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A few days after X made its Grok 2 AI model-free, the social media platform quietly launched its new AI image generation model Aurora on December 7. The tool was accessible through the Grok tab on the X website and app but was shortly pulled, likely due to its still-in-development status and users’ coming up with images that don’t comply with the platform’s community guidelines.
TechCrunch reported that the model does have some restrictions, as it stopped short of generating naked images in their testing. However, gory images like a bloodied image of the recently reelected US president, Donald Trump, could be made with a simple prompt. Additionally, the model doesn’t seem to have issues pulling copyrighted images of digital characters like Mickey Mouse or real-life individuals such as Trump or OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
The model also focuses on photorealism, meaning the generated images can be hard to tell apart from a real picture. While the images themselves are better than what Flux, the currently available AI image generation model, can create, they have discrepancies, like human hands with no fingers or objects blending unnaturally.
However, as an X user claims in a thread on the platform, it will generate photorealistic images of the Cybertruck and Tesla Semi without issues. Elon Musk replied to the thread, stating that it’s the company’s internal image generation system and is still in beta, although he expects the model to “improve fast.”
There’s no explanation from X as to why the model was pulled in a few short hours after the unannounced launch. xAI, Musk’s AI-focussed company that develops Grok and other AI models X uses, has also officially announced Aurora on X. However, the model’s origin is still largely unclear. The announcement did not include any information on whether xAI trained the model itself, built on top of an existing model, or collaborated with a third party as it did in the case of Flux.
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