Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot has restricted a few of its Imagine image generation options to paid X subscribers, days after worldwide uproar over the AI instrument responded to consumer requests by “digitally undressing” folks, together with youngsters.
The change seems to have occurred between Thursday and Friday. Grok’s X account responds to non-subscriber requests for pictures with the message: “Image generation and editing are currently limited to paying subscribers,” and features a hyperlink to subscribe.
But the restriction applies to only one manner X customers can work together with Grok. An “edit image” button on pictures uploaded to X permits any consumer to use Grok and edit the image. And image and video generation remains to be supplied free of charge by Grok’s standalone web site and app. The restriction seems to solely apply to the function the place customers tag Grok in an X submit with a request, which Grok then complies with in a public X submit.
NCS beforehand reported that within the weeks main up to the development exploding on X, Musk had expressed frustration over Grok Imagine’s guardrails in a gathering at xAi. Three key staffers of xAI’s security group, together with its head of product security, additionally left the corporate within the weeks main up to the controversy.
Officials within the United Kingdom, European Union, Malaysia and India have expressed considerations about Grok’s guardrails and the way it leads to what many contemplate to be deepfake porn.
A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer slammed the newest transfer by X, saying it “simply turns an AI feature that allows the creation of unlawful images into a premium service,” in accordance to the BBC.
While the controversy over the digital undressing was at its peak on X, the positioning’s leaders — together with Musk and head of product Nikita Bier — boasted that X was experiencing a few of its highest charges of engagement ever.
xAI additionally announced this week it had accomplished its Series E funding spherical, exceeding the $15 billion focused spherical dimension and elevating $20 billion from buyers.
A spokesperson for X didn’t instantly reply to NCS’s request for remark.