Elon Musk’s Grok restricted image creation to paying users

American billionaire Elon Musk’s the artificial intelligence bot Grok has closed the image creation feature for free users in the messaging service X.

The artificial intelligence company xAI, which owns X, restricted the feature on Friday after AI has been used in recent weeks to create sexually-tinged images, particularly of women and children.

Users have asked the artificial intelligence, among other things, to edit pictures of clothed women in such a way that the clothes have been replaced by revealing bikinis. The pictures have caused widespread criticism.

As of Friday, Grok responded to users trying to create images on X that “image creation and editing is currently limited to paying subscribers.” News agency Bloomberg’s however, creating images without a subscription is still possible in Grok’s separate application.

The change means that the personal and credit card information of users of Grok’s image tool will become known to X.

European the spokesperson of the commission stated according to news agency AFP on Thursday that the sexually colored images of women and children created with Grok’s tool are illegal and cannot be accepted. The commission announced that X must keep all data related to the use of the artificial intelligence bot until the end of the current year.

Also the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has, according to media reports, called the images illegal. According to Starmer, Britain will not tolerate X’s actions.

In addition, at least France, India and Malaysia have criticized X on the issue, AFP says.

The British Prime Minister’s Office announced on Friday that restricting the image function to paying users is not yet enough to solve the problem.

“The move simply turns the AI ​​feature that allows the creation of illegal images into a premium service. It’s not a solution,” Starmer’s spokesperson said at a press conference on Friday.

X has not commented on the recent criticism of the image tool. Last week, Elon Musk wrote in his message on X that “anyone who uses Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they downloaded illegal content”.

X’s current terms of use prohibit content containing the sexualization and exploitation of children.

Grokin the criticism directed at the image tool is based on the drastic increase in the number of sexually tinged images. In a short time, X has become by far the most popular site for creating those images.

Social media researcher Genevieve Oh’n according to a recent analysis, Grok produced around 6,700 sexually-tinged or nude images per hour during the 5th-6th. January.

Five other similar sites averaged just 79 such images per hour over the same period.

Also xAI’s competitor Open AI plans eroticism as a selling point for its artificial intelligence. Open AI plans to introduce an “adult mode” on Chat GPT in the first quarter of this year, Bloomberg tells.