10 of the strangest images from Microsoft's upgraded Bing Image Creator

The internet continues to test the limits of artificial intelligence and the human capacity for absurdity, as users flocked online to share their outputs of the latest Bing Image Creator upgrade.

Quietly announced on Sept. 30, the latest iteration of Microsoft's image generation tool incorporates OpenAI's new DALL-E 3. Normally only accessible to ChatGPT Plus or Enterprise users, the free Bing Image Creator lets curious users test the new AI's limits.

Generative AI tools have ushered in a new era of creative and social litigation. In addition to DALL-E and Midjourney, large companies like Microsoft and Shutterstock have launched their own image-centered AIs, and in September, ChatGPT rolled out new voice and image capabilities for its chatbot.

But the power of these tools is also cause for concern, as platforms and the general public contend with the wider implications of AI-generated images, including their potential effect on political ads, nonconsensual imagery, and creative industries.

Only a few days after Microsoft's launch, the company attempted to block users from generating images featuring animated characters and the Twin Towers, after users found loopholes around the image creator's content guardrails.

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"As with any new technology, some are trying to use it in ways that were not intended, which is why we are implementing a range of guardrails and filters to make Bing Image Creator a positive and helpful experience for users,” said Caitlin Roulston, director of communications at Microsoft, in a statement to the Verge.

On Oct.6, Bellingcat published a report that found 4chan users were already taking advantage of the upgraded tool to create racist and antisemitic propaganda.

"Bellingcat found the increase in Bing Image Creator’s capabilities has not been matched by an equal increase in moderation and safety measures. Users can now more easily generate images that glorify genocide, war crimes, and other content that violates Bing’s policies," according to Bellingcat.

In response to industry-wide concerns, tech companies are trying to ramp up their protections and policies against misuse.

But as is typical of the internet, amid the power struggles of users obsessed with testing the social limits of AI and companies attempting to innovate the next big thing, other people online just continued on with their own weird business.

Scroll on for some of the tamer, and some of the not-so-tame, uses of the Bing Image Creator.