After a high-profile scandal, Elon Musk's company xAI urgently restricted access to the image generation function in the Grok chatbot. From now on, only paid subscribers are allowed to create images.
After a high-profile scandal, Elon Musk's company xAI urgently restricted access to the image generation function in the Grok chatbot. From now on, only paid subscribers are allowed to create images.
The company made this decision after the tool began to be massively used to create deepfake pornography , when users "undressed" women and children in photos or painted them in sexualized poses without their consent.
The catalyst for change was the real threat of sanctions from the UK. Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the situation on the platform "shameful" and "disgusting", threatening Twitter with huge fines - up to 10% of global turnover, or even a complete block in the country.
The British regulator Ofcom has received the full support of the government for tough action, as it concerns a breach of online safety law.
In fact, Musk did not fix the problem, but only made it a paid service and de-anonymized violators (since subscriber card data is stored). This caused a new wave of criticism.
“Paying to draw bikinis, bullet wounds, or sperm on women is still digital sexual abuse. xAI should turn this feature off altogether,” British MP Jess Asato reacted sharply.
The French government previously classified Grok-generated content as manifestly illegal and in violation of the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA), threatening the company with serious sanctions. The governments of Malaysia and India subsequently expressed their displeasure.
As the study showed , the Grok chatbot generated about 6,700 sexual images every hour.
