India orders Musk’s X to fix Grok on “dirty” AI

India has ordered Elon Musk’s X to urgently update its AI chatbot Grok after users and lawmakers reported “obscene” leaks, including AI-edited images of women created using the tool.

On Friday, India’s Finance Ministry issued an order ordering Musk’s X to fix things on Grok, including banning the release of “nudity, sexual, pornographic, or illegal” content. The ministry also gave media outlets 72 hours to submit a report explaining what they have done to stop hosting or broadcasting content that is “obscene, obscene, obscene, obscene, obscene, sexual, or prohibited by law.”

The order, which was reviewed by TechCrunch, warned that failure to comply could jeopardize X’s “safe harbor” protection – a legal protection against liability for user-generated content under Indian law.

India’s move follows concerns that users have shared examples of Grok altering photos of people – particularly women – to appear as if they were wearing bikinis, which a persistent complaint from Indian MP Priyanka Chaturvedi. Separately, recent reports have highlighted the phenomenon of AI chatbots he made pictures about childrenquestion X he agreed earlier on Friday was due to a lack of security. The pictures were later removed.

However, images created using Grok that made women appear to be wearing bikinis through AI manipulation remained available on X at the time of publication, TechCrunch found.

The latest order comes a few days after India’s Ministry of Defense issued a broader advisory on Monday, reviewed by TechCrunch, on social media, reminding them that compliance with local laws governing pornography and pornographic content is essential to maintaining legal protection from liability for user-generated content. The advisory urged companies to strengthen internal security and warned that failure to do so could invite prosecution under India’s IT laws and criminal charges.

“It reiterates that non-compliance with the above will be taken seriously and may lead to strict legal consequences against your platform, its responsible authorities and users of the platform who violate the rules, without any further notice,” the order warned.

The Indian government said non-compliance could lead to action against X under India’s IT and criminal laws.

India, one of the world’s largest digital markets, has emerged as a critical test of how far governments are willing to go with platforms that manage AI-generated content. Any shutdown in the country could have a negative impact on global technology companies that operate in multiple locations.

The order comes as Musk’s X continues to challenge parts of India rules about court contentThey argue that the federal government is taking away the power to destroy energy, even though the platform has followed many restrictive laws. At the same time, Grok has been widely used by X users real-time evaluation and comments on news events, making the results more visible – and more political – than static AI tools.

X and xAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Indian government law.