Global backlash forces Elon Musk-led X to disable Grok’s objectionable image generation feature

After facing significant global backlash, the Elon Musk-led X social media platform on Thursday disabled Grok’s objectionable image generation feature.

The artificial intelligence-enabled chatbot Grok will no longer be able to generate objectionable images of women, regardless of whether the user has a premium account.

“We have implemented technological measures to prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis. This restriction applies to all users, including paid subscribers,” the platform’s safety account said in a post on X.

xAI faced heat from several countries over Grok’s “Spicy Mode” feature, which allowed users to create sexualised deepfakes of women and children using simple text prompts such as “put her in a bikini” or “remove her clothes.” Multiple countries either blocked access to the chatbot or launched their own probes.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) sought an action-taken report from xAI, and the Attorney General from the US state of California launched an investigation into the developer of Grok.

Further, a coalition of 28 civil society groups on Wednesday submitted open letters to the CEOs of Apple and Google, urging them to ban Grok and X from their app stores amid the surge in sexualised images.

Now, X has also restricted the ability to generate and edit images to paid users. Earlier, Grok had limited the generation of such images only to paid users.

“Image creation and the ability to edit images via the Grok account on the X platform are now only available to paid subscribers,” X said, stating that it “adds an extra layer of protection by helping to ensure that individuals who attempt to abuse the Grok account to violate the law or our policies can be held accountable”.

The platform also noted that it will take action to remove high-priority violative content, including Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) and non-consensual nudity. Appropriate action will be taken against accounts that violate the rules.

In December, the IT ministry had asked X to “remove or disable access, without delay, to all content already generated or disseminated in violation of applicable laws”.

The ministry had also directed X to enforce its terms of service and AI usage restrictions, and take “strong deterrent measures”, including suspending or terminating accounts that used Grok to create sexually explicit images of women and children.

X reportedly removed nearly 3,500 pieces of obscene content and sexually explicit images generated using Grok’s image generation capabilities in India. The platform also identified and barred about 600 users who had misused the AI chatbot to generate sexually explicit images.

(With inputs from IANS)