopal, a “human-centered AI” consulting company that works with brands such as Spotify, Meta and Nestlé to develop a variety of intelligent systems. Among other projects, Polytopal created a dance choreography algorithm for the game Bitsaber, designed a cookie recipe for Toll House, and launched a virtual baking assistant that adapts to users’ appetites.
“Youth and I started Polly in early 2022 with a shared passion to ‘increase the world’s creative potential’ and joined Y Combinator’s S22 batch,” said Agarwal.
Image Credits: Poly
Poly’s first tool is a proposed web-based suite that generates 3D textures for physically based display maps. A “body-based approach” in modeling refers to a method that aims to render images that mimic the flow of light in the real world.
With Poly, designers can define a texture (eg “bark with moss”) and optionally provide a reference image for building 3D models. The models come with customizable resolutions and standard and inverted maps – maps often used in game development to add volume, depth and detail to the surface of 3D objects.
“Poly trains its generative AI models with a number of proprietary methods, such as extracting texture information from regular images to enhance the model’s learning ability,” Agarwal said.
When asked how Poly handles more sensitive content that developers may request, such as violence and sexually explicit images, Agarwal gave few details but said Poly reviews its products “carefully and responsibly.” He added, “We have not received any reports of injuries so far.”
Poly sees itself competing with traditional property marketplaces and developers’ manual design processes. In addition to portals such as GameDev Market and OpenGameArt, major game engine vendors such as Unity sell their assets on their own platforms.
Poly isn’t the first to apply AI to produce game assets. Direct competitors include Hotpot and Pixela.ai, which use similar algorithms to create custom backgrounds, sprites, and other artistic content.
Agarwal asserts that the poly generator AI is superior to most in terms of the quality of the assets it generates. The judge is out on this one. But Poly aims to further differentiate itself by expanding its generative AI services to asset types such as graphics, splashes, sound effects and more. It plans to make money by charging subscription fees for its royalty-free assets, including corporate partnerships, premium integrations for design tools, and commercial and resale rights.
Agarwal currently has “thousands” of developers using Poly’s free service, which generates unlimited numbers for non-commercial use, while “hundreds” are paying for Poly’s Pro plan. To date, the platform has produced more than two million textures.
That momentum has attracted investors including Phyllis, Bloomberg Beta, NextView Ventures, Y Combinator, Figma Ventures and AI Grant, which together contributed $3.9 million in venture capital to Poli at Y Combinator’s demo day in September.
“Poly’s clients range from professionals in Fortune 500 companies to professionals in game design, AR/VR, interior design, architecture and 3D rendering for e-commerce and marketing,” said Agarwal. “Poly has a multi-year track record and can focus on building the best technology that a high-quality product needs to stand out and win in this emerging and very active space.”
Image Credits: Poly
If we take Polly to be more widespread, he and his generative AI rivals run the risk of upsetting the artist community – not only because they can threaten livelihoods, but because generative AI systems have been shown to re-engineer the data they’re trained on (e.g. existing art assets. ). Earlier this year, art community portal ArtStation, which was the first to allow AI-generated art on its platform, sparked widespread protests by members placing “AI Art” images in their portfolios.
Legal questions surrounding the technology are still unresolved. A class action lawsuit alleges that GitHub’s code generation system modifies licensed code segments without giving contributor credit, which could have implications for both art-generating AI systems and the people who use the artwork created by them. In an unrelated case, the US Copyright Office recently ended copyright protection for a comic book created by generative AI, arguing that only works created by humans are entitled to protection.
Agarwal isn’t worried though – or if he is, he’s not showing it.
“Generative AI is facing a lot of criticism from creators and many companies in this space are being seen as ‘anti-creative’ as they want to replace creators with automated systems. However, Polly’s focus has always been to empower creators with easy access to design assets,” he said. “Poly plans to continue its relentless focus on proprietary AI innovation, model training and product development to support more design assets on top of its existing operations and integrate them into designers’ daily workflows.”
Poly currently has three employees and plans to double the team in the next six-12 months.
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