Midjourney kills free AI image generator access after explosion of deep fakes

It's likely because the picture of the pope in a winter jacket went viral, and now they want to cash in on all the attempts to re-create that hype... Apps are only free until initial hype occurs now... It's the classic web service bait and switch move...

Midjourney founder David Holz is behind the technology that created a deepfake Pope Francis. To the untrained eye, the image shared widely on social media late last week showed a fashion-conscious Pope Francis strutting his stuff in an all-white puffer jacket from luxury brand Balenciaga.

SOURCE: https://fortune.com/2023/03/28/pope-francis-balenciaga-puffe...

Misleading title. Here’s the quote from midjourney: “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”.

- it’s not killed, it’s paused

- it’s not because of deepfakes, it’s because of extraordinary demand and abuse

They disabled free deepfakes, but still generate paid deepfakes.

Did free trials require a payement instrument or any hint of identity?

Do they shut down accounts that post TOS violating pics? (Based on matching their logs?)