Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok on Friday turned off its image creation feature for non-paying users of X following backlash over its use in creating sexualised deepfakes of women and children.

Owned by Elon Musk and developed by xAI, Grok’s image-generation and editing tools have faced backlash on the social media platform X after netizens raised concerns about the chatbot generating nude images of women and children.

Musk has also been threatened with fines, and several countries have recently pushed back publicly against the tool over its creation of sexually explicit imagery.

Replying to users on Musk’s social media platform X, Grok posted: “Image generation and editing are currently limited to paying subscribers. You can subscribe to unlock these features.”

The change means many users of the tool can no longer generate or edit images using the AI. Paying customers must provide the platform with their credit card information and personal details.

The European Commission this week said the photos of undressed women and children were unlawful and on Thursday ordered X to retain all internal documents and data related to Grok until the end of 2026.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said X has “got to get a grip of this” and stated that he has asked communications regulator Ofcom “for all options to be on the table,” according to media reports. He called the images “unlawful” and said Britain was “not going to tolerate it.” France, Malaysia and India have also criticised Musk’s platform over the issue.

“Anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content,” Musk wrote on X last week in response to a post about the explicit images.

X’s official “Safety” account subsequently said it addresses illegal content on X “by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary.“

Users now have to subscribe to access image-generating features on X, which were initially rolled out for free with daily limits.

However, users can avail Grok’s image-generating and editing features for free on its separate app.

In December 2025, a controversy erupted on X after users were found exploiting Grok’s tools to edit and manipulate photographs, including digitally undressing people, including children or portraying them in minimal clothing such as bikinis.

Reuters, BBC, and other news outlets also documented numerous cases where Grok had generated sexualised images of women and minors.