Microsoft just unveiled ‘MAI-Image-1’: Its first AI image generation model you need to know about

Microsoft has unveiled its first natively built artificial intelligence image generation model, MAI-Image-1 on Monday in a blog post. The model made its public debut on the LMArena forum, entering the top 10 text-to-image models. Can it become a direct competitor to Google’s Gemini Nano Banana? Only time will tell, but the early indications suggest the tech giant is positioning itself for a serious run in the AI creative space.

“Purpose-built AI”

Since the start of 2025, Microsoft has been focused on developing in-house generative AI models under the…