Google is making Imagen 4 available via the Gemini API and in AI Studio. According to Google, the new text-to-image model offers significantly better quality when rendering text than the previous version, Imagen 3. There are two variants: Imagen 4 for general tasks ($0.04 per image) and Imagen 4 Ultra ($0.06 per image), which Google says is designed more for accurate following of prompts. The following AI slop comic was generated with Imagen Ultra 4, which can be tested free of charge in Google AI Studio.
OpenAI has removed all references to its "io" project after a trademark dispute with IYO Audio, whose name is pronounced the same as "io." The planned AI device, a collaboration between Sam Altman and Jony Ive, was originally teased under the "io" name, but IYO Audio objected and took legal action. IYO Audio, which is working on a similar AI product and presented it during a 2024 TED Talk, claims rights to the name. OpenAI says it disagrees with IYO's trademark claim and is reviewing its options. It's unclear if Ive intended to keep using the "io" name after OpenAI acquired the hardware startup, which was founded before the official announcement of the partnership.
Cybercriminals are upgrading WormGPT with stronger AI models. The original WormGPT, which launched in June 2023, used the open source GPT-J model to create a censorship-free LLM for cybercrime. Now, Cato CTRL reports that two new versions have surfaced on BreachForums: "keanu-WormGPT," which actually taps Grok from xAI through its API using a custom jailbreak, and "xzin0vich-WormGPT," which runs on Mixtral from Mistral AI. Both are distributed via Telegram and get around the original models' safeguards by manipulating system prompts. This lets them generate phishing emails, malicious code, and other attack tools. Cato calls this a "significant shift" in the misuse of large language models.
WormGPT now comes in new variants powered by Grok and Mixtral, making it easier for cybercriminals to create phishing emails and malicious code. | Image: Cato Networks
Google has released Magenta RealTime (Magenta RT), an open-source AI model for live music creation and control. The model responds to text prompts, audio samples, or both. Magenta RT is built on an 800 million parameter Transformer and trained on about 190,000 hours of mostly instrumental music. One technical limitation is that it can only access the last ten seconds of generated audio.
