Midjourney halts free trials after fake AI images go viral

Midjourney has temporarily cancelled free trials of the AI art service after a series of AI-generated fake images went viral, according to the company's founder David Holz. Holz announced the changes on Discord (and noted by The Verge) which is the platform that Midjourney uses as its default interface. "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," Holz said. While Holz didn't go into specifics, the subtext may have been that users have rediscovered Midjourney again. The AI art service recently deployed what it calls Midjourney v5, a new update that allows for some incredibly lifelike AI creations.