The Midjourney platform, the one that generated the photos of the Pope with the duvet that went around the Internet a few days ago fueling the debate on artificial intelligence, will cease users' access to free trials.
CEO David Holz said on the Discord platform that the company is ending free trials due to "extraordinary demand and abuse."
Ergo, you will have to pay at least $10 a month to use the technology.
A beacon has been lit on Midjourney in recent weeks.
The company's AI software has created 'fake' photos of Donald Trump's arrest and Pope Francis wearing a trendy puffer jacket.
Although the images were quickly identified as fake, there is a fear that malicious people could use software such as Midjourney, but also Dall-E and ChatGpt - blocked in Italy after the intervention of the Privacy Guarantor - to spread disinformation but also to create images free from copyright.
After the dissemination of the photos of the Pope and Trump, an "extraordinary request" arrived on the platform which also slowed down the time for data processing and the production of the images requested by users.
Midjourney acknowledged problems establishing content policies.
In a chat with Discord users, CEO Holz said he's having a hard time setting content policies as AI has enabled increasingly realistic images.
Midjourney hopes to improve AI moderation thereby shielding abuse, the founder said.
The platform also had problems creating images of the general secretary of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping.