U Launches Expanded Investigation Into xAI’s Grok Over Alleged Illegal Sexual Content on X
The European Union has launched an expanded investigation into the conduct of Grok, the AI chatbot developed by xAI, a company owned by billionaire Elon Musk, following allegations that it generated and disseminated illegal sexual content on the social media platform X, including images suspected of involving minors.
A spokesperson for the European Commission stated that regulators identified the activation of a feature known as “Spicy Mode,” which allows the generation of explicit sexual content. Authorities noted that some outputs reportedly included images resembling children, constituting a clear violation of European laws, which strictly criminalize such content without exception.
The circulation of these images has triggered widespread concern among regulatory bodies, online safety organizations, and digital rights groups, prompting official condemnations from several countries, including the UK, France, and India, which warned against the rapid spread of harmful content through generative AI tools.