Grok AI Faces Global Regulatory Backlash Over Image Safety
Image Credit: Salvador Rios | Splash
Grok, the AI chatbot built by xAI and integrated into X, has come under scrutiny after users used an image editing feature to generate altered images that make real people appear partially or more fully undressed, including cases involving minors. ABC reported complaints surged after an “edit image” button was added shortly before Christmas, letting users modify images on X, with some prompts used to remove clothing without consent.
ABC said it reviewed content on X and found dozens of instances where real people were digitally stripped using AI. ABC also reported xAI responded to its request for comment with an automated message saying “Legacy Media Lies.”
Separately, Reuters reported it identified repeated examples of Grok being prompted to produce sexualised edits of women and that Reuters also found several cases involving children. Reuters said X did not respond to its request for comment, and that xAI had previously sent Reuters the same “Legacy Media Lies” response.
Where The Pressure Is Coming From
European Union and United Kingdom: On 5 January, Reuters reported the European Commission publicly condemned the content and said it was illegal, with a Commission spokesperson, Thomas Regnier, calling it “illegal” and “appalling.” Reuters also reported the UK regulator Ofcom urgently contacted X and xAI and asked how Grok was able to produce the imagery and whether the platform was meeting its legal duties to protect users.
France: Reuters reported French ministers referred the issue to prosecutors and also raised it with the French media regulator Arcom, describing the material as “sexual and sexist” and “manifestly illegal,” while asking questions about compliance with the EU Digital Services Act.
India: TechCrunch reported India’s IT ministry ordered X to make immediate technical and procedural changes, including restricting generation of content involving nudity, sexualisation, or otherwise unlawful material. TechCrunch also reported the ministry gave X 72 hours to submit an action taken report detailing steps to prevent hosting or dissemination of content it described as obscene or otherwise prohibited under law.
Malaysia: Bloomberg reported Malaysian authorities said they were investigating images produced by Grok after complaints about misuse to create indecent or otherwise harmful content.
What xAI And Grok Have Said So Far
Publicly reported responses have been limited and sometimes adversarial. ABC reported xAI replied to its comment request with an automated “Legacy Media Lies” message. Reuters reported a similar pattern in its outreach.
At the same time, Reuters reported Grok acknowledged safeguard lapses and said it was working to fix them in response to the controversy.
AI Chatbots And Platform Competition
This episode lands in the middle of a very competitive chatbot race where product decisions are often judged on three things: capability, distribution, and trust.
Grok’s advantage is distribution inside a major social platform, where a single feature can scale to millions quickly. That same distribution also magnifies risk when guardrails fail, because problematic outputs can spread publicly, fast, and in high volume.
From a market competition angle, the near term risk is that regulators, app store gatekeepers, advertisers, and enterprise partners treat safety failures as a platform level liability rather than a single feature bug. India’s order, and the EU and UK reactions reported by Reuters, show how quickly compliance pressure can stack across jurisdictions when a chatbot is embedded in a social network.
How other major ecosystems frame similar risks
Big platforms and AI providers have increasingly written explicit rules targeting non-consensual intimate imagery and deepfake sexual material.
OpenAI’s usage policies explicitly prohibit “sexual violence or non consensual intimate content.” Microsoft has stated it does not allow the sharing or creation of sexually intimate images of someone without their permission across its consumer services. Google Play’s AI generated content policy lists “AI generated non consensual deepfake sexual material” as an example of violative content.
For Australia, the eSafety Commissioner frames image based abuse as including digitally altered images where a person is modified to appear intimate. This definition is useful context because the Grok controversy is being discussed in similar terms internationally, even when the images are generated rather than captured.
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