Grok faces California investigation over nude images

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has announced an official investigation into Elon Musk’s GrokAI, following the widespread creation of sexualized deepfake imagery created with the tool, which has sparked a global outcry.

Newsweek has contacted X and xAI outside of regular working hours via email for comment.

Why It Matters

Sexualized deepfake imagery flooded X, prompting multiple countries to take action against the platform. Grok has been blocked entirely in Malaysia and Indonesia, and the U.K. has said it is moving to criminalize “nudification apps,” and Britain’s media regulator, Ofcom, has launched an official investigation into Grok.

X has now announced that “technological measures” have been implemented to prevent Grok from allowing “the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing.”

This comes after high-profile women, including Princess Kate and conservative influencer Ashley St. Clair, the mother of one of Musk’s children, have been targeted, with St. Clair telling the BBC that Grok had generated sexualized photos of her as a child. A review from the content analysis firm Copyleaks has found that Grok is generating roughly “one nonconsensual image per minute.”

What To Know

“Today, my office formally announces an investigation into xAI to determine whether and how xAI violated the law,” Bonta said in a press release.

Bonta said in the release that there is “zero tolerance for the AI-based creation and dissemination of nonconsensual intimate images or of child sexual abuse material,” and that he is “deeply concerned with this development in AI and will use all the tools at my disposal to keep California’s residents safe.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom had previously called on the Attorney General to investigate and “hold xAI accountable.”

He said in a post on X that “xAI’s decision to create and host a breeding ground for predators to spread nonconsensual sexually explicit AI deepfakes, including images that digitally undress children, is vile.”

The xAI headquarters are based in Palo Alto, California.

Musk has said that he is “not aware of any naked underage image generated by Grok,” and said that critics of X are politically motivated and using the controversy as an “excuse for censorship.”

What People Are Saying

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, in a press release: “The avalanche of reports detailing the non-consensual, sexually explicit material that xAI has produced and posted online in recent weeks is shocking. This material, which depicts women and children in nude and sexually explicit situations, has been used to harass people across the internet. I urge xAI to take immediate action to ensure this goes no further.”

X, in a statement shared on the platform: “We have implemented technological measures to prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis. This restriction applies to all users, including paid subscribers.”

What Happens Next?

There are now multiple ongoing investigations into X. In response to X implementing measures to restrict the creation of intimate images, an Ofcom spokesperson said in a statement emailed to Newsweek, “This is a welcome development. However, our formal investigation remains ongoing. We are working round the clock to progress this and get answers into what went wrong and what’s being done to fix it.”