Musk’s AI chatbot Grok opens up to general X usersAlthough there are usage limits, it has still allowed more people to access Grok. Recently, netizens discovered an image generation model called “Aurora” appearing in Grok. Aurora seems to have no restrictions when generating images, able to generate even the copyrighted Mickey Mouse. Although Aurora only appeared for a moment before disappearing, some people still managed to try generating images with it. The quality of Aurora’s output also makes people wonder whether Musk is now starting to venture into the field of image generation models.

xAI unexpectedly released its image generation model “Aurora”—and the reason turns out to be related to OpenAI.
On Saturday, 12/7, netizens discovered that X had added a new image generation model called Aurora to Grok, and Aurora appeared in the model options alongside the Grok 2 beta version. Although Aurora only showed up briefly and then disappeared, some netizens still managed to experience Aurora’s image generation capabilities.
After testing, netizens found that Aurora is not like typical AI image generation tools with many restrictions; it can be said that Aurora has almost no usage restrictions. For example, generating copyrighted IPs like Mickey Mouse and Mario is no problem. Generating Trump with blood on his head is also no problem. (However, Aurora cannot generate prompts involving nudity or exposure.)


Here are also some images generated using Aurora that netizens have put together. You can all see how Aurora performs.

Upon closer inspection, some flaws are still visible, such as the hand rendering problem that most AI still cannot overcome:
Behold my images using the new Grok @grok image generator Aurora: 🧵
1. Ray Romano and @AdamSandler on a sitcom set pic.twitter.com/2V491RdjMF
— Matt (@EnsoMatt) December 7, 2024
Not sure why xAI would release its brand-new image generation model without any promotion, but a bold guess would be that it’s related to what OpenAI is about to announce on Monday. Because xAI employees shared Sam Altman’s post and wrote, “xAI doesn’t need to wait until Monday,” adding that xAI has released a new image generation model called Aurora, which is already available on Grok. It’s pretty obvious this is a jab at OpenAI for dragging its feet and teasing an announcement without actually making it, unlike xAI, which just drops things without any hype.
xAI doesn’t need to wait until Monday. This team is too cracked and stays shipping.
Congrats @xai for releasing a brand new image gen model —Aurora!
Grok 2 + Aurora is now available with your X app in the model selector.
Oh, by the way, Grok 3 is coming. 🚀 https://t.co/l92HwU4q9e
— Chris Park (@chrisparkX) December 7, 2024
Although xAI has already given its image generation model Aurora some exposure, there’s still no detailed information about Aurora available yet, and everyone wants to know whether Aurora was trained by xAI itself or developed in partnership with a third party. Also, if you go to Grok now, Aurora is no longer visible—only the Grok 2 + Flux beta model is available. It’s unclear when xAI will formally introduce Aurora to the public and share more details about it.
Source: KOCPC Chinese