California builds AI oversight unit and presses on xAI investigation

California Attorney General Rob Bonta is building an artificial intelligence accountability program as his office probes Elon Musk's xAI over the generation of non-consensual sexually explicit images, he told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday. The California Attorney General's office ‌moved quickly last month ⁠to send ⁠a cease-and-desist letter to xAI, as regulators globally investigated the company over sexualized content that its AI chatbot Grok produced of adults and potentially minors, Bonta said. Bonta said his office is seeking confirmation that the conduct has stopped and remains in discussions with the company. He said xAI deflected responsibility and still permits some sexualized content generation for paying subscribers.

"Just because you stop going forward doesn't mean you get ​a pass on what you did," Bonta added.

XAI, recently acquired by ⁠Musk's SpaceX, ‌did not respond to a request for comment. In January, the company said ​it had added ​measures to reject user requests for sexualized images of real people, for ⁠instance editing them to be in a bikini. XAI has also ​said it blocks users from generating such images in jurisdictions where ​that is illegal. California's enforcement shows the Democratic stronghold is embracing its role as an AI watchdog, despite ongoing pushes by industry and some Republican lawmakers for it to defer to federal authorities on law and regulation. Bonta warned against granting Congress exclusive regulatory authority given its prior gridlock on data protection and AI.


The California Attorney General's office is "beefing up" its in-house expertise through its "AI oversight, ‌accountability and regulation program," Bonta said. AI chatbots that have sexually explicit conversations with youth or tell them how to commit suicide are unacceptable, he said.

State authorities ​have also told ​San Francisco-based OpenAI that California ⁠has an "ongoing interest" in its efforts to keep its products and services safe, after Bonta's office helped oversee its corporate restructuring last year, he said.

The state's legislature is considering a bill that ​would require the attorney general's office to establish a program to build expertise in AI.

Speaking in a joint interview with Reuters, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong called AI and social media harm "the consumer protection fight of our time," shaping up to be a bigger battle than over opioids. "This affects all of our children," he said.