The European Union is considering action against Elon Musk’s Grok after the artificial intelligence tool created sexualized images of minors. The EU joined Britain, India, Malaysia and France in threatening to punish Grok over the undressing of minors.
In a statement on Monday, EU digital affairs spokesman Thomas Regnier addressed the chatbot as well as its new “spicy mode,” a feature that allows users to generate provocative images and video.
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“We are very well aware of the fact that Grok for X is now offering a ‘spicy mode’ showing explicit sexual content, with some output generated with childlike images,” Regnier told reporters.
The feature, introduced in October, was already facing complaints over its widespread use to generate images of real women undressed without their consent. Grok’s ability to undress minors has led to further backlash and criticism given its apparent lack of guardrails.
“This is not spicy,” Regnier said. “This is illegal. This is appalling. This is disgusting. This is how we see it, and this has no place in Europe.”
Grok’s apology leaves questions unanswered
After the incident, the X account for Grok issued an apology for generating and sharing “an AI image of two young girls in sexualized attire based on a user’s prompt.”
“This violated ethical standards and potentially US laws on CSAM,” the chatbot’s account said, referring to child sexual abuse material. “It was a failure in safeguards, and I’m sorry for any harm caused.”
Several days later, Musk commented on the issue, saying that “anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content.”
The X Safety account also weighed in, vowing to remove all illegal content and to permanently suspend accounts of users who generate it.
“We take action against illegal content on X, including Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary,” the Safety account said. “Anyone using or prompting Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content.”
X, however, left a major question unanswered. It has not yet indicated whether it will limit Grok’s ability to undress women and minors.
Even before introducing spicy mode, Grok stirred controversy for allowing users to create sexualized content of women. In August, for example, Grok was used to undress an image of pop star Taylor Swift.
