xAI officially launched Aurora, a native artificial intelligence (AI) image generation model, on Monday after deploying it briefly over the weekend. On December 7, several users reported spotting Aurora in the model selector menu within the Grok interface and were able to generate images using the tool. However, it disappeared a few hours later and no explanation behind either the addition of the tool or its removal was given by the company. Now, three days later, the Elon Musk-owned AI firm has officially launched the AI tool.
xAI Aurora AI Image Generation Model
In a blog post, xAI detailed the company’s first image generation model. It is currently available within Grok interface on the X (formerly known as Twitter) platform in select countries. While the AI firm did not mention the countries the tool will be rolling out first, it added that a global rollout is planned within a week. Gadgets 360 staff members were not able to access Aurora in Grok’s model selector.
Aurora is the code name of Grok’s first native image generation model. Notably, currently image generation on Grok is supported by Flux, an AI model developed by Black Forest Labs. Aurora is an autoregressive mixture-of-experts (MoE) network, which the company claims has been trained on “billions of examples from the internet”. xAI says the model displays high proficiency in generating photorealistic images and adhering to the prompt.
The AI image generator can create text, logos, objects, as well as realistic portraits of humans using both text prompts and image inputs. Additionally, Aurora can also edit uploaded images. While there are no tools to specify the range, intensity, or type of edits, users can add text prompts to describe what they want changed in an image. In an example shared by the company, Aurora could add a hat to an animated image of an elephant. This capability will be added to Grok in the future.
Currently, the safety parameters and privacy markers of the AI models are not known. However, based on the images shared by users during its brief access, Aurora is not barred from generating realistic images of public figures or copyrighted characters.
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Akash Dutta is a Senior Sub Editor at Gadgets 360. He is particularly interested in the social impact of technological developments and loves reading about emerging fields such as AI, metaverse, and fediverse. In his free time, he can be seen supporting his favourite football club – Chelsea, watching movies and anime, and sharing passionate opinions on food. More
