Elon Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter) has got a big AI-powered update, with the app now offering support for AI-powered photo editing backed by Grok AI. The new feature was announced by X Product Head Nikita Bier, who noted that the feature is now rolling out to users on iOS, while support for Android is expected to arrive soon.
In a post on X, Bier wrote, “Ladies and gentlemen, we’re launching a brand new Photo Editor in our post composer. It has long-overdue features like drawing & text. But we also included special add-ons that are unique to X”.
How does Grok-powered image editing work?
Bier noted that the new image editor is available in the post composer on the X app on iOS. The AI-powered image editing feature allows users to ask Grok to make changes to the image in natural language, while also giving the ability to add blur to different parts of the image.
In a demo video showcased by X, a user asks the AI assistant to ‘Exhibit this painting in a museum’ and later goes on to blur the faces of the subjects via the blur effect. In theory, the feature works similarly to any AI image editing tool out there, like Gemini or ChatGPT, but makes some of the basic AI features available right when users are framing their post.
The limited feature set and the phased approach for the image editing feature may be due to the recent controversy that the company had faced after Grok’s public-facing version generated sexualised images of women and children based on requests from users.
The Musk-led startup is also facing a lawsuit from teenagers in California who alleged that the company helped in the creation of child pornography by allowing their sexually explicit images to be generated via Grok.
In other X-related news, the company also recently rolled out automatic Grok-powered translations on X, phasing out Google Translate on the platform. Bier had said that the feature would give global reach to posts in any language. However, if users prefer to read the posts in their original language, they can turn off auto-translate by tapping on the gear icon.
Grok is already a major part of the user experience on X, with the social media platform having a separate tab on the platform. Meanwhile, users can also summon the chatbot to settle debates or just get additional context on the posts.
