Musk’s Grok chatbot restricts image generation to paying users after deepfakes backlash; not enough, say govts

The Elon Musk-owned X Corp has turned off the image-generation and editing features of its Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool for nonpaying users, following a global backlash, including from the Indian government, over the use of Grok to generate sexualised content.

- STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE

Grok, which can be accessed through the X (formerly Twitter) social media platform, on Friday responded to image altering requests with the message: “Image generation and editing are currently limited to paying subscribers. You can subscribe to unlock these features.” The abuse of Grok by users to generate sexualised imagery, including deepfakes, particularly of women and children, had provoked a global backlash, with several governments pushing back and opening investigations.

India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had last week issued a notice to X Corp for its failure to follow statutory due diligence and obligations under Indian law in relation to obscene, indecent and sexually explicit content generated and shared using its artificial intelligence (AI) tools.