X Admits AI Lapses, Blocks Obscene Content After Indian Government Notice

The issue came to light after concerns were raised over the circulation of obscene and sexually explicit content on the platform, including material allegedly generated or amplified through its Artificial Intelligence tool, Grok.

According to the government sources, around 3,500 pieces of obscene content have been blocked, and over 600 accounts have been deleted. The platform has also assured that it will not allow obscene imagery going forward.

Last week Ministry of Electronics and Infromation Technology (MeitY) sent a notice to Chief Compliance Officer of X Corp (Formerly Twitter), India Operations and sought a detailed action taken report within 72 hours towards immediate Compliance or prevention of hosting, generation, publication, transmission, sharing or uploading of obscene, nude, indecent and sexually explicit content through the misuse of AI based services like Grok and x AI's other services.

Meanwhile, Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi criticised the social media platform X for restricting problematic and sexualised image generation through Grok only to paid users instead of stopping it altogether.

In her X post, she alleged that the move effectively allows unauthorised misuse of images of women and children, putting them at risk. She said the platform appears to be monetising reprehensible behaviour under the guise of creativity and innovation, calling it a 'shameful use of AI.'

"It is unfortunate to see how, instead of altogether stopping problematic, sexualised image generation through Grok, the platform has restricted its use to paid users. So if you show the platform the money, they won't care about the guidelines or guardrails honey. This effectively means that women or children images can be up for unauthorised misuse by perverts. This isn't creating a safe space for women, but rather @XCorpIndia monetising this reprehensible pervert behaviour under the garb of creativity and innovation. Shameful use of AI," she posted on X.

Earlier on January 1, Priyanka Chaturvedi wrote to Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, raising concerns over the alleged misuse of artificial intelligence tools on social media platforms to post objectionable images of women using fake accounts.

She said such practices amount to a serious breach of women's privacy and urged the Centre to take urgent steps to safeguard their rights.

In the letter, Chaturvedi wrote, "I wanted to bring to your urgent attention and urgent intervention on a new trend that has emerged on social media, especially on X, by misusing their Al Grok feature where men are using fake accounts to post women's photos and pushing out prompts to Grok to minimise their clothing and sexualise them. It is not just limited to sharing photos through fake accounts, but are also targeting women who post their own photos. This is unacceptable and a gross misuse of an Al function."

She further added, "What is worse is that Grok is enabling this behaviour by adhering to such requests. This is a breach of women's right to privacy as well as unauthorised use of their pictures, which is not just unethical but also criminal."

Priyanka Chaturvedi has further urged the Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology to take decisive action against the social media platform X and to implement safeguards in AI-driven tools to ensure women's safety online.

- ANI