As pressure mounts on AI platforms over non-consensual sexualised content, Elon Musk has moved to publicly defend Grok, the chatbot developed by his company xAI, rejecting claims that it generated explicit images involving minors.
“I am not aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok. Literally zero,” Musk wrote in a post on X on Wednesday. The post quickly went viral, drawing around million views within hours.
GROK REFUSES ILLEGAL REQUESTS, MUSK SAYS
Musk said Grok does not create images on its own and only responds to user prompts. “Obviously, Grok does not spontaneously generate images,” he wrote. “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.”
He acknowledged that attempts to exploit the system can occur, but said those issues are addressed quickly. “There may be times when adversarial hacking of Grok prompts does something unexpected,” Musk added. “If that happens, we fix the bug immediately.”
The comments come amid growing scrutiny of Grok and X over explicit AI-generated content. Last week, three Democratic US senators urged Apple and Alphabet to remove X and its built-in AI tool from their app stores, citing the spread of nonconsensual sexual images of women and minors.
Musk has earlier warned that anyone using Grok to create illegal material would face the same consequences as if they uploaded such content directly. In response to criticism, X last week limited Grok’s public image-generation features for many users.
Industry experts and watchdogs, however, have argued that Grok can still produce sexually explicit images and that measures such as paywalls may not fully restrict access to more advanced AI image tools.
WATCHDOGS QUESTION SAFEGUARDS
Regulators outside the United States are also stepping in. In the UK, new laws coming into force this week will criminalise the creation of certain AI-generated sexual images. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Wednesday that X was working to comply with the updated rules, while communications regulator Ofcom has opened an investigation into the AI tool.
Several countries, including Malaysia and Indonesia, have already blocked access to Grok and are pursuing legal action against X and xAI, alleging failures to prevent harmful content and protect users.
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