Aug 22 (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.