Elon Musk’s X has ‘admitted mistake’ over Grok generated obscene images, will comply with Indian law, says report

Billionaire Elon Musk-owned social media platform 'X' (formerly known as Twitter) has admitted its mistake and stated that it will comply with Indian law, ANI reported on 11 January citing government sources.

They further said that around 3,500 pieces of content were blocked, and over 600 accounts were deleted. “Going forward, X will not allow obscene imagery,” these government sources added.

The world's richest man has been the spotlight recently after his artificial intelligence chatbot Grok, which is also integrated into his social media site X, drew over concerns about AI-generated obscene content.

The IT Ministry had on 2 January directed X to immediately remove all vulgar, obscene and unlawful content, especially generated by Grok AI or face action under the law.

Govt sought measures from X amid Grok controversy

Notably, PTI on 7 January reported that the Indian government sought details from X regarding the obscene content linked to its Grok AI, including the actions taken and the steps in place to prevent such incidents from occurring again.

The Centre also noted that while the earlier response submitted by the social media platform was detailed, it was not adequate.

The response came after the X made its submissions to the IT ministry on the Centre's directive to crackdown on the misuse of Grok to generate and sharing “sexualised and obscene” images of women.

X warns users of strict action against illegal content

The company has in an official statement warned of action against illegal content on its platform, including Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). It said it would remove such content and permanently suspending the involved accounts.

Recently, the AI chatbot was responding to image altering requests with the following message: “Image generation and editing are currently limited to paying subscribers. You can subscribe to unlock these features.”

Officials worldwide concerned over sexualised images

Officials in Brazil, France, Germany, Malaysia and the United States have also called for investigations against the AI chatbot. Meanwhile, Indonesia on 10 January became the first country to temporarily block access to the chatbot.

Further, three US Senators also wrote to Apple and Google seeking removal of the app from their respective App Stores over violations of their terms, which explicitly forbid the creation of sexualized images.

What is Grok?

Grok was launched in 2023. Last summer the company added an image generator feature, Grok Imagine, that included a so-called “spicy mode” that can generate adult content.

The chatbot is free to use for X users, who can ask it questions on the social media platform. They can either tag it in posts they've directly created or in replies to posts from other users.

The separate Grok app, which is not part of the X platform, still lets people create images without a paid membership.