Computer Vision vs. Image Generation
NewBoth are 'image AI', but one reads images and the other creates them. Computer vision recognises what is in an image or video — detecting defects, reading documents, counting objects, recognising faces — and is a mature field with its own skills. Image generation creates new images or video from text, using diffusion models like Stable Diffusion or Midjourney. A strong CV engineer is not automatically a generative-image specialist, or the reverse.
How to tell them apart on a resume
Computer vision
OpenCV, YOLO, object detection, segmentation, OCR, image classification, cameras, edge devices — manufacturing, retail, healthcare, autonomous vehicles.
Image / video generation
Stable Diffusion, ComfyUI, LoRA for images, ControlNet, Midjourney, Sora, Veo, Runway — media, marketing, design tools.
The question that settles it
“Did your models look at images to recognise what's in them, or create new images from a description?”
Read the full definitions
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