Deepfake porn scandal drives developers of the AI chatbot to paywall access to the controversial feature via social media platform X
Elon Musk-owned AI chatbot Grok has limited image generation feature to paying subscribers of social media platform X – following a global outcry over users being allowed to create deepfake pornography, including undressing images of women and minors.
“Image generation and editing are currently limited to paying subscribers,” the controversial AI chatbot Grok now states when asked to generate images via Musk’s social media platform X.
The chatbot also asks users to subscribe to the premium version of X to be able to use Grok to generate images on X. The prompt however, does not clarify whether there are any restrictions for premium subscribers when it comes to generating deepfake sexual images.
Grok came under fire from regulators in recent days in relation to its so-called “spicy” mode, which let users generate deepfake images of undressed women, including minors – with EU lawmakers and countries calling for a crackdown on the tech.
“This is not spicy. This is illegal,” warned the Commission’s digital spokesperson Thomas Regnier on Monday.
On Thursday, the Commission ordered X to retain all internal documents and data relating to Grok until the end of 2026 – using powers under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which designates X as subject to the EU’s strictest platform rules. However the Commission has not opened a fresh DSA probe on X in relation to the deepfake porn scandal.
Tests by Euractiv found that when Grok is accessed as a standalone AI app – rather than via X – the tool will still generate images for free based on user prompts.
X was contacted with questions but had not responded at the time of reporting.
During the Commission’s daily press briefing on Friday, digital spokesperson Thomas Regnier said that X limiting image generation to paid subscribers will not “change our fundamental issue”. “Paid subscription or non-paid subscription, we don’t want to see such images. It’s as simple as that,” he added.
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Elon Musk-owned AI assistant Grok was always designed to be edgy – even politically incorrect…
5 minutes
UPDATE: Updated at 13:58 on 9 January to include the Commission’s response
Maximilian Henning contributed reporting
(nl)
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