NEW DELHI, India — Social media platform X, owned by Elon Musk, has disabled Grok’s objectionable image generation feature following widespread global backlash over the creation of sexualized images, the company said Thursday.
The artificial intelligence chatbot will no longer be able to generate or edit objectionable images of women, regardless of whether a user has a paid subscription.
“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,” X’s safety account said in a post on the platform.
The move follows mounting criticism from governments and civil society groups over Grok’s so-called “Spicy Mode,” which enabled users to create sexualized deepfake images of women and children using simple text prompts. The feature triggered regulatory scrutiny in multiple countries, with some blocking access to the chatbot and others launching investigations.
India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology sought an action-taken report from xAI, while the attorney general of the U.S. state of California initiated a probe into the developer of Grok. Separately, a coalition of 28 civil society organizations submitted open letters to the chief executives of Apple and Google, urging them to remove Grok and X from their app stores amid a surge in sexually explicit images.
X said it has now restricted image creation and editing through the Grok account to paid subscribers only, adding that the measure provides “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 said it will continue to remove high-priority violative content, including child sexual abuse material and non-consensual nudity, and will take action against accounts found violating its rules.
In December, India’s IT ministry directed X to “remove or disable access, without delay, to all content already generated or disseminated in violation of applicable laws,” and to enforce its terms of service and AI usage restrictions. The ministry also called for strong deterrent measures, including the suspension or termination of accounts involved in generating sexually explicit images of women and children.
According to officials, X has removed nearly 3,500 pieces of obscene or sexually explicit content generated using Grok’s image tools in India and barred around 600 users who misused the chatbot. (Source: IANS)
