SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 14 — Elon Musk has said that 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," he said in an X (formerly Twitter) post on Wednesday.
His remarks come 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 like Malaysia and Indonesia.
Musk reiterated that Grok is programmed to refuse illegal requests and must comply with the laws of the country or state in which it operates.
"Obviously, Grok does not spontaneously generate images; it does so only according to user requests," he said.
Previously, Musk said that anyone using Grok to create illegal content would face the same consequences as if they uploaded it.
Last week, three Democratic United States senators 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 said Grok was still able to produce sexually explicit images, and that restrictions, such as paywalling certain features, may not fully block access to more advanced AI image tools.
In the United Kingdom, the law is set to change this week to criminalise the creation of such images. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that X is working to comply with the new rules.
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.
