‘It will refuse to produce anything illegal’: Elon Musk rails against Grok backlash, but UK Prime Minister says ‘we’re not going to back down’

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Elon Musk defends Grok AI
Insists it never created certain kinds of images
The UK is not done investigating the platform

Elon Musk said that he's aware of "literally zero" naked underage images generated by Grok AI, in a Wednesday post on X.

It's the first public comments beyond emojis the X CEO has made on the controversy, though it may do little to satisfy critics.

Grok AI ran into trouble last week after Reuters reported that the Grok AI platform, which is 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, Reuters recounted the story of a woman whose photo with her cat was transformed by a Grok prompt of an image of her in a tiny bikini. There are also claims that Grok is generating images of sexualized minors.

The report and growing concern led to Grok AI being banned in Malaysia and Indonesia, and the UK's OFCOM launching an investigation into X. X and Musk never directly addressed the allegations (until now), but it already took steps to staunch the flow of such images. Image generation has, for instance, been put behind the Grok AI paywall (an action that some say does little to address the problem). And The Telegraph reported that Grok AI will ignore requests to create these kinds of images.

Musk's comments (below), though, appear to argue against a never leveled charge: the creation of nude imagery of minors:

[I'm] not aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok. Literally zero.

Obviously, Grok does not spontaneously generate images, it does so only according to user requests.

When asked to generate images, it will refuse to produce anything illegal, as the operating principle for Grok is to obey the laws of any given country or state.

There may be times when adversarial hacking of Grok prompts does something unexpected. If that happens, we fix the bug immediately.

Musk is also making a point that is true of virtually all generative AI platforms: they do not generate imagery without a prompt. Users are writing the prompts and asking Grok to remove clothing and replace it with bikinis.

Musk's statement about the refusal to create illegal imagery aligns with previous statements Musk has made on free speech: his platforms will follow the law, and he added in a 2022 X post, "I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law."

That last bit is perhaps why Grok AI has run afoul of some commonly understood content standards. Grok AI is generally a platform that will happily flout intellectual property laws. In general, it has a snarkier personality and is more open to a wider variety of prompts. Though with the realization that Grok AI perhaps didn't know where to draw the line, that stance is now clearly changing.

Is it changing fast enough?

Trust but verify

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer previously called Grok AI "disgusting," and though clearly pleased that Grok AI has taken measures to stop the flow of these images, he, according to the BBC, retained a hard line.

"If so, that is welcome, but we're not going to back down, and they must act. We will take the necessary measures. We will strengthen existing laws and prepare for legislation if it needs to go further, and Ofcom will continue its independent investigation."

It's unlikely that we'll hear a more in-depth response from Musk, whose last point is that, perhaps, some of what we saw was due to "adversarial hacking" that leads to "something unexpected". In other words, bugs that are easily fixed.

This week hasn't been all bad news for X and Grok AI. Even as other countries are investigating and banning X and its AI platform, the US Department of Defense announced a plan to integrate Grok AI into its own networks. That should be... interesting.

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A 38-year industry veteran and award-winning journalist, Lance has covered technology since PCs were the size of suitcases and “on line” meant “waiting.” He’s a former Lifewire Editor-in-Chief, Mashable Editor-in-Chief, and, before that, Editor in Chief of PCMag.com and Senior Vice President of Content for Ziff Davis, Inc. He also wrote a popular, weekly tech column for Medium called The Upgrade.

Lance Ulanoff makes frequent appearances on national, international, and local news programs including Live with Kelly and Mark, the Today Show, Good Morning America, CNBC, CNN, and the BBC.

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