xAI’s new Grok-2 chatbots bring AI image generation to X

Elon Musk’s AI company xAI has launched Grok-2 and Grok-2 mini: two new models of its Grok chatbot that offer upgraded performance and new image-generation capabilities. Grok’s prompt-based image maker is powered by Black Forest Lab’s Flux 1 AI model, and allows users to generate and publish images directly to the X social platform — with seemingly few guardrails in place to prevent abuse.

xAI says that Grok-2 and Grok-2 mini are available in beta on X (where Grok access is currently limited to Premium and Premium Plus subscribers) and that both models will be available through the AI developer’s enterprise API later this month.

“We are excited to release an early preview of Grok-2, a significant step forward from our previous model Grok-1.5, featuring frontier capabilities in chat, coding, and reasoning,” xAI said in its announcement, describing the chatbot as “more intuitive, steerable, and versatile” than its predecessor. Meanwhile, Grok-2 mini is a “small but capable sibling” of Grok-2 that “offers a balance between speed and answer quality,” according to xAI.

Some early examples produced by Grok’s new image-generator have already appeared online, which indicate there are very few restrictions regarding what users can make. Generated images depict recognizable political figures like Donald Trump and Barack Obama shooting guns and taking illegal drugs — which could exacerbate concerns about the chatbot spreading false election information.

These Grok-generated images also don’t appear to sport any kind of disclosure to flag them as being AI generated. We’ve asked X if it will place restrictions on image generation, though the platform has persistently shunned media inquiries since Musk purchased it in 2022.