Tech billionaire Elon Musk's social media platform X, on Wednesday, announced new restrictions on its AI chatbot Grok to prevent it from undressing images of real people.
The new set of measures comes following global backlash over Grok's generation of sexualized photos of women and children.
"We have implemented technological measures to prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis," the company's safety team said in a statement, adding that the restrictions applied to all users, including paid subscribers.
"We now geoblock the ability of all users to generate images of real people in bikinis, underwear, and similar attire via the Grok account and in Grok in X in those jurisdictions where it's illegal," the statement said.
xAI, Musk's AI enterprise, which built Grok, has limited image creation and editing to paid subscribers to prevent anonymous users from abusing the tool.
An analysis of over 20,000 Grok-generated images, published by Paris nonprofit AI Forensics last week, found that more than half the images showed individuals in "minimal attire."
Most of these individuals were women and 2% appeared to be minors.
Several governments put pressure on xAI to modify Grok after its so-called "Spicy Mode" allowed users to create sexually explicit images with simple prompts such as "remove her clothes" or "put her in underwear."
"The avalanche of reports detailing the non-consensual, sexually explicit material that xAI has produced and posted online in recent weeks is shocking," California Attorney General Rob Bonta said earlier Wednesday.
An investigation in California will now determine if the company violated state law, Bonta said. Britain's Ofcom media regulator had announced a similar probe on Monday.
The European Commission, which acts as the bloc's digital watchdog, had also sharply criticized xAI.
Prior to X's statement, the Commission said it had taken note of the "additional measures X is taking to ban Grok from generating sexualised images of women and children."
"We will carefully assess these changes to make sure they effectively protect citizens in the EU," European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said in a statement.
Indonesia, on Saturday, became the first country to block Grok. Malaysia followed suit on Sunday.
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