AI generator Midjourney pauses service over deepfake 'abuse' - Digital Journal

Research laboratory Midjourney has paused free trials of its image-generation software after users cranked out realistic deepfakes including of former US president Donald Trump getting arrested and Pope Francis in a puffer jacket. Midjourney responded to a request Thursday for a trial with a message saying it could not be provided and to try again another day. The imagery created using the artificial intelligence platform, particularly those of Trump and the pontiff which went viral, have put a spotlight on the San Francisco-based lab. "Due to a combination of extraordinary demand and trial abuse we are temporarily disabling free trials until we have our next improvements to the system deployed," Midjourney founder David Holz said in a post this week on the company's Discord channel. The service generates realistic looking images based on written prompts made by users.