Open-Source Image Generation: Diffusion Models & LoRA - AI Build & Learn

Welcome to AI Build & Learn, a weekly AI engineering stream where we pick a new topic and learn by building together. ​This event is about generating images with AI. There's no single model we're locked into, the point is to explore what's out there and actually try a few. We'll focus on open-source models, but you're welcome to bring commercial ones (DALL·E, Midjourney, and friends) if you want to compare. ​We'll try to look at both major families: diffusion-based models (the dominant approach today) and transformer-based / autoregressive image models. I'll research and try some of the best open-source options ahead of the stream, and if time allows we'll also try fine-tuning with LoRA to teach a model a new style or subject. ​Some things to look up to get started: ​Open-source models: * ​FLUX.2 (Black Forest Labs): current open-weight quality benchmark; DiT backbone, up to 4MP, multi-image reference * ​Stable Diffusion 3.5 / SDXL (Stability AI): deepest ecosystem — LoRA, ControlNet, inpainting, countless fine-tunes * ​Qwen-Image (Alibaba): strong all-rounder, especially good at rendering text (including Chinese) * ​Z-Image / Z-Image-Turbo: Apache-2.0, near FLUX.2 quality in just a few steps (fast and commercial-friendly) * ​HunyuanImage (Tencent): another high-quality open-weight option ​Tooling: * ​Hugging Face Diffusers: https://github.com/huggingface/diffusers * ​ComfyUI: node-based workflows: https://github.com/comfyanonymous/ComfyUI * ​LoRA fine-tuning for diffusion models ​Resources * ​​​GitHub: https://github.com/sagecodes/ai-build-and-learn * ​​​Events Calendar: https://luma.com/ai-builders-and-learners * ​​​Slack (Discuss during the week): https://slack.flyte.org/ * ​​​Hosted by Sage Elliott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sageelliott/ ​In this stream * Intro to topic * ​​​​Community Discussion * Practical examples ​​​Community challenge (optional) ​​​Try spending 30–90 minutes during the week learning or building something related to the topic, then share what you’re working on in Slack. ​​​Note on Flyte / Union ​​​You may see Flyte used in some demos. Flyte is an open-source AI orchestration platform maintained by Union (where I work) for building scalable, durable, and observable AI workflows. You do not need to use Flyte to participate. * ​​​Union: https://www.union.ai/ * ​​​Flyte: https://flyte.org/ ​​​Drop a comment with ideas for future topics (agents, RAG, MLOps, robotics, frameworks, and more).