Elon Musk Denies Criticism of X as Excuse for Censorship

Controversy Surrounds X's AI Tool Grok

Elon Musk has stated that critics of his social media platform X are looking for "any excuse for censorship" in light of reports concerning the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Grok generating sexualized images of individuals, including children, without consent. Ofcom has announced an urgent assessment of the situation, supported by the Secretary of Technology, Liz Kendall, who described the sexual manipulation of images of women and children as "deplorable and abhorrent." She added that she expects an update from Ofcom in "a few days."

Recently, X restricted the use of its AI image generation feature to only those who pay a monthly subscription fee, a change Downing Street has deemed "insulting" to victims of sexual violence. The BBC presented multiple examples of the free AI tool revealing women and placing them in sexual situations without their consent. Ashley St Clair, the mother of one of Musk's children, claimed that Grok generated sexualized photographs of her as a child. The conservative influencer stated that her image was "stripped" to appear "practically naked, bent over," despite her telling Grok that she did not consent to sexualized images. St Clair, who sued Musk last year for sole custody of their child, accused him of the platform not taking sufficient measures to combat illegal content, including images of child sexual abuse.

As of Friday morning, Grok informed users requesting modifications to uploaded images on X that "image generation and editing are currently limited to paying subscribers," adding that users "may subscribe to unlock these features."