NEW DELHI, Jan. 4 -- In the final days of 2025, a meeting between the Indian government and X escalated into a confrontation over artificial intelligence (AI), online safety, and the limits of safe harbour protection-culminating in a formal notice to the Elon Musk-owned platform over the misuse of its AI tool, Grok.

Last Wednesday, the last working day of the year, X's India leadership team was summoned to the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY). At Electronics Niketan, near Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, senior bureaucrats conveyed their displeasure over how Grok-an AI platform owned by Musk and embedded into X-allowed users to manipulate images posted on the social media platform, triggering concerns over digital sham...