(Web Desk) - Elon Musk's xAI has launched Grok-2 and Grok-2 mini in beta, featuring enhanced reasoning abilities and the new capability to generate images directly on the X social network.
Currently, access to Grok is restricted to Premium and Premium+ users on the platform.
According to xAI, Grok-2 represents a substantial upgrade from its predecessor, Grok-1.5, offering advanced functionalities in chat, coding, and reasoning.
Alongside it, Grok-2 mini provides a more compact but powerful alternative. Early tests have placed Grok-2 on the LMSYS leaderboard under the alias “sus-column-r,” as noted in xAI’s blog.
The company is also set to make both Grok-2 models available to developers through its enterprise API later this month.
Preliminary user-generated images suggest that Grok's new image generation feature lacks restrictions on depicting political figures, a scenario that could lead to potential misuse, especially with the U.S. presidential election approaching.
The tool appears to use FLUX.1 by Black Forest Labs for image creation.
Details on Grok-2’s full capabilities remain sparse, but early indications from app researcher Nima Owji suggest improvements in code generation, writing, and news analysis.
However, Grok-1's history of inaccuracies in news summarization raises concerns about its potential for generating misinformation.
There is also uncertainty about whether images produced by Grok include metadata indicating their AI origin.
xAI has hinted at integrating Grok-2 and Grok-2 mini into various AI-driven features on X, including enhanced search, post analytics, and reply functions.
Future updates may include AI-powered replies and a preview of multimodal understanding, further expanding Grok’s role on X and its API.
The company has not yet responded to inquiries about how it will manage the potential risks associated with image generation.