xAI, the AI company founded by Elon Musk, has introduced Grok-2 and Grok-2 mini, two new versions of the Grok chatbot. These new iterations offer advanced image generation capabilities and have been optimized overall for superior performance.
Image generation is powered by the Flux 1 AI model, developed by Black Forest Lab. With this innovation, users can create and share images directly on the X microblogging platform. xAI said that both models are already available in beta on X, with access reserved for Premium and Premium Plus subscribers. The company also announced that Grok-2 and Grok-2 mini will soon be available via the enterprise API for AI developers, around the end of this month.
One of Grok-2’s most controversial features is its ability to generate images without the typical ethical constraints found in other similar systems. Unlike OpenAI’s DALL-E or Adobe’s Firefly, Grok-2 does not appear to include safeguards to prevent the creation of content that could be offensive or misleading.
Some users have already highlighted how it is possible to create images of public figures in imaginary or compromising contexts. Several users have already shown compromising fake images featuring celebrities or even politicians.
This lack of ethical constraints has raised concerns about the potential spread of misinformation, especially given the many elections scheduled globally this year, including the US presidential election in November.
We have already covered a similar topic to this in our article about FreedomGPT.
While other generative AI systems have implemented safety protocols to prevent abuse, xAI’s seemingly more permissive approach raises ethical questions. The apparent lack of watermarks or indicators that clearly identify these images as AI-generated is also a cause for concern. Potential problems may arise from the difficulty of distinguishing authentic content from artificially generated content.
It is still uncertain how xAI and the technology community as a whole will address the ethical questions that arise with this new generation of generative AI.