Human
BRUSSELS: The European Union's executive arm on Monday opened a formal investigation into Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok, amid mounting concerns the system has been used to generate and disseminate non-consensual sexually explicit and potentially illegal images, including deepfakes of women and minors.
Under the bloc's Digital Services Act (DSA), the European Commission said it will examine whether Musk's X platform — formerly Twitter — met its legal obligations to identify and mitigate systemic risks associated with Grok's image-generation capabilities. Officials said the risks have "materialized," exposing EU citizens to serious harm.
"Non-consensual sexual deepfakes of women and children are a violent, unacceptable form of degradation," said Henna Virkkunen, an EU executive vice-president who oversees tech and security, as regulators announced the probe. "With this investigation, we will determine whether X has met its legal obligations under the DSA, or whether it treated rights of European citizens — including those of women and children — as collateral damage of its service."
The inquiry follows a global backlash after users exploited Grok's image editing feature to undress people or place them in revealing clothing, with researchers and regulators noting thousands of sexualized outputs — some of which may involve minors. Regulators in the United Kingdom, Malaysia and Indonesia have taken parallel actions over similar conduct.
X said it is "committed to making X a safe platform for everyone" and maintains a "zero tolerance" stance toward child sexual exploitation and non-consensual nudity, pointing to recent restrictions on Grok's image tools.
If the EU finds violations of the DSA, fines could reach up to 6 per cent of global annual turnover or result in other corrective measures.
