This and Groq were really surprising to see. I still remember, not too long ago, waiting around for ages just to get a messed up image generation from some site where you got like 20 generations for free with an account. The fact that we're at the point where you can just go to a website and get lightning-fast text and image generation without sign-ups or captcha solving is amazing. I didn't have this type of performance uplift in the cards for early 2024, especially to the extent that they (Groq and fal.ai) can afford to open up their demos completely.

Side note: In my opinion, the fast generations also make up a lot for the shortcomings in image generation quality. I find that even if it messes up, a good result is usually just a seed or small prompt change away.