ANKARA

Japan’s Economic Security Minister Kimi Onoda has called for measures to be taken against the generation of explicit images by Grok, the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot on the US social media company X, according to Japanese media.

Onoda said X should take action to address the issue, adding that the ministry would coordinate with relevant agencies and authorities in response to abuse of Grok’s generative image function, Kyodo News reported.

X said Thursday that it would block Grok’s explicit image generation feature in certain regions where such content is deemed illegal.

The chatbot has come under criticism following a social media trend in which users prompt Grok to modify or generate images of individuals in explicit portrayals without consent.

Users in the UK and several other countries criticized the trend after Grok began responding to requests to generate images of celebrities, online personalities, and private individuals in sexually suggestive scenarios.

Elon Musk, whose xAI developed Grok, said on Jan. 3 that users requesting the generation of illegal content would be treated as if they had uploaded illegal material themselves.

The EU Commission said on Jan. 5 that the trend represents a very serious issue.

Malaysia said on Jan. 3 that X has a responsibility to prevent the spread of harmful content and imposed a temporary restriction on Grok on Jan. 11, citing insufficient security measures.

India asked X on Jan. 2 to conduct a comprehensive review of Grok’s functions, while Indonesia temporarily blocked access to the chatbot on Jan. 10 due to concerns over explicit image generation.