Grok, the everything-app’s AI sidekick, now dabbles in image editing. Naturally, we at 404.blog felt obligated to see if our Photoshop subscriptions were about to become obsolete. Spoiler alert: they aren’t. But the journey was… interesting.
Grok lets you upload a photo and then, using the magic of AI, alter it with text prompts. Sounds simple, right? It is. Is it groundbreaking? Less so.
Rainbows and (Un)Happy Endings
First up: emotional manipulation. We fed Grok a landscape photo, a perfectly nice scene burdened by a vaguely depressing vibe. The prompt: ‘Give this image the warm feeling of a happy ending.’ The result? A rainbow. Because, of course. Grok understands symbolism. It’s just a shame it couldn’t quite grasp the physics of light and atmosphere. The rainbow looked… off. Like a sticker slapped on with digital glue. Cheerful, sure. Convincing? Not quite. 6/10 for effort, 2/10 for realism.
Comic Sans…I Mean, Comic Book Effects
Next, we tried to inject some culture. A photo of your humble narrator, decked out in top hat and cane (yes, really), was subjected to the prompt: ‘Give the image a comic book effect with bold outlines.’ The good news: Grok delivered a comic book effect. The bad news: it looked like it was drawn in MS Paint by someone who’d only seen a comic book once. The likeness? Questionable. The artistry? Let’s just say Frank Miller isn’t losing sleep. Still, it had a certain… charm. The kind of charm you find in a badly rendered JPEG.
Pimp My Chihuahua: A Victorian Nightmare
Time for the real test: adding objects. A photo of my chihuahua, Chabbage (yes, that’s his name. Don’t judge), was uploaded. The mission: transform him into a tiny Victorian aristocrat. Prompt: ‘Add a top hat and monocle to the dog.’ The top hat materialized, slightly askew, like a digital toupee. The monocle… was also there. Doing… something. I’m not entirely sure what. Let’s just say Chabbage looked less like a landed gentleman and more like a dog who’d raided a costume shop after one too many Milk-Bones. Still, points for sheer audacity.
From Kennel to Club: A Change of Scenery (Sort Of)
Naturally, a monocled chihuahua needs a suitable backdrop. So, the final test: background replacement. Prompt: ‘Replace the background with a fancy Victorian gentleman’s club.’ My hopes soared: crimson velvet, cigar smoke, the faint strains of a string quartet. The reality? Something…adjacent. A vaguely luxurious-looking room appeared, more ‘budget cosplay’ than ‘actual Victorian opulence’. And Chabbage? Still firmly on the floor. Apparently, Grok believes dogs should know their place, even when wearing tiny hats and questionable eyewear. The AI’s got opinions, clearly.
The Verdict: Fun, Not Functional (Yet)
After much prompting, uploading, and general AI-wrangling, the conclusion is clear: Grok’s image editor is fun. It’s a neat party trick. It’s a way to kill time while waiting for your coffee to brew. But it’s not a Photoshop replacement. Not even close.
It’s faster and arguably more accessible than tools like ChatGPT or Gemini for image manipulation. For basic edits and silly additions, it works surprisingly well. The results are often ‘good enough’ for social media, which, let’s be honest, is the benchmark for most things these days.
But the precision? The control? The finesse? Non-existent. There are no layers, no incremental adjustments, just a lot of trial and error with text prompts. And the results, invariably, possess that unsettling ‘almost but not quite right’ quality – the uncanny valley, rendered in pixels.
Grok’s image editor is a toy. A fun toy. But a toy nonetheless. Adobe can sleep soundly. For now.
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