As mentioned in my article on Gemini and Copilot, it’s impossible to escape AI, so, being curious, I just had to try some others to see how they compare.
Grok
Grok is described as a conversational AI chatbot from Elon Musk’s xAI, which gives unfiltered, anti-woke, and often spicy answers, so since I had already come across the copyright restrictions of Copilot, I was keen to give it a go.
Me: Create an image of Lara Croft fighting enemies in temple ruins.
I was very impressed with the level of detail, which is remarkable and better than a photorealistic video clip. Grok also captured how we like to imagine Lara Croft in a game, although her third arm does give her an unfair advantage.
I then asked Grok to give Lara different weapons, including dual pistols, a shotgun, and Uzis, as per the games, and it went on to produce several short videos, which I edited into a YouTube short.
Again, the feeling of a Tomb Raider video game is right there!
Me: Create an image of a beautiful Argentine woman.
Beauty is, of course, in the eye of the beholder, yet I was curious to see what Grok would come up with.
Even my wife agreed that these are very accurate representations of Argentine women, so who am I to argue?
Me: Create an image of Avenida 9 de Julio, Buenos Aires.
Not quite what I was expecting because this is a view of that wide avenue from a different street. Anyway, Grok is extremely fast, much faster than all the others, and the quality is incredible.
You have to start a new chat when asking completely different questions because otherwise it adds your new question to your current project, if that makes sense. So, just for a laugh, I asked Grok to create an image of the last great British president, which it took to mean monarch while I was still on wide avenues.
I can’t imagine a statue of the late Queen Elizabeth in Buenos Aires, but we do have an English Tower, so it’s not that far-fetched.
ChatGPT
This chatbot probably needs no introduction, and for me, it was the first time using it, so I asked similar questions.
Me: Create an image of the widest avenue in Buenos Aires.
Nice try, but as far as I recall, Avenida 9 de Julio doesn’t have fifteen lanes in each direction, although the rest is very representative.
Me: Create an image of a beautiful Argentine woman.
These women have a more indigenous look, particularly the first one, although it’s true to say that much of the Argentine population is descended from European immigrants. Top quality though.
Me: Create an image of Lara Croft fighting enemies in temple ruins with dual pistols.
This looks more like artwork, but it does capture the essence of our intrepid tomb raider.
As I mentioned at the beginning, I did this research for a bit of fun and will continue to use the free tiers of chatbots when I need images or videos that are copyright-free, but not for creating original content, such as novels, and then pass it off as my own. I recognise the boundaries with AI and the chances for cheating, but that’s not in my playbook.
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