xAI’s Grok can now generate images on X | TechCrunch
Elon Musk-owned xAI’s Grok AI model can now generate images on the X social network, though Grok access is currently limited to Premium and Premium+ users on X.
The text below the sample image prompts suggests that Grok is using FLUX.1 by Black Forest Labs to create these images.
Early images generated by users suggest that Grok’s image generation feature doesn’t have any guardrails around creating images of political figures — and many users are currently taking advantage of this fact. However, with the U.S. presidential election around the corner, the company will likely face pressure to add limits on these features.
The social platform has also given premium users access to Grok 2 mini in beta. Earlier this week, Musk said that xAI would release Grok 2 in beta soon.
A floating notification on the Grok page on X shows the message “Grok 2.0 is released” with a link to the release page. However, the Grok 2.0’s page on xAI still reads “Coming soon, Please watch cat videos while we’re getting this page ready.”
There are few details on Grok 2’s actual capabilities at the moment. App researcher (and apparently X feature tester) Nima Owji claimed that Grok 2 is better at code generation, writing, and news, though there isn’t much to support that. Notably, Grok’s first version has slipped up many times while summarizing news.
Without any limits on image generation, Grok could easily become a tool to create misinformation on X and other platforms. It’s also not clear if Grok-powered images embed any metadata to indicate that they are AI generated.
We have asked X about how it plans to limit image generation for harmful purposes, and will update the story if we hear back. However, the company has seldom responded to media inquiries since Musk’s takeover.
