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   It will refuse to produce anything illegal: Elon Musk rails against Grok   
   backlash, but UK Prime Minister says were not going to back down   
      
   Date:   
   Wed, 14 Jan 2026 19:24:33 +0000   
      
   Description:   
   X CEO Elon Musk disputes image generation charges leveled at Grok AI.   
      
   FULL STORY   
   ======================================================================   
    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 comment   
   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.    
      
   ======================================================================   
   Link to news story:   
   https://www.techradar.com/ai-platforms-assistants/it-will-refuse-to-produce-an   
   ything-illegal-elon-musk-rails-against-grok-backlash-but-uk-prime-minister-say   
   s-were-not-going-to-back-down   
      
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