Elon Musk's X gets a new image generator called Aurora

X, the social network owned by Elon Musk and formerly known as Twitter, introduced a new image generator called Aurora within its Grok assistant. Aurora follows the earlier release of Flux, another image generator introduced to Grok in October, and shares similar minimal content restrictions.

Accessible via the Grok tab on X’s mobile apps and website, Aurora allows users to create images of public figures and even copyrighted characters, such as Mickey Mouse, with little restriction. While it avoids generating explicit nudity, it does permit graphic content for example, depictions of violent scenarios involving public figures like Donald Trump. Posts by employees of xAI, Musk’s artificial intelligence startup responsible for developing Grok and its features, announced Aurora’s launch. However, details about whether Aurora was independently developed, built upon existing models, or created in collaboration with a third party remain unclear. Some xAI staff have confirmed they contributed to fine-tuning the model.

Aurora is noted for its ability to produce photorealistic visuals, excelling in areas like landscapes and still lifes. Despite this, it has its limitations, occasionally producing flawed images such as merged objects or people with distorted hands an ongoing challenge for many AI image generators.

Aurora’s release coincides with X’s decision to make Grok free for all users. Previously available only to Premium subscribers paying $8 per month, the chatbot now allows free users to send up to 10 messages every two hours and generate up to three images daily. Additionally, the company appears to be preparing the launch of its next-generation Grok 3 model.