With just a few words, today’s AI models can generate entire stories, vivid images, or even short films. But as Weber Wong, founder and CEO of Flora, sees it, these tools often miss the mark for true creative professionals.
According to Wong, these models are typically built “by non-creatives for other non-creatives to feel creative.” In other words, they prioritize quick outputs over thoughtful artistic control — a gap Flora aims to bridge.
Flora officially launched this week, accompanied by a bold manifesto that rejects the status quo of AI-generated content as mere “slop.” Instead, Wong and his team are determined to build a powerful tool that will fundamentally reshape the future of creative work, empowering artists rather than replacing them.
The Problem with Current Creative Tools
Today’s AI-powered platforms make content generation easier than ever, but they often sacrifice creative control for convenience. On the flip side, traditional creative software offers precision and customization but can be clunky, unintuitive, and time-consuming. Flora’s mission is to close that gap — blending the ease of AI generation with the nuanced control that creatives crave.
However, Wong is clear that Flora isn’t just about building a better AI model. “Models are not creative tools,” he argued. Instead, Flora offers an innovative “infinite canvas” — a dynamic visual interface that seamlessly integrates with existing AI models. This allows users to generate, manipulate, and iterate on text, images, and videos in an organic, flexible workflow.
How Flora’s Infinite Canvas Works
The infinite canvas serves as a collaborative playground where creativity unfolds step by step. For instance, a user might start by prompting Flora to generate an image of a flower. They can then refine the image by adding descriptive prompts, exploring different styles, or even transforming the image into a video. Every variation appears on the canvas, visually mapping the creative process like a sprawling, interconnected mind map.
“The model does not matter, the technology does not matter,” Wong emphasized. “It’s about the interface.” By focusing on the interface, Flora allows creatives to interact with AI in a way that feels more like an extension of their imagination than a rigid, one-way tool.
Flora also supports real-time collaboration, making it easy for teams to brainstorm, refine ideas, and share work with clients — all within the same canvas.
Building for Creative Professionals
Although Wong envisions Flora as a tool for all artists and creatives, the startup is initially partnering with visual design agencies to refine the product. They’re actively iterating based on feedback from designers at the renowned agency Pentagram, whose input is helping Flora evolve into a platform capable of supercharging creative workflows.
The goal, Wong explained, is to enable designers to work “100X more creatively.” For example, a designer working on a logo concept could use Flora to generate dozens or even hundreds of variations in minutes, exploring possibilities that would take hours to draft manually.
Wong likens this transformation to the evolution of music production. Whereas Mozart needed an entire orchestra to bring his compositions to life, today’s musicians can produce entire albums from their bedrooms using tools like Ableton and upload them directly to platforms like SoundCloud. Flora aims to spark a similar shift for visual creators.
Embracing the Art-Tech Intersection
Wong’s journey to founding Flora is as unconventional as it is inspiring. After working as an investor at Menlo Ventures, he had an epiphany: “I was not the person I’d back.” Determined to become the kind of founder he’d invest in, Wong enrolled in NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, where he explored the intersection of art and technology.
When Flora launched an alpha version in August, Wong introduced it with an art project that showcased the platform’s real-time capabilities. The Flora homepage featured a live feed from a GoPro strapped to Wong’s head, and website visitors could use AI to stylize the footage after signing up for the waitlist — an imaginative demonstration of Flora’s potential.
Navigating AI Skepticism
Despite Flora’s promise, Wong acknowledges that many artists are wary of AI’s role in creative work — some even outright hostile to it. This skepticism isn’t unfounded: AI-generated art has sparked heated debates around copyright, originality, and the devaluation of human creativity. Pentagram itself faced backlash for using Midjourney to create an illustration style for a U.S. government project.
Wong hopes Flora can win over the “AI curious” and eventually prove valuable enough to convert even the staunchest “AI haters.” He emphasized that Flora doesn’t train its own AI models (instead leveraging existing ones) and is committed to respecting intellectual property rights. “We will follow societal standards,” he assured.
Crucially, Wong wants Flora to be a tool for artistic exploration — not a content factory. The team is so serious about this that they’re considering making merch emblazoned with the phrase “Anti-AI Slop.” Wong likened Flora’s potential impact to the Kodak Brownie camera, which democratized photography by making it more accessible while unlocking new artistic possibilities.
What’s Next for Flora?
Though Flora isn’t yet disclosing funding details, its backers include A16Z Games Speedrun, Menlo Ventures, and Long Journey Ventures, along with angel investors from companies like Midjourney, Stability, and Pika. The product is currently free for users with a limited number of projects, while professional pricing starts at $16 per month.
As Flora evolves, Wong remains laser-focused on building a tool that genuinely serves the creative community — one that amplifies human imagination rather than diluting it. If he succeeds, Flora could become not just another AI tool but a catalyst for a new era of creative expression.
“We’re obsessed with building a power tool that will profoundly shape the future of creative work,” Wong said. And with Flora, that future might just be closer than we think.
