X’s in-house chatbot Grok has introduced a photorealistic image generator called “Aurora”.

The new tool, first discovered by TechCrunchworks similarly to the standard version of Grok’s image generator, but produces images that are much closer to a real photo, at least to the untrained eye.

As with the vanilla version of Grok’s image generator, there appears to be little restriction on the content he can produce, including producing scandalous images of famous people and political figures.

TechCrunch’s team was able to get Aurora to produce an image of President-elect Donald Trump with streams of blood on his face, as well as images of actors Ray Romano and Adam Sandler on set. But despite minor content restrictions, “Aurora” is apparently unable to create nude images.

Whether you can access Aurora or not is another question. Some users on X have reported that they can no longer view the tool.

The addition comes just days after Grok became free for all users, albeit with fairly strict restrictions on the amount unpaid users can use the tool in a day. TechCrunch reports that free users of Aurora apparently can only use the tool a limited number of times before reaching their limit.

The future of free chatbots that can generate photorealistic images of political figures may be uncertain. Many jurisdictions are tightening their laws regulating AI-generated deepfakes.

In September 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed three bills that severely restrict election-related deepfakes on social media, including one that bans unlabeled AI-generated images of political candidates 120 days before an election in California.

The draft law is being challenged in court by X. CEO Elon Musk claims he can “make parody illegal.”

We could see even more ambitious features from Grok in the future, as its developer, the startup xAI, has more capital than ever before.

A recent filing with the SEC shows that the company has raised an additional $6 billion in funding, while it also recently invested heavily in supercomputing resources at its Memphis hub, increasing the number at its disposal GPUs has been increased significantly.

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About Will McCurdy

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I’m a reporter who covers weekend news. Before joining PCMag in 2024, I read writing at BBC News, The Guardian, The Times of London, The Daily Beast, Vice, Slate, Fast Company, The Evening Standard, The i, TechRadar, and Decrypt Media.

I’ve been a PC gamer since you had to manually install games from multiple CD-ROMs. As a reporter, I am passionate about the intersection between technology and human lives. I’ve reported on everything from crypto scandals to the art world to conspiracy theories to British politics to Russia and foreign policy.

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