No Free Clout The swagged out Pope was just too much to handle. Not long after AI-generated images of Pope Francis in immaculate white drip went viral, Midjourney — which was used to create the images — has announced that it’s pulling the plug on free trials, as spotted by The Washington Post. Temporarily, anyway. “Due to a combination of extraordinary demand and trial abuse,” CEO and founder David Holz wrote in the official Midjourney Discord, “we are temporarily disabling free trials until we have our next improvements to the system deployed.” According to Holz, Midjourney staff experimented with adding new safety measures to combat abuse, but “they didn’t seem to be sufficient,” he wrote. Its paid service, which costs as little as $10 per month, remains untouched. The boys in Brooklyn could only hope for this level of drip pic.twitter.com/MiqkcLQ8Bd — Nikita S (@singareddynm) March 25, 2023 Misinformation Machines When the pictures of the Pope clad in Balenciaga garb made rounds over the past week — not to mention comical depictions of former president Donald Trump getting arrested — many expressed equal parts alarm and bemusement at how convincing they appeared. These images were, to many, the viral harbingers of a new era of effortlessly generated misinformation. And you can probably thank Midjourney’s latest V5 update from earlier this month for their prowess. Midjourney is now capable of being a little too convincing to the uncritical eye, finally (almost) nailing human hands. Overall, its output simply appears far more…Midjourney Nixes Free Generations After AI Pope Images Go Viral