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Grok-2 comes to X with AI imaging, very few guardrails, and lots of questions

Grok-2 comes to X with AI imaging, very few guardrails, and lots of questions

X users can now play with the new Grok-2 AI model developed by xAI, another Elon Musk owner. The new model is integrated into the Grok AI chatbot on X for Premium or Premium+ subscribers and comes with new features like a built-in AI image generator powered by the recently unveiled, open-source FLUX.1 model.

Flux was created by former Stability AI developers who left to form Black Forest Labs. When it launched, Flux garnered praise for its human-like figures. Now, those capabilities are available on X, and the immediate outcome has varied wildly. X has seemingly put up very few barriers to Grok-2 or the AI image generator, with reports of the AI providing guides for weapon-making and plenty of fake but realistic images of celebrities and copyrighted fictional characters that seem like invitations to massive lawsuits.

Grok apparently doesn't care about intellectual property. pic.twitter.com/GGH1x4xqV2August 15, 2024

When Dua Lipa wins her inevitable Oscar via Grok pic.twitter.com/nlxIeWrUx6August 15, 2024

Grok picture puzzle

While Grok-2 is still in beta, the lack of what have become standard restrictions on what the chatbot can say or the images it will create suggests that not much consideration has been given to the complications that could arise from not including limits that OpenAI’s DALL-E, Google’s Gemini, Midjourney, and most other AI image generators have as standard. While allowing users to create an image of Iron Man fighting Superman or Dua Lipa winning an Academy Award (with her statuette copyrighted) sounds impressive, there are reasons why it hasn’t been available on ChatGPT. Between the potential abuse of the image of real people and the apparent infringement of intellectual property rights, it’s hard to say which contentious debate will be more heated.

If you're not a premium X subscriber, you can still try out Flux, though probably not with as many limitations. AI model hubs NightCafe and Poe both offer access to the model, and you can even download it from Hugging Face to run on your computer if you have a powerful enough machine.

Elon Musk has repeatedly claimed that Grok is designed to counter what he describes as excessive censorship of digital platforms, including AI assistants like ChatGPT. Whether that would protect him and xAI in court is debatable. Considering Musk founded xAI to oppose OpenAI on an almost philosophical level, the contrast probably doesn’t bother him. Then again, X can get away with pointing out that Grok’s images aren’t a perfect imitation of reality.