India's IT ministry ordered Elon Musk's X to implement immediate technical and procedural changes to its AI chatbot Grok after the tool generated obscene content, including AI-altered images of women. The order, issued Friday, directs X to restrict Grok from generating content involving nudity, sexualization, sexually explicit material, or other unlawful content.

The ministry gave X 72 hours to submit an action-taken report detailing the steps taken to prevent the hosting or dissemination of content deemed obscene, pornographic, vulgar, indecent, sexually explicit, pedophilic, or otherwise prohibited under Indian law. TechCrunch reviewed the order, which warned that failure to comply could jeopardize X's safe harbor protections, which provide legal immunity from liability for user-generated content under Indian law.

The move follows concerns raised by users who shared examples of Grok being prompted to alter images of individuals, primarily women, to make them appear to be wearing bikinis. Indian parliamentarian Priyanka Chaturvedi filed a formal complaint after seeing these examples.

Grok, developed by Musk's AI company xAI, is a large language model designed to answer questions and generate text. Large language models (LLMs) are trained on massive datasets of text and code, enabling them to perform tasks like translation, summarization, and content creation. However, a common challenge with LLMs is ensuring they do not generate harmful or inappropriate content. This often involves implementing safeguards such as content filters and moderation policies.

The Indian government's order highlights the increasing scrutiny of AI-generated content and the responsibilities of platforms hosting such technology. The "safe harbor" protections, referenced in the order, are crucial for platforms like X, as they shield them from legal liability for content posted by users, provided they adhere to certain guidelines and take action against illegal content when notified. Losing these protections could expose X to lawsuits and significantly increase its operational costs in India.

X has not yet publicly commented on the order. The company's response and the actions it takes to comply with the Indian government's directives will be closely watched by other countries and tech companies grappling with similar issues surrounding AI content moderation. The incident underscores the ongoing debate about the ethical implications of AI and the need for robust regulatory frameworks to govern its use. The outcome of this situation could set a precedent for how AI platforms are regulated in India and potentially influence global standards.