Elon Musk’s platform X unveiled precautions on Wednesday to prevent its AI chatbot Grok from undressing actual people in response to global outrage over its creation of sexualized photos of women and children.
The revelation comes after California’s attorney general opened an inquiry against Musk’s xAI, the developer of Grok, over the sexually explicit content, while numerous countries either barred access to the chatbot or initiated their own investigations.
X said it will “geoblock the ability” of all Grok and X users to create images of people in “bikinis, underwear, and similar attire” in those jurisdictions where such actions are deemed illegal.
“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,” X’s safety team said.
“This restriction applies to all users, including paid subscribers.”
In an “extra layer of protection,” image creation and photo editing via X’s Grok account were now only available to premium customers, according to the statement.
The European Commission, the EU’s digital watchdog, previously stated that it had taken note of “additional measures X is taking to prevent Grok from generating sexualized images of women and children.”
“We will carefully assess these changes to make sure they effectively protect citizens in the EU,” European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said.
Pressure was mounting on xAI to rein in Grok after its so-called “Spicy Mode” function enabled users to produce sexualized deepfakes with simple language cues like “put her in a bikini” or “remove her clothes.”
“The avalanche of reports detailing the non-consensual, sexually explicit material that xAI has produced and posted online in recent weeks is shocking,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said earlier Wednesday.
“We have zero tolerance for the AI-based creation and dissemination of nonconsensual intimate images or of child sexual abuse material.”
Bonta stated that the California probe would look at whether xAI violated state law after the sexual imagery was “used to harass people across the internet.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom said xAI’s “vile” choice to allow sexually obscene deepfakes to spread caused him to urge the attorney general to hold the company responsible.
On Wednesday, a coalition of 28 civil society groups sent open letters to the CEOs of Apple and Google, demanding them to ban Grok and X from their app stores due to the spike in sexualized photos.
On Saturday, Indonesia became the first country to completely prohibit access to Grok, followed by Malaysia the next day.
Malaysia’s communications minister stated on Thursday that national regulators decided that X’s steps to prevent Grok from generating indecent photographs were “not done in totality.”
If X is effective in deactivating and preventing the development of such dangerous online information, Malaysia would lift Grok’s temporary prohibition, according to Minister Fahmi Fadzil.
India claims that X erased thousands of posts and hundreds of user accounts in response to its complaints.
In addition, Britain’s Ofcom media regulator announced on Monday that it was investigating whether X violated UK law by publishing sexual photographs.
Last week, Paris-based non-profit AI Forensics conducted an examination of over 20,000 Grok-generated photographs and discovered that more than half portrayed “individuals in minimal attire”—the majority of whom were women, with 2% looking to be juveniles.
