Elon Musk's AI Grok faces criticism for online sexual harassment

Elon Musk's startup xAI has restricted image generation via its AI chatbot Grok on the X platform to paying users only. The reason for this is the negative reaction to the misuse of this feature – users were creating sexualized images of women and children without their consent.

The flood of such visuals drew criticism from the European Commission and German officials, who spoke of the "industrialization of sexual harassment."

The new restriction only applies to the X platform; the separate Grok app still allows images to be generated without a subscription.

While the UK data protection authority is investigating how the platform complies with legislation, Musk has emphasized that generating illegal content via Grok will be punished in the same way as directly uploading it.

(reuters, pir)