All public image generation and editing is now limited to those who pay for X Premium. It may be designed to help track those who make illegal content.

The launch of an AI image editing feature on xAI’s Grok has caused chaos on X after it was used to generate a flood of non-consensual sexualized deepfakes. As Hayden Field wrote, “screenshots show Grok complying with requests to put real women in lingerie and make them spread their legs, and to put small children in bikinis.”

Love Island's Maya Jama has publicly asked Grok, the AI chatbot integrated into X, not to edit or modify any photos of her following recent, widespread concern around how the AI tool is being used.

On Elon Musk’s social media platform X, the Grok AI image generation reply bot has been changed to be for paying customers only and appears to be restricted from making sexualized deepfakes after recent outcry.

The restriction comes as regulators worldwide threaten enforcement action over Grok's generation of thousands of non-consensual deepfakes per hour.

Paid tools that “strip” clothes from photos have been available on the darker corners of the internet for years. Elon Musk’s X is now removing barriers to entry—and making the results public.

Grok is facing serious scrutiny after previously enabling users to generate sexually explicit visual content involving real individuals, raising concerns around personal safety, dignity, privacy, and consent.

Arpan Rai speaks to victims of Grok’s sexualised AI images in India, where there are calls for Elon Musk’s X to do much more to protect women already navigating a highly patriarchal society