Social media platform X has begun a worldwide rollout of automatic post translation and has launched a new AI-powered photo editor for its iOS app. Both features are powered by artificial intelligence models from xAI's Grok, the company announced late on Tuesday.
X's head of product, Nikita Bier, confirmed the global release of the auto-translate function, which aims to give posts in any language a broader international audience. Users can disable the feature for specific languages via a gear icon on translated posts.
Enhancing Global Reach and Content Creation
The move follows a playbook tested by other platforms like Reddit, which has experimented with machine translation for years. X stated that the quality of Grok-powered translations has "improved substantially over the last couple months."
Alongside translation, X is introducing a comprehensive image editor to its iOS application. The new tool includes standard features like drawing and text overlays, as well as a blur function to obscure sensitive details like faces or personal identification numbers.
Most notably, the editor integrates generative AI, allowing users to modify images through natural language prompts. A user could, for instance, instruct Grok to "display this photo as a painting in a museum," and the AI would generate the altered image. X plans to bring these updates to its Android app soon.
Context and Precedents in AI Editing
This development follows a controversial incident earlier this year where X, under owner Elon Musk, faced global criticism for allowing users to generate non-consensual, sexualized images of individuals. The company subsequently restricted its image generation feature to paying subscribers only.
It remains unclear if the new AI-powered editing capabilities will also be limited to X's premium user base. The feature enters a competitive space, with companies like Google and Adobe having already launched similar AI-driven image editing tools.
The updates represent X's latest push to improve its in-app user experience and functionality through advanced AI integration, leveraging its access to xAI's technology.