India's Tech Ministry Issues Formal Notice to X Over Grok AI Safeguards

India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issued a formal notice to X on January 1 flagging serious lapses in how the platform is managing Elon Musk's Grok AI chatbot. 

The government has directed X to undertake a comprehensive technical and governance review of Grok's prompt processing and output generation, with a requirement to submit a detailed action taken report within 72 hours.

Rather than allowing companies to self-regulate AI safety, the government is now treating AI guardrails as a statutory compliance obligation tied to operational licensing under the updated Information Technology Act.

The government cited lapses in how the chatbot processes inputs and generates outputs, claiming that the system either failed to apply required safety filters or produced content that violated existing guidelines around harmful material. The 72-hour deadline creates immediate operational pressure on X to demonstrate corrective action or face enforcement consequences under Indian law.