After much abuse, Midjourney ends free trials

We know the rapid progress of AI, especially with ChatGPT-4. But the new version 5 of Midjourney's deep-faking software has dramatically improved the quality of images depicting people.

For example, misshapen hands, which were previously a feature of AI-generated images, are now less of a problem. Lighting and fabrics are also more realistic, and the system is able to generate images of countless celebrities and public figures, TheVerge reads.

These improvements have resulted in a number of Midjourney footage going viral over the past few weeks. These are not only fake photos of Trump's arrest and the fashionable pope, but also of French President Emmanuel Macron marching through the ongoing protests in Paris and Elon Musk holding the hand by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Unrestrictive enforcement of moderation policies

Midjourney's content restrictions are more permissive than some rival services (like OpenAI's DALL-E), but more restrictive than others (eg Stable Diffusion).

Furthermore, the answer from Midjourney to the escalation of the politically sensitive threat of fake images has so far been piecemeal, with no significant revision to its moderation policies. 

There is indeed a list of forbidden words on the basis of complaints from users of some countries, but almost no one pays attention to it. Simpler still, it was enough until very recently to use other terms to achieve the desired results of deep-faking.

Too much abuse

< p>At present, users who do not pay can no longer generate images, Midjourney claiming a shortage of graphics processors. Then tech suggested that misuse of the software was the main reason for stopping the free trials.

The service still remains open for paying subscribers.