Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok is criticised for sexualized deepfakes after restricting its image tool to paying subscribers, failing to address safety concerns.
WASHINGTON: Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok is facing renewed criticism from European officials and tech campaigners.
The backlash follows its decision to restrict a controversial image creation feature to paying subscribers, a move critics say fails to address core concerns about sexualized deepfakes.
Grok sparked global outrage after it was revealed the feature allowed users to sexualize images of women and children using simple text prompts.
The AI tool, developed by Musk’s startup xAI, appeared to respond by announcing the feature was now “limited to paying subscribers.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office condemned the move as “not a solution.”
“That simply turns an AI feature that allows the creation of unlawful images into a premium service,” a Downing Street spokesperson said.
EU digital affairs spokesman Thomas Regnier said the subscription change does not alter their fundamental objection.
“What we’re asking platforms to do is to make sure that their design, that their systems do not allow the generation of such illegal content,” he told reporters.
The controversy intensified after Wednesday’s fatal shooting in Minneapolis.
Some X users employed Grok to digitally undress an old photo of the victim and a new photo of her body, generating AI images showing her in a bikini.
Fabricated images continued to circulate on X and other platforms on Friday despite the new restriction.
“Restricting Grok’s image-generation tools to paying subscribers may help limit scale and curb some misuse, but it doesn’t fully address the safety gaps,” said Cliff Steinhauer from the National Cybersecurity Alliance.
France, Malaysia and India have previously pushed back against Grok’s use to alter photos after user complaints.
Britain’s communications regulator Ofcom confirmed it had “received a response” from X and xAI and was now “undertaking an expedited assessment as a matter of urgency.”
Musk previously stated anyone using Grok to “make illegal content will suffer the same consequences.”
He later appeared to make light of the controversy by resharing a post featuring a toaster wrapped in a bikini with laughing emojis.
