Grok says safeguard lapses led to images of ‘minors in minimal clothing’ on X

A view of a laptop and monitors showing the Twitter sign-in page displaying the new X logo, in Belgrade, Serbia, Monday, July 24, 2023. AP/Darko Vojinovic

Elon Musk’s xAI artificial intelligence chatbot Grok said on Friday lapses in safeguards had resulted in “images depicting minors in minimal clothing” on social media platform X and that improvements were being made to prevent this.

Screenshots shared by users on X showed Grok’s public media tab filled with images that users said had been altered when they uploaded photos and prompted the bot to alter them.

“There are isolated cases where users prompted for and received AI images depicting minors in minimal clothing,” Grok said in a post on X. “xAI has safeguards, but improvements are ongoing to block such requests entirely.”

“As noted, we’ve identified lapses in safeguards and are urgently fixing them—CSAM is illegal and prohibited,” Grok said, referring to Child Sexual Abuse Material.

Grok gave no further details.

In a separate reply to a user on X on Thursday, Grok said most cases could be prevented through advanced filters and monitoring although it said “no system is 100% foolproof,” adding that xAI was prioritizing improvements and reviewing details shared by users.

When contacted by Reuters for comment by email, xAI replied with the message “Legacy Media Lies.”

CTVNews.ca received the same response when reaching out for clarification on whether the statement posted by Grok came from a spokesperson or was AI generated.

Reporting by Arnav Mishra and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru, Editing by Timothy Heritage, Reuters