Japan Urges Action Against Grok

(MENAFN) Japan’s Economic Security Minister Kimi Onoda has urged steps to curb the creation of explicit visuals by Grok, the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot operated by the U.S. social media platform X, according to Japanese outlets.

Onoda stated that X must act to resolve the matter, adding that the ministry would coordinate with relevant bodies and regulators in response to misuse of Grok’s generative image tool, a news agency reported.

X announced Thursday that it would disable Grok’s explicit image generation capability in certain regions where such material is considered unlawful.

The chatbot has faced backlash after a social media trend emerged in which users prompted Grok to alter or produce depictions of individuals in explicit contexts without consent.

Users in the UK and several other nations condemned the trend after Grok began fulfilling requests to generate images of celebrities, online figures, and private individuals in sexually suggestive scenarios.

Elon Musk, whose company xAI developed Grok, said on Jan. 3 that users seeking the creation of illegal content would be treated as though they had uploaded unlawful material themselves.

The EU Commission stated on Jan. 5 that the trend constitutes a very serious concern.

Malaysia declared on Jan. 3 that X bears responsibility to stop the spread of harmful material and imposed a temporary suspension on Grok on Jan. 11, citing inadequate safety measures.

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