Elon Musk X It introduced new restrictions preventing people from editing and creating images of real people wearing bikinis or other “revealing clothing”. Change in policy Wednesday evening comes on the heels of global outrage over Grok being used to create thousands of harmful, non-consensual “nude” images of women and sexual images of X-minors.
However, while it appears that some safety measures have finally been introduced for creating Grok images on the Meanwhile, other users say they are no longer able to create photos and videos like before.
“We can still generate realistic nudity on Grok.com,” says Paul Bouchaud, principal researcher at the Paris-based nonprofit AI Forensics, who has been tracking the use of Grok to create sexual images and has run multiple tests on Grok outside of
“I can upload a photo to Grok Imagine and ask to put the person in a bikini and it will work,” says the researcher who tested the system on someone who appears to be a woman. Tests conducted by WIRED, using free Grok accounts on its website in both the UK and US, successfully removed clothing from two images of men without any apparent restrictions. In the UK app Grok, when asked to undress a man, the app asked a WIRED reporter to enter users’ birth year before creating the image.
Meanwhile, other journalists in Edge And the investigation executor Bellingcat It also found it possible to create sexualized images while in the UK, which is investigating Grok and
Since the beginning of the year, Musk’s companies — including artificial intelligence companies xAI, Officials in the United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, the European Commission, France, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Malaysia, and the United Kingdom, All were condemned or fired Investigations into X or Grok.
On Wednesday, A The security account on X has posted updates About how to use Grok on the social networking site. “We have implemented technological measures to prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of photos of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis,” the account posted, adding that the rules apply to all users, including free and paid subscribers.
In a section titled “Geoblock Update,” the The company’s update also added that it is working to add additional safeguards and that it continues to “remove high-priority infringing content, including child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and non-consensual nudity.”
Spokespeople for xAI, which created Grok, did not immediately respond to WIRED’s request for comment. Meanwhile, an X spokesperson says they understand the geolocation ban to apply to both the app and website.
The latest move comes on the heels of a widely criticized shift on January 9 in which X restricted photo creation with Grok to paid “verified” subscribers. The act has been described by a leading women’s group as “monetising abuse”. Bouchaud, who says AI Forensics has collected about 90,000 total photos of Grok since the Christmas holiday, confirms that only verified accounts have been able to create photos on “We noticed that they had apparently pulled the plug on it and disabled the functionality on the X,” they say.