Last Friday, the Indian government issued a stern notice to the Musk-led social media platform X, demanding the immediate removal of all vulgar, obscene, and unlawful content, specifically that generated by Grok, or face legal action. X has submitted its response to the IT Ministry today and the government has requested further details from X, specifically regarding actions taken against obscene content linked to its Grok AI and the measures being implemented to prevent future occurrences.
While the response submitted by the firm was detailed, sources stated on Wednesday that it was deemed inadequate.
X was granted an extension until Wednesday at 5:00 PM to submit a comprehensive Action Taken Report. This extension followed a stern warning issued to the Elon Musk-led platform regarding the proliferation of indecent and sexually explicit content created via Grok and other integrated AI tools.
Growing worldwide backlash
Elon Musk's AI chatbot, Grok, is facing severe backlash from governments worldwide following a surge in non-consensual, sexualised images of women and children generated by the tool. On Tuesday, Britain's top technology official joined the outcry, demanding that X take urgent action, while a Polish lawmaker cited the controversy as a primary reason to enact stricter digital safety laws. The European Union's executive arm has also denounced Grok, while officials and regulators in France, Malaysia, and Brazil have condemned the platform and called for formal investigations.
The rising alarm across these disparate nations highlights the "nightmarish potential" of "nudification" apps that leverage artificial intelligence to generate sexually explicit deepfake images.
The mechanics of image generation
The controversy emerged following last year's launch of Grok Imagine, an AI generator that allows users to create videos and images via text prompts. The tool includes a so-called “spicy mode” capable of generating adult content.
The issue snowballed late last month when Grok apparently began granting a high volume of user requests to modify images posted by others. As of Tuesday, users were still able to generate images of women using prompts such as, “put her in a transparent bikini.”
Experts suggest the problem is amplified for two reasons: Musk markets his chatbot as an "edgier" alternative to rivals that have stricter safeguards, and Grok’s generated images are publicly visible, making them easy to spread.
Alarming findings
The nonprofit group AI Forensics released a report after analyzing 20,000 images generated by Grok between December 25 and January 1. They found that 2 percent of the images depicted individuals who appeared to be 18 or younger. This included 30 instances of young or very young women and girls portrayed in bikinis or transparent clothing.
The Indian government’s ultimatum
On Friday, India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) issued an ultimatum to X, demanding the removal of all “unlawful content" and action against offending users. The Ministry also ordered the company to review Grok's "technical and governance framework" and submit a report on its corrective measures.
The ministry accused Grok of “gross misuse” of AI and cited serious failures in its safeguards and enforcement for allowing the generation and sharing of “obscene images or videos of women in derogatory or vulgar manner in order to indecently denigrate them".
The ministry warned that failure to comply within a 72-hour deadline would expose the company to significant legal consequences.
