Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, which is facing the heat worldwide for creating and circulating obscene and sexually explicit content allegedly generated or amplified through its Artificial Intelligence tool, Grok, has admitted to the Indian government its mistake in failing to moderate content, and promised to abide by Indian laws, said official sources.
According to the sources, around 3,500 pieces of obscene content have been blocked, and over 600 accounts deleted.
The platform has also assured that it will not allow obscene imagery going forward and that it will operate in accordance with regulations.
Last week, the Ministry of Electronics and Infromation Technology (MeitY) sent a notice to Chief Compliance Officer of X Corp (Formerly Twitter), India Operations, and sought a detailed action taken report (ATR) within 72 hours towards immediate compliance or prevention of hosting, generation, publication, transmission, sharing or uploading of obscene, nude, indecent and sexually explicit content through the misuse of AI-based services like Grok and x AI’s other services.
Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi strongly criticised X for not stopping problematic and sexualised image generation through Grok altogether, and instead only restricting it to paid users.
Calling it a “shameful use of AI”, Chaturvedi said the platform appears to be monetising reprehensible behaviour under the guise of creativity and innovation, and putting women and children at risk by allowing unauthorised misuse of their images.
Also Read: Musk’s Grok AI restricts image generation after deepfake backlash
“It is unfortunate to see how, instead of altogether stopping problematic, sexualised image generation through Grok, the platform has restricted its use to paid users. So if you show the platform the money, they won’t care about the guidelines or guardrails honey. This effectively means that women or children images can be up for unauthorised misuse by perverts. This isn’t creating a safe space for women, but rather @XCorpIndia monetising this reprehensible pervert behaviour under the garb of creativity and innovation. Shameful use of AI,” she posted on X.
Earlier on January 1, Chaturvedi wrote to the Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, raising concerns over the alleged misuse of artificial intelligence tools on social media platforms to post objectionable images of women using fake accounts.
In the letter, Chaturvedi said she sought government intervention in a new trend on social media, especially on X, that involves the misuse of AI Grok feature in which men are using fake accounts to post women’s photos and pushing out prompts to Grok to minimise their clothing and sexualise them.
“It is not just limited to sharing photos through fake accounts, but are also targeting women who post their own photos. This is unacceptable and a gross misuse of an Al function,” she wrote, adding that it is a breach of women’s right to privacy as well as unauthorised use of their pictures, “which is not just unethical but also criminal”.
She further urged Vaishnaw to take decisive action against the social media platform X and to implement safeguards in AI-driven tools to ensure women’s safety online.
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