Elon Musk's Grok Limits Image Generation To Paid Users on X

Elon Musk’s XAI has limited Grok's image-generation tool to paid subscribers on the X social media platform, after the tool drew condemnation for generating undressed images of women and children.

As of Friday, Grok told X users that image generation and editing are available only to paying subscribers. Those features were initially introduced on X for free with daily limits. The standalone Grok app, which operates separately from the social network, still allows users to generate pictures without subscribing. 

Grok's image-generation capabilities have gained notoriety over the past few weeks after users began asking it to edit photos of people — mostly women — to show them in bikinis. More users capitalized on the feature to create sexualized images of women and children on X. The tool was used to generate thousands of undressed images of people per hour, many without the subject’s consent. 

The Internet Watch Foundation, a body designated by the UK government to identify child sexual abuse material, said it found “criminal” images on the dark web allegedly generated by Grok. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the images as “disgraceful” and said British regulator Ofcom has the government’s “full support to take action.” 

The European Union’s executive arm ordered X to retain internal documents relating to Grok until the end of the year, a spokesperson said during a press briefing on Thursday. The EU had condemned some of the explicit images of children on the platform as illegal. 

Musk said in a post on X last week that “anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content.” Content featuring the sexualization and exploitation of children is also banned on X under its current terms of service.

X did not have a meaningful response when contacted for comment.