\n<\/p>\n
The European Commission has launched an investigation into Elon Musk\u2019s X over the production of sexually explicit images and the spreading of possible child sexual abuse material by the platform\u2019s AI chatbot feature, Grok.<\/p>\n
The formal inquiry, launched on Monday, also extends an investigation into X\u2019s recommender systems, algorithms that help users discover new content.<\/p>\n
Grok has sparked international outrage by allowing users to digitally strip women and children and put them into provocative poses. Grok AI generated about 3m sexualised images in less than two weeks, including 23,000 that appeared to depict children, according to researchers at the Center for Countering Digital Hate.<\/p>\n
The commission said its new investigation would \u201cassess whether the company properly assessed and mitigated risks\u201d stemming from Grok\u2019s functionalities in the EU, including risks on the sharing of illegal content such as manipulated sexually explicit images and \u201ccontent that may amount to\u201d child sexual abuse material.<\/p>\n
The investigation is launched under the EU\u2019s Digital Services Act (DSA), a relatively new piece of legislation that is intended to protect internet users from a wide range of harms.<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters, an official said the commission had not been convinced by mitigating measures put in place by X to remedy the issue. EU officials are investigating whether X has systems to mitigate risks properly.<\/p>\n
Announcing the investigation, Henna Virkkunen, the commission\u2019s top official for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, said: \u201cNon-consensual sexual deepfakes of women and children are a violent, unacceptable form of degradation. With this investigation, we will determine whether X has met its legal obligations under the DSA, or whether it treated rights of European citizens \u2013 including those of women and children \u2013 as collateral damage of its service.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regina Doherty, an Irish MEP, said she welcomed the formal investigation. \u201cWhen credible reports emerge of AI systems being used in ways that harm women and children, it is essential that EU law is examined and enforced without delay,\u201d Doherty said.<\/p>\n
In response to the investigation, X provided a link to a statement it published on 14 January: \u201cWe remain committed to making X a safe platform for everyone and continue to have zero tolerance for any forms of child sexual exploitation, non-consensual nudity, and unwanted sexual content.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The European Commission has launched an investigation into Elon Musk\u2019s X over the production of sexually explicit images and the spreading of possible child sexual abuse material by the platform\u2019s AI chatbot feature, Grok. The formal inquiry, launched on Monday, also extends an investigation into X\u2019s recommender systems, algorithms that help users discover new content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[7074,2964,1506,357,1372,9917],"class_list":{"0":"post-42733","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-explicit","9":"tag-grok","10":"tag-images","11":"tag-inquiry","12":"tag-launches","13":"tag-sexually"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}