The European Fee has launched an investigation into Elon Musk’s X over considerations its AI instrument Grok was used to create sexualised photographs of actual individuals.
It follows a similar announcement in January from the UK watchdog Ofcom.
Regina Doherty, a member of the European parliament representing Eire, stated the Fee would assess whether or not “manipulated sexually specific photographs” have been proven to customers within the EU.
A previous statement from X’s Security account stated the social media platform had stopped Grok from digitally altering photos of individuals to take away their clothes in “jurisdictions the place such content material is unlawful”.
However campaigners and victims stated the power to generate sexually specific photos utilizing the instrument should have “never happened” within the first place, and Ofcom stated its investigation would stay ongoing.
The EU regulator stated it might “impose interim measures” if X refuses to implement significant changes.
It stated it had additionally prolonged its ongoing investigation launched in December 2023 over dangers related to X’s recommender methods – the algorithm that recommends particular posts to customers.
Earlier than the Fee’s announcement, Elon Musk posted a picture on X on Monday showing to make mild of the brand new restrictions in place round Grok.
The X proprietor has beforehand criticised these scrutinising the app’s image-editing perform – significantly the UK authorities – calling it “any excuse for censorship”.
On Sunday, the Grok account on X claimed greater than 5.5 billion photographs had been generated by the instrument in simply 30 days.
In a press release to Reuters, Doherty stated there have been “severe questions” over if platforms similar to X had been assembly authorized obligations “to evaluate dangers correctly and to stop unlawful and dangerous content material from spreading”.
“The European Union has clear guidelines to guard individuals on-line,” she stated.
“These guidelines should imply one thing in observe, particularly when highly effective applied sciences are deployed at scale.
“No firm working within the EU is above the legislation.”
A spokesperson from Coimisiún na Meán, Eire’s media regulator, stated it welcomed the information.
“There isn’t any place in our society for non-consensual intimate imagery abuse or little one sexual abuse materials,” they stated.
The transfer comes a month after the EU fined X €120m (£105m) over its blue tick badges, saying they “deceive customers” as a result of the agency isn’t “meaningfully verifying” who’s behind the account.
In response, the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Federal Communications Fee (FCC) accused the EU regulator of attacking and censoring US companies.
“The European Fee’s advantageous is not simply an assault on X, it is an assault on all American tech platforms and the American individuals by overseas governments,” he stated.
His remarks had been reposted by Musk, who added “completely”.
