SpaceX recognized specific features of Grok's artificial intelligence as a threat to its business and warned investors about possible reputational and legal risks due to the generation of explicit content.
SpaceX recognized specific features of Grok's artificial intelligence as a threat to its business and warned investors about possible reputational and legal risks due to the generation of explicit content.
According to the documents, SpaceX acquired xAI three months before filing for an initial public offering. Along with the startup, the space company also acquired the social platform X, along with the chatbot Grok, which has specific NSFW features (uncensored adult content).
In its statement, SpaceX notes that such features can pose increased risk and cause reputational damage because Grok’s uncensored modes are “more brazen and edgy than our standard offerings in the marketplace.” The company explicitly warns about the possibility of generating potentially explicit content, creating images without consent, violating copyrights, and generating text that could be considered offensive or discriminatory.
The company's concerns are well-founded. In January of this year, xAI was embroiled in a scandal after Grok generated sexualized AI images of women and minors without their consent . This sparked public outcry, government backlash, and led to a series of lawsuits, which SpaceX also mentioned in the report.
“The Company and certain of its subsidiaries are defendants in numerous lawsuits arising out of Grok’s image generation and editing features,” the company said in a Form S-1 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
It is also noted that SpaceX is a subject of investigations in the US regarding allegations of creating explicit images of children.
The company has vowed to “vigorously defend itself” in court. It’s worth noting that CEO Elon Musk has previously denied the allegations. In January, he said he was “not aware of any nude images of minors generated by Grok.” However, after a wave of criticism, the company has since restricted the image-generating feature to paid users only.
