The Morning After: X adds, then quickly removes, Grok’s new photorealistic image generator

A new image generator called Aurora briefly opened for testing for some Grok users, and the tool’s results shared on X appeared far more realistic than X’s previous image generators. It was a brief debut, though. By Sunday afternoon, Aurora was gone. For a short time, there was a Grok 2 + Aurora (beta) option in Grok’s model selection menu, which is now replaced by Grok 2 + Flux (beta). It looks like Aurora may have gone public before it was meant to.

Grok’s previous image generator was called out for lacking certain restrictions on the content it can produce, like offensive images of politicians and celebrities. TechCrunch was able to generate an image of “a bloodied [Donald] Trump” — the kind of thing AI image generators are restricted from creating. In that brief period, paying Grok users leaped at the chance to put Adam Sandler and Ray Romano in photos together, or Captain Picard in a Christmas hat. Sure. Why not?

— Mat Smith

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Google sues after Consumer Financial Protection Bureau orders supervision of its payment arm

It’s due to complaints over the discontinued Google Pay.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said it has ordered federal supervision of Google Payment Corp. after determining that it meets the legal requirements for such oversight. The CFPB monitors banks, credit unions and other financial institutions and recently finalized a rule to supervise digital payment apps. The CFPB said it has “reasonable cause to determine that Google has engaged in conduct that poses risks to consumers.” Google filed a lawsuit shortly after the announcement to challenge the decision. The risks identified by the CFPB are tied to Google’s handling of erroneous transactions and fraud prevention.

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Fortnite is getting a 5v5 first-person shooter mode

The new Ballistic mode will be available in early access this week.

Fortnite

A new game mode called Ballistic is coming to Fortnite in early access on December 11, bringing a 5v5 tactical first-person shooter experience. One team will be tasked with planting an explosive device — which detonates 45 seconds after it’s placed — and the other team will try to stop that happening. There will be one map to start and a limited selection of weapons and items.

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