EU opens probe into Grok chatbot over sexualised images
The European Commission has launched an investigation into US tech company X over its artificial intelligence chatbot Grok after it created sexualized images of women and children.
“Deepfake sexual content broadcasts without the consent of women and children are a violent, unacceptable form of humiliation,” EU Commission Vice President Henna Virkkunen said in a statement on Monday.
The commission, which acts as the EU’s digital watchdog, wrote in a statement that the investigation will investigate whether X complies with its obligations under European Union law, including the duty to “carefully assess and mitigate systemic risks”.
“This includes risks associated with the dissemination of illegal content in the EU, such as manipulated sexually explicit images, including content that could be considered child sexual abuse material,” he said.
“These risks appear to have materialized and expose citizens in the EU to serious harm.”
Elon Musk’s social media platform has come under heavy criticism in recent weeks after Grok allowed users to digitally replace women’s clothing with bikinis and, in some cases, create sexualized depictions of minors.
After prolonged international outrage, X imposed some restrictions in mid-January.
These include preventing Grok from “allowing the editing of images of real people revealing clothing such as bikinis” and limiting the AI chatbot’s image creation feature to paid subscribers, X said in a statement.
The Commission emphasized that opening an investigation does not create a bias regarding the outcome of the investigation.
British media regulator Ofcom also launched a formal investigation into Musk’s online platform in early January over sexualized images created by Grok.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the AI-generated images as “absolutely disgusting”.
Authorities in France have also been investigating Grok since last year.
The original investigation here revolves around allegations that algorithms on the social network were changed to give more attention to far-right content. New allegations of Holocaust denial and sexual imagery have since been added.
Grok is already banned in Indonesia and Malaysia.
On Monday, Brussels also announced the extension of a separate investigation into X that started in December 2023.
The commission is working to assess whether the platform’s recommendation system, the algorithm that recommends content to users, “appropriately assesses and mitigates any systemic risks” under the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA).
The investigation now includes “the impact of the recently announced transition to a Grok-based recommendation system,” the commission said.
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