Stylish pope in down jacket, laughing celebrities. But also Donald Trump in handcuffs led by the police. A few days after its release, the new version of the image generator Midjourney amazes, but also terrifies with its capabilities. The eponymous company behind the program has now canceled free access to its service. Although it does not include the latest version, according to founder David Holz, they decided to restrict access due to increasing cases of misuse and insufficient computing capacity.
Midjourney suspended its free version via Discord earlier this week. At the time, founder and director David Holz stated that the reason was extraordinary user demand and abuse of the free trial access, informed American Journal Washington Post. In an announcement on Discord, Holz added that he plans to restore free access once the company takes appropriate measures in this regard.
“We have stopped access due to the huge number of people creating fake accounts to get free images,” he specified reasons Holz to technology server The Verge. Midjourney’s founder said he attributes the extra interest to a viral how-to guide for the free version that recently started circulating in China. “It happened at the same time that there was a temporary shortage of graphics cards. These two things combined to cause service outages for paid users.” Holz added.
However, restricting free access will most likely not prevent the spread of the most compelling images. The most powerful fifth wheel is only available to paying users, and people with a trial version did not have access to it even before the current measure.
The new, fifth in a row, version of the Midjourney image generator was released a few days ago, and since then, thanks to its improved capabilities, images have appeared that once again look a little more convincingly like real photos. For example, Pope Francis in a white down jacket went viral on the Internet. In connection with the current accusation However, images generated by the fifth version of Midjourney, which showed Trump in handcuffs led by a police officer, began to appear in the case of the bribery of the porn star Stormy Daniels in the case of former US President Donald Trump. But nothing like that really happened.
Limits on the content that can be generated in Midjourney are more liberal than some competing services, such as OpenAI’s DALL-E 2, but more restrictive than Stability AI’s Stable Diffusion. In connection with the rapid development of generative artificial intelligence, some experts are calling for the creators of such programs to significantly slow down their work. Specifically they want a six-month hiatus in AI development during which the industry would agree on general safety and liability rules.
For example, Italy has also currently outright banned the use of the increasingly popular artificial intelligence system ChatGPT. According to the local regulatory authority, it violates the personal data of its users. OpenAI, the company behind its development, is now facing a heavy fine if it does not seek redress.
Making pictures of Trump getting arrested while waiting for Trump’s arrest. pic.twitter.com/4D2QQfUpLZ
— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) March 20, 2023
