The EU launches a formal investigation into X’s Grok AI for generating sexualised deepfakes, citing risks to women and children under the bloc’s digital rules.
BRUSSELS: The European Union has launched a formal investigation into Elon Musk’s X over its AI chatbot Grok.
The probe focuses on the tool’s ability to generate sexualised deepfake images of women and minors using simple text prompts.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated the bloc will not tolerate such “unthinkable behaviour”.
“It is simple — we will not hand over consent and child protection to tech companies to violate and monetise,” she said.
EU tech commissioner Henna Virkkunen said the investigation will determine if X met its legal obligations under the Digital Services Act.
She stressed the rights of women and children should not become “collateral damage” of X’s services.
The probe will examine if X properly mitigated risks related to the dissemination of illegal content.
This includes manipulated sexually explicit images and potential child sexual abuse material.
The EU action follows research estimating Grok generated three million sexualised images in days.
The Center for Countering Digital Hate, a nonprofit watchdog, published the findings.
EU commission spokesman Thomas Regnier dismissed X’s recent move to restrict image generation to paying subscribers.
“Let’s be very clear, child sexual abuse material is not a premium privilege,” he said.
The EU is also widening an existing investigation into X over illegal content and information manipulation.
This follows X’s announcement that Grok will now power its user recommendation system.
The platform has been under EU investigation since December 2023 for breaches of digital rules.
Brussels fined X EUR 120 million in December for violating DSA transparency obligations.
The breaches involved deceptive design of its “blue checkmark” and failure to provide data access.
The EU insists it will enforce its rules despite pressure from the US administration.
Regnier stated the bloc enforces legislation “firmly, fairly, objectively” without targeting companies based on origin.
