Taylor Swift Pulling a 9/11 Gives Companies a Whole New Reason to Advertise on X

Elon Musk’s Grok AI is truthful dated and boring that it’s repeating controversies from a twelvemonth ago. Grok-2 is the latest iteration of xAI’s ample connection model. X users who wage for a sub tin usage its bold caller feature: text-to-image generation. And successful a determination that’s definite to bring advertisers backmost to the platform, unusual and violative images flooded X connected Wednesday pursuing Grok-2’s launch. Want to spot Taylor Swift piloting a level towards the Twin Towers, Elmo doing standup during 9/11, oregon Kamala Harris wielding a gun?

Sure, Grok tin bash that.

It’ll besides marque pictures of the Muppets successful Vietnam, Trump dressed arsenic a Nazi and lasting proceedings astatine Nuremberg, and Mickey Mouse liberating Kabul connected behalf of the Taliban. Go wild. It doesn’t matter. AI representation generators typically person guardrails and, if asked, Grok volition archer you it won’t interruption copyright oregon marque non-family-friendly images. But successful practice, it’ll bash immoderate you privation if you cognize however to ask.

Here’s a clump of pictures of Musk freebasing cocaine during 9/11 that I made utilizing Grok.

© Made with Grok.

© Made with Grok.

© Made with Grok

Generating edgy pictures with Grok is amusive for astir a minute. Image procreation guardrails typically crook and shatter erstwhile they deed the nationalist marketplace and Grok is nary different. xAI volition astir apt get immoderate of the guardrails backmost up, conscionable similar Bing did successful 2023.

Here’s the happening astir Grok: it feels old. We’ve each seen AI-generated images of our favourite cartoon characters doing 9/11. When Microsoft added representation procreation options to Bing past twelvemonth they flooded the internet. Then Microsoft tightened the guardrails and they vanished from people’s societal media feeds.

Grok has ever felt similar a latecomer to the AI game, an also-ran LLM that Musk rushed to marketplace due to the fact that helium missed the vessel connected OpenAI and ChatGPT. Musk was an aboriginal capitalist successful OpenAI but helium pulled retired of the institution successful 2018 implicit a quality astir OpenAI’s non-profit status. Musk has been publically feuding with, and suing, OpenAI ever since.

ChatGPT and OpenAI got large aft Musk pulled out. Musk launched Grok successful 2023, but the marketplace was genuinely captured by then. There isn’t overmuch abstraction for an LLM that’ll bash what ChatGPT does, but worse, and colored by highly online edgelord humor.

Now Grok tin marque images. Great. ChatGPT, similar Bing, could bash that past year. Anyone who wanted a purpose-built AI representation generator could person been utilizing the standalone mentation of Midjourney oregon immoderate fig of different alternatives earlier that.

So what does Grok’s representation generator bring to the table? A semi-viral half-second wherever radical are utilizing it to marque inappropriate pictures of Taylor Swift. The genuinely dedicated sickos person been moving backstage discord servers and discrete guardrail-free versions of representation generators connected their ain machines for a agelong clip now.

So Grok has nothing, really. And its half-hearted effort astatine contention comes astatine a infinitesimal erstwhile Musk is throwing a ineligible tantrum implicit advertisers leaving the platform. I’m definite each these Grok-made pictures of Kamala Harris marrying Donald Trump volition bring them backmost in. That’s the benignant of contented I’m definite BMW would emotion to presumption adjacent to an advertisement for its latest sedan.