Social media platform X on Friday appeared to have limited the image-generation feature of the company’s artificial intelligence application Grok to subscribers after the tool drew condemnation for creating non-consensual sexually explicit photos.
Grok had allowed requests by users to digitally manipulate photos of real persons – mostly women – by undressing them and sexualising their images without their consent. It had been creating thousands of such images every hour, Bloomberg reported.
The Grok account on X was on Friday informing users making similar requests that the image-generation and editing were “currently limited” to paying subscribers. The feature had been available to all users for free. The change would mean that the users’ names and payment information will be on file, BBC reported.
However, the standalone Grok app was still allowing users to generate such images without subscribing, Bloomberg reported.
The change limiting the use of the feature to subscribers on X came after the United Kingdom government on Friday asked regulator Ofcom to use its powers, including an effective ban, against the social media platform in connection with the unlawful images Grok was creating, BBC reported.
On Thursday, the European Union ordered X to retain all internal documents relating to Grok till the end of the year while the bloc ensures compliance with its digital rules.
The Indian government had on January 2 directed X to remove sexually explicit content generated by Grok.
The Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology told the platform to “undertake a comprehensive technical, procedural and governance-level review” of the chatbot to ensure that it does not generate content that contains nudity or sexually explicit material.
In the letter to X’s chief compliance officer in India, the Union government said that users were misusing Grok to create fake accounts to generate and share obscene photos and videos of women with the intent of denigrating them.
Hosting or publishing obscene and sexually explicit content, including through AI-enabled tools, is invasive of bodily privacy and attracts serious penal consequences, the government had said.
Amid criticism, X owner Elon Musk said on January 3 that “anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content”.
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