As such, we should not underestimate it!
A lot of people once asked with scepticism about the essential use case for the original iPhone which could justify the price tag. Was it an expensive music player? A large phone? Or an oddly shaped internet-device? It turned out the iPhone had many use cases, and a lot of them (like the App Store) would come later as the technology matured.
Image generation models are in a similar position right now. It is fair to ask what the use case is, and while we can mention some, the existing ones do not seem to justify the hype.
But make no mistake. The use cases are coming. This is just the hard part. So, who can solve it?
Disruption is in the air
Image generation models are hard to use for large established companies. The models require a very high level of IT maturity, and inherent legal uncertainties can make them unpalatable for a large company. If a company is not comfortable in the cloud or driving heavy compute loads, using this technology will prove a great challenge.