Through the looking glass: Since being unveiled by OpenAI in early 2021, DALL-E has been turning heads with its ultra-realistic AI image creations. From jaw-dropping to just downright weird, the text-to-image AI system has wowed the internet. Art lovers can now explore a world outside the confines of a frame. DALL-E's new Outpainting feature can expand a picture beyond its original border.

OpenAI has introduced a new tool for DALL-E, enabling it to imagine a world beyond the confines of a frame. The new tool is called Outpainting and it helps creators extend an image beyond its original border. By using natural language description, users can add new image elements in the style of the original work.

We can see the power of the new Outpainting feature in an enlargement of Johannes Vermeers' Girl with a Pearl Earring. What's quite amazing is how DALL-E is able to mimic the original art style, and it's almost impossible to tell it's a made-up virtual extension of the original work.

In the timelapse below, we see Girl with a Pearl Earring being outpainted by August Kamp. Inspired by her "mother's messy house," Kamp expands the original work in small sections, directing DALL-E's Outpainting tool with text descriptions. The final image depicts the girl in a cluttered domestic setting.

DALL-E already has a feature called Inpainting, which replaces an existing part of an image with something else, following the original style to maintain realism. Outpainting differs from Inpainting in that it goes beyond the edges of the image.

DALL-E is also known for its eerie and frightening creations, and that trend continued with an apocalyptic Mona Lisa.

Other results were more comical, with the Quaker Oats guy being depicted as a barmaid.

The tool also works with photographs, as can be seen in this zoomed out version of The Beatles' Abbey Road album cover.

DALL-E is currently in a private beta phase, with 1 million creators invited to participate in testing. The beta allows users to use DALL-E with credits that are refilled monthly. Users also have rights to commercialize their images, and DALL-E is already being used for things like children's book illustrations, game characters, and concept art.