Over the weekend, Elon Musk’s synthetic intelligence firm xAI launched Grok Think about, a brand new generative AI instrument for producing photographs and movies. Grok Think about is accessible now to paid xAI subscribers within the Grok iOS and Android apps.
Musk has been hyping up the challenge on X, sharing images and movies from Grok customers. This contains some mildly NSFW content material, which the Grok app labels as “Spicy.”
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AI video is an thrilling — and albeit terrifying — new frontier for the AI trade. To proponents, this know-how offers artists a brand new medium for creativity and will cut back the prices of animation and filmmaking. To critics, AI video poses critical dangers for sexual deepfakes and misinformation.
Placing apart that debate for the second, I wished to see how properly Grok Think about compares to xAI’s largest rivals. As I’ve written beforehand, Google’s Veo 3 AI video mannequin at the moment leads with subject with surprisingly lifelike video. Then there’s Sora, from ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. Moreover, the widespread AI picture generator Midjourney lately launched its personal generative AI video instrument.
So, how does Grok Think about evaluate to its rivals? To be blunt, I am not impressed.
Sure, Grok Think about is model new, and Musk lately stated on X that it “should get better every day.” Nonetheless, as of this writing, it appears to lag far behind its rivals.
Let me present my work.
Evaluating Grok Think about AI video to the competitors
Mashable lately wrote a few viral AI video development — safety digital camera footage of animals leaping on trampolines and fascinating in comparable antics. So, I used a easy immediate to check Grok Think about, Veo 3, Sora, and Midjourney: “Security camera footage of rabbits jumping on a trampoline at night.” Easy sufficient, proper?
First, I ought to notice that there is a massive distinction between Veo 3 and Grok Think about. Google’s Veo 3 mannequin can generate movies based mostly on a textual content immediate. Merely describe the video you need, and Veo 3 will do the remaining. Nonetheless, instruments like Midjourney and Grok Think about solely supply text-to-image technology. After producing or importing a picture, customers can then animate it, remodeling it into a brief video clip. On this sense, Grok Think about is already on the again foot in comparison with OpenAI and Google.
Mashable Gentle Velocity
With these caveats, let’s dive into the outcomes, which I’ve additionally shared on X.
I put my take a look at immediate into Grok, and it returned these disappointing photographs.
Credit score: Screenshot courtesy of Grok / Timothy Beck Werth
Credit score: Screenshot courtesy of Grok / Timothy Beck Werth
I chosen the least dangerous of those photographs and created this quick video:
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It is…tremendous? Sort of mid, or meh, as the children say.
However it additionally suffers compared to different AI video instruments.
Because the video exhibits, Google Veo 3 and Sora did a lot better with the identical immediate:
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Lastly, Midjourney, which animates photographs just like xAI, was in a position to produce higher photographs and movies, although it took two makes an attempt. The picture and video it produced have the grainy look of surveillance footage.
AI-generated picture.
Credit score: Timothy Beck Werth / Midjourney
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Audio can be a significant drawback with Grok Think about. Whereas Veo 3 can produce sound results and coherent dialogue in sync with the video, the audio I’ve discovered on Grok Think about movies is proscribed to tough sound results and gibberish.
Musk in contrast Grok Think about to a modern-day Vine app, writing on X, “Grok Imagine is optimized for most fun and shareable content.”
And in my preliminary checks, Grok Think about appears optimized for creating two forms of photographs and movies: memes and anime. If you wish to animate memes — or create sexually suggestive movies of anime ladies — then Grok Think about will do the trick, I suppose. However past that, I am unable to say I am impressed.
There may be one space the place Grok Think about does shine, and that is when it comes to velocity. Up to now, I’ve discovered it produces each photographs and movies considerably sooner than its rivals.
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Mashable reached out to xAI, and we’ll replace this story if we obtain a response.
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s mum or dad firm, filed a lawsuit in April towards OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis’ copyrights in coaching and working its AI techniques.
