Grok, the AI chatbot created by xAI, the artificial intelligence company founded by and majority-owned by Elon Musk, last week switched off its image creation and editing function for non-subscribers after an uproar over sexualized and violent imagery created with it. The restriction came amid threats of fines or even an outright ban on X in the U.K. Now, it has expanded restrictions to all users, including subscribers.
“We remain committed to making X a safe platform for everyone and continue to have zero tolerance for any forms of child sexual exploitation, non-consensual nudity, and unwanted sexual content,” an X post said late on Wednesday. “We take action to remove high-priority violative content, including Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) and non-consensual nudity, taking appropriate action against accounts that violate our X Rules. We also report accounts seeking Child Sexual Exploitation materials to law enforcement authorities as necessary.”
The post also highlighted updates to Grok: “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. Additionally, image creation and the ability to edit images via the Grok account on the X platform are now only available to paid subscribers. This 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.”
U.K. media regulator Ofcom unveiled an investigation into X due to sexualized and violent pictures created with the Grok image editor. Following the latest restrictions, Ofcom said on Thursday: “This is a welcome development. However, our formal investigation remains ongoing. We are working round the clock to progress this and get answers into what went wrong and what’s being done to fix it.”
