• by Colin Kirkland , August 14, 2024

Last week, a group of secretaries of state called on X owner Elon Musk to “immediately” address election-related misinformation being spread by his social-media platform’s AI chatbot Grok.

Now, X’s AI company xAI has launched Grok-2 and Grok-2 mini, two new chatbot models that include an in-app image generator for premium users, which have already depicted political figures. 

Grok-2 and Grok-2 mini -- currently available in beta on X -- build on xAI’s initial model by offering premium users upgraded performance.

In its announcement, the company describes the new model as “more intuitive, steerable, and versatile,” compared to its predecessor.

X sees Grok-2 mini as Grok-2’s “small but capable sibling,” aimed at delivering “a balance between speed and answer quality.”

The models also invite Premium and Premium+ users to create AI-generated images directly in the app.

However, unlike other companies developing major large language models, like ChatGPT and OpenAI, Grok-2 creates political illustrations involving real people -- with few limitations. 

So far, early users of the new image generator -- powered by Black Forest Lab’s Flux 1 AI model -- have posted images depicting former president Donald Trump shooting revolvers in the air, former president George W. Bush fingering a pile of cocaine in the oval office, and Vice President Kamala Harris pregnant with Trump’s baby. 

“It’s really good at this,” one user wrote above a post showcasing an AI-generated Trump and Kamala together. 

“I smell a lawsuit coming,” another user commented. 

In addition to producing inappropriate political images, xAI does not appear to include any indication that these images are AI-generated, which could further ignite concerns over the spread of AI-generated misinformation in relation to the upcoming U.S. presidential election. 

Grok -- which also summarizes news reports -- was the subject of a recent letter addressed to Musk, with five secretaries of state citing Grok falsely telling millions of X users that Vice President Harris had missed the ballot deadline in several states for the 2024 election. 

“Within hours of President Joe Biden stepping away from his presidential candidacy on July 21, 2024, false information on ballot deadlines produced by Grok was shared on multiple social media platforms,” the letter reads.

xAI plans to embed Grok-2 and Grok-2 mini to various AI-driven features on X -- including improved search capabilities, post analytics and reply functions.

Both models will also soon be available to developers through the AI developer’s enterprise API later this month.