India has issued a directive to Elon Musk’s X regarding immediate changes needed for its AI chatbot Grok after concerns were raised about the generation of inappropriate content, including AI-altered images of women.
On Friday, the IT ministry in India instructed Musk’s X to make necessary corrections to Grok, specifically restricting the creation of content that involves nudity, sexualization, or any other unlawful material. The ministry gave the social media platform 72 hours to provide a report detailing the actions taken to prevent the hosting or dissemination of obscene, pornographic, or otherwise prohibited content.
Failure to comply with the directive could put X’s “safe harbor” protections at risk, which provide legal immunity for user-generated content under Indian law.
This move by India follows complaints from users who observed Grok altering images, particularly of women, to make them appear as if they were wearing bikinis. Indian parliamentarian Priyanka Chaturvedi lodged a formal complaint about this issue. Additionally, there were reports of the AI chatbot generating sexualized images involving minors due to lapses in safeguards. X acknowledged this issue and removed the inappropriate images.
Despite the removal of certain images, JS found that AI-altered images of women wearing bikinis were still accessible on X at the time of publication.
Recently, the Indian IT ministry issued a broader advisory to social media platforms, emphasizing the importance of complying with local laws concerning obscene and sexually explicit content to maintain legal immunity. The advisory urged companies to enhance internal safeguards to avoid legal repercussions under Indian IT and criminal laws.
Non-compliance with these regulations could lead to legal action against X under Indian laws governing IT and criminal offenses.
India, being a significant digital market, is setting a precedent for how governments hold platforms accountable for AI-generated content. Any strict enforcement in India could have implications for global technology companies operating in various jurisdictions.
This development comes as X challenges some aspects of India’s content regulation rules in court, arguing against potential government overreach. Despite this, X has complied with most blocking directives. Grok has also gained popularity among X users for real-time fact-checking and news commentary, making its content more visible and politically sensitive than traditional AI tools.
As of now, X and xAI have not responded to requests for comment on the Indian government’s directive.