Elon Musk’s AI tool, Grok, just slapped some huge restrictions on its image creation feature for the vast majority of users, as per The Guardian. This massive rollback happened after a widespread outcry regarding the tool’s use to generate extremely disturbing and illegal content, specifically sexually explicit and violent imagery.
The pressure on Musk and the company was intense. He was facing serious threats of massive fines and regulatory action from global bodies, including reports of a possible ban on X in the UK. The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, demanded X “get a grip” on the deluge of AI-created photos of women and children appearing on the platform, calling the content “disgraceful” and “disgusting.”
Starmer indicated that a de facto ban might be considered. He stated the communications regulator Ofcom “has our full support to take action in relation to this.” Under the UK’s Online Safety Act, Ofcom can seek a court order to block a website or app entirely or impose fines up to 10% of a company’s global turnover. Starmer added that the content is “unlawful” and they aren’t going to tolerate it.
The reason for the lockdown is truly chilling, but totally warranted, given the gravity of the situation
Now, Grok is trying to control the damage. Posting on X, the official Grok account confirmed, “Image generation and editing are currently limited to paying subscribers.” This means the feature is gone for almost everyone who uses the platform for free. The idea here is that paying subscribers have their full details and credit card information stored by X, which means they can be easily identified if they misuse the function.
Reports showed Grok was being used to manipulate images of women to remove their clothes or place them in sexualized positions without their consent. Even worse, research found that the tool had been used to create pornographic videos of women and images depicting women being shot and killed. Thousands of sexualized images of women have been created without their consent over the past two weeks, largely after the Grok image creation feature was updated at the end of December.
The problem appears even worse off the main X platform, which is integrated with Grok. Research by AI Forensics, a Paris-based non-profit organization, found about 800 images and videos created specifically through the Grok Imagine app that included pornographic and sexually violent content. Researcher Paul Bouchaud noted, “These are fully pornographic videos and they look professional.”
Adding to the complexity, non-paying users have reported that they can still generate sexualized imagery of women and children on the separate Grok app, which does not share images publicly. It seems like the fight to keep these powerful AI tools safe and ethical is far from over, and simply restricting the feature to paying users might not be enough to satisfy regulators.
The European Union slapped a hefty fine on X previously for violating the Digital Services Act, and a move like that is most likely required again.
Published: Jan 9, 2026 03:00 pm