Elon Musk Warns Grok Users as India Orders X to Tackle Obscene AI-Generated Content

Elon Musk, the owner of the social media platform X, said that users who employ the company’s artificial intelligence service, Grok, to generate illegal material would face the same legal consequences as those who upload unlawful content directly to the platform.

Musk’s remarks came a day after India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology ordered X to immediately remove what it described as vulgar, obscene and unlawful content, with particular reference to material generated using Grok. The ministry warned that failure to comply could invite legal action.

“Anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content,” Musk wrote in a post on X, responding to criticism that the AI system was producing inappropriate images.

In the exchange, Musk echoed an argument often made by technology companies, likening Grok to a neutral tool whose output depends on user intent. “That’s like blaming a pen for writing something bad,” he said, adding that responsibility lay with the person issuing the prompt rather than the software itself.

The Indian government has taken a more forceful stance. In its order, the ministry directed X to act not only against offending content but also against users and accounts involved in its creation or dissemination. The company has been asked to submit a detailed “action taken report” within 72 hours of receiving the directive.

The ministry said it had received repeated complaints — including through public discourse and representations from members of Parliament — that certain content circulating on X did not comply with Indian laws governing decency and obscenity.

According to the government order, the Grok service has been used to generate and share obscene images and videos of women through fake accounts, in ways that are “derogatory” and intended to indecently denigrate them.

The directive builds on an advisory issued by the ministry on December 29, in which social media companies were told to review their compliance frameworks and take prompt action against unlawful and obscene material. Platforms that fail to do so, the advisory said, could face prosecution under Indian law.