EU says ‘seriously looking’ into Musk’s Grok AI over sexual deepfakes of minors

A view of a laptop and monitors showing the Twitter sign-in page displaying the new X logo, in Belgrade, Serbia, Monday, July 24, 2023. AP/Darko Vojinovic

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- The European Commission said Monday it is “very seriously looking” into complaints that Elon Musk’s AI tool Grok is being used to generate and disseminate sexually explicit childlike images.

“Grok is now offering a ‘spicy mode’ showing explicit sexual content with some output generated with childlike images. This is not spicy. This is illegal. This is appalling,” EU digital affairs spokesman Thomas Regnier told reporters.

“This has no place in Europe.”

Complaints of abuse began hitting Musk’s X social media platform, where Grok is available, after an “edit image” button for the generative artificial intelligence tool was rolled out in late December.

But Grok maker xAI, run by Musk, said earlier this month it was scrambling to fix flaws in its AI tool.

The public prosecutor’s office in Paris has also expanded an investigation into X to include new accusations that Grok was being used for generating and disseminating child pornography.

X has already been in the EU’s crosshairs.

Brussels in December slapped the platform with a 120-million-euro (US$140-million) fine for violating the EU’s digital content rules on transparency in advertising and for its methods for ensuring users were verified and actual people.

X still remains under investigation under the EU’s Digital Services Act in a probe that began in December 2023.

The commission, which acts as the EU’s digital watchdog, has also demanded information from X about comments made around the Holocaust.

Regnier said X had responded to the commission’s request for information.

“I think X is very well aware that we’re very serious about DSA enforcement, they will remember the fine that they have received from us back in December. So we encourage all companies to be compliant because the commission is serious about enforcement,” he added.

AFP