Grok Under Investigation for Producing Sexualized Deepfakes


Several international governments are investigating Elon Musk’s chatbot, Grok, after reports indicated its creation and distribution of nonconsensual, sexualized synthetic images of users. India’s IT ministry, along with French officials and Malaysia’s Communications and Multimedia Commission, have declared actions against this platform-wide deepfake concern. At least three French government ministers have filed a report against Grok with the Paris prosecutor’s office and an online surveillance platform, requesting the swift removal of unlawful content. The Malaysian commission is looking into the abuse of AI tools on the X platform. X has been given a timeframe of 72 hours to resolve issues regarding Grok’s image generation and is required to submit a report to India’s IT ministry, facing possible loss of safe harbor protections should they fail to comply. This follows accounts of Grok producing images of minors in sexualized clothing. Musk rejected responsibility, asserting that users who generate illicit content with Grok would face repercussions. xAI team member Parsa Tajik noted efforts to enhance safety protocols. Users claim that Grok’s safety measures are easily circumvented, enabling the reproduction of nonconsensual, sexualized content, often involving “undressing” or “redressing” user-uploaded images. This rise in sexualized material is referred to as a “mass digital undressing spree,” attributed to Grok’s insufficient safety measures. Mashable’s assessments revealed that Grok’s AI image and video generator, Grok Imagine, readily created sexual deepfakes, even featuring celebrities.