- Elon Musk defends Grok AI
- Insists he never created certain types of images
- The United Kingdom has not finished investigating the platform
Elon Musk said he was aware of “literally zero” images of nude miners generated by Grok AI, in an article published Wednesday on X.
These are the first public comments, beyond emojis, that the CEO of X has made on the controversy, although it does little to satisfy critics.
Grok AI ran into trouble last week after PK Press Club reported that the Grok AI platform, accessible separately and through X, was “flooding” X with “sexualized photos of women and minors.” It’s not news that Grok can generate racy images from prompts. Musk has posted his share of idealized images of women in bustiers, but these allegations go further.
In the report, PK Press Club told the story of a woman whose photo with her cat was transformed by a prompt from Grok into an image of her in a tiny bikini. Some also claim that Grok generates images of sexualized minors.
The report and growing concerns led to Grok AI being banned in Malaysia and Indonesia, and Britain’s OFCOM launched an investigation into X. X and Musk have never directly responded to the allegations (until now), but he has already taken steps to stop the flow of such images. Image generation has, for example, been placed behind the Grok AI paywall (an action that some say does not solve the problem). And The Telegraph reported that Grok AI would ignore requests to create these types of images.
Musk’s comments (below), however, appear to oppose an accusation never made: the creation of nude images of minors:
[I’m] I am not aware of any images of naked minors generated by Grok. Literally zero.
Obviously, Grok does not spontaneously generate images, it only does so based on user requests.
When asked to generate images, it will refuse to produce anything illegal, as Grok’s operating principle is to obey the laws of a given country or state.
Sometimes adversarial hacking of Grok prompts will do something unexpected. If this happens, we fix the bug immediately.
Musk also makes a point that is true for virtually all generative AI platforms: They don’t generate images without prompting. Users write the prompts and ask Grok to remove his clothes and replace them with bikinis.
Musk’s statement about refusing to create illegal images aligns with Musk’s previous statements on free speech: his platforms will follow the law, and he added in a 2022 X article: “I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law.”
This last element is perhaps why Grok AI violated some commonly understood content standards. Grok AI is generally a platform that will happily flout intellectual property laws. In general, he has a more sarcastic personality and is more open to a wider variety of prompts. But with the realization that Grok AI may not have known where to draw the line, that position is now clearly changing.
Is it changing fast enough?
Trust but verify
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer previously called Grok AI “disgusting” and, although visibly pleased that Grok AI had taken steps to stop the flow of these images, he has, according to the BBC, maintained a hard line.
“If that is the case, that is welcome, but we are not going to back down and they must act. We will take the necessary action. We will strengthen existing laws and prepare legislation if it needs to go further, and Ofcom will continue its independent investigation.”
We’re unlikely to hear a more in-depth response from Elon Musk, whose final point is that, perhaps, some of what we saw was due to “adversarial hacking” that leads to “something unexpected.” In other words, easily fixable bugs.
This week hasn’t been all bad news for X and Grok AI. Even as other countries investigate and ban X and its AI platform, the US Department of Defense has announced a plan to integrate Grok AI into its own networks. This should be…interesting.
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