Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok won’t be able to edit photos to portray real people in revealing clothing in places where that is illegal, according to a statement posted on X.
The announcement late Wednesday followed a global backlash over sexualized images of women and children, including bans and warnings by some governments.
The pushback included an investigation announced Wednesday by the state of California, the U.S.’s most populous, into the proliferation of nonconsensual sexually explicit material produced using Grok that it said was harassing women and girls.
Initially, media queries about the problem drew only the response, “legacy media lies.”
Musk’s company, xAI, now says it will geoblock content if it violates laws in a particular place.
“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, underwear and other revealing attire,” it said.
The rule applies to all users, including paid subscribers, who have access to more features.
xAI also has limited image creation or editing to paid subscribers only “to ensure that individuals who attempt to abuse the Grok account to violate the law or our policies can be held accountable.”
