The X platform recently launched Aurora, a new image generator on its Grok assistant, which is designed to generate photo-realistic images and is free and open to all users. However, shortly after launch, some users lost access to the feature. Aurora allows the generation of various images including copyrighted figures, but does not generate nude images. Its image quality is excellent in landscapes and still lifes, but there are still some shortcomings in human images, such as missing fingers and other issues. This article will analyze in detail the functions, sources and performance of Aurora after its launch.
Social network X (formerly Twitter) owned by Elon Musk recently launched a new image generator-Aurora in its Grok assistant. Although Aurora went live on Saturday, the feature became partially inaccessible just a few hours later.
Aurora seems to be designed from the ground up to create photo-realistic images. Users can access Aurora for image generation in the Grok tab of mobile apps and web pages. Similar to X's first image generator, launched in October, Aurora doesn't seem to have many restrictions on its use. Users are able to generate images of public and copyrighted figures, including Mickey Mouse, without any warning. In our tests, Aurora did not generate nude images, but images such as "bloody Trump" were not restricted either.
The origin of Aurora is unclear. Some employees of Musk AI Company (xAI), which is responsible for many of the AI functions of Grok and X, announced the launch of Aurora on social platforms, but did not disclose whether the model was trained independently by or developed in cooperation with third parties.
According to an xAI employee, they were involved in tuning Aurora. Additionally, Musk mentioned in August that xAI was developing an in-house "image generation system."
Aurora excels at generating landscape and still life images, but has some shortcomings. Users posted images generated by Aurora on social platforms, showing some objects blending together unnaturally and problems such as missing fingers on portraits (which are often difficult to deal with in hand image generation).
Aurora's launch comes as Free users can now send up to 10 messages to Grok every two hours and generate up to three images per day.
In addition, xAI recently completed a round of US$6 billion in financing, is developing independent applications for Grok, and may soon launch the next generation Grok model-Grok3.
Highlight:
? The new image generator Aurora is online, allowing users to generate a variety of images.
? Some users are unable to access this feature within a few hours of going online.
? The X social platform opens Grok functionality to all users.
All in all, Aurora, as a new image generator launched on the X platform, although there are some technical shortcomings, its free and open strategy and powerful image generation capabilities are still worthy of attention. With xAI’s continued investment and technology iteration, Aurora’s future development is worth looking forward to.