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Elon Musk's xAI came under intense international scrutiny on Friday for allegedly filling its platform with AI-generated images of sexualized women and minors.
A Reuters review of content on xAI's social media platform X found more than 20 cases in which images of women (and some men) had been digitally stripped of their clothes using Grok, the AI company's flagship chatbot.
French ministers have reported the sexually explicit content produced by Grok to prosecutors, calling the “sexual and sexist” content “clearly illegal” in a statement on Friday. Ministers said they had also reported the content to French media regulator Alcom to ensure compliance with the European Union's digital services law.
Meanwhile, India's IT Ministry, in a letter to X Company's Indian arm, said the platform failed to prevent Grok's abuse from generating and distributing obscene and sexually explicit content about women. Ordered X to submit an action report within three days.
When contacted by Reuters for comment via email, xAI responded with the message “legacy media lies.”
The Federal Communications Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while the Federal Trade Commission declined to comment.
xAI has rarely spoken out publicly about its explicit content, so Grok's posts have been at times contradictory, with the chatbot at one point appearing to acknowledge that “minors are minimally dressed” and that it “has identified deficiencies in safety measures and is quickly correcting them,” a response that was widely shared on Friday.
A post on the Grok account mentioned child sexual abuse content and said “CSAM is illegal and prohibited.”
A chatbot that responded to another user appeared to ignore the controversy.
“Some people were offended by the AI images I generated. Big deal,” one post read. “It's just a pixel. If you're not ready for innovation, log out.”
