Emu
A few thousand perfect photos beat millions of mediocre ones
Latest: Emu (2023); superseded in products by Muse Image (2026)
Meta's production image-generation model, unveiled at Connect in September 2023: a latent-diffusion model 'quality-tuned' on just a few thousand exceptionally curated images, which dramatically improved aesthetics. Emu powered Meta AI's image generation and the 'Imagine' features across Meta's apps — closed weights, product-first.
Why it matters
Demonstrated 'quality tuning': fine-tuning a latent diffusion model on only a few thousand exceptionally curated images dramatically raised aesthetic quality. Emu powered image generation in Meta AI and the Imagine features across Meta's apps for more than two years, until Muse Image replaced it in 2026.
Facts
- The counterintuitive finding: a few thousand hand-picked photos beat millions of mediocre ones for aesthetic alignment.
- Emu also powered Instagram's AI 'Restyle' and Backdrop editing features.
Try it yourself
Read the paper ↗ Connect 2023 announcement (Meta Newsroom) ↗