(Credit: Anna Barclay/Getty Images)
Social media network X has introduced new limits to stop free users from prompting its Grok AI chatbot to generate, edit, and share images.
Public image generation and editing through Grok is now exclusive to paid X Premium subscribers. You can still create images on Grok's app, within its private chatbot, or on its website without a subscription, but those results aren't automatically shared on X feeds.
It’s unclear exactly when these new rules were put in place, but Grok now responds to requests for image editing with a disclaimer explaining the changes. “Image generation and editing are currently limited to paying subscribers. You can subscribe to unlock these features,” it says, followed by a link to subscribe to either X Premium or X Premium+.
To get an X subscription, users need to share payment information, such as a credit card, and their full name. X may be using this as a form of identity authentication to allow it to better track users who make illegal imagery through its AI tools.
This comes amid growing pressure on X around how Grok is able to generate sexualized deepfakes of real people and create child sexual abuse material (CSAM). On Jan. 2, Grok itself apologized for creating and sharing CSAM.
"Anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content," X owner Elon Musk said earlier this week. X's Safety account added that it would remove illegal imagery and work with law enforcement "as necessary."
Grok continues to allow paying users to automatically share sexual deepfake images. The AI's reply feed on X currently shows multiple examples of users asking Grok to undress others through AI-generated images.
The issue has caught the attention of regulators. UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has called the images "disgusting" and "unlawful." He said, "We’re not going to tolerate it. I’ve asked for all options to be on the table... X need to get their act together and get this material down. We will take action on this because it’s simply not tolerable.”
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), a charity working to stop CSAM online, says it found multiple CSAM examples where the user claimed to use Grok for generation.
Hannah Swirsky, head of policy for the IWF, told ITV News, “We do not believe it is good enough to simply limit access to a tool which should never have had the capacity to create the kind of imagery we have seen in recent days. Companies must make sure the products they build and make available to the global public are safe by design."