Elon Musk speaks out as Grok faces global backlash over sexualized AI images

Elon Musk has reacted to the recent uproar over Grok's obscene image generations. The xAI owned chatbot has been at the center of a massive controversy with users taking advantage of the AI to create disturbing images of women and children and share them on X.

The billionaire resposted a post by a user with the caption ‘exactly’, which stated that X should not be punished for users generating bikini clad images of women.

“So what if Grok can put people in bikinis? So can photoshop? So can millions of apps already? This isn’t a new problem, it’s a new tool. If a user does it someone unconsentually, the user should be punished, not the platform.” noted the user

The comment by Musk comes as multiple countries are mulling taking action on X and Grok over the chatbot's inappropriate behaviour. Meanwhile, Grok's image editing feature has also been reportedly put behind a paywall.

Moreover, Indonesia also today became the first country to ban the chatbot over its inappropriate content generation and will also summon X officials to ask them for implementing safeguards in their platform.

Three Democrat US Senators have also asked Google and Apple to step in and ban X and Grok from their app stores until the platforms implement enough safeguards to protect their users.

India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had also sent X a formal notice over Grok's misuse and asked the company to submit a detailed Action Taken Report while removing all unlawful content.

What has Musk and X said about gross image generations via Grok?

X had said last week that it will take action against the illegal content being generated on the platform by removing it and permanently suspending the accounts. The company also said that it will be working wit local governments and law enforcement agencies when necessary.

“Anyone using or prompting Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content.” Musk had posted last week, a stance that was later reiterated officially by the platform.

The chatbot was launched to the public in 2023 and since then the company has added newer language models to compete with the rival offerings from Google, OpenAI and others. However, unlike the other AI platforms, Grok has often found itself at the centre of controversy over crossing the boundary for what it offers the users. For instance, the company had earlier added a ‘spicy mode’ to the chatbot for adult content with losser guardrails and added an ‘Ani’ persona to the app which acts as a virtual girlfriend to users.