Elon Musk's Grok 2 now supports AI-generated images for X
It could lead to misinformation online.
AI-generated images have taken the world by storm. Apps like Midjourney, DALL-E, and Stable Diffusion have made it easier than ever for people to generate all kinds of images. It's a booming market too—worth about $349.6 million in 2023 and set to grow by 17.7% yearly until 2030.
Not one to miss out, Elon Musk's newly launched Grok-2 and Grok-2 mini—both still in beta—aim to help Premium+ users on X (formerly Twitter) join the image-making frenzy.
While xAI boasts advancements in chat, coding, and reasoning for both the Grok-2 and Grok-2 mini models in its recent blog post, the buzz has been about the image generation feature.
Early users on X were having a blast with the new feature, although pictures showed AI-generated images of political figures, meaning Grok's image generation lacks guardrails (for now).
Grok 2.0 will do political illustrations and real people, while ChatGPT refuses.
— Benjamin De Kraker 🏴☠️ (@BenjaminDEKR) August 14, 2024
This instantly makes Grok 10x more fun...... pic.twitter.com/yDBJO0jWba
Grok AI Image Generation: pic.twitter.com/mjzSMEJ5Df
— Jungle Inc: Deaton 4 Senate (@jungleincxrp) August 14, 2024
The sample images shared indicate Grok uses FLUX.1, a technology from Black Forest Labs, for image generation. The company tested Grok-2 (as "sus-column-r") on the LMSYS leaderboard and plans to release both models via API sometime this month, says TechCrunch.
Without limits, I fear Grok could become a tool for misinformation on X. These images don't seem to have metadata showing they're AI-generated, similar to what other social platforms like YouTube have integrated. According to the Guardian, a global survey showed that about 85% of people are already concerned about online false information. Grok's unrestricted image generation could make this worse.
Grok-2 and Grok-2 mini are just one step in Musk's plan to introduce AI-driven features on X to improve search, analytics, and reply functions. At this rate, we might get AI-powered replies on X pretty soon.
Some early testers, like app researcher Nima Owji, suggest Grok-2 has improved capabilities in coding, writing, and news reporting. But Grok's first version often slipped up summarizing news, so I'm taking these claims with a grain of salt until we see more evidence.
The future of AI-generated images is very promising but only with significant responsibility. While offerings like Grok stand out as the cool unhinged AI chatbot, it throws the spotlight on the need for ethical development and responsible implementation to prevent its misuse for spreading misinformation - especially with the U.S. election coming up.
