(Reuters) -Meta has signed a deal with generative AI lab Midjourney to license the startup's "aesthetic technology" for the social media company's future models and products.

The technical collaboration will link the companies' research teams, Alexandr Wang, the Facebook parent's chief AI officer, said on Friday.

The move signals Meta's push to differentiate its products on visual quality, as it looks to revitalize its artificial intelligence efforts amid heated competition with rivals, including ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and Google.

Midjourney, which generates images from text prompts, licenses its tools to users through a subscription model.

"We are incredibly impressed by Midjourney," Wang said in a post on X, adding that to deliver best products, Meta is combining top talent, a strong compute roadmap and partnerships with leading industry players.

Meta and Midjourney did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

The startup's image-generation prowess could help Meta accelerate creative features for users and marketers, potentially lowering content production costs and boosting engagement.

The deal comes at a time when Meta has reorganized its AI efforts under Superintelligence Labs, a high-stakes push that followed senior staff departures and lukewarm reception for its latest open-source Llama 4 model.