Musk's Grok Curbs Ai Image Editing Usage After Deepfakes Backlash

LONDON, Jan 9 (Bernama-PA Media/dpa) -- Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok has limited its image editing tool to paying users amid growing concerns about deepfakes on the platform, PA Media/dpa reported.

The move comes after British regulator Ofcom said it made “urgent contact” with the tech tycoon’s social media platform X, which created the integrated AI chatbot, following reports that users have prompted the tool to generate sexualised images of people, including children.

Grok is now telling people making such requests that only paid subscribers are able to do so, meaning their name and payment information must be on file.

United Kingdom (UK) Technology Secretary Liz Kendall this week said action must be taken urgently on the issue, and backed Ofcom to take “any enforcement action” deemed necessary.

An internet safety organisation said its analysts have confirmed the existence of “criminal imagery of children aged between 11 and 13 which appears to have been created using the (Grok) tool”.

The Internet Watch Foundation said the material was being shared in a dark web forum by users “boasting how they had used Grok, and how easy it had been.

Earlier this week, the UK government said it could stop using Musk’s platform in protest.

Downing Street said “all options were on the table”, including a boycott of X.

Tech tycoon Musk has previously insisted, “anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they uploaded illegal content.

X has said it takes action against illegal content, including child sexual abuse material, “by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary.”

-- BERNAMA-PA MEDIA/dpa