United News of Bangladesh

Elon Musk’s AI tool Grok will no longer allow users to create sexualised images of real people in countries where it is illegal, following global concerns over AI deepfakes. X, the platform operating Grok, said the new rule applies to all users, including paid subscribers. The tool is now geoblocked in jurisdictions where creating images of real people in bikinis, underwear, or similar clothing is prohibited. The change came after California’s top prosecutor announced an investigation into sexualised AI deepfakes, including those involving children. Grok users will still be able to create images of fictional adults with nudity in line with local laws and NSFW settings. X said only paid users can edit images with Grok on its platform. The move follows international criticism. Malaysia and Indonesia banned Grok after users generated explicit images without consent. The UK media regulator Ofcom said it would investigate potential violations of British law. California Attorney General Rob Bonta warned that such images have been used to harass people online. Experts said X acted late and questions remain on how the platform will enforce the new rules.   With inputs from BBC

The Pentagon is set to deploy Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok across its military networks later this month, despite growing global criticism over the tool’s recent controversies. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Monday that Grok will be introduced inside the Department of Defense and will operate on both unclassified and classified networks alongside Google’s generative AI system. “Very soon we will have the world’s leading AI models on every unclassified and classified network throughout our department,” Hegseth said while speaking at Musk’s space company SpaceX in South Texas. The move comes only days after Grok faced strong backlash for generating highly sexualised deepfake images of people without their consent. Malaysia and Indonesia have blocked the chatbot, while the United Kingdom’s independent online safety watchdog has launched an investigation. Following the criticism, Grok restricted image generation and editing features to paying users. Hegseth said the Pentagon would make “all appropriate data” from its IT systems available for what he called “AI exploitation” and added that data from intelligence databases would also be fed into AI systems. He said the US military needs to speed up technological innovation and remove barriers that slow down development. “We need innovation to come from anywhere and evolve with speed and purpose,” he said. The defence secretary noted that the Pentagon holds combat-tested operational data from two decades of military and intelligence operations, stressing that the success of AI depends on the quality of data it receives. “AI is only as good as the data that it receives, and we’re going to make sure that it’s there,” Hegseth said. His strong push for AI adoption marks a shift from the more cautious approach taken by the previous Biden administration, which supported AI use across federal agencies but warned of possible misuse. In late 2024, the Biden administration introduced a framework encouraging national security agencies to expand their use of advanced AI systems while banning certain applications, including those that could violate civil rights or automate the deployment of nuclear weapons. It is still unclear whether those restrictions remain in place under the Trump administration. Hegseth said he wants Pentagon AI systems to be responsible but rejected models that, in his words, “won’t allow you to fight wars”. He added that military AI should operate without “ideological constraints” that could limit lawful military use, saying the Pentagon’s “AI will not be woke”. Musk has promoted Grok as an alternative to what he calls “woke AI” used by rival chatbots such as Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Grok has also faced controversy in the past. In July, it appeared to generate antisemitic comments praising Adolf Hitler and sharing antisemitic posts. Apple calls on Google to help smarten up Siri and bring other AI features to the iPhone The Pentagon did not immediately respond to questions about the recent issues surrounding Grok.