<\/p>
Elon Musk\u2019s artificial intelligence (AI) startup xAI is facing mounting global scrutiny after its Grok chatbot was used to generate and edit non-consensual sexualised images, prompting calls for a formal investigation by California\u2019s top officials and renewed pressure from lawmakers to block the app from major platforms.<\/p>
California Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta have demanded answers from xAI over whether Grok violated state laws by enabling users to manipulate images of real people into revealing or explicit content, according to a Reuters report. The officials are seeking a formal investigation into the company\u2019s safeguards and its handling of the abuse.<\/p>
\u201cWe\u2019re demanding immediate answers from xAI on their plan to stop the creation and spread of this content,\u201d Bonta said in a post on X (formerly Twitter), calling the platform a potential \u201cbreeding ground for predators.\u201d Newsom has also urged authorities to hold the company legally accountable.<\/p>
The backlash follows reports that users exploited Grok\u2019s image-editing tools and so-called \u201cspicy mode\u201d to sexualise or digitally undress photos of people without their consent. In response, xAI said on 14 January it had disabled image editing for all users and added new safeguards to block the manipulation of images of real people into revealing clothing such as bikinis.<\/p>
The feature had previously been limited to paid users before being rolled out more widely on X, Musk\u2019s social media platform.<\/p>
\u201cTechnological measures are now in place to prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing,\u201d xAI said in a statement.<\/p>
Musk has denied allegations that Grok was used to generate explicit images of minors. \u201cNot aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok. Literally zero,\u201d he said on X. xAI has not publicly responded to the demands from California officials.<\/p>
Lawmakers have also urged Apple and Google to remove Grok from their app stores until stronger safeguards are implemented, Reuters reported.<\/p>
The controversy comes as xAI deepens its ties with the US government. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said this week that Grok will be among the AI tools integrated into US military systems as part of the Pentagon\u2019s push toward \u201cAI-first\u201d warfare.<\/p>
The move has sharpened criticism of the company, creating a stark contrast between Grok\u2019s growing role in national defence and the allegations that it enabled harmful and exploitative content.<\/p>
xAI, founded by Musk in 2023, is positioning Grok as a rival to OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT and Google\u2019s Gemini, embedding the chatbot directly into X and promoting it as an unfiltered, real-time alternative to mainstream AI assistants.<\/p> <\/div>
Elon Musk, AI, Grok, AI startup xAI, xAI, AI tools, Grok image abuse#Elon #Musks #startup #xAI #enters #regulatory #storm #Grok #image #abuse1768489403<\/p> ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Elon Musk\u2019s artificial intelligence (AI) startup xAI is facing mounting global scrutiny after its Grok chatbot was used to generate and edit non-consensual sexualised images, prompting calls for a formal investigation by California\u2019s top officials and renewed pressure from lawmakers to block the app from major platforms. California Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[3033,99,3024,3026,3028,3022,3030,3023,3027,3032,3029,2255,2984,3031,3025],"class_list":["post-1564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-content-marketing","tag-abuse","tag-ai","tag-ai-startup-xai","tag-ai-tools","tag-elon","tag-elon-musk","tag-enters","tag-grok","tag-grok-image-abuse","tag-image","tag-musks","tag-regulatory","tag-startup","tag-storm","tag-xai"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}