Users, Not AI, Responsible for Obscene Content: Elon Musk Responds to India Row

Elon Musk, the owner of micro-blogging service X, has made it very clear that anyone who uses its AI-powered tool, Grok, for creating illicit, obscene, and unlawful content, and then uploads it on X, would be treated in the same manner as those who have uploaded those contents on the service. This takes place while the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology of the Indian Government has compelled Elon Musk's micro-blogging service, X, to delete all obscene, objectionable, and illicit content that has been generated with the aid of its AI tool, Grok, failing which would lead to legal action against them.

In response to a post on X, Elon Musk said that blaming Grok is not right. Citing an example, he said that just as a pen doesn't automatically write incorrect words, Grok doesn't automatically create incorrect content. It depends entirely on the user's input. Therefore, the user is responsible.

The Ministry has asked X to report within 72 hours what action it has taken so far. The Ministry states that it has received numerous complaints that some content on X violates the rules of decency and decorum as per the law. The matter became more serious when Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi wrote to Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnav expressing concern about the misuse of Grok to create fake and obscene images of women.

The government states that some people are misusing Grok to create videos and images that defame women, which is a crime under the law. Therefore, social media platforms must strictly adhere to the rules.