India Takes on AI Misuse: Govt Notice to X After MP's Plea for Women's Safety

In a self-made video, Sena UBT MP Priyanka Chaturvedi also expressed her gratitude to the public and media platforms for raising and covering this issue, saying that she received "tremendous support" from the public and media.

"When I wrote this letter, I received tremendous support from the public. I would like to thank the media for raising their voice and covering this issue. Most importantly, I would like to thank IT Ministry and IT Minister for prioritising this matter and sending a notice to X. With this, all other big tech firms will understand that when it comes to accountability and women's equality, we will continue to raise our voice and expect the government to take actions on it," Chaturvedi said.

"72 hours have been given to them to take down all the images, list all the laws they have violated and they have also been asked for an audit report. It has also been said to bring changes in AI tools are necessary. I hope that X takes action on this and make it a safe space for women. Safe space for women is everyone's responsibility worldwide, and I am proud that today our country and government responded on this matter because we prioritised this issue and I raised this issue," she added.

Condemning the alleged misuse of artificial intelligence tools, the Sena UBT MP termed it as "blatant violation" of women's rights and a "major attack" on their dignity.

She said, "X platform has an AI tool called Grok. This is a helpful and informative tool that can be used for good purposes. However, it was being misused, fake accounts were created and women's photos were misused without their permission or consent. Grok was being given prompts to display these women's photos in a nude or semi-nude state, and Grok, instead of not responding to it or discouraging it, Grok was responding, displaying the women's photos in that manner. This is a blatant violation of women's rights, a major attack on their dignity, and many such photos have surfaced which were being misused."

Priyanka Chaturvedi further said, "Women who were objecting to it, were asked to not to share their photos on this platform. First up of all, women can share their photos anywhere and anytime and if photos are misused, it will be considered a criminal act, and action will be taken. There will be consequences for this misuse. Women have the same rights as men, and wherever women have faced disadvantages, our efforts should be directed towards ensuring that such people, such ill-intentioned individuals, are held accountable."

"Another important point is that the guardrails are missing in AI tools... The third important point is that if these platforms, whether it's Google, Meta, X, or Microsoft, are growing in AI sector and using these mechanisms, then they also have a responsibility to properly implement these safeguards," she added.

Chaturvedi had written a letter to Union Minister Vaishnaw, raising concerns over the alleged misuse of artificial intelligence tools on social media platforms to post objectionable images of women using fake accounts.

Following this, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) wrote to X over "failure to observe statutory due diligence obligations" under the Information Technology Act, 2000 and other relevant laws and sought an Action Taken Report towards immediate compliance for prevention of hosting, generation and uploading of obscene, nude, indecent and sexually explicit content "through the misuse of AI-based services like 'Grok' and xAI's other services".

In a letter to the Chief Compliance Officer, X Corp, India Operations, MeitY advised the social media platform to strictly desist from the hosting, displaying, uploading, publication, transmission, storage, sharing of any content that is obscene, pornographic, vulgar, indecent, sexually explicit, paedophilic, or otherwise prohibited under any law for the time being in force in any manner whatsoever.

- ANI