X adds automatic translation and AI photo editing

Social media platform X is launching automatic translation worldwide alongside a new photo editor that features natural language image modification capabilities. Both of these new features are powered by Grok, the artificial intelligence model developed by xAI, the AI company founded by Elon Musk. The updates represent a push by the company to make the in-app experience better for its users.

On late Tuesday, X’s head of product Nikita Bier announced the worldwide rollout of the automatic translation feature. To manage the feature, users can tap on a gear icon on a translated post and toggle off automatic translation for that particular language.

Alongside translation, X is rolling out the new image editor to its iOS app. The update includes standard features like drawing and text tools, as well as a blur tool that lets users hide certain details, such as faces or sensitive information like credit card or Social Security numbers, from an image. Additionally, the platform is enabling users to ask Grok to edit an image with a natural language prompt. For instance, a user can ask the model to “display this photo as a painting in a museum,” and Grok will generate that picture.

While X plans to bring these updates to its Android app soon, it is not clear if the new AI-powered image-editing feature will be limited to paid users. The uncertainty around potential paid-tier restrictions follows previous controversies on the platform. Earlier this year, Elon Musk was heavily criticized by authorities around the world for allowing users to edit someone else’s images into a sexualized version without their consent. The company subsequently restricted its image-generation features to paying users.

By introducing these natural language editing capabilities, X is following a product path already established by other major technology firms. Multiple companies, such as Google and Adobe, have previously introduced AI-powered features that let users describe image edits. Other social networks have also tried this playbook to make posts reach a broader audience; for example, Reddit has been experimenting with machine translation for the last few years.

Why it matters

X is integrating its AI stack to improve the in-app experience, aiming to retain users by matching features found in competing creative and social tools.