Elon Musk’s Grok AI model lacked safeguards to stop users generating sexualised deepfakes of women and children, according to experts who warn that many AI systems are vulnerable to producing similar material.
On Friday, the billionaire’s start-up xAI said it was limiting the use of its Grok image-generator to paid subscribers only. The move followed threats of fines and bans from governments and regulators in the EU, the UK and France.
The company, which acquired Musk’s social media site X last year, has been an outlier, designing its AI products to have fewer content “guardrails” than competitors such as OpenAI and Google. Its owner has called its Grok model “maximally truth-seeking”.