xAI has officially launched Aurora, its new native artificial intelligence (AI) image generation model, on Monday following a brief deployment over the weekend. On December 7, users began noticing Aurora in the model selector within the Grok interface, allowing them to generate images. However, this feature was removed just a few hours later, with the company providing no explanation for its brief appearance or subsequent disappearance. Now, three days later, xAI has formally announced the official launch of its AI tool.
xAI Aurora AI Image Generation Model
In a blog post, xAI elaborated on the company’s inaugural image generation model. It is now available through the Grok interface on the X platform (previously known as Twitter) in select countries. Although the specific countries for the initial rollout have not been disclosed, the company indicated that a global launch is anticipated within the next week. Staff members at Gadgets 360 have reported being unable to access Aurora in Grok’s model selector.
Aurora serves as the code name for Grok’s premier native image generation model. Currently, image generation within Grok is facilitated by Flux, an AI model developed by Black Forest Labs. Aurora operates as an autoregressive mixture-of-experts (MoE) network, which xAI states has been trained using billions of internet examples. The company asserts that the model excels in producing photorealistic images while effectively responding to user prompts.
The AI image generator is capable of creating text, logos, objects, and realistic human portraits using both text prompts and image inputs. Moreover, Aurora possesses the ability to edit uploaded images. Although it lacks specific tools to define the scope, intensity, or type of edits, users can utilize text prompts to indicate the desired changes. For instance, Aurora can add a hat to an animated image of an elephant, an example provided by the company. This editing capability will be integrated into Grok in a future update.
At this time, details regarding the safety protocols and privacy measures of the AI models remain unclear. However, based on the images shared by users during its short-lived access, Aurora appears to be capable of generating realistic representations of public figures and copyrighted characters without restrictions.
