BERLIN (Kashmir English): Germany’s justice ministry is mulling to take measures in the near future that would allow authorities to more effectively combat the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to manipulate images in ways that violate personal rights.
According to a government spokesperson, Grok, the built-in AI chatbot on Elon Musk’s social media site X, has come under scrutiny in Europe for its so-called “spicy mode”, which allows users to generate sexually explicit images.
Investigation by an international news agency found the chatbot’s image generation was being used to create images of women and children in minimal clothing, often without the consent of the individuals depicted.
The country’s media minister urged the European Commission earlier this week to take legal action to stop what he called the “industrialisation of sexual harassment” on X.
Replying to a question about the controversy at a press conference, justice ministry spokesperson Anna-Lena Beckfeld hinted that Germany was preparing to take on the issue in domestic courts.
“It is unacceptable that manipulation on a large scale is being used for systematic violations of personal rights,” she said. “We, therefore, want to ensure that criminal law can be used more effectively to combat this.”
She told journalists that the government was working to better regulate deepfakes and also plans a law against digital violence to support its victims.
“We want to make it easier for them to take direct action against violations of their rights on the internet,” Beckfeld said.
She further said that the ministry plans to present concrete proposals in the near future, adding that she could not comment in detail on the plans at that point.
xAI has now restricted the function
After initially dismissing concerns over Grok’s image generation, xAI has now restricted the function to paid subscribers only.
Musk last week said anyone using the chatbot to create illegal content would face the same consequences as uploading such material directly.
