The European Commission announced on Monday that it has launched an investigation into Elon Musk’s X platform over the dissemination of sexually explicit content by the AI chatbot Grok.

The inquiry is being carried out under the European Union’s comprehensive Digital Services Act.

“The new investigation will assess whether the company properly assessed and mitigated risks associated with the deployment of Grok’s functionalities into X in the EU,” the Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said in a statement.

“This includes risks related to the dissemination of illegal content in the EU, such as manipulated sexually explicit images, including content that may amount to child sexual abuse material.”

The Commission said the risks “appear to have materialised, exposing citizens in the EU to serious harm.”
Grok faced criticism this year after users were able to prompt the AI to create sexualized images of children and other individuals.

Earlier this month, Musk’s company stated that it had “implemented technological measures” to prevent the Grok account on X from enabling edits of images of real people in revealing clothing, such as bikinis. The company also restricted image creation and editing via Grok on X to paid subscribers.

However, the standalone Grok app, which does not share images publicly, still allowed non-paying users to generate images of women and children.

European regulators are now part of a growing group of authorities examining Grok, with the U.K., India, and Malaysia among the countries investigating the AI for producing sexualized content.

X is facing scrutiny from the European Commission under the DSA, which allows regulators to impose substantial fines on tech companies.

The DSA is designed to oversee online platforms, their content, and how they interact with users.