Elon Musk's platform X announced increased safety measures, suspending the feature of the AI chatbot 'Grok' that edits images of real people to appear nude or wearing minimal clothing, following intense pressure from multiple governments and human rights organizations who found the creation of pornographic images involving women and children.
X platform's security team announced technological measures to prevent the popular AI chatbot 'Grok' from modifying or creating images of real people in revealing attire, such as bikinis, lingerie, or similar outfits. This measure applies to all users, including paid subscribers.
This major change followed heavy criticism of Grok's 'Spicy Mode' feature, which allowed users to input simple commands like 'make her wear a bikini' or 'remove her clothes' to generate pornographic deepfake images of real individuals, including minors.
An analysis of over 20,000 images created by Grok conducted by the Paris-based nonprofit AI Forensics found that more than half depicted people wearing minimal clothing, mostly women, with 2% of those images appearing to show minors.
Currently, xAI, the company behind Grok, is under intense scrutiny from various agencies. In the United States, the California Attorney General announced an investigation into whether xAI violated state laws regarding the creation of pornographic images without consent. The California governor condemned the proliferation of deepfake images as "disgusting." Meanwhile, the European Commission is closely monitoring X's new measures to assess their effectiveness in protecting EU citizens.
Indonesia became the first country to completely block access to Grok, followed by Malaysia. India forced X to remove thousands of posts and user accounts linked to such pornographic images. The United Kingdom and France have initiated investigations and referred cases to prosecutors for possible legal action.
Beyond technology to prevent editing real-person images, X also announced limiting image creation and editing via Grok exclusively to "paid members," establishing an additional layer of protection and facilitating easier user identification.
However, more than 28 civil society groups have joined in submitting an open letter to the CEOs of Apple and Google, urging the removal of the X and Grok apps from their app stores, citing concerns that current measures may be insufficient to stop the long-term spread of manipulated pornographic images.
. BBC