I’m not just talking about the DALLE-3 API, but also the WEB client.
Terminology:
“the old system”: Just a few days ago, I was able to set seeds via ChatGPT web client. I called it “the old system”.
“the new system”: The current system where we can no longer set seeds.
More details see After upgrade seeds doesn't work, "generation ID" is introduced?
Use case 1: Art Sharing
Imagine, in an art-sharing community (e.g. DALLE3 Gallery for 2023: Share Your Creations), if I like someone’s image (or image style), or if someone wants to share their creativity, what should they do?
In the old system, you just share the seed and the exact prompt; in the new system, you must share the whole session link. However, sharing the session link has its own problems, such as exposing unrelated conversation or any images that you don’t want to share.
Use case 2: Image management
Usually, in order to filter out nice images, we need to continuously modify the prompt or repeatedly click the Regenerate button. That process will lead to a session with very complex branches.
In the old system, once we choose a nice image, we just need to record the seed and prompt (or open a new session and recreate the image there), then delete that complex branches session.
In the new system, we can’t delete sessions (this would lose everything, i.e. gen_id), but those sessions are very complex and hard to manage. Too many unnecessary images within those sessions.
Use case 3: Collaborative development
If someone wants me to fine-tune a certain image, how can they give me that image? ChatGPT with DALL-E 3 does not support image uploading.
In the old system, they just send me the exact prompt, size and seed. P.s. I know that ChatGPT can share session link, but you know it has its own problems (see above).
Use case 4: Reproducibility and replicability in science
Imagine, in a community for discussing prompt technology (like Discord), person A wants to guide person B on “how to set up a camera”.
In the old system, person B could replicate the same result just by using the same seed as person A. However, in the new system, because of the different seeds, they are essentially discussing two completely different result. This is clearly not a good thing.