If you weren’t aware, Grok 4, Elon Musk’s AI on X, was just released yesterday (July 9th) and I was tempted to put it to the test!

Traditionally, most AI image generators have had problems with historically-accurate medieval armor. Maybe it’s to do with the way they’re trained on movie images and fantasy art rather than real museum pieces and effigies, but all the AI I’ve used have had glaring errors in terms of accuracy.

Sometimes the swords have wacky dimensions; sometimes the pauldrons are way too huge; sometimes horses have two heads; and after using Grok 4, which is now being toted as the smartest AI available to the public, my opinion of AI’s accuracy has only shifted a little. Of course, I will always prefer to support real photography and human artists over AI, but as you’ll probably agree after browsing these Grok 4 images this is still fascinating to see.

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#1: Viking

I had to ask Grok 4 to remove the horns from the helmet, so this is the best image from the 2nd attempt. As you can see, Grok 4 is still probably heavily influenced by History’s “Vikings” TV show, hence the big fluffy shoulder pads, but at least he’s not wearing mascara.

My prompt: “Generate image of historically accurate Norse Vikings from the 18th century sailing toward Ireland in a Viking longship. Show their swords and pay attention to making their clothes and armor as historically accurate as you can.”

#2: Templar

This one looks alright, but only at first glance and if you ignore hands and 6-legged horse. Also those helmets…

My prompt: “Generate image of historically accurate Knights Templars marching on the road to Jerusalem in the 11th century. Make the image look as historically-accurate as you can.”

#3: Samurai

The face on this one totally looks like a real person. But what do you think of the armor?

My prompt: “Generate image of historically accurate 13th-century Samurai shooting arrows from a medieval Japanese castle. Make the image as historically accurate as you can.”

#4: Richard Lionheart

Even if this armor was proportionately accurate, it looks to be 2 centuries before Richard’s time. Try not to stare at the gauntlets.

My prompt: “Generate image of King Richard Lionheart fighting with a sword at the Battle of Jaffa. Make the image as historically accurate as you can.”

#5: Genoese crossbowman

Oh my… I could comment on a lot here, like the extra arm, the missing crossbow arms, but I’ll just say that the chainmail looks like silver cottage cheese.

My prompt: “Generate image of 13th-century Genoese crossbowman shooting a crossbow from behind a pavise shield. Make it look as historically accurate as you can.”

#6: Umayyad archer

This one would at least pass for a Hollywood film set, but what do you think?

My prompt: “Generate image of a 7th-century Umayyad archer shooting an arrow over a river. Make it look as historically accurate as you can.”

#7: 14th-century Venice

More variety in the costumes would be nice, but this one is not bad! With a few touch ups I’d say it’s better than a Hollywood film set.

My prompt: “Generate image of Venice in 14th century. Make it looks as lifelike and historically accurate as possible, by getting historical inspiration from medieval manuscript illuminations rather than cinema.”

My hope is that we can eventually get much improvement, but for now it’s still up to human artists to create what we can safely call “historically accurate” medieval images.

Leave a comment below if there are any other images you’d like me to try, or you can go to https://x.com/i/grok to try it yourself!