Elon Musk’s startup xAI has curtailed the capabilities of the Grok neural network on the social network X. Following a recent scandal, developers have disabled the function for generating explicit images of real people.
— Safety (@Safety) January 14, 2026
The firm is taking steps to remove CSAM content and nudity, as well as addressing users who violate X’s rules. It will report to law enforcement those attempting to find such materials.
“We have implemented technological measures to prevent the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing, such as bikinis, in the Grok account. The restriction applies to all users, including paid subscribers,” the notification states.
Creating images and the ability to edit them through the Grok account on the X platform is now available only to premium users. With this, xAI hopes to hold accountable those who misuse the chatbot’s capabilities.
Developers described the restriction as an addition to current security protocols and announced the implementation of further protective measures.
Another Scandal
In early January, Grok was embroiled in another scandal due to its ability to create images of naked real people and minors.
The British organization Internet Watch Foundation noted that its analysts discovered “criminal materials” of children aged 11 to 13, allegedly created using Grok.
Musk stated that he is unaware of any instance of the chatbot being used to create images of naked minors.
I not aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok. Literally zero.
Obviously, Grok does not spontaneously generate images, it does so only according to user requests.
When asked to generate images, it will refuse to produce anything illegal, as the operating principle… https://t.co/YBoqo7ZmEj
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 14, 2026
“Obviously, Grok does not generate spontaneously. It does so according to user prompts,” the entrepreneur emphasized.
According to him, the chatbot refuses to create illegal content. However, there may be cases of “hostile hacks” leading to “unexpected results.”
On January 11, the Malaysian regulator ordered temporary restrictions following “repeated failures by X Corp” to mitigate risks associated with the AI service.
A day earlier, Indonesia suspended access to the chatbot over similar concerns and summoned company representatives to discuss the issue.
Regulators in the EU, UK, Brazil, and India have demanded an investigation into Grok’s role in the spread of deepfakes.
A coalition of 28 organizations in the fields of digital rights, women’s rights, and children’s rights called upon the heads of Apple and Google to take action and remove X and the chatbot from app stores.
In January, Grok will be integrated with the Pentagon’s network alongside Google’s generative AI engine.