Jan 14 (Reuters) - Elon Musk said on Wednesday he was not aware of any "naked underage images" generated by xAI's Grok chatbot, as scrutiny of the AI tool intensifies worldwide.
"I not aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok. Literally zero," Musk said in an X post.
Musk's comment on social media platform X comes as xAI and X face growing global scrutiny, including calls by lawmakers and advocacy groups for Apple and Google to drop Grok from app stores, government investigations, and bans
or legal action in countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia.
Musk reiterated that Grok is programmed to refuse illegal requests and must comply with the laws of any given country or state.
"Obviously, Grok does not spontaneously generate images, it does so only according to user requests," Musk said.
Musk has said earlier on X that anyone using Grok to make illegal content would suffer the same consequences as if they uploaded illegal content.
Three Democratic U.S. senators last week called on Apple and Alphabet's Google to remove X and its built-in AI chatbot Grok from their app stores, citing the spread of nonconsensual sexual images of women and minors on the platform.
A coalition of women's groups, tech watchdogs, and progressive activists also called on the tech giants for a similar move.
Last week, X curtailed Grok's ability to generate or edit images publicly for many users, however industry experts and watchdogs have said that Grok was still able to produce sexually explicit images, and that restrictions, such as paywalling certain features, may not fully block access to deeper AI image tools.
In the UK, the law is set to change this week to criminalize the creation of such images, and Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Wednesday that X is working to comply with the new rules.
Countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia have already blocked access to Grok and are pursuing legal action against X and Musk’s AI unit xAI, alleging failures to prevent harmful content and protect users.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru, Editing by Franklin Paul)
