Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has voiced his profound disgust over the exploitation of artificial intelligence on Elon Musk's social media platform, X. The controversy centres on the platform's chatbot, Grok, being used to generate sexualised and exploitative imagery without consent.
eSafety Office Reports a Disturbing Trend
Australia's online safety regulator, the eSafety Office, confirmed on Friday that it has noted a recent increase in reports linked to the misuse of the Grok AI tool. While the absolute number of reports remains relatively low, the upward trend has triggered significant alarm.
A spokesperson for the office told AAP that the complaints encompassed both images of adults and potential child sexual exploitation material. The office is currently assessing a batch of very recent Image Based Abuse reports.
"X, Grok and a wide range of other services are also subject to systemic safety obligations to detect and remove child sexual exploitation material and other unlawful material," the eSafety Office stated, referencing Australia's industry codes.
Global Backlash and Platform Response
Mr Albanese's condemnation, delivered to reporters in Canberra on Saturday, aligns him with a growing chorus of international criticism, including from UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. "The use of generative AI to exploit or sexualise people without their consent is abhorrent," the Australian leader declared.
He sharply criticised the social media giant, stating, "It, once again, is an example of social media not showing social responsibility and Australians and indeed, global citizens deserve better."
This mounting pressure appears to have prompted a reaction from X. This week, the platform moved to limit the AI image creation and editing features within Grok, restricting them to paying subscribers only. By Friday, the chatbot was responding to such requests with a message stating the features were locked behind a subscription.
Regulatory Action and Ongoing Concerns
The eSafety Office warned it is prepared to use its full powers, including issuing removal notices, where material breaches the thresholds of the Online Safety Act. In the specific Illegal and Restricted Content reports assessed so far, the material did not meet the classification for the most severe class of child exploitation content, so no removal notices were issued.
However, the regulator's spokesperson emphasised that concerns remain high regarding the escalating use of AI for sexualisation and exploitation, particularly when it involves children. They reiterated that Australian law mandates online services implement robust systems to protect users.
This clash marks the latest chapter in a tense relationship between the Albanese government and X's owner, Elon Musk. It follows Musk's criticism last year of Australia's pioneering social media age-limit reforms, which he suggested seemed like "a backdoor way to control access to the internet by all Australians."
