Ernie for the Gooners

Early, limited testing of Baidu's Ernie AI image generation model reveals its current capabilities for generating uncensored content appear to be on par with Stability AI's ZIT model at its initial release. According to user reports, the model handles prompts for nudity with a similar level of restriction, generating female breast shapes and nipples at a comparable fidelity. However, the model's outputs for male and female genitalia are described as highly unrealistic, or 'nightmare fuel,' with one tester noting a tendency to generate disproportionately large anatomical features.

Despite these flaws in specific areas, the Ernie model demonstrates improved prompt comprehension compared to early ZIT iterations. It can follow more nuanced instructions, such as generating 'large breasts and small nipples,' with decent accuracy. The preliminary conclusion from testers is that Ernie might be less censored overall than ZIT, but a definitive assessment will require the community to develop and apply fine-tunes and LoRA (Low-Rank Adaptation) training to the base model. This early analysis provides a crucial benchmark for developers and researchers tracking the rapid evolution and differing moderation approaches of major AI image generators.