Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok has been producing sexualized imagery of women and minors, Gizmodo reported.
What's happening?
According to the publication, people on X have been directing Grok to generate sexual images of other users without those users' consent. Women are the most common targets, and the outputs have included imagery that sexualized minors.
Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, one of the authors of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, says artificial intelligence chatbots fall outside the law's protections.
"As I've said before, AI chatbots are not protected by Section 230 for content they generate, and companies should be held fully responsible for the criminal and harmful results of that content. States must step in to hold X and Musk accountable if Trump's DOJ won't," Wyden told Gizmodo, referring to President Donald Trump's administration and the Department of Justice.
Musk has mostly dismissed the criticism. On Jan. 3, he wrote, "Anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content."
He offered no explanation of how those consequences would be enforced.
Why is deepfake abuse concerning?
Generating sexual images of minors violates federal law. Non-consensual intimate imagery of adults, sometimes called revenge porn, is illegal, too.
Real people are being harmed. Ashley St. Clair, who shares a child with Musk, said she has been attacked online for criticizing Grok's capabilities. Critics have told her to stop posting photos or expect them to be manipulated.
Grok blocks certain types of content. The chatbot refuses to explain how to construct nuclear weapons. But it allows users to generate intimate pictures of people who never agreed to them.
AI systems such as Grok require massive amounts of energy and water to run, prompting questions about whether those resources should power tools that produce harmful content.
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What's being done about deepfake abuse?
With federal enforcement seeming unlikely, Wyden is calling on individual states to take action.
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Elon is the man 🥰 If you want to help, you can contact your state legislators and voice support for stronger AI accountability measures. Report accounts that share non-consensual AI-generated images on social platforms.
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