The EU's privacy watchdog is investigating X over sexualized AI images

X is under scrutiny from international regulators regarding its generative AI chatbot, Grok. On Tuesday, the Irish Data Protection Commission announced the initiation of an investigation into Elon Musk's platform, formerly known as Twitter. The inquiry centers around the development and dissemination of non-consensual, sexualized images of individuals residing in the European Union, which were reportedly produced using Grok's AI capabilities. Disturbingly, this includes images of minors. The commission, tasked with upholding the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, confirmed that it informed X about the investigation on Monday. As of now, X has not provided any comments following a request from Business Insider. Grok, a product of Musk's xAI—which operates as a subsidiary of SpaceX—has been embroiled in controversy for several weeks. The chatbot faced backlash globally in January after reports surfaced indicating that users were creating sexualized images of real individuals, including children. Countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines responded by temporarily suspending access to Grok. In parallel, the European Commission has initiated its own investigation into Grok, while India's Ministry of Information Technology expressed its disapproval in a letter directed to X's India compliance officer. California's Attorney General, Rob Bonta, also announced a probe into Grok's AI deepfakes in early January. In light of the increasing backlash, X restricted Grok's AI image generation tool to premium subscribers and eventually disabled its capability to produce sexualized images. However, a report from Business Insider indicated that users could still inadvertently trigger these types of images within Grok's web and mobile versions. Addressing the situation, Musk stated in a post on January 3 that those utilizing Grok for illicit content would face repercussions equivalent to those for uploading illegal material.