Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI is facing a strong wave of criticism after the Grok chatbot was discovered to be able to create and post sensitive images on the X social network platform.
Faced with public pressure and the involvement of management agencies, xAI quickly imposed a series of new restrictions on Grok's image creation and editing function.
Accordingly, Grok once allowed users to request editing of photos of anyone appearing on X, including removing clothes or placing characters in suggestive poses, often without the consent of the person in the photo.
Notably, these images created by AI are also automatically posted by Grok in the comment section, causing the spread and negative impact to increase rapidly.
On Friday, Grok announced that the image creation and editing features are currently only for paid users on X.
This move is seen as an effort to prevent bots from automatically responding with sensitive images under public posts.
In fact, the test showed that when a Reuters reporter asked Grok to convert his photo into a bikini image, the bot refused and displayed a notification about the limits for paid accounts.
However, the new restrictions have not completely closed the controversy. Users can still create sexual images through the Grok tab, which interacts directly with the chatbot, and then automatically uploads them to X.
Even the independent Grok application, operating separately from this social network platform, still allows creating images without registration or payment.
Previously, Elon Musk declared that anyone who uses Grok to create illegal content will suffer the same consequences as directly uploading that content.
However, the European Commission believes that limiting features in the form of fees does not solve the root of the problem. The agency emphasized that images of naked women and children shared online are illegal, regardless of who creates them or whether they use free or paid accounts.
Pressure comes not only from the EU. Many governments and other regulators have condemned, even opened investigations related to pornography created by Grok, requesting X and xAI to prove measures to prevent and remove illegal content.
In Germany, Communications Minister Wolfram Weimer described the wave of semi-nude images spreading thanks to AI as "the industrialization of sexual harassment".
The incident raises a big question about the responsibility of technology platforms in the generational AI era, whether technical and commercial measures are sufficient to control risks, or whether a stricter legal framework is needed to protect human privacy and dignity in cyberspace.
