After legal ultimatums, X finally reins in Grok

Elon Musk’s X and xAlT have announced measures to prevent the Grok chatbot from responding to user requests to generate images of human subjects in “revealing clothing such as bikinis”, responding following weeks of outrage after the company’s services were used to virtually undress women, often children.

- Vishal Mathur

A billboard passes through London urging the UK PM to stand up to Elon Musk and ban X and Grok, on Wednesday.

(REUTERS)

In a post on Thursday, X Safety insisted the company remained “committed to making X a safe platform for everyone and continue to have zero tolerance for any forms of child sexual exploitation, non-consensual nudity, and unwanted sexual content”. The announcement outlines a seemingly three-point plan.

Grok, developed by the Elon Musk-owned xAI, is facing intense legal scrutiny globally following a deluge of non-consensual morphing of human images on the also Elon Musk-owned social media platform X. Users needed only a photo and a prompt tagging @Grok with instructions such as “put her in a bikini”.

Reports suggest many countries were contemplating banning Grok or X altogether. Over the weekend, Malaysia and Indonesia became the first countries to ban the Grok AI tool in their geographies. US regulators also queried Apple and Google about restricting these apps on their respective application stores.