AI Tool Stops Free Trial After Images Of US President Getting Arrested And Pope In Jacket And Glasses Goes Viral

AI tool Midjourney has stopped offering its free trial version due to an influx of new users making throwaway accounts, according to CEO and founder David Holz.

Holz cited “extraordinary demand and trial abuse” as the reason for the pause, which was also potentially exacerbated by a viral how-to video in China and a temporary graphics processing unit shortage.

However, the pause was perceived by some to be linked to the recent viral images of US President Donald Trump getting arrested and Pope Francis wearing a puffy jacket, which were created using Midjourney’s paid version 5.

Midjourney’s content moderation policies have been compared to similar services like OpenAI’s DALL-E and Stable Diffusion, falling somewhere in the middle in terms of permissiveness. However, the company’s response to the threat of fake images has been deemed inadequate and lacking a comprehensive strategy.

Holz acknowledged the difficulty of content moderation and stated that Midjourney is working on improving its systems with feedback from experts and the community