This branch of research and technology is going to have immense impact.

It is basically visualization of words and expressions, and I expect we will see it woven into many parts of our daily life in the near future.

It will not put artists out of business, although it may significantly impact stock photo services. Everywhere you look - any place that has a photo or illustration - may soon be using generated images. I even expect meta versions which can take large amounts of text (such as an entire paragraph or essay) and generate images which seem to fit the topic or feel.

This tech will give non-artists the ability to express and visualize ideas (for fun or profit), and it will be a boon to professional content creators who labor over image collection and selection.

Heck, at some point the images will be generated on the fly by our browsers for content or even ads.