Elon Musk’s Grok is facing mounting criticism and threats of government action around the world after the artificial intelligence chatbot created sexualised images, including of minors, on the social media platform X in response to user prompts.
Malaysian authorities said in a statement on Saturday that they are investigating images produced by Grok after complaints about the misuse of AI to manipulate images of women and minors to produce indecent, grossly offensive or otherwise harmful content.
Creating or sending such harmful content is an offence under Malaysian law, the Communications and Multimedia Commission said in a statement on Saturday. The media watchdog will investigate X users alleged to have violated the law and will summon representatives from the company, it said.
“While X is not presently a licensed service provider, it has the duty to prevent dissemination of harmful content on its platform,” according to the commission’s statement.
Musk said in a post on X Sunday that the platform takes action against illegal content, including related to children, by removing it, permanently suspending accounts and working with officials as necessary.
“Anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content,” he said in the post.
Malaysia is the latest government to express growing concern over Grok. India on Friday wrote to X, ordering a comprehensive review of the AI chatbot to ensure it does not generate content containing “nudity, sexualisation, sexually explicit or otherwise unlawful content” in a copy of the letter dated January 2.