{"id":224752,"date":"2026-01-09T09:19:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T09:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/224752\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T09:19:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T09:19:07","slug":"grok-turns-off-image-generator-for-most-users-after-outcry-over-sexualised-ai-imagery-grok-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/224752\/","title":{"rendered":"Grok turns off image generator for most users after outcry over sexualised AI imagery | Grok AI"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Grok, Elon Musk\u2019s AI tool, has switched off its image creation function for the vast majority of users after widespread outcry over its use to create sexually explicit and violent imagery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The move comes after Musk was threatened with fines, regulatory action and reports of a possible <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2026\/jan\/09\/grok-ai-create-sexually-violent-videos-featuring-women-research-finds\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ban on X in the UK<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The tool had been used to manipulate images of women to remove their clothes and put them in sexualised positions. The function to do so has been switched off except for paying subscribers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Posting on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/twitter\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">X<\/a>, Musk\u2019s social media network, Grok said: \u201cImage generation and editing are currently limited to paying subscribers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">This means the vast majority of users of the platform cannot create images using Grok, and those who do have their full details and credit card information stored by X, so can be identified if the function is misused.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Research revealed by the Guardian found it had been used to create pornographic videos of women without their consent as well as images of women being shot and killed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Musk is facing the threat of regulatory action from around the world after Grok was used to create nonconsensual sexual imagery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister, on Wednesday threatened to take strong action against the social media company.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">He demanded X \u201cget a grip\u201d of the deluge of AI-created photos of partially clothed women and children on the platform, describing the content as \u201cdisgraceful\u201d and \u201cdisgusting\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Starmer said the communications regulator Ofcom \u201chas our full support to take action in relation to this\u201d He added: \u201cIt\u2019s unlawful. We\u2019re not going to tolerate it. I\u2019ve asked for all options to be on the table. It\u2019s disgusting. X need to get their act together and get this material down. We will take action on this because it\u2019s simply not tolerable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Thousands of sexualised images of women have been created without their consent over the past two weeks, after the Grok image creation feature was updated at the end of December. Musk has faced repeated public calls to remove or restrict the feature, but until now the social media app has not acted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">X has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Grok, Elon Musk\u2019s AI tool, has switched off its image creation function for the vast majority of users&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-224752","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}