Grok-2: The AI Chatbot That Can Now Draw (But Maybe Not Well)!

Grok-2 has strutted onto the scene and it’s packing some serious AI magic — meet the new image generation feature that’s hotter than a jalapeño in a sauna! This upgraded version of the AI chatbot integrated into the artist formerly known as Twitter (let’s call it X for short), is rolling out in beta for those brave enough to plunk down for the luxurious X Premium and Premium+ plans. This fresh version comes in two flavors: Grok-2 for the main course and the bite-sized Grok-2 mini, the ‘teeny but mighty’ option that’s built for speed without losing flavor — kind of like a hot rod that runs on salad dressing.

According to the xAI team (you know, the brainiacs behind this contraption), Grok-2 has partnered with Black Forest Labs — not the fudge factory, mind you, but a startup cooking up clever stuff with their FLUX.1 model. This is the part where Grok-2 gets artsy and can whip up images of real folks. Cue the gasp! This new party trick has stirred the pot for artists everywhere, raising eyebrows about copyright and the ever-looming issue of dubious photo editing. You know what they say: the only thing better than an AI-generated image is an AI-generated meme — and yes, Grok’s got those too… with results that are, let’s say, a tad bit “hit or miss.”

Some early adopters have been sharing their masterpieces (or is that disasters?) on X, and while some tweets may have soared, others might’ve flopped harder than a penguin on dry land. Testing the waters on the LMSYS leaderboard, xAI proudly claims Grok-2 is crushing it against competitors like Claude 3.5 Sonnet and GPT-4-Turbo. While we’re not sure what this leaderboard even means, it sounds impressive enough to make you wish you’d packed some popcorn!

Of course, Grok’s journey hasn’t been all rainbows and memes. Its big debut came back in December 2023 after Musk launched xAI, and boy, did it make a splash — like when you jump into a swimming pool fully clothed! In April, the chatbot stirred controversy with a sensational fake headline that declared, “Iran Strikes Tel Aviv with Heavy Missiles,” sending shockwaves through the platform. Yikes!

And if you thought you could escape the sneaky algorithms, think again! It turns out X has been using your glorious posts to train Grok; don’t worry, you can opt out, but you’ve got to fight your way through the settings like a knight battling a dragon (or at least a mildly cranky squirrel).

So, if you’re feeling wild and have $16 burning a hole in your pocket for a Premium+ or $8 for the oh-so-exotic X Premium plan, you might just want to dive into this AI adventure. However, be warned: with a user base that’s not exactly expanding under Musk’s watchful eye, due to a few pesky issues like misinformation and some not-so-subtle social media controversies, we can only hope Grok-2 brings a little extra sparkle and fun back to the Twitter-verse, or X-verse, or whatever they’re calling it today!