Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok has limited its image editing tool to paying users amid growing concerns about deepfakes on the platform.
It comes after regulator Ofcom said it made “urgent contact” with the tech tycoon’s social media platform X, which created the integrated AI chatbot, following reports 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.
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall this week said action must be taken urgently on the issue and she 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”.
Love Island presenter Maya Jama is among those to have asked Grok not to modify or edit her photos.
Jama, who has nearly 700,000 followers on X, posted: “Hey @grok, I do not authorize you to take, modify, or edit any photo of mine, whether those published in the past or the upcoming ones I post.”
Earlier this week, the Government said it could stop using Mr Musk’s platform in protest.
Downing Street said “all options were on the table”, including a boycott of X.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “What we’ve seen on Grok is a disgrace. It is completely unacceptable.
“No-one should have to go through the ordeal of seeing intimate deepfakes of themselves online and we won’t allow the proliferation of these demeaning images.
“X needs to deal with this urgently and Ofcom has our full backing to take enforcement action wherever firms are failing to protect UK users.”
But shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith rejected the idea of boycotting or banning X.
He told the Press Association: “You’ve got to be where the debate is taking place, and that’s all social media.
“Look, let’s just be really clear: it’s not X itself or Grok that is creating those images, it’s individuals, and they should be held accountable if they’re doing something that infringes the law.”
Tech tycoon Mr 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”.
