Australia’s eSafety commission has issued a please explain to Elon Musk’s social media site, X, and his generative AI chatbot Grok following complaints about it making sexual images of women and children.
The federal government body said there had been a small number of complaints about Grok being used to generate sexualised or exploitative imagery.
“eSafety will use its powers, including removal notices, where appropriate and where material meets the relevant thresholds defined in the Online Safety Act,” the commission said in a statement
“eSafety has written to X seeking further information about the safeguards in place to prevent Grok’s misuse on its service and to comply with these obligations.
“X, Grok, and a wide range of other services are also subject to systemic safety obligations to detect and remove child sexual exploitation material and other unlawful material as part of Australia’s world-leading industry codes and standards.”
eSafety said it took enforcement action last year over “nudify” services used to create AI child sexual exploitation material, leading to them withdrawing from Australia.
And from March 9 a raft of additional mandatory codes will create new obligations for AI services, among others, to limit children’s access to sexually explicit, violent and self-harm and suicide content.
The global backlash over Grok’s AI-facilitated pedophilia led to its banning in Malaysia and Indonesia, with the UK also considering a ban.
Musk, who’s fond of implying others are involved in pedophilia, accused the UK of wanting to “suppress free speech” although the billionaire has yet to explain how non-consensual nudes of women and children fall under the banner of free speech.
Meanwhile, X turned off the image generator for non-paying customers on the social media site.
It’s not the first time Musk has fallen foul of the eSafety Commission for failing to properly respond to requests for information on how X tackles child sexual abuse material.
X Corp initially failed to report on how it was addressing the issue by the March 2023 deadline. eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, subsequently found X (formerly Twitter) guilty of serious non-compliance and issued infringement notice for A$610,500 because the social media site, notorious for sending poo emojis in response to media emails, failed to respond truthfully and accurately.
The matter then went to the Federal Court with X repeatedly trying to avoid the fine, but lost in October 2024 and again last July, when Justice Bernard Murphy dismised X Corp’s appeal judgment, as having “no substantive merit”, ordering them to pay the eSafety Commissioner’s costs,
The eSafety Commission said it is also engaging closely with international child protection organisations and online safety regulators, which have identified similar issues around child safety involving Grok and other generative AI tools.
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