Elon Musk denies Grok generated sexualised images of minors
New Delhi, Jan 15
Tesla CEO and founder of AI firm xAI, Elon Musk, has said he is unaware of any instances where Grok, xAI's chatbot, generated sexualised images of underage individuals.
Musk posted on X platform that "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."
Musk's comments come after regulatory scrutiny on reports that Grok had complied with requests to digitally undress images of real people, including alleged cases involving minors.
He argued Grok only generates images in response to user prompts and is designed to refuse illegal requests, saying it "obeys the laws of any given country or state".
"When asked to generate images, it will refuse to produce anything illegal, as the operating principle for Grok is to obey the laws of any given country or state," the tech baron said.
"There may be times when adversarial hacking of Grok prompts does something unexpected. If that happens, we fix the bug immediately," he added.
X implemented new restrictions that barred Grok from editing images of real people in revealing clothing and limiting image creation and editing via the Grok account to paid subscribers.
Musk was replying to a thread which claimed "only left wing and Labour MPs and supporters" had encountered the images that triggered the outrage asking, "why are their algorithms sending it to them?". Musk dismissed suggestions that the chatbot could independently produce illegal content.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) earlier cracked down on X Corp for failing to prevent the generation and circulation of obscene, nude and indecent content on its platform.
The government directed X Corp to send an action taken report (ATR) "towards immediate compliance for prevention of hosting, generation, publication or transmission, sharing or uploading of obscene, nude, indecent and explicit content through the misuse of Al-based services like 'Grok' and xAl's other services".
— IANS
Reader Comments
Good that the government is stepping in. We can't have foreign tech giants operating here without following our laws. If there's even a hint of such content involving minors, the platform should be blocked until they prove compliance. Safety first!
Musk's point about it only generating based on user requests is technically correct, but it's a weak defense. The tool exists. If someone finds a way to misuse it, the company is responsible. Saying "we'll fix the bug" after the fact isn't enough for something this sensitive.
The part where he blames "left wing" people for encountering it is so strange and deflects from the real issue. This isn't about politics. It's about whether a powerful AI tool can be weaponized. The focus needs to stay on building robust, ethical safeguards.
As a parent, this is terrifying. Our kids are online so much. We need strong Indian regulations for AI, not just relying on promises from Silicon Valley CEOs. Jai Hind!
Restricting it to paid users is a smart move, but it's a filter, not a solution. The core AI model itself should have an unbreakable ethical boundary hardcoded against generating any harmful imagery. That's the real challenge for xAI.
We welcome thoughtful discussions from our readers. Please keep comments respectful and on-topic.